"It was the only place I could think of. I couldn't keep it in my home. Lillian notices everything."
"Why not keep the gun here in the store?"
"My uncle likes rearranging stuff. Every once in a while, he moves everything around. Besides, I wanted the gun close to home so I could reach it in a hurry."
It sounded flimsy. Daniel's motivation was likely different and selfish. He didn't want the gun anywhere connected with him in case the police found it.
"Why Moria's apartment? Why not one of the others in the building?" I asked.
"She lived alone, and she worked long hours, including several nights a week, and it was easy to find out when she was on shift. And I knew when she was in. When I'm home, I can hear every step someone takes in her apartment. It was the perfect place."
"Weren't you worried Lillian would hear you up there?"
"I hardly ever went there, and I always chose a time when Lillian was out or fast asleep. There's also the fact that the other neighbor on the third floor is old and nearly deaf and blind. He wouldn't see or hear me go into Moria's apartment."
"Didn't you stop to think of the trouble Moria might find herself in if the police found that gun in her apartment after you killed Dr. Shapira?"
"Why would they suspect her? She was a woman who wouldn't hurt a soul."
"Because she worked with him, and because she and Dr. Shapira had locked horns several times. He tried to have her fired. He disapproved of her habit of undermining his authority by talking directly to the parents of patients. Like she did with you. Lillian told me about it. She said Moria had warned you that the surgery Dr. Shapira recommended for your son was risky, an experimental procedure, but that Dr. Shapira insisted on doing it, and you relented."
A paternal wave of rage coiled through Daniel's features. "He assured us it would go without a hitch, that we had nothing to worry about. We later learned it was the first time he'd performed such a surgery. He wanted the acclaim of being the first surgeon in Israel to do it. My son died because of him."
"Is that when you decided to kill him?"
He shook his head. "First we went to talk to him. If he'd only apologized, explained himself, showed some remorse, that might have been the end of it, but instead he was very rude to us. He behaved as though we were a nuisance. So we went to the head of the ward, Dr. Yosef Leitner, to complain. I thought he'd fire Dr. Shapira. Instead, he backed him fully. He told us Dr. Shapira was a respected surgeon. He was very angry that we were bothering him at all. It didn't seem to matter to him that our son was dead. Lillian was crushed. She didn't get out of bed for weeks."
You must have been crushed too, I thought, but like men the world over, you kept it shoved deep inside you, where it festered, spawning a hatred so keen it had to be satiated.
"You planned this for a long time, didn't you?" I asked.
He nodded. "There were weeks in which it was the only thing I could think of. At first, it was just a powerful desire for vengeance, but I didn't think I'd act on it. But it grew into something harder, sharper, like a tumor that I had to cut out or it would kill me. So I started planning how I'd do it. It wasn't easy, but I managed to buy a gun. I told myself I'd wait a year before I used it so the guy I bought it from wouldn't connect the shooting to me."
"You had a lot of patience."
"Waiting was hard, but I wanted to get away with it." His eyes met mine, but there was no animosity in them, only resignation. "If you hadn't come along, I would have."
"I'm sorry for what happened to your son, Daniel. And I wish Moria were still alive so I wouldn't be here."
"Me too. She was a good woman. Did you find out why she killed herself?"
"It'll take too long to explain, and I'm not here for that."
"No." Daniel sighed. "I suppose you're not."
"You said you planned to wait a year, but it took you nearly two to kill Dr. Shapira. Why so long?"
A wavering smile lived and died on Daniel's lips. "Lillian was pregnant, and then Dina was born, and I hoped the new child would help me get over the death of the old one. But she didn't. The urge to get even kept growing. So I resumed planning. I'd tell Lillian I was working at night, and I'd wait outside the hospital and follow Dr. Shapira home. I did this for several months; I wanted there to be no mistakes. I decided winter would be the right season for the killing. Most people are at home, so there would be less risk of witnesses. I decided to make it look like a robbery so the police wouldn't think the killer was after Dr. Shapira specifically."
"You did a good job," I said. "Taking the belt was a nice touch."
Daniel didn't seem to have heard me. He was back on that night, reliving the realization of his dreams of revenge.
"It was very cold. Waiting outside the hospital was difficult, but I'd made up my mind. I was determined to go through with it. I followed Dr. Shapira through a light rain. There were barely any people about. Off in the distance there was a lightning storm, and I remember thinking how perfect it was; maybe the shots would be mistaken for thunder.
"When we got to the alley, I closed the distance between us and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, surprised, and I could tell he recognized me. Maybe he even guessed what I was there to do. He opened his mouth, but I didn't give him the chance to speak. I fired the gun twice. He fell without uttering a sound. I hurriedly took some of his things and got out of there."
There was no remorse in his voice. In Daniel's eyes, this was a justified punishment. An eye for an eye.
I said, "The day we met in Moria's apartment, you sent me to that fleabag hotel because you weren't sure if I'd found the gun, right?"
He nodded.
"Did you install the locks there as well, like you did in your building?"
"Who told you about that? Lillian?" I nodded, and he heaved a breath. "Yes, I installed the locks in that hotel. Cheap, generic locks. I still had a master key. I could get inside any room without trouble. After you left our building, when Lillian was out with Dina, I went upstairs to Moria's apartment. I discovered you had the gun."
"So you searched my hotel room for it?"
"Yes, but I didn't find it. You must have had it on you."
Another clue I'd missed. I was sure Kulaski had lifted the key from my pocket during the beating he and his buddies had given me, but it must have fallen out when he took my wallet to put that newspaper clipping in it. Thinking I'd outsmarted Kulaski had offered a glimmer of satisfaction on that day of pain and terror, and it had also blinded me to the truth, that it wasn't Kulaski who searched my room, but the only other person who knew I was staying there. Daniel Shukrun.
"Why go to all that trouble?" I asked. "Why did it matter that I had the gun? I didn't know it was yours."
"There was something about you that worried me. I was sure you'd somehow connect the gun to me. Besides, it wasn't easy to get it, and I wanted it back."
"What for? Why did you keep it at all? Why didn't you throw it away after you killed Dr. Shapira?"
