Jonathan stared at him, his mouth agape.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a change of clothes back there? Maybe a towel? I’d take a grease rag at this point.”

“Let’s go find you something dry,” Jonathan said.

“First tell me about the emergency. What do you mean by ‘Chaim’s missing’?”

Jonathan inched the van back onto the road. “Exactly that.”

“He took off?”

“Appears that way.” Jonathan sneaked in a glimpse at his brother. “Are you all right?”

“I’m drenched and my ass is sore, but otherwise fine. Tell me about Chaim. Details.”

“When I got to Quinton, he was already gone. Apparently, right after Sha’chris, he claimed he wasn’t feeling well and needed to lie down. But when Minda went to check on him, the room was empty.”

“Any ideas?”

Jonathan had reduced the van’s speed to almost nothing. He was still struggling to keep within the lines of the roadway. It was as black as pitch outside with no street lighting. “About twenty minutes after I arrived at shiva, we received a phone call from Leon Hershfield. I took it.”

“What’s going on?”

“Hershfield had just gotten off the phone with JFK airport police and the local FBI.”

“Oh my God!”

“You can see what’s coming.”

“He was trying to skip.”

“Those guys you were telling me about… the ones Randy mentioned.”

“Weiss, Harabi, and Ibn Dod. They were with him?”

“This was per Hershfield… who was sketchy with the facts. Anyway, he told me that they were all set to board an international flight to Israel. Security stopped Harabi and Ibn Dod because apparently something was wrong with their passports or maybe they looked too jumpy or didn’t look Chasidic enough—”

“They were dressed as Chasids?”

“Yes, I suppose.” A big sigh. “You know how tight things are now. Especially El Al. As soon as security was called in, they took off— scattered.”

“Really stupid of them to travel together.”

“Last-minute flights to Israel are always a problem. Airlines have cut their dailies to Israel after the attacks.”

“Did security nab anyone?”

“I don’t know, because no one’s talking.” Jonathan tapped the wheel. “Airport police haven’t told us a damn thing. FBI hasn’t told us a damn thing. The Feds arrived at Minda’s house and at the shiva about the same time as the phone call. Hershfield was supposedly on his way to the airport to sort it all out, but… but I have the feeling that they don’t have Chaim in custody.”

“Why not?”

“By Hershfield’s questions.”

“What did he ask?”

“The gist? Where would Chaim go if he wanted to hide out? But he was subtler than that. And the Feds basically asked me the same thing.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I decided that after the debacle with Shayndie, I’d talk to you first. So I haven’t opened my mouth to anyone. Things are frantic over there. When no one was looking, I took off. My question to you is… where do we go from here?”