Rabbi Gabrielle Ignites a Tempest (29 page)

Itamar had done his homework. To help
pinpoint the location of the yeshiva demolished by the Romans in 26
CE, he called upon the expertise of a cartographer and a geographer
on the Antiquities Authority staff. They compared the map Tim
Matternly had left behind in Rabbi Schreiber's apartment with the
location mentioned in the imperial Roman decree. Using satellite
photographs, they identified three potential sites, assigning each
an order of priority. Since the three locations were within two
kilometers of each other, a single expedition could easily
reconnoiter each in turn. Itamar, given his experience working at
roughly contemporaneous excavations, expected to lead the search
once they were in the vicinity. Major Zabronski provided a precise
location where the army helicopter team had found Tim Matternly's
body, which corresponded roughly with the second site on the
priority list.

Gabby's excitement increased while traveling
in the second of three military vehicles south on Route 46,
paralleling the Dead Sea. Her eyes were fixed on the machine-gunner
in the first vehicle, a young border police officer she had noticed
before setting out. The youth in his early twenties, whom his
cohorts called
Moishele
, wore eyeglasses
as thick as Coca-Cola bottles and a woven
kippah
. How he expected to fire his weapon accurately
with such poor eyesight puzzled her. But that, she laughed to
herself, was emblematic of Israel, a tiny nation forced to protect
itself by tapping all its human resources, including partially
blind machine gunners.

As the convoy followed a rough track leading
from the Dead Sea into rolling hills to the west, the desert sun
began to descend in waves of brutal heat. In higher country, rocks
and craters made motorized progress impossible, even for four-wheel
drive vehicles. When the convoy could go no farther, Itamar ordered
everyone to walk, toting heavy backpacks. Zabronski sent ahead his
Bedouin scout. Hardly taller than a meter and a half in height and
possessing powerful but short legs, this scion of the desert
nevertheless moved with exceptional speed. Gabby, Itamar, and
Zabronski, accompanied by six police officers, tailed the Bedouin,
pushing hard to keep pace. The other officers stayed behind to
guard their vehicles and provide reserve firepower if required.

To cool off, Gabby rolled her sleeves and
unfastened the top two buttons of an army surplus fatigue shirt.
The dusty dryness called up childhood memories of riding mules
through the Arizona desert with her parents. She followed Zvi
Zabronski over the pathless terrain, accepting his choices about
which rocks to scale and which to avoid. They changed directions
often to navigate around bluffs too steep to climb. Itamar moved
close behind her, periodically comparing the landscape against a
topographical map. He admitted to himself that the task of finding
an ancient school, one destroyed by Roman rulers two thousand years
before, was more art than science. Fortunately, the Greek scroll
addressed to Legionnaire Digius Silban provided several specific
clues.

Zabronski's Bedouin tracker was already
surveying the first site when the others caught up. Reckoning that
topographical conditions would lead to a positive identification,
he concentrated on examining the surrounding terrain. From time to
time, he would climb to a higher elevation and make another visual
survey.

Gabby dropped behind Itamar who walked in a
circle, periodically crouching to sift rock and sand between his
fingers. "What's he up to?" Gabby asked about Ahamd banu
Badawi.

Itamar's eyes remained on the ground when he
answered. "He's calculating where rainwater flows."

"Isn't that an oxymoron in this desert?" she
asked.

He glanced over to her and said, "It only
rains about two inches per year, but it comes in torrents causing
dangerous flashfloods. A camp or school in the wrong place could
easily be washed away in minutes. We learned this from studying the
Nabateans, who could have written a textbook on capturing and
storing scarce water in parched regions like this."

Major Zabronski completed his own survey of
the site, then climbed to higher rock to confer with his scout.
Gabby and Itamar watched the pair, their heads bobbing as they
talked over the possibilities. Ahamd banu Badawi pointed to a
series of spots in the higher rock, then shook his head. Zabronski
turned away to make his way back toward Itamar and Gabby.

"Hard to imagine a yeshiva in this place,"
Zabronski declared. "My man concurs. Nobody in his right mind would
locate a structure in the path of an ancient wadi. And remember,
the rainfall two thousand years ago is believed to have been
greater in the region than it is today."

"What do you think?" Itamar asked Gabby.

"I must defer to your expertise."

"Well then, let's take a look at the second
site, the one nearest the place where they found Tim's body," he
said, unfolding his map to check coordinates. "I estimate it's
about forty minutes from here."

The scout failed to return, moving south
along higher ground. Itamar's guess that it would take forty
minutes was off by nearly three hours. Impassable terrain forced
the party to backtrack rather than move in a straight line. When
they finally arrived, they found the Bedouin scout repeating his
earlier survey of the landscape above the proposed site.

Itamar instructed the group about how
first-century buildings were situated to take advantage of the wind
for ventilation and to block hot sunlight in the afternoon. Gabby
wandered off to search on her own. She didn't want to know exactly
where Tim's body had been discovered, though she guessed that Major
Zabronski would tell her if she insisted. The thought of wild
animals feeding on his remains was too gory to contemplate.
Besides, what did it matter, whether he was found here or there?
Instead, she let her imagination roam to more pleasant thoughts. In
the desert's silence, she heard student voices chattering in
Aramaic, occasionally referring to Hebrew passages from their
sacred literature. Smoke from their cooking fires filled her lungs.
Desert dates and cactus fruit left a tangy aftertaste in her
mouth.

While Zabronski took digital photos and
recorded code numbers in a frayed notebook, his officers spread out
to search for signs of previous habitation.

"Major Zabronski, major." The name sounded
like chimes ringing in a gentle breeze. It originated from the
Bedouin scout working some fifteen meters above the others. He was
waving his arms to get the police officer's attention. Zabronski
turned immediately and started climbing until the two met shortly
afterward, both examining what the Bedouin held in his hand.

"What is it?" Itamar called, his voice
echoing in the surrounding rock.

Zabronski was holding something, but it was
too small to be seen from a distance. "A bullet casing," he howled
back. "It's recent."

Itamar replied. "What kind?"

"Nine millimeter. It's quite fresh."

Discovery of a shell casing launched Gabby
and Itamar into heated conversation. Tim had been shot multiple
times. Whoever shot him probably collected the spent casings from
the ground, but it was easy to overlook one or two because they
burst from the chamber of an Uzi with great velocity. A slight
movement of the gun while it was being fired would eject the
individual casings considerable distances from one another.

"This might tell us about Professor
Matternly," Zabronski said as he approached Itamar, "but it doesn't
reveal anything about a yeshiva. I'll send the cartridge to the
lab. My guess? It will match the slugs from Dr. Matternly's
body."

Ahamd banu Badawi now climbed down the
hillside to scrutinize a flat area, already surveyed by Major
Zabronski. Within a few moments, he dropped to his knees, studying
the ground before him. "Over here," he called to Zabronski. "I've
found something else."

The others moved in his direction. Zabronski
stood over the Bedouin's shoulder peering at the ground, but saw
nothing. "What are you looking at?" he said, annoyed that whatever
it was he had obviously overlooked it.

"The soil's been removed from this spot," the
Bedouin stated. "And recently, too."

"How do you know?"

"See these small stones with the sharp
angles? They don't belong here. If they were old, they would be
smooth and the wind would have blown them away many years ago. And
this indentation. A sharp tool made it. See this shallow hole?"

The police officers gathered nearby. Itamar
joined the scout on his knees, studying the upturned stones.
Zabronski shot photos from above, then from the side. When he was
finished, Itamar carefully lifted two of the displaced stones into
his palm for closer inspection.

When he failed to return them to the ground,
Gabby asked, "What are you looking for?"

Itamar opened his fingers to display the
stones. "Do you see the darkened side? Probably carbon caused by
fire. It could have originated from a fire only a few years ago,
but then, it might be from the yeshiva. I'll take samples back to
the lab for testing. Didn't we read that Digius Silban was ordered
to burn down everything?"

Nearby, Itamar found clumps of desiccated
green ash, the result of sandstone exposed to extreme temperature.
The soft material crumbled in his fingers. "Could have been the
same fire," he announced.

Zabronski took another round of photos.
Itamar marked his map with the precise location and made a long
list of topographic details. Gabby scribbled her own set of notes.
Satisfied that these discoveries had exceeded their expectations,
the three agreed that little more could be done without filing a
formal excavation permit with the Antiquities Authority. Itamar was
adamant about not violating his own agency's regulations.

En route back to the police escorts, Gabby
left Itamar's side to speak with Major Zabronski.

"When the helicopter crew discovered Tim's
body, didn't they find stones in his pocket?"

"There were some personal belongings, but
offhand I can't remember more than a broken wristwatch."

"Weren't there two plastic bags?"

"I don't recall."

"But if there were, they'd have to be stored
someplace, wouldn't they? Your investigation isn't closed yet, is
it?"

"No, it definitely isn't closed. And yes, as
a routine matter we store everything."

"Well, if Tim gathered carbonic stones and
green ash, you'd be able to compare them with what Itamar just
picked up, wouldn't you?"
"No problem."

"Good, because that would be additional
evidence that Tim had discovered the yeshiva at Ein Arugot."

Zabronski threw a suspicious glance at her,
wondering where she was going with this line of questioning.

***

The stones and copper ash that Itamar found
near Ein Arugot were submitted to a laboratory at the Hebrew
University. While the results would not be available for two weeks,
Gabby was confident that the carbon would date back near the year
26 CE. Because she was convinced that Tim had also visited the
site, the stones found in his plastic bags were bound to match.
Positive lab results had implications far beyond the desert school.
If they proved that there had been a fire at a location specified
on the Greek scroll, it was reasonable to assume that the document
was authentic. And if its date were established with relative
certainty, then the Hebrew and Aramaic fragments found in Cave XII
were probably contemporaneous.

The discovery of Ein Arugot inspired Gabby to
expedite her collaboration with Rav Schreiber. Unfortunately, when
she returned to his apartment two days later, he was gone. The
neighbor said that an ambulance had come for him the day before.
Another stroke. This time, he had not fallen, though he had lost
the ability to use his left arm. Gabby went to the hospital
immediately and found him sitting in a chair, with a black
leather-bound tractate of the Talmud on his lap. Movement had
returned to his left arm, but not to his fingers. Optimistic as
ever, he recited a
bracha
, a blessing, for
being able to study Torah. For the first time, he showed interest
in what she said about the yeshiva and seemed eager to resume their
work. Both believed the fragments would shed additional light on
what happened at Ein Arugot. He gave her his apartment key so she
could work when he wasn't there.

That evening, she returned to her hotel,
exhausted but inspired. Sooner or later, she was bound to get
access into Tim's software. Itamar came by, and after a beer at the
bar, they went to her room where they could talk in private.

He waited until she had reported on her day
before saying, "Forensic tests in the police lab came back today.
They confirm that the bullet casing found in the desert originated
from an Uzi. The forensic examiner has not yet determined if Tim
and the Bedouin were shot by the same weapon. The police now have
both a bullet and a casing. If they match, they'll search their
database for the weapon. And, if necessary, they can expand this
search internationally through Interpol."

"I've been thinking, Iti," she said. "The
major made it clear that he didn't think the government would
interfere with the Bedouin. So who cares if the bullets came from
the same gun? Don't we already know who murdered Tim?"

"Do we? I've talked with a friend who has
worked in the desert for many years and knows the Bedouin. I asked
him if they use Uzis and he said it wasn't their preferred weapon.
They got used to Lee Enfield rifles the Brits left them after World
War II. Enfields aren't as efficient as Uzis at close range, but
they're far better for distance shooting in the desert."

"Do
you
think
Bedouin did it?"