The Kabbalistic Murder Code: Mystery & International Conspiracies (Historical Crime Thriller Book 1) by Nathan Erez

in the parchment to ensure that his writing was straight. Here, though, there were no such lines and the writing was sloppy. When he finished, Elijah looked up with a sigh of relief. Just as he was going to signal to Wang that he had finished, he turned over the parchment and was astounded to find parts of letters there. He rolled up the parchment, and when he had rolled it as tightly as possible, he saw that the parts of letters now joined together, and it was possible to read them. The writing was evidently in Arabic, accompanied by a short sentence in Hebrew, in a rabbinic Sephardi script. The ink used in the writing seemed to indicate that it had been done with a fountain pen-early 20 th century, Elijah surmised. It also bore the stamp of the Ohel Sarah synagogue in Hong Kong. There was a signature, but he was only able to make out the word “Batzri”.
                  “I understand that this manuscript comes from the Ohel Sarah synagogue, and once belonged to someone named Batzri,” he said half to himself.
                  When Mei-Ling translated his comment to Mr. Wang, the old man replied and Mei-Ling translated back: “My grandfather is delighted that you know them. He was a young child when the distinguished Mrs. Sassoon died, and... how do you call a Jewish priest?” she asked, somewhat embarrassed.
                  “A rabbi,” Elijah volunteered.
                  “Yes, of course, right. He remembers Rabbi Batzri to this very day, even though about eighty years have passed. Rabbi Batzri had a full white beard. My grandfather loved to look at him. In those days he used to spend hours in the synagogue with his grandfather, who was the synagogue’s caretaker.”
                  “I’m surprised they haven’t moved the synagogue elsewhere. It is surrounded by skyscrapers, and no longer belongs in that area.”
                  “That’s just the point,” said Mei-Ling, in an almost simultaneous translation. Wang interrupted her; he appeared upset. Mei-Ling looked at him, surprised, but Wang recovered immediately and suggested they drink tea in his workroom.
                  They walked behind him. “He evidently likes you,” said Mei-Ling. “Very few people ever enter his workroom. I never dare to go in without being invited to do so.”
                  Over tea in the workroom, Wang told them that there had once been an older wing to the synagogue, but this had been torn down when he was still a child. His grandfather had managed to salvage an old crate of religious items and manuscripts from the demolished wing, including this one. That was evidently the fortune that his grandfather had bequeathed him. As they sat there, Elijah noticed a business card in English on the table. Glancing at it, his curiosity was aroused by the name “Kim” that he saw written on the card. He was reminded of the handwritten list he had found in the Institute, which included a mention of a scholarship fund by the Kim Foundation.
                  As they were talking, Elijah casually stretched out his hand to the business card and asked, “Is this yours?”
                  Wang looked at the card, snatched it away, and hid it in his hand. They continued talking, Wang was obviously very upset about the business card.
                  A few minutes later, Wang exchanged a few words with his granddaughter and she translated to Elijah that her grandfather was tired and it was time to end the meeting. Elijah began to mentally process everything he had seen. The Arabic writing on the manuscript would seem to indicate that it had been brought to Iraq after the Arab conquest. He remembered, of course, that the Mongols had captured Iraq, and assumed that when various Jews had come from Iraq and settled in Hong Kong, they had brought the manuscript with them. Elijah was, of course, deeply interested