June 4, 2017

Ben Song is back inside the home of Hassan al Naari, sitting on a leather couch in the living room, which is lit by lamps. He is trying to process that Yitzhak Haddad will still be beaten and stabbed to death at the Bridge to Heaven mosque tomorrow, despite Corey Hooper, who had originally been convicted of his murder, being in jail at the time.

"First thing's first," says the leaper. "Corey Hooper is innocent; he originally went to prison for a murder he didn't commit. How is he?"

Addison Augustine taps the handlink. "He made a deal with Crown prosecutors to spend only a year in jail," she says. "By 2020, he was in prison for another crime- he didn't kill or maim someone else, thank God- and he ends up getting stabbed to death in a prison fight, under the same circumstances as he did originally.

"We gave him a chance- an extra year of freedom in his life- and he blew it."

"Every time he was released from jail was a second chance," says Ben. "He kept blowing second chances until there were no more second chances to blow. What a waste. Well, anyway, we need to talk about Haddad. It might have been a hate crime or a killing by ISIS, but what other possible motives would there be for killing him? Let's brainstorm."

The observer taps the handlink. "According to records, Bridge to Heaven pulled in about four million dollars a year in donations– that's Canadian dollars- since it opened back in 2014. If Yitzhak found out one of the staffers or even the associate preachers were skimming off those donations..."

"Not to mention the charities he works with. If he had found some funny business going on... Or it might not have been about money. I'm sure the mosque has a strict moral code for tis imams and staff. If Haddad found out that one of the imams was engaged in misconduct like adultery or homosexuality..."

"I'm having Ziggy do a deep dive on everyone associated with Bridge to Heaven and other charities Yitzhak worked with. Not just any criminal records, but financial records, social media posts, even comments left on Facebook and YouTube. In addition, I can start watching over Haddad myself. We can stop this."

Ben stands up. "This raises a question I first asked when I got here," he says. Leaving the living room, he walks along the hallway and into the master bedroom. Addison sees the gray-bearded man in the mirror. "Why Hassan? Why is Hassan al Naari the one person best able to save Yitzhak Haddad?"

"It would be easier to find Haddad's killer if you leaped into him," agrees Addison. "We still have maybe at least eighteen hours to stop Yitzhak's murder. Right now, we can both get some sleep."

Addison presses a button on the handlink, and her hologram disappears.

Oooooooooo

June 5, 2017

Wearing a keffiyeh instead of a turban, be walks from the al Naari residence to his mosque. A crowd had gathered there, many of them holding mats, along with another imam who wears a turban on his head.

Ben walks to the main entrance. The floor is bare, as people attend services by lying prostrate instead of sitting down on a varnished wooden bench. A woman in a hijab is inside; Ben recognizes her as a lay clerk.

"So much broken glass," she says in Arabic. "We can't have morning service here."

Ben looks at the crowd, who are mostly older men and women, with a handful of people under thirty years of age.

"I heard what happened," says Yitzhak Haddad, approaching the leaper. "How bad is it?"

"The big issue is the broken glass," replies Ben. It's not safe to have people lie face down. We can sweep the big fragments, but the little pieces, we'd need an industrial-strength vacuum cleaner."

"So terrible." Haddad shakes his head.

"I heard what happened," says Samuel Sheinlein, arriving at the scene, wearing his typical black hay, black coat, and black trousers.

"No one was hurt, thank God," says Ben. "And the guy who did it was caught. I actually caught on on video on my iPhone. He threw bricks at me, and I was lucky I ducked in time and that last brick struck a police car!"

"That's not luck," comments the Orthodox rabbi. "That was the grace of HaShem."

"There's so much glass on the floor. We can't have our morning prayer."

"Such a terrible crime and a sin against God!" exclaims Sheinlein. "I remember my bar mitzvah. When I woke up the morning before my bar mitzvah, I learned the synagogue was vandalized. Vandals went inside. They spray painted swastikas and Heil Hitler. They chopped up the pews. And the Torah scrolls, including the one I would read to celebrate my passage to manhood, they tore the scrolls into shreds. I had to go there myself to see the damage. To witness how people can be so hateful. My father was heartbroken, you know. He was in Auschwitz. Back then, I didn't fully understand what that meant, what that tattoo meant."

"I'm sorry," says Yitzhak.

"I wish I could have stopped that," says Ben. "But we need a morning prayer service.,"

"Excuse me, sirs," an elderly lady says in Arabic. "We can go to the park?"

"The park?" asks Yitzhak.

"It's a short walk. I take my granddaughter there when I watch her."

"Great idea, ma'am," says Ben, using Hassan's language skills. "Then we go to the park!"

"I shall join them in prayer," says Haddad.

And so Ben leads the congregation along the sidewalks of the neighborhood in a procession. Some drivers stop and take a look for a second or two before driving along. In less than ten minutes, they reach a neighborhood park, with a grass surface and trees and picnic tables and a playground surfaced with rubber extracted from tires, and a community center. They all find a grassy clearing.

They lay down their mats and lie face down, their knees bent.

Ben looks at them and begins the service under the blue sky.

And they start praying.

Oooooo

"You did good, my friend," Yitzhak Haddad says to the leaper.

"There is a first time for everything, I guess," answers Ben, as this is his first time leading an Islamic prayer service.

"Others have taken interest."

Ben looks and sees a van parked on the street. With all of the equipment mounted on it, he figures it is a news van. It has the logo for CTV Vancouver. A news crew is there, a large man holding a camera.

A woman, appearing to be in her late twenties, wearing a blouse and a skirt walks up to Ben. "any comment about your prayer service?" she asks.

"I am here to serve," says Ben.

"What about the vandalism at your mosque, sir?"

"You can ask the police for an update. I am told a suspect is in custody. I have no further comment, Miss"

"I have a comment," says Haddad.

"Mr. Haddad," says the reporter, recognizing the imam. "Please speak, sir."

"We will not be intimidated by cowards," he replies. "They will not separate us from our God. I am not the hero of this tale. This man, Hassan al Naari, a man who I am blessed to call friend, who is imam to these servants of God, he rose to the occasion to defy the Devil and those who do his bidding.

"The coward who desecrated that mosque, he will answer to the Courts of Heaven,. And he will answer to the courts of man. I do not hate him. God offers redemption unto all, and he is no different. We must pray for him.

"Nevertheless, we must oppose him and those like him. And I will start. I will pay for the damage to the mosque. Not with money from the Bridge to Heaven, but my own money, my own personal funds."

And the crowd then gives an applause.

"Thank you," Ben says to Yitzhak.

"It is the path I chose, my friend."

He looks sad.

Today is fated to be the last day of his life, unless he can somehow stop it.

He keeps wondering who will kill Haddad.

Ooooooo

"This might be a good weapon, don't you think?" asks Ben, holding a shovel.

"Yeah," says Addison, who is projected onto the driveway of the al Naari residence. "it's not a Glock semiautomatic, but it'll have to do."

"Any leads?"

"Ziggy was only able to narrow the number of possible suspects to about thirty. They were all in the Vancouver area from tonight to tomorrow morning with no possible alibis. But there's nothing in their backgrounds that they engaged in fraud or embezzlement or an affair, something they would want to keep quiet. Still, that's our only leads/"

Ben stands inside the garage, which looks like a typical garage with a shelf full of tools. "My only choice might be to intercept the killer at the time of the murder."

"A staffer last reported seeing him alive at around 6:30 this afternoon."

"Assuming that's not a lie," points out the leaper.

"I had better check on our friend Yitzhak," says the observer. "Ian, center me on Haddad!"

She is reprojected inside the Bridge to heaven Mosque, finding herself in a large room. Yitzhak Haddad himself sits behind a varnished wooden desk, wearing a keffiyeh.

"You are a girl of many talents, my dear Laila," says Yitzhak, his Arabic dubbed into English by Ziggy.

Addison turns her head and sees a teenage girl looking through the viewfinder of Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 camera, which is mounted on a tripod.

"Thank you, imam," replies the girl. "I still like how you would pay to fix the mosque out of your own wallet."

"The Quran has stories of those who rise to the occasion after losing all," says Haddad, taking the digital camera. "Even after reading those stories, even after hearing your story, I can not begin to understand how you feel."

"I can save the raw copy," replies Laila. "We can review tomorrow after school?"

"He might not be here tomorrow," says the observer.

"I prefer to publish tomorrow morning," says Yitzhak. "But let's have a little celebration." He goes to a corner where there is a min0-fridge plugged into an electrical outlet. Opening the fridge, he takes out a bottle filled with a dark liquid.

"That's alcohol," says Addison. "I know Islam forbids alcohol."

Yitzhak takers paper cups from a drawer and his desk and pours the liquid. He gives a cup to Laila, who sips it. The imam then sits on a leather couch and imbibes the strong beverage.

"Will you have a seat?" he asks.

Alarm bells ring in Addison's head.

"I can not," says the girl.

"Ah, some other time. You need to do homework."

"No, I can't do this," says Laila, sipping the drink.

Haddad stands up. "Laila, you showed your beauty to me. You gave yourself to me. I woke you up."

"I was wrong. You were wrong."

"I am a man of God. And when you share yourself with a man of God, you stay pure. You are purer than most women, even most girls your age."

"I won't tell anyone what we did, I promise. We were wrong. We sinned. God does not want this."

Laila walks toward the door.

Yitzhak Haddad grabs her arm and then throws the teen onto the leather couch.

"This is what God wants!" he exclaims.