Read One Fine Day the Rabbi Bought a Cross for Free Online Page B

“Yossi,” he announced to the older man. “El Dhamouri picked up Professor Grenish at the Northhaven Faculty Club. In his limousine, no less. And took him to the Château on Route Ninety-three for dinner. Very swank, very expensive, the Château.”
    â€œHow did Yossi know they went to the Château? Surely he didn’t follow them.”
    â€œOh, he didn’t have to. Grenish was not making any secret of it.”
    â€œAll right, we’ll pass it on.”
    â€œI suppose we have to, but did it ever occur to you, Avram, that we pass on an awful lot of junk that has no significance whatsoever?”
    â€œSure, but they feed it into a computer and you’d be surprised at what they come up with occasionally. In this case, though, we have two, each on one of our lists, and they’re meeting. That’s an intersection, so it’s automatically interesting.”
    â€œWhy? They’re friends. And we’ve reported meetings between them several times. One only a couple of weeks ago at the Harvard Faculty Club.”
    â€œWhich makes it a continuing situation, not just a chance encounter, and that makes it all the more interesting for us. Have you ever seen this Professor Grenish?”
    â€œSure. I attended a couple of those public lectures he gave at the Boston Library.”
    â€œAnd how did he strike you?”
    â€œHe didn’t strike me at all. I thought he was pretty dull and colorless. I didn’t fall asleep, but if I had, I wouldn’t have missed anything.”
    â€œThat’s right. That’s exactly right. A dull, colorless, mediocre sort of man. The only reason he’s on our list is his membership on the Arab Friendship League. I think his name is on the stationery as a member of their Board of Trustees.”
    â€œSo what? There are quite a few of these Jewish radical intellectuals who are sympathetic to the Arabs because the new Left is pro-Arab and they don’t want to be shunted off as has-beens.”
    â€œSure, and the Mossad likes to keep a general watch on them. Nothing intensive, but an occasional glance in their direction. But here we have a dull, colorless sort of fellow who is being cultivated by a rich, flamboyant personage like El Dhamouri. Why? What could El Dhamouri see in the likes of Grenish? Now, we are naturally interested in El Dhamouri because he is rich and has status and so he’s bound to be contacted by various Arab groups, if only for financial help.”
    â€œSure, but they always meet in a public place. There’s no report of secret meetings.”
    â€œThat’s right. It’s never at his home, where only someone who happened to see him enter or leave would know about it. It’s always in a public place, like the Faculty Club or a restaurant, and now the Château. Why? Because he wants to be seen with him? What would he gain by it?”
    â€œBut Grenish would gain,” said Gavriel, “so maybe he’s the one who sets it up.”
    â€œYou mean Grenish would call him and say, ‘Invite me for lunch at the Harvard Faculty Club, or for dinner at the Château’? That’s not very likely. Damn close to impossible, I’d say, unless Grenish has something on him. No. I think that El Dhamouri is aware of how Grenish feels about being seen with him. He’s a name-dropper, is our friend Grenish—”
    â€œYes, even in those lectures.”
    â€œRight, so El Dhamouri not only takes him to places where a lot of people will see them together, but the right kind of people, like faculty people at Harvard. And he picks him up in his limousine at the Northhaven Faculty Club, where Grenish’s colleagues will see them, and lets him know in advance that they’re going to the Château, so that Grenish can mention it while waiting. I think that El Dhamouri is not merely cultivating him, he’s buttering him up. And that could be very interesting.”
    In