The Shadow of Death (Psalm 23 Mysteries Book 9) (19 page)

“Enough!” Cindy declared. She stepped forward deliberately, putting herself between Jeremiah and Martin.

“Get out of the way, Cindy,” both men said at the same time.

“No, I won’t. This is ridiculous. We have found out the names of a couple of the terrorists. Instead of distrusting each other we need to be working to fight them. From what I can tell there’s probably a couple of Israelis working with them. One of them is most likely the person who told you that...the rabbi...was here.”

“We also know there’s at least one Russian involved.”

“Where there’s one Russian there’s always more,” Martin said.

“There’s a rich man named Omar whose daughter got married today. Omar was one of the terrorists. Her husband,
Tamir, is another one.”

“Omar’s body turned up just a few minutes ago. So, that’s one down,” Martin said.

“And you can thank us for that,” Cindy said defiantly.

“‘Us’?” Martin and Jeremiah echoed at the same time.

“Yes. Us,” she said, glaring at Martin. “He had captured us and I helped us escape. After we found out what we could from him, well, then...” she ran out of steam, unable to finish the sentence. She could take partial credit for taking Omar hostage, but none for actually killing him. She was actually grateful for that. “I don’t know if Tamir is still at the wedding reception.”

“How many men do you have at your disposal?” Jeremiah asked.

Martin narrowed his eyes. “Enough to kill him if he’s there, not enough to take him captive.”

“His brother is another one of the conspirators, and he’s already in Jerusalem,” Jeremiah said.

“Which is where we should be heading next,” Cindy added.

“The agent who warned you about me,” Jeremiah said. “Who was it?”

“Sorry, rabbi. I can’t take the risk of you killing him if you are on the wrong side and he’s on the right one.”

“This is ridiculous!” Cindy said, losing the fragile hold she had on her anger, which was pushing down her fear and pain, and taking hold of her.

“I’ll do some digging, see if I can figure out on my own which side that agent is actually on.”

“And what will you do until then? He will be suspicious if you have not followed his advice and he could accelerate the timetable for the explosion or come after you,” Jeremiah pointed out.

Martin nodded. “You have a valid point. So, there’s only one solution I can think of.”

“What’s that?” Cindy asked.

“The rabbi can’t leave this alley alive.”

16

“I agree,” Jeremiah said quietly.

“No!” Cindy screamed. She turned on Jeremiah who was lowering his gun and pounded on his chest with her fists. “What is wrong with you? You need to fight! You can’t just give up!”

Jeremiah dropped the gun and put his arms around Cindy, pressing her head into his shoulder. “Listen to me, it’s going to be okay.”

All she could think over and over was that he had dropped his gun. Everything Martin had said, everything she had said hadn’t been enough to get him to lower the weapon, but now he was surrendering, and not just to capture, but to death.

“Sometimes sacrifices have to be made,” she heard Martin say.

“It’s not worth it!” Cindy screamed, writhing against Jeremiah’s chest. “I’d rather the whole world burned than lose you.”

She felt him kiss the top of her head. “It’s for the best,” he whispered.

“I’ll personally take your body back home,” she heard Martin say. “It’s the least I can do.”

“Promise you’ll get her to safety.”

“I promise,” Martin said.

She pushed off Jeremiah, turning to Martin. “Don’t you touch him!” she screamed.

Martin gave her the strangest look. He opened his mouth as though to say something, but Jeremiah cut him off, his voice tense. “Martin, I don’t want her to see this.”

“Understood,” Martin said. He nodded and two of the men with him holstered their weapons and stepped forward, each grabbing Cindy by an arm.

“No!” she screamed, fighting, clawing, and kicking at them.

They picked her up and carried her to the corner. She managed to kick one in the knee and he half dropped her. The third man with Martin also holstered his gun and grabbed hold of her. She twisted around just before they turned it and saw Jeremiah slowly kneeling on the ground. Martin had his gun aimed at his chest.

She screamed and one of the men holding her clamped his hand down on her mouth. She tried to bite him, but he was wearing gloves and it had no effect on him. She tried jabbing her fingers in his throat, but he twisted out of her reach. Her mind was reeling. She had to find a way to get free. She had to find a way to save Jeremiah. She had to-

She heard three shots followed a moment later by a thud as of a body hitting the ground.

She stopped struggling. Maybe Jeremiah had been clever. Maybe he had turned the tables on Martin. He had dropped his gun earlier, had it been near to where he was kneeling when she last saw him?

She heard footsteps and she twisted around, ready to do what she could to help Jeremiah overcome the three men who were holding her. Martin appeared around the corner, his face grim. He saw her and quickly put his gun away. He looked pained as he stared at her.

“Cindy, my condolences on your loss.”

Her heart stopped and she closed her eyes as her entire body went limp. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be.

“I think she fainted,” she heard one of the men say.

“Give her some air,” another said.

A moment later she felt herself being lowered onto the ground.

“This is a hell of a mess,” Martin muttered.

It couldn’t be true. She refused to believe that Jeremiah was dead. He had escaped, he had run and Martin had fired at him and missed. Jeremiah would come for her, rescue her like he always did.

She opened her eyes, flipped onto her stomach and had pushed up to her feet before they knew what had happened. She heard one of the men shout in surprise. She rounded the corner expecting to see an empty alley.

She stumbled as she saw a dark form lying on the ground.

“No,” she whispered.

She felt hands reaching for her and she shook herself hard before racing forward. She tripped and landed on the ground next to Jeremiah. There were three bullet holes in his shirt, two near his heart and the other over his stomach. Each one was surrounded by fresh blood. The smell of it filled her nostrils.

His eyes were closed and he wasn’t breathing. He truly was dead.

“No!” she screamed, reaching out to touch his face.

Then Martin had his arms around her and was pulling her away. “He didn’t want you to see this,” he said, his voice tinged with anger.

“You killed him,” she sobbed.

“I did what I had to do.”

She spun around to face him. “You’re a murderer!”

He took a deep breath. “In this line of work, sooner or later we all are.”

She was going to tear him limb from limb, but something was happening to her. She felt cold as ice and she felt like she could barely lift her arm. Her legs started to give out beneath her and Martin kept her from falling.

As if from a long ways away she heard him swear followed by the words, “She’s going into shock.”

Jeremiah was dead. That was all that she knew.

“We need to move the body,” she heard Martin say.

How could Jeremiah have let Martin kill him? How could he have left her alone? Her thoughts descended further and further into darkness until all she felt was dull, aching pain.

Cindy was only dimly aware of the passing of the next several hours. Sometimes it seemed as though she were walking, other times it felt as though she was being carried. She was in a car for a while then everything was hazy.

Slowly she began to come back to her senses only to discover that she was on a plane. It wasn’t a normal airline plane, though, it had to be a private one she realized. Cindy looked around and saw Martin seated across the aisle. A myriad of emotions washed over her.

“You killed him,” she whispered.

Martin looked up from the papers he was studying. He looked at her and she saw a hint of guilt in his eyes. That was more than Jeremiah had shown for killing Omar. But Omar had been the enemy and Jeremiah had not.

“Why?”

Martin cleared his throat and put down his papers. “Cindy, this is a brutal business. Sometimes to save the lives of thousands you have to take the life of one.”

“Jeremiah had nothing to do with these terrorist attacks. The Mossad forced him to come back here and help.”

“I know.”

“Then why?”

“Because we’re not just talking about the lives of thousands. We’re talking about millions. Our enemies clearly wanted Jeremiah dead. Now that I have a better idea of who they are hopefully I can get close enough to them to stop this terror attack from happening. Jeremiah understood that our enemies would never trust me to let me that close if I didn’t kill him. He spent years in this business. He’d pulled the trigger on a lot of men, some deserved it, others, maybe not. He killed men that under any other circumstances he might have called friend.”

Omar’s pleading face flashed unbidden into Cindy’s mind. She shoved the thought out angrily.

“He was one of the good guys.”

Martin leaned toward her and there was real pain in his eyes. “I know. You think bad guys are the only ones who get killed? Jeremiah was one of the good guys. One of the best. That’s why he was willing to sacrifice himself to save you, me, everybody. Only a noble man is capable of that kind of sacrifice.”

“Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” Cindy whispered, quoting from the Bible.

“He could have shot at me and forced me to shoot back, but that would have potentially put you in danger and it would have left me doubting the truth of what he told me.
Laying down his gun, offering himself up like that was the most courageous thing he could have done.” Martin sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I didn’t want this. I wish that you weren’t having to go through this agony. It’s not fair, I know. You should understand one thing. It’s the only bit of comfort I can offer you. I only ever spoke with him a handful of times, and I didn’t know until...the end...exactly who he was, but one thing I knew from the first moment I laid eyes on him.”

“What’s that?” Cindy asked.

“He loved you more than anything. His only wish was for you to be safe and happy. In the end, that’s what he gave his life for. If you would honor that, then when you get home, try to find some happiness for yourself.”

“How can I be happy when the only thing I ever wanted has been taken from me?” she asked, tears spilling down her cheeks.

“I don’t know,” Martin said softly. He turned back to his papers and Cindy pressed her head back against the seat.

She couldn’t stop the tears that flowed freely down her face anymore than she could stop the pain that was tearing her apart. And over and over she just kept realizing what a fool she had been to never tell him that she loved him, to never reach out and kiss him. All those hours spent together and yet now they were misspent, because he was gone and he’d never know how she felt and she’d never have the opportunity to kiss him.

She knew that even if she lived to be a hundred she’d never love again. She also knew that she would be the first to urge others to act on their feelings and express them. Even if Jeremiah had rejected her love the pain would have been nothing compared to the pain of losing him without ever truly having him.

She was dimly aware that the plane had begun to descend. Martin began to put all his papers away in a briefcase. When the wheels touched down she turned to look at him.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Jerusalem.”

“Why?”

“I promised him I’d bring his body home. And this is his home,” he said.

She wanted to protest, to tell him that Jeremiah’s home was in Pine Springs, California. She wanted him buried there where she could make sure they kept fresh flowers on his grave and she could visit from time to time.

She hung her head. She knew he had a family. She didn’t know anything more about them than that. They’d want him to be buried here where his other relatives would be buried. Now that he was dead, surely he could go home to them.

Tears threatened to fall, but she wouldn’t let them. She needed to get through whatever was coming next.

“What happens to me?” she asked.

“I’m going to make sure you make it back to California where you’ll be safe,” Martin said.

“Then the joke’s on you. I won’t be safe there. Jeremiah has enemies from his past there that will kill me just to try and get at him, never realizing that they can’t get at him anymore.”

Martin cleared his throat. “I feel partly responsible for the situation you’re in. I’ll do what I can to see that you are left alone.”