Erika used Italian. "We're sorry to bother you, but we're told that

Ephraim Avidan used to live here." The woman spoke in English. "Your accent. American?" Erika replied in kind. "No, I'm Israeli, but I lived in the United States for many years. In fact, I'm more comfortable with

English than I am with my native language. Would you prefer... ?" 'To speak in English?" The woman shook her head and switched to Italian. "I could use the practice, but not when discussing Ephraim Avidan. He used to live here, but he's gone." She seemed sullen. "Are you with the others who came to ask about him?"

"Others?"

"Two men. I've days ago. They claimed to be old friends of Avidan. But they were thirty years younger. Like Avidan and yourself, they said they were Israeli. They claimed they owed Avidan money. Such conscientious debtors, don't you mink? They wanted to know where he'd gone."

"And what did you tell them?"

"The same thing I tell you. I don't know where. He left abruptly. In

February. One evening he was here, the next morning he wasn't As far as

I could tell, he took nothing with him. After several days, I notified our policeman in town. A search was organized, but we didn't find a body." She gestured toward the mountains. "We didn't expect to. No one goes hiking in the woods at night during winter. Suicide was a possibility. He'd been moody. But without a body... Our policeman notified the authorities in Bern. The matter passed out of our hands.

But we treated him fairly, the same as if he'd been one of us. And he treated the fairly. Before he disappeared, he paid his rent. I never had trouble with him."

"Of course." The woman tightened her arms across her chest

"And what about yourselves? Are you also 'old' friends who owe him money?" She directed her question toward Saul. "We didn't know him at all." The woman smiled, apparently not having expected a candid response. Saul nodded toward Erika. "My wife's father was a friend of Ephraim Avidan, though." He paused for effect. "And her father has also disappeared."

The woman seemed caught between surprise and skepticism. "On the other hand, your explanation might merely be more inventive than that of old friends owing money to someone."

"Why are you so suspicious?" Erika asked. "All we want is information."

"Suspicious? If your husband had left you... If you had the responsibility of managing..." Her voice trailed off. She stared toward swollen-uddered cattle in the pasture. "I probably wouldn't be suspicious if not for the priest." Saul's pulse quickened. "Priest?"

"Not mat he said he was a priest. He was rugged, handsome. A hiker, so he claimed. He arrived two weeks before the Israelis did. He had blue eyes and straw-colored hair. He chopped wood for his supper. He was muscular. His chest was strong. But what I noticed most were his hands."

"What about them?"

"He took extreme care of them. I didn't think it unusual when he wore gloves to chop wood. A precaution against slivers and blisters. But later, after he'd taken off the gloves and washed his hands, when I ate supper with him, I couldn't help noticing how soft and smooth his hands were in comparison with his muscles. He was tanned, but on his left hand... here at the base of his middle finger... he had a white rim of skin where he'd recently taken off a ring. I still don't understand why he'd have done that. Who knows? Perhaps he'd merely lost it. But his right hand... here... the thumb, the first and second finger... those he was especially self-conscious about He didn't want food to touch those fingers, and later, when he helped me wash dishes, he kept a towel around his right hand, using his left to pick up the plates. Do you see the significance?"

"I'm sorry," Erika said. "I'm afraid I don't."

"As an Israeli, you wouldn't, I suppose. I myself am a Lutheran, but I know that for a Roman Catholic priest the thumb, first, and second fingers of his right hand are the most important parts of his body.

They're blessed. They're what he uses to hold the wafer of bread that he consecrates and changes into what Catholics believe is the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ. If a priest's right thumb and first two fingers were amputated, he couldn't be a priest any longer, not totally.

He couldn't say mass. He couldn't perform the ritual of consecrating the host and giving out Communion. And because those fingers have been blessed, he has to protect them not only from physical harm but also from indignities." Erika was puzzled. "But couldn't he merely have been left-handed, and that's why he seemed to favor his right?"

"After supper, he put his gloves back on and offered to go to the barn, to do a few more chores. I needed help, so I promised him breakfast and agreed." She pointed toward the barn a corner of which projected from behind the house. "He worked longer than I expected. When I went to see if anything was wrong, I caught him by surprise. He shoved a small black book into his knapsack. Then I knew for certain."

"I don't follow you," Erika said. But Saul did. He remembered what his foster brother, Chris, an Irish-Catholic, had taught him about the

Church. 'The small black book was probably a breviary," he explained.

"The collection of prayers a priest has to read every day." He faced the woman. "But you said you knew 'for certain" Forgive me, it still seems like supposition."

"No," the woman said. "In the night, I went to his room in the barn and searched through his knapsack. The small black book was a breviary."

"Searched through his... "You think I was bold? How could he rebuke me when he was as bold as I was, when he'd snuck from his room and gone up the hill to search Avidan's room?" Her face flushed with indignation.

"I'd left the cabin as Avidan had left it. There was always the chance

Avidan would return, and since no one else had asked to rent it, I didn't care to waste my time by moving his possessions. Where would I have put them anyhow? When I crept up the bill, I heard the priest in the cabin. I heard drawers being opened and shut. I saw the waver of a flashlight beam through cracks in the window shades."

"What did you do about it?"

"What would you expect? A woman alone? An apparently innocent guest who turns out to be a prowler? I returned to the house and did nothing.

In the morning, I pretended not to know he'd gone to Avidan's cabin, and he--if he'd guessed I'd searched his knapsack--pretended not to have noticed. He ate the breakfast I prepared, asked if there were other chores he could do, and, when I declined, continued the hiking vacation he claimed to be on. For the next few nights, I kept a close watch on the cabin. So far as I know, the priest never came back."

"And what would be the significance of the ring he took off?" Erika asked. "It could have been the insignia of his order," Saul said. "A few religious groups wear them."

"I didn't find a ring in his knapsack," the woman said. "Maybe he considered it so valuable he kept it in a pocket."

"Perhaps. Then, two weeks later, the Israeli pair arrived. They asked if they could see Avidan's cabin in case something in it might tell them where he'd gone--you understand, so they could repay the fabulous debt they said they owed him."

"Did you let them?"

"Yes. I had the sense that, if I refused, they'd return in the night and search it anyhow. Or search the cabin right then, despite my objections. I didn't want trouble. I hoped that, if I agreed, I'd see the end of it. Besides, what did I have to hide?"

"Or what did Avidan have to hide?" Saul said. "Now you arrive, and you ask why I'm suspicious. Who was this Avidan? Why are you and those others interested in him?"

"I can't speak for the priest," Saul said. "He's as puzzling to me as he is to you. But the two Israelis were probably intelligence operatives. Mossad. Avidan used to belong to their organization. When one of them--even one who's retired from them--disappears, they want to know why, especially if his disappearance seems linked to the disappearance of yet another ex-Mossad operative. My wife's father."

The woman inhaled sharply. "Politics? I don't want anything to do with politics."

"We're not sure it's politics. It could be a personal matter from years ago. Honestly, we don't know. For us, it's definitely personal, though."

"Are you Mossad?" Erika hesitated. "I used to be."

"Politics."

"I said I used to be. Look, please, we've told you a lot more than we should have. How can we make you trust us?"

"How? Tell me a way to keep strangers from coming around here asking about Avidan."

"If you help us, maybe we'll be able to find out what happened to him.

Then the strangers will stop coming around." The woman studied them.

"May we see Avidan's cabin?" Saul asked. The woman remained motionless.

Saul held his breath. The woman nodded.