Izaak squeezed her hand, shut his eyes tight and made a silent wish. He turned to Adinah, who held her finger to her lips. “Don’t tell me, or it won’t come true.”
Later that night, after a very tired Izaak had gone to bed, Adinah and Eli shared a small carafe of wine. In many ways, the establishment of UNSCOP and hope for a divided Palestine was a harbinger of high tide. Would it raise all ships? Would other countries now open their immigration doors to Jewish refugees? The newspapers reported vigorous debates in both chambers of the U.S. Congress.
Adinah took a sip of wine and mused. “If the UN General Assembly approves, would you move to the new state of Israel, Eli? They say it will be a Jewish state.”
“The U.S. would be my first choice,” Eli answered. “Izzie has been dreaming of the U.S. since the time we were on the run, before we were sent to Buchenwald, but it’s so hard to get in there. If we can’t get a U.S. visa and Israel becomes a state, I would surely consider it. How about you, Adinah? What would you do?”
The joy slipped from Adinah’s face. She looked away.
“What’s the matter?” Eli asked.
She shook her head.
“What?” Eli said again.
When she turned around, her eyes were wet. “You just asked me where would I go?”
“Yes, did I say something wrong?”
She shook her head, took her wineglass and walked to the sink. “No. Nothing wrong.”
Eli clenched his teeth. He had blundered. “Adinah, wait. Please sit down. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t mean…”
“What do I prefer? Where would I go? You and Izzie are all I have. Maybe I am foolish, but I think of you as my family. You said…”
He put his arm around her. “You are not foolish. You are family. I told you before, and I meant it, you can stay with us as long as you like. As long as you live. Wherever we go, we’ll all go together. I was asking about your preference. I didn’t mean to exclude you or to imply that we wouldn’t go altogether as a family.”
She slowly shook her head. “I know that Esther might come back, that she is Izzie’s mother and she is your wife. But I still want to be in your lives no matter where you go. Won’t there be room for me? You ask for my preference. It is to be with my family wherever you go.”
“Wherever we go! You are part of our family. When Esther comes back, if Esther comes back, there will always be a place for you, and she will love you as much as we do.”
Adinah bowed her head and wiped away a tear.
“My wife has been missing from my life for five years, and I don’t kid myself; maybe I will never see her again. But until I know … I think about her every day.”
Adinah softly covered Eli’s hand with hers. “And you should. Has the Central Tracing Bureau found out anything?”
“I’ve called Ann Stewart each month since my visit, but they’ve received no response to inquiries they’ve sent. None of the hospitals reported any knowledge of Esther Rosen. It’s a bad sign; I know. But I still hold out hope.”
“And I hope, too.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
ALBANY PARK
CHICAGO
ALBANY PARK NEIGHBORHOOD
FEBRUARY 1966
There was an urgent knock on the apartment door, and a puzzled Ruth Gold rushed to answer it. “Good morning, Mr. Rosen. You’re up early,” she said.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Gold. Did Mimi leave for work yet?”
“I’m still here, Eli,” Mimi called, walking out of the kitchen holding a mug of coffee. “Would you care for a cup?”
“No, thank you. I found something that might be of great interest to you, maybe for a feature article. I wonder if you might have a few minutes to stop by before you leave for work?”
* * *
As she suspected, Ryan and Mooney were waiting for her in Eli’s apartment. “Feature article?” she said with a grin.
But Eli was serious. “The accountant’s room is empty, Mimi. It’s been cleaned out. Empty shelves, empty desk, empty cabinets.”
“When did that happen?”
“We don’t know. Maybe after the murders, maybe more recently, but when we went in last night, there wasn’t a single paper, not a single file, nothing in the back room.”
“I thought you didn’t want to get a warrant.”
Eli quickly glanced at his comrades. “Um, we didn’t exactly have a warrant.”
“According to Preston, the ledgers were there last fall. A lot of them.”
“I don’t doubt it, but they’re not there now,” Ryan said. “The room is vacant, and the door isn’t even locked.”
Colonel Mooney drummed his fingers on the table. “Mimi, are you sure that’s where the congressman kept his records?”
“Obviously, I’ve never seen them, but I was present at the wedding when Preston described the room and the ledger books in great detail.”
Eli interjected. “I’m sure the records were there, Colonel. Ryan and I have been surveilling the office for months, charting the comings and goings of the conspirators. It would make sense if the books and records were available for their use.”
“So now they have all come back into town and the books are somewhere else,” Mooney said. “Where are they?”
Eli nodded. “The books will be where the meetings are taking place, and it surely won’t be at the congressional office.”
Mimi was puzzled. “Mr. Ryan, I appreciate being asked to attend this meeting, but I don’t know how much help I can be. I have no idea where they’ve moved the records or where the men are meeting. Maybe they discussed their plans at the Palmer House dinner.”
Ryan shook his head. “They didn’t. We were listening.”
Eli added, “Mimi, we’ve decided that the only safe place for Vittie to hold his private meetings would be in his home. In fact, Rupert Grainger was seen entering the house last night. Michael Stanley is staying at the house all this week. The man you describe as the accountant has also been seen entering and leaving the house.”
“So the ledger books are in the house?”
Ryan shrugged. “That would be the logical place.”
Now Mimi understood why she had been brought into the discussion, and a chill shot through her body. “You want me to go into the house and search for the books?”
“Would you have any legitimate reason to enter the Zielinski home without arousing suspicion? We need to know if the records are there, and precisely where they’re stored.”
Mimi took a breath. “I haven’t been there in three months. You’re the FBI. Why don’t you just go in there and get them?”
Mimi’s response drew a smattering of chuckles. “That’s an illegal search and seizure, Mimi. Federal law requires the issuance and execution of a search warrant before entering the house. It would be different if we had evidence a crime was in progress, but just to enter to search for records, we’d need a sworn affidavit from an informant. Remember, we’d be asking for authority to raid a sitting congressman’s house—a congressman whose daughter was recently murdered. Any slipup and the books will disappear.”