His adoptive parents raised him as a typical Jewish family household did in Brooklyn N.Y. during those years. His wonderfully loving father, whom he adored, owned a corner grocery store. He grew up being happy and every Sabbath they brought him along to temple to daven. Neil was an only child and suffered from severe asthma until his early teens. The family decided that they should move to Arizona, where they heard had no dust, pollen, hay fever or any other allergens. Thank God, he thought, that turned out to be a great decision. Within six months his father had opened a more upscale and highly lucrative semi-supermarket in Sedona, which became their home city. His mother worked as a clerk at a gift shop in town. Within one year his asthma was completely gone.
As he grew older, the kids he played with called him Neil, and that stayed with him the rest of his adult life. As for the parents that adopted him, he knew them only as Mom and Dad. Yet, as mentioned earlier, they never told him that he was adopted. They intended to do so when he became an adult, but never did. They feared when he got old enough, he may have gone searching for his biological parents and if he found them, he might then have moved away from his adoptive parents to live with his biological parents. They never could understand that this would have been a total impossibility, since his love for them was total. No one, not the biological parents, not the police nor God himself, could take him away from the adoptive parents he loved so much, who loved him just as much as he did them.
Upon high school graduation he applied for and was accepted by Brith Achim Rabbinical School in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was intent on becoming a Rabbi because of his love of God, as he had been raised. He remembered feeling somewhat asexual all through high school, so he wasn’t thinking he would miss the company of girls. Sex was just not that important to him, yet. Yes, he liked how girls looked and was never interested in boys. He just never had sexual feelings in high school by looking at pretty girls.
At Rabbinical School, he studied four years in undergraduate studies for his Bachelor of Talmudic Law and then three more years leading to the MRb (Master of Rabbinic Studies). By then, he was twenty-four and ready for his own synagogue. He had also discovered the opposite sex, and began to find women more exciting; he occasionally looked at porn magazines, at times pleasuring himself to their pictures.
The assignment of getting his own synagogue came from The Central Conference of American Rabbis with the Union for Reform Judaism and The Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion, which together established the Rabbinical Placement Commission. He was saddened that his parent’s, now deceased, wouldn’t see him obtain his own synagogue. Sadly too, he never learned that he had been adopted.
After twenty years as a Rabbi in Sedona, the B’nai Brith held a special fete for him dedicated to his many charitable and philanthropic endeavors, treating it like a royal dinner at a palace. Over five hundred guests were in attendance from several denominations, including the local Catholic priest, Father Timothy O’Reilly, who gave a wonderful speech about what a great addition Neil had been to the community and what a wonderful friend he was to him. He went on and on about how charitable Neil was to Catholic charities, even though he was Jewish. As corny as this may have seemed, his speech brought tears to O’Reilly’s eyes and to Bloom’s as well.
The event was full of photographers from the Jewish press, the National Catholic Register, the Arizona Gazette, and the Sedona Times Herald. The Sedona paper was free in hotel lobbies, the visitor’s center, and in restaurants and coffee shops throughout the area. Rabbi Bloom had become a celebrity.
Five
Pratt drove to Jules Jacobson’s house on Veranda Drive, in the more affluent part of town, walked up the long driveway and rang the front doorbell. Carol answered and Pratt introduced himself as Detective Johnny Pratt of the Sedona Police Department. Carol became extremely nervous because she had noticed him dozing outside of Neil’s room at the hospital, but didn’t know why he was at her home.
Pratt asked Carol if her husband was at home.
She asked him, “What is this about?”
“I’ve been investigating the shooting of Rabbi Bloom and questioning as many of the congregants of the synagogue as possible to see if they could provide any viable clues.”
Carol then responded, “Yes, my husband is home. I’ll get him right away. How come you aren’t questioning me too, Detective?”
“Because, as I understand from many of the congregants, you never attended any of the Rabbi’s services,” replied Pratt.
“Well, that’s true, I’m not really religious and not interested in sitting there as people prayed and sang when I could go shopping. Now, I understand why you’re not questioning me. Thank you,” she answered with a sigh of relief. Carol yelled up the stairs, “Jules, Jules, there’s a police detective here to see you. Could you come down or do you want me to send him up?”
Jules replied, “No, I’ll come down in a couple of minutes.” He slowly came down the stairs and approached the detective. “Hello, officer,” said Jules.
“Detective Pratt,” Johnny answered, letting Jules know that he preferred being called by his correct title and name.
“Okay, Detective Pratt, what can I do for you?” he asked inquisitively.
Pratt replied, “Do you have any idea why someone might want to kill Rabbi Bloom?”
Jules asked the same question the Rabbi had before. “What makes you think that someone wanted to kill him?”
“He was shot twice near the heart. As the Rabbi fell to the ground, we assume that the shooter believed he killed the Rabbi and therefore stopped shooting and got away.”
“Why would they have shot at a Rabbi?” asked Jules.
Once again, Pratt used the same sarcastic answer that he used on Bloom. “The shooter sure didn’t mistake him for a deer. He was either an anti-Semite or had some personal motive,” replied Pratt coolly.
Now, Jules felt he needed to respond more forthrightly. “Detective Pratt, all I know is there are rumors going around the synagogue that the Rabbi may have been having an affair. The rumor was that it quite possibly could have been with the wife of a congregant. That’s the culprit you should be looking for.”
“When did you hear those rumors about the Rabbi, Mr. Jacobson?” Pratt asked.
“A few days before he got shot,” Jules replied.
“Did it ever occur to you that you had an obligation to notify the police of such rumors when you heard them, especially after the man got shot? Not meaning to be insulting, Mr. Jacobson,” the detective asked cautiously, “but did you at any time consider your wife to be the person he might have been involved with?”
“You, sir, have crossed the line,” said Jules indignantly. “Not only was that question disparaging to my wife but also to me. You are intimating that I may be the one who tried to harm or even kill the Rabbi. The time has come and gone for you to leave my home!”
Pratt wouldn’t give up that easily. “Mr. Jacobson, in no way was I insinuating that you played any role in attempting to harm or kill the Rabbi. I was just asking you if the Rabbi was possibly seeing your wife. Before I leave, I need to speak to your wife.”
“Not in this home after your contemptuous behavior. I asked you to leave my home right now,” Jules replied heatedly.
“All right, Mr. Jacobson, don’t get your panties all in a bunch. I’ll leave, but I’ll have to call your wife down to the station for her interview and there, it won’t be in your presence.”
The next day at 9:00 a.m., Pratt called the Jacobson’s home and Carol answered the phone. “Mrs. Jacobson?” asked the detective.
“Yes?” she replied.
“This is Detective Pratt; I need you to come down to the station today. We must address some issues. We are located at 135 Prudhoe Street in south Sedona.”
She asked apprehensively, “I thought you told me yesterday that you didn’t need to talk to me because I wasn’t under suspicion since I never attended services.”
“No, Mrs.
Jacobson, I said that no one at the synagogue saw you ever come to services, but I never mentioned that you are not under suspicion. I’m not saying that you are, but we don’t rule anyone out until we’ve caught the perpetrator,” he replied appropriately.
“All right, I’ll cancel my shopping and be down at the station around 2:00 p.m., is that all right?” she asked nervously.
“That’ll be fine,” he answered.
Later that afternoon, Carol Jacobson announced herself to the sergeant at the front desk precisely at 2:00 p.m. Sergeant McByrd called Pratt on the radio to announce he had a visitor downstairs. Pratt escorted Carol up to the interrogation room. He asked her to take a seat on the opposite side of the table from him and offered her “a coke, water, coffee or tea.” She declined all of them, wanting to get this over with quickly.
Pratt scrutinized Carol with a stare that lasted for what seemed like hours to her, but was just slightly over thirty seconds. Carol couldn’t handle the glaring stare any longer and nervously asked, “What can I do for you detective?”
Pratt began by gradually delving into her relationship with the Rabbi. “Mrs. Jacobson, since your husband attended Sabbath services each week, why didn’t you join him and go to the services too?”
“Well detective, I consider myself to be an agnostic and so far, no one has convinced me otherwise,” she replied skillfully.
He countered with, “Then can you explain how you got to know Rabbi Bloom?”
“Last year in November, the synagogue held a rather large black-tie affair for the Rabbi. My husband wanted me to accompany him so as not to insult the Rabbi with my absence. That’s when I met him,” she answered.
“So, have you been seeing the Rabbi since that day?” Pratt inquired.
“Why would you ask me a question like that?” Though the question startled her, she wanted to know.
“A number of congregants at the synagogue seem to believe that you are having an affair with the Rabbi. I thought I would ask you directly,” he replied sternly.
“There is no truth to that rumor. I have not been seeing him. We met each other twice but nothing further. Friends had suggested I go see him for counseling with my marriage, which had more downs than ups. So, I went to him for advice about problems Jules and I were having. The first time I saw him privately was for the counseling; the second time was at the hospital,” she replied.
He stared at her suspiciously. “So, you deny having had an affair with the Rabbi?” He was trying to put the fear of God into her to see if it worked in getting her to admit an affair.
“Absolutely! I was not and am not having an affair with the Rabbi or anyone else, Detective,” she said.
“Do you think the Rabbi will answer the same way?” Pratt asked her.
“I don’t know the Rabbi very well and have no idea what he might try and brag about.”
That was a shoddy and immodest response, Johnny thought, but he told her he had no further questions at this time, and she could leave.
As soon as she left the police station, she called Neil on the prepaid cell phone that he had purchased for her and told him all about the third degree the detective put her through. She was extremely nervous and believed this police officer knew about them.
Neil told her, “That was just a detective’s ploy to see if he could make you talk and obviously you were smart enough not to fall for it. Just take it easy, Honey,” he said. “You were just nervous because you were being questioned by a cop. He doesn’t know anything about us.”
“All right, if you say so,” she conceded reluctantly. “I’ll just continue to go about doing things the way I always do them and even try and make love to Jules more often, even if the thought of it makes me want to gag, just to relieve his mind that I’m not cheating on him.”
“That’s better, though I don’t like the idea of your making love to him either, but at least it’ll throw him off the track for a while,” Neil said in a feigned attempt at a gallant response.
Immediately thereafter she called Jules. She told him the police just wanted to know if she had any idea as to who might have shot the Rabbi. “I told him no.”
He asked her if there were any other questions and she replied, “Pratt asked me if I thought you might know who shot the Rabbi.”
“And how did you answer that?” asked Jules.
“I told him of course not.”
Six
The Rabbi returned to his synagogue on Saturday, six weeks after his release from the hospital, and conducted services as usual. Before he could begin, his congregation gave him a standing ovation. He stood before the podium and began his sermon in English after all the prayers were completed for the morning. “Thank you all for your kindness, flowers, well wishes, balloons, and so much food for just one man. However, I can assure you it will all be eaten. It’s delicious and fattening,” he told his laughing audience. “You have shown me more love than I could have ever imagined, and I’m thrilled to be able to return as your Rabbi.”
“However,” he continued, “I’ve heard that many of you have been gossiping about affairs going on among married congregants with other married congregants. Some of you may have even spread rumors that I have been having a fling with a married woman. Let me assure you all, our Lord looks harshly on the spreading of rumors. God is good, God is kind, God is love, and God is asking for us to believe in him as our teacher and to quote him and not each other. Rumors are not good, they are not kind, and they are not filled with love. God does not start them, but they are started by some of you. Rumors are evil and malicious to the people you gossip about. I am asking you as your Rabbi to stop this talk and return to the true meaning of our faith, love of your faith, family, friends, and neighbors. If you had proof, and I mean real proof, then you needed to bring it to the attention of the people involved and urge them to stop. However, if you have no proof, you must stop spreading such damaging falsehoods.”
After this short reprimand of a sermon, the entire congregation stood, gave Bloom a cheering ovation, and slowly left the synagogue, each person making sure to thank him as he waited at the front door to shake their hands as they were leaving.
Half an hour later Bloom drove to the town of Oak Creek, named after the stream that flowed right through it. He had sent a text message to Carol’s pre-paid cell phone asking her to go shopping for a few hours, signing it “Julie.” They met at the Dunkin’ Donuts in town as usual. They didn’t dare hug or kiss out in the open in case they were followed but agreed to meet at the local motel at the end of town called the Oak Creek Inn. He would check in as Mr. Herman and pay by cash; she would arrive ten minutes later as Mrs. Julie Herman, his wife.
She knocked on his door and it quickened his heartbeat to open it. He picked her up and carried her to the sofa in the huge living room that also had a fireplace for the winter guests. He just couldn’t get his hands off her. Her mouth searched his and when she found it, she didn’t leave it for an hour. Later, they discussed Jules, his own sermon at the synagogue, and Detective Pratt.
When done, they left thirty minutes apart and returned to Sedona at around 8:30 p.m. Jules didn’t ask Carol any questions since she had left him a note as to where she would be and that she would most likely be back around 10:00 p.m. He was pleased when she returned earlier. She came home with a few packages from the supermarket around 9:00 p.m. at which time Jules had told her about Bloom’s sermon. This apparently had convinced him that Carol was not having an affair.
Pratt, however, was still a question mark to them both.
Unbeknownst to Carol and Neil, Pratt had assigned two of his best officers to begin following them wherever they went. One officer was in an old gray pickup truck and the other in an older black sedan, neither of which would be suspicious if Bloom or Carol looked in their rearview mirrors for vehicles following them. Those cops were real pros and always stayed more than four or five car lengths behind them. Luckily for the two lovers, they lost both cops on their way to
Oak Creek.
◆◆◆
Two days later, two gunshots were fired at the Sedona Reformed Synagogue as Jack Green, one of the Rabbi’s golfing teammates, was leaving after meeting Neil for lunch. One of those gunshots hit Green in the lower back, near his kidney. The other bullet missed his body and hit the front façade of the building near the doors. He was taken to Sedona General Hospital, where they performed surgery on his wound.
On Jack’s outer clothing, the bullet hole left a tear and bloodstains appeared just below the kidney. Internally, the bullet severed his left renal artery and passed just a half-inch from his spine. Had the artery not been sewn back together as quickly as they got to it, he would have survived only an additional half hour. But survive he did.
Detective Pratt heard about Jack Green’s shooting at the same time as the ambulance received their call. He immediately rushed to the hospital to speak with Green before he went into surgery. He didn’t yet know the extent of Jack’s injuries and used the siren on his unmarked vehicle to speed through town.
As Pratt arrived at the hospital, two ambulance attendants handed the gurney carrying Green over to the doctors who took him straight to the operating room. All Johnny was able to see was Green’s blood all over the sheets on the gurney and the attendants’ clothing and gloved hands. He walked over to the ambulance attendants, flashed his badge and began questioning the EMTs. “Where was he when you first picked him up? Where on his body was he shot? How many bullets entered his body? How badly was he hurt? Does it look like a fatal wound? Were there any witnesses that you saw close by? Did he say anything to you at any time? Is there any additional information you can share with me that I haven’t asked you about?”
A Hole In One Page 3
