The next day, Billie and Jay were still reeling with fury. Lucy, one of their best friends, had been raped. There was never an excuse for any sexual assault, but this one was especially galling. No provocation because she had no enemies. No revenge because she always worked to bring people together and not favor one over another. As for her choice of dress, that was no reason either - even though she was known in Glen Oak to be quite provocatively dressed in her off hours, still favoring a halter top and short short jeans in the summer, plunging blouses and skin tight jeans in the winter. (Of course, Southern California never had a spring, winter or fall.) Simply put, there was no motive at all. Lucy was still at the hospital, still crying her heart out. Not even Eric or Annie could comfort her. And especially not Kevin or their children.
Knowing that any lead had to be followed up on, Billie and Jay flew up to Bismarck. After being briefed by two local cops assigned to the case, Diana and Wesley, the foursome made their way to a small shop that looked like it was a Mom and Pop shop. It was - both parents in their seventies, Chaim and Naomi, and both adult children who were twins, son and daughter Benjamin and Tzeporah, were the co-owners, and all were active in the trade. After introductions and handshakes all around, the father, Chaim, led the cops to his back office, holding an oversized picture downloaded by Tzeporah.
"I was so stunned when my daughter, showed me that e-mail and this picture attached to it," said Chaim, holding up the photograph. "I knew it had to be one of my creations."
"Why?" asked Jay.
"Because over the years, we all - our family - have had requests for some oddball inscriptions. Everything from 'Nib High Football Rules' to 'Satan Sucks'. And in pretty much every language too. Seems like I, my wife, our kids, are the go-to people for that. But I also get requests for Biblical verses. The normal stocks in trade are, 'What God has joined together, let no man rend asunder' or 'Your people shall be my people and your God my God'. Then there are the sentimental ones. The most common Jewish one, translated, is 'I am my beloved's and my beloved's is mine.'"
"The oldest brother of the victim is married to a Jewish PK," said Billie. "That's the inscription he put in his wife's ring."
"Still, I looked at the first word and I freaked. I knew it probably was mine, but I need to look at it closer to confirm one thing. A picture and the actual specimen are two different things, after all. Let me see the ring, please."
Diana obligingly handed Chaim a pair of plastic gloves, then carefully removed the ring from the evidence bag.
The jeweler looked at the inside of the ring. He then put it into a microscope designed to look sideways and put it on a monitor. Chaim and his family mainly used it to inscribe rings accurately. Slowly, he turned the ring clockwise, as it was written from right to left, so the officers could see it on the screen. The evidence ring showed the following inscription:
:עוֹכֵר בֵּיתוֹ יִנְחַל רוּחַ וְעֶבֶד אֱוִיל לַחֲכַם לֵב
The jeweler intoned, in Hebrew: "Ocher beito yinchal ruach ve'eved evil lachakham lev."
"I guess you're reading what was inscribed. But what does that mean?" asked Billie.
"My daughter, it is Proverbs, chapter eleven, verse twenty-nine: 'He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind, and the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart.'"
The four officers all looked at each other. "No way!" they said together. All were familiar with the play Inherit the Wind. The connotation in the case they were dealing with was striking.
Chaim, a long time fan of Saturday Night Live, straightened up, looked at them straight in the eye, and without smiling said, "Way. There is no doubt, this is a ring I crafted and sold. I know, because right after that are two smaller Hebrew letters which is my monogram: CD. Chaim Dershowitz. And yes, Al is a cousin. There is some bad news. The person who purchased this ring died quite some time ago. But there may be some good news: If I am right that the ring was willed, and in fact willed to who I think it was, your friends in Saint Louis and Luxembourg City may finally be able to make the house of cards collapse, once and for all!"
"You know about that?" asked Jay.
"Of course I know. When I heard Lucy was raped, I was heartbroken. She did her divinity dissertation on how the 'blood guilt' lie got started and how the Chronicles of the Elders of Zion was used to justify the Shoah. Her advisor was so impressed he submitted it to the B'nai B'rith, for a writing contest for Gentiles. I was on the judging committee. She won and she used the prize money to write off her college debts. I last spoke with her about a year ago, and without going into too much details - she said it was for security reasons - she described the pickle Reverend Hunter and her colleagues had gotten themselves into. I've been after this SOB for years, but not for the reasons Felicity and Hope have."
"Please explain," said Billie.
Chaim reached into one of his desk drawers. He pulled out a well-worn book and handed it to the Bismarck cops.
Wesley took a look at it, then showed it to the others. "I know about this book. 1977 in Prophecy!" He laughed out loud.
"What's it about?" asked Jay.
"Walter Abramson's old church, the Universal Church of God - the church that fell apart after he died - published this book, actually a comic book, in 1961. It made a whole bunch of zany predictions, none of which came true - either because they were unbiblical, or simply that the technology described was way ahead of its time.
"But its biggest claim was the world was going to end in 1977 and Abramson used some clever math using Bible verses and other ancient writings to calculate that. Of course, nothing happened, and the 'church' became a laughing stock - not that it already wasn't. But around that time, there was a huge power play in Pasadena, one that has had repercussions to this day. And it's affected both Protestant and Catholic churches too."
"Abramson had a son named - and I am not making this up - Glengarry Russell Abramson," said Chaim. "He was seen as his father's natural successor, and he was a national celebrity even bigger than his Dad. Matter of fact, he actually did a parody of himself on one episode of Hee Haw. Yeah, seriously. But 'Glen' was known as a womanizer and heavy gambler. He also disagreed with Walter on some significant points of church doctrine as well as his father's dictatorial style. This was at the beginning of 1978, when the church was trying to get over the shock of its very wrong prediction. Glen then declared he was going to go public with the church's dirt. When Walter tried to excommunicate his son, Glen demanded a meeting of the church elders. To the surprise of all observers, it was Walter that was stripped of his title of Pastor General and forced to a desk job. For the next four years, Glen genuinely democratized the church and he significantly toned down British Israelism. What remained was still insidious from a Jewish perspective, but it became more palatable to mainstream Christianity. It was this close to being accepted as a brother church by at least mainline Protestantism as well as Catholicism.
"To celebrate his victory, Glen spent about a million dollars of church money - a huge sum in the seventies - to renovate and redecorate the Pastor General's residence. He also went on a personal spending spree. Also with church money.
"One of the items he got was that ring - he knew my family's specialty and make it a point to attend synagogue with us that weekend. And I know exactly why he got that inscription. As Lucy's sister Ruthie has no doubt told you, Walter committed incest, and Glen actually vouched for his sister Iris who was the victim. But even in those days, local district attorneys were malleable and so were grand juries. Walter used his friends in the Mafia to ensure there would be No True Bill. Glen was so angry his sister was denied justice that he pulled the power play he did - so what was said in the ring was symbolic. Walter caused discord first in his household and then his church, so he deserved blowback and to be the subject of those who were wronged.
"But at the end of the four years, in the winter of 1982, all hell broke loose."
"What happened?" asked Diana.
"Glen and Iris decided to have a second run before a new grand jury," said Chaim. "Both gave very compelling evidence. The jury was about to indict Walter. But then, out of nowhere, Walter used the church's new by-laws and forced a proxy fight for the office of Pastor General. In other words, he wanted his old job back. All one hundred twenty thousand members got ballots. That was only a small portion of the viewership of Universe Future, which got about eight million viewers a week, easily making it the most popular infomercial after Dr Graham's shows and Astounding Inventions. Nearly ninety percent of the members voted directly, instead of assigning proxy."
"And?"
"To put it bluntly, there was ratfucking on both sides. Intimidation, forged letters, rebooking campaign meetings - you name it. Neither Walter nor Glen were above using every dirty trick in the book. The campaign lasted a grueling four months. It got to be so bad an arbitrator ordered all campaigning to cease four weeks prior to the vote. Not even a get out the vote effort. The vote was conducted under the auspices of an independent auditor from a major accounting firm. By all accounts the final vote was free and fair. How do I know it was above board? It was a split right down the middle, not an overwhelming vote one way or the other. Walter won by just four hundred votes. On the same day, the much delayed ruling came out. Evidently the grand jury changed its mind in the interim. No True Bill ... again.
"Walter's first act was to disfellow his son. Furious, Glen vowed to take his followers with him, and in the end about thirty thousand did, the first and only schism during Walter's lifetime. The churches that had been negotiating, promptly ended talks. Most of them refused to change their status quo, which was to not recognize COG baptisms, just as they declined Mormon and Watchtower baptisms as legitimate. Glen set up a new church, the Church of God in Action, in Wilmington, North Carolina."
"Why Wilmington?" asked Billie. She only knew it as the setting of the teen soap opera Dawson's Creek.
"Wilmington is on roughly the same latitude as Pasadena," Chaim replied. "It was a political message, that the church had continued through Glen and his was the only true Church of God. Well, by the time of the reverse putsch, his personal stock took a nosedive when people realized he was just as annoying as Walter was. When the old man died many thought Glen would be called home and take his rightful place. We all know how that turned out. The Universal Church of God dropped British Israelism and Jewish dietary laws and became an evangelical denomination in every sense and traditional Christianity had no choice but to embrace it as one of their own.
"Meanwhile, Glen started going downhill in popularity even more. Then he got himself into real trouble about fifteen years ago, by being charged with being a child molestor. Six girls, all pubescent and well into their developments, but all also under the age of fourteen. Before the charges could be heard, he had a heart attack and died. Shortly after that, his church disbanded. But he had some substantial assets, a fortune made by playing the oil and gas futures markets. These were distributed to many charities, most notably a hundred million dollar donation to the Salvation Army. But he also had a number of personal effects, and this is where it gets really interesting."
"I'm listening, Chaim."
"Glen listed more than two thousand specific items he wanted to will out. His will was the size of a phone book in a mid-sized city. There were a total of one hundred and fifty recipients, each getting anywhere from one to ten items, the more valuable items going to his closer friends. He had maintained links of friendship with Arnold Thompson, and it was Thompson who had gotten the ring."
"So he raped Lucy!"
"No. Not him, Billie. A few years ago, for his son's twenty-first birthday, he gave his son the ring. His name is Arnold Thompson, Junior. He is well known in religious circles as a misogynist. But there is one crucial point you need to know about."
"What is that?" asked Wesley.
"Arnold Jr has a trust fund, but he cannot access it until his thirty-fifth birthday. Right now, he is twenty-nine. His mother died from cancer four years ago and with her the only viable means of sustenance. His allowance from his father is just about a thousand dollars a month, although he also has an unlimited rail pass from Amtrak and he inherited his mother's vast frequent flyer points. When she was alive, she was giving him close to five thousand a month. So he has gotten totally desperate. My guess is ... and I hate to say this ... Lucy was probably and actually a random target. He probably looked online, found all the ministers in California who are women, and picked the one closest to where he was at the time."
"Are you suggesting he has absolutely no knowledge of this entire fraud investigation? Let alone the child abuse allegations against Arnold Senior's colleagues?"
"Junior is completely shut out of any day to day dealings with his father's church," replied Chaim. "In fact, I believe that the father has made sure only clean money has been put into the trust account to avoid any suspicions of malfeasance."
"How much are we talking?" asked Diana.
"About five million, give or take. I'm surprised he hasn't marked his father yet so he can get his money sooner. But unfortunately, the only way to stop the father's fraud is to get through to the son, and find out if he knows anything, even indirectly, that might help you and the other investigators. Unfortunately, that's all I really know."
"No, Chaim, you've given us a lot of information there. I think we may have finally moved several steps forward to bringing this to an end. We should give you our business cards. If you can think of anything else, or if your family does, call us first. We have access to the appropriate field officers in the federal government - two of them in the CIA - who are handling this and they will get in touch with you if you call us."
"Well," said Chaim, standing up, "thank you for coming here and listening to me. I never imagined for a second I could become a player in this, but I definitely will continue to cooperate the best I can."
"Uh, just one last thing."
"Yes, Diana?"
"You said you had a grudge against the elder Thompson. What is it, if we may ask?"
Chaim was quiet for about ten seconds.
"Well," he finally said, "about twenty years ago, he and I were attending the annual AIPAC meeting. During a lunch break, he gave me a tip about cotton futures collapsing due to a bad harvest. It seemed reasonable, there was a lack of rain in the South that year. He wanted my help to corner the market. I did not go all in, but I took a fifty thousand dollar option betting the prices would skyrocket. Well, the rains came and there was a record bumper crop in the nick of time. I got hit with a margin call and lost another two hundred thousand. The only reason my family's business survived is because Tzeporah had a lucky spin at a slot machine, which made up for our losses. Stuff happens, right?
"But little did I know that Thompson took my fifty thousand and made a double ended bet - that there could be either a failure or a harvest. By cashing out the loss option before the Agriculture Secretary said what the real count was, he cashed in big. Then he made an even bigger killing on the other end with the good harvest. And I got stuck holding the bag. As a matter of principle, he owes me what I lost, even if I got it back by other means. Plus punitive damages."
"Securities fraud?" said Billie.
"Yes," said Chaim.
"We'll get you in touch with the SEC as well," said Jay. "Well, thank you again, Chaim. You've moved at least one mountain for us!"
The four cops shook hands with Chaim. Being late in the day, Billie and Jay checked into their hotel room. They made love but couldn't stop thinking about Lucy and her children the whole time.
The next day at lunch, the four commiserated on what they had heard the previous day. It was one part of what Chaim said that bothered Billie the most.
"He said that if we can get through to his son," she said, "we might be able to put an end to all of this. But he is insulated from the church's finances? I can't see what we can do here that might move it along."
She put her hands on the table. Jay put his hands on top of hers. Diana and Wesley were looking at each other. It was only then that Billie noticed the Bismarck cops were wearing ... matching rings?
"I know this is none of my business, but ..."
"We're married, with two kids, a son and a daughter," said Wesley. "Normally we don't patrol together for obvious reasons, but with the Christmas break we've been on a skeletal staff so the chief here reluctantly gave us both this case. I'm sure that's the reason your boss assigned you two for this one, too."
"Yes. Well, anyway, how long have you guys been married?"
"Actually, just two years," said Diana. "We had our kids long before we got married, a long time ago. In fact, we had them not long after we started living common-law ten years ago. We dated for six months before we conceived, then Wesley moved into my home a month before I gave birth to our twins. After putting it off for so long, we finally got married at a certain amusement park in Orlando that also has a cruise line. I know it's kind of unusual, having our kids along for our honeymoon, but the ceremony was absolutely magical, as was the park and the cruise, for all four of us. But the most magical part of the ceremony was when Brenda and Roland surprised us with wedding vows of their own!"
"Your children had vows?" Billie had heard of this kind of thing before, especially with blended families coming together, but it was still quite unusual in her experience.
"Yes! Basically, they said they thanked God for that day, then thanked us for giving them life and for being the greatest parents, and they were so proud that Wesley and I were finally getting married so we could all call ourselves a real family. Then then promised that as long as my husband and I were faithful to each other, they would have our backs, and they would love us forever and then some! It was a lot longer than that, but that pretty much sums it up. We invited a hundred of our fellow cops and their families to spend the weekend in Orlando. Most had been stoic, even through Welsey's and my vows, but after our children finished theirs, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Even we started to sob. We never realized our children loved us that much! Since then, there hasn't been a single day where we don't say 'I love you' to each other - and that includes the children saying it to each other when they turn in for the night."
"That's so wonderful! Any plans for more kids?" asked Jay.
"Nah," said Wesley. "Di and I both got fixed just before we got married. But the sex is still great!"
Everyone laughed.
"Seriously, though," said Billie, bringing everyone back to reality, "I can't think of any plausible way where we can make the younger Thompson cooperate with us. He'll never admit to the rape either, and by the time the results of the test come in, he'll have raped someone else - maybe someone we know, and ... love."
Diana and Wesley looked at each other for a full minute. It seemed to Billie and Jay that the couple sitting opposite them had the same idea and were mulling over if it might work. Finally, after the long pause, Diana turned to their new friends.
"It's a long shot, but we can try a version of a sting known as 'Mister Big'," she said.
"I've actually never heard of that," said Jay.
"I haven't either," said Billie.
"The concept is this," replied Diana. "You absolutely know for a fact your suspect is the perpetrator of a pretty heinous crime. Murder, rape, torture and so forth. But you can't bring in him or her for questioning, or if they do they've lawyered up. So instead, you look into their financial records. If they are barely scrapping by, then this is where the con works best.
"Simply stated, you as cops pretend to be Mafia bosses. It will work for both of you since the Cosa Nostra has increasingly become co-ed and there are a lot of 'Made Women' now. You call this guy at random and say you have a job offer. Before saying what it is, you first invite your mark to where you have your 'headquarters'. You then spend the next few days wining and dining him or her, taking them on executive jets, going to sports or concerts in private boxes, spending nights at luxury hotels with an unlimited tab and free minibar ... many of the finer things in life. Oh, right, you also show them the manor they're going to get, minimum five thousand square feet.
"Finally, after the trip of a lifetime ends, you tell him or her that what they've experienced is theirs for the rest of their life. They can become a Made Man or Woman instantly rather than working up the system. You'll expect him or her to conduct hits but they'll learn firsthand how to cover their tracks. But first, they have to confess to every single wrong thing they've ever done. When they confess to what you want them to, you reveal who you really are, and put the cuffs on."
"Is that even legal?" asked Jay in shock. "Sounds like entrapment."
"Within some specific parameters set by the courts, yes, it is legal," said Diana. "But in this case we'll have to put a twist to it. Once Junior confesses to his crimes, we don't reveal who we are, but instead to say to officially join the wrecking crew, he has to agree to make his father do some unusual transactions, which we set up so he is manipulated. He takes the bait, we move in on both of them."
"Wow. We're going to have to plan it really carefully. But for now we need to get back to Glen Oak today," said Billie. "We'll discuss it with our Chief and get the all clear from him. But you'll have to keep us out of it. You're kids are eight. Ours isn't even one yet."
"Certainly. I get that. And at least you're thinking about it. That's a great help."
"Well, you've helped us a lot too. Thanks guys."
The four shared hugs.
"Can this work, Billie?" asked Jay, once they were safely on their plane.
"Yes, Jay," said Billie, "it can. But we have to give the heads up to the crew in Saint Louis. If we are really going to go 'Mister Big,' then none of them are safe anymore. Especially not Ruthie and Peter. And we have only four weeks, maybe less, to get our man. Uh, men."