BooksBarbecue
Back Ten Years Gone
Chapters (43)
  1. Cover
  2. BOOKS BY JONATHAN DUNSKY
  3. Dedication
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 18
  22. 19
  23. 20
  24. 21
  25. 22
  26. 23
  27. 24
  28. 25
  29. 26
  30. 27
  31. 28
  32. 29
  33. 30
  34. 31
  35. 32
  36. 33
  37. 34
  38. 35
  39. Thank You
  40. A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
  41. BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
  42. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  43. BOOKS BY JONATHAN DUNSKY

He shrugged. "Well, can't blame me for trying, can you? About the report, it doesn't leave the station. There's a vacant room at the end of the hall. Read it there, then bring it back when you're done, okay?"

"Okay. Thank you."

I rose and was almost at the door when he said, "Adam." I rotated to face him. I had never seen him look so grave. "I hope you catch this guy. Whoever did this, he needs to pay."

13

I found the vacant office, closed the door, and sat at the empty desk. I opened the folder and found two copies of the investigation report, one in Hebrew and the other in English. The latter was addressed to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Palestine Police Force. The CID had been the British unit that oversaw all investigations of major crimes during the Mandate of Palestine. It ceased operations in 1948 when the Mandate ended and Britain evacuated all its forces from Palestine.

I set the English version aside and began reading the Hebrew report.

The bodies of Esther Grunewald and Willie Ackerland (they were identified in the report by their false names: Esther and Erich Kantor) were discovered at nine in the morning on August 27, 1939, by their landlord, Abraham Sassoon. Mr. Sassoon was replacing a burnt-out light bulb on the third-floor landing when he caught the familiar coppery scent of blood. He followed his nose to the door of the apartment occupied by the victims and saw that the wood around the lock was scarred and gouged, as if someone had tried forcing it open. Sassoon tried the handle, but the door was locked. He knocked several times with no answer.

Increasingly worried, Sassoon went to his ground-floor apartment, got the spare key, climbed once more to the third floor, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. He found the two bodies in the bedroom. "I didn't need to check," he told the police later. "I could tell they were dead."

Sassoon did not have a phone, so he told his teenage son to run as fast as he could to the nearest police station and inform them that a murder had been committed in their building. Half an hour later, a police car arrived. The two officers ascertained that indeed there were two murder victims inside and called for a detective and a photographer.