It has taken four years for that recognition to sink in. At first, I could not let him go, the more so since my original plan hinged on his public subjugation to my managerial will. His return was to have been the making of me, the reversal of our roles. I craved that arching of triumph, though not as desperately as I first thought.

For the month after he vanished, I had the Tawburn Gazette delivered daily to my office.

Police divers have called a second search of last week’s A821 crash site after dredging an empty van from the River Taw. The body of the driver, believed to be Rabbi David Katzenberg of the Oldbridge Talmudic College, has not been recovered.

Colleagues of Rabbi Katzenberg say that he rose before dawn on Fridays to purchase fruit and vegetables for the Jewish Sabbath which he distributed among needy members of his community. Rabbi Katzenberg’s wife and eleven children were said to be in deep shock and mourning. Friends told the Gazette that he was a much-loved teacher who would have laid down his life for others. Born in Poland, he was the only survivor of a Jewish family murdered during the German occupation in the Second World War.

Nothing new there, just the evidence on which the Tawburn coroner, Dr Ali Medahi, must return an open verdict. For deeper insights, I study Hameir and the Jewish Mail, weekly journals of rival sects of ultra-orthodoxy, published in English and Yiddish with a sprinkling of classical Hebrew and Aramaic to throw sand into prying eyes, like mine. Hameir is by far the better informed.

The yeshiva olam has been devastated by reports from Oldbridge that its much-loved mashgiach ruchoni, Reb Dovid Katzenberg, has been nifter in a tragic motor accident. Reb Dovid made it his mitzva to visit the fruit and vegetable market early on erev shabbos so that he could buy the best produce and give it away to the poor. On his way home, his vehicle went off the road and into the icy river. That such a disaster should occur while a righteous man, a tzaddik, is in the midst of performing two mitzvos – the duties of prayer and charity – is beyond the understanding of mere humans, rachmono litzlon (may His mercy protect us).

Reb Dovid leaves behind his beloved rebbitzen, Broche, daughter of the first Rosh yeshiva of Oldbridge, Reb Menashe Hershkovits of blessed memory; and their eleven children, all of whom are oskim in Torah and mitzvos.