"I didn't know her motivation was unknown."

"Quite unknown," I said with bitterness, remembering the obscure suicide note.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't think I can help you. I never said more than two words to her. Just hello, goodbye, that sort of thing."

"What about Dr. Shapira?"

"Kalman Shapira? He's dead."

"I know he's dead. Were you and he friends?"

"I wouldn't say friends, but friendly, sure. We used to work together before he moved to the Pediatric Ward. Why are you asking about him?"

"Two people who work together die unnaturally within a short period of time, it interests me."

A dash of fear played across Dr. Aboulker's face. "What are you implying, Mr. Lapid?"

"I'm not implying anything. I'm just gathering information. What was Dr. Shapira like?"

He didn't answer. People sometimes get that way when asked about the dead. They don't want to speak ill.

"He won't mind, Doctor," I said. "It could be important."

He scrutinized my features, looking past the bruises and swellings and trying to see the man behind the injuries. Whatever he saw must have tipped some internal scale, and he said, "He was a good doctor, a talented surgeon, but he could be a bit abrasive. He was sometimes brusque with the nurses."

"Was he the sort of doctor who'd complain about a nurse if she didn't show him the proper respect?"

"It happened. Why?"

"It confirms something I was told about him," I said. "What about Dr. Leitner?"

"What does he have to do with this?"

"He was Moria Gafni's boss. What do you think of him?"

Again he didn't answer, just stared out the rain-streaked windshield. A muscle clenched along his jaw.

"You don't like him very much, do you?"

He turned to me. "Am I that easy to read?"

I smiled. "On that issue, you're an open book. Care to tell me why you dislike him?"

"I probably shouldn't."

"Why not?"

"Leitner might become head physician one of these days. He'll run the entire hospital."

"He's that good a doctor?"

Dr. Aboulker huffed, his mouth twisted in bitter contempt. "I wouldn't let him treat my children if he was the only doctor in town."

"That bad, huh?"

He hesitated, scratching the side of his face, tapping the wheel.

I said, "Dr. Leitner will never know what you tell me. You have my word on that."

He looked at me for a moment, then said, "Leitner is one of those doctors who seem to forget that his patients are people. He treats them as though he's a mechanic fixing a machine. And he's not so brilliant at that, either."

"Then how in hell is it possible he'll become head physician?"

"Because he's good at internal politics, and, more crucially, he's a great fundraiser."

"That's more important than being a good doctor?"

"To get appointed head physician? Yes, it is. Sometimes it seems like it's the only skill that matters." He paused for a beat, then added, "Maybe I shouldn't disparage Leitner on that score. Donations are vital for a hospital. A hospital with money becomes more modern, acquires better equipment, can offer a higher level of care to its patients. A hospital needs fundraisers. But with Leitner it has always seemed to me that his main goal is not the well-being of his patients, but the fulfillment of his personal ambition. He wants to be head physician not because he believes he'll do the best job for the patients, but for the status that comes with the title, the boost to his ego."

"I see," I said, thinking that it fit my impression of Leitner.

"Do you know Anat Schlesinger?" I asked. "She's a nurse who worked with Moria Gafni."

"I know who she is, but I don't know her any better than I did Moria."

"What about Naomi Hecht?"

"Sure, I know Naomi. We used to work together." A dark cloud passed over his face. "Leitner must be stupid, not just incompetent."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because he fired her, that's why. One of the best nurses I've ever met."

I stared at him. "When did this happen?"

"Yesterday."

Soon after my conversation with him. "Why did he do it?"

"No one seems to know. One rumor says she botched some procedure, but I don't believe it. And this after he surprised everyone just two months ago by announcing Naomi will become head nurse of the Pediatric Ward next year when the current one retires. Usually, the head nurse is much older. I didn't think Leitner had it in him to make such an unorthodox appointment; I was actually impressed. But now he's overturned his earlier decision and gotten rid of her."

I tried to think what any of this might have to do with Dr. Shapira's murder, with Moria's suicide, but I couldn't see a connection.

I racked my brain, but I couldn't come up with more questions to ask Dr. Aboulker. I held out my hand. "Thank you, Doctor. For everything."

He smiled. "You're most welcome, Mr. Lapid." Then the smile faded. "I really shouldn't have let you leave the hospital."

"You didn't have much choice in the matter."