Page 95 of At Midnight Comes the Cry
“Hi, Jessica here.”
Thank God. “Hi, Rabbi Oppenheim, this is Clare Fergusson. We met at the ecumenical seminar last year. I don’t know if you—”
“Of course I remember you! The very pregnant priest. You’ve had the baby, of course.”
“The proverbial bouncing boy. Look, I have what may sound like an odd question. Are there any public Hannukah parties tonight? Some sort of big gathering?”
The rabbi laughed. “You called the right woman. The answer is yes, and I’m actually almost there.”
“There is…?”
“At the Empire State Plaza.”
Clare stared at Russ. “Rabbi, can I put you on speaker?”
“Sure! And please—” Clare had already switched the call. “Call me Jess.”
“Okay. Jess, what’s going on at the Empire State Plaza?”
Russ raised his eyebrows.
“So the New York State Museum and the archives are doing an exhibit on the Jewish community in Albany from the Dutch days until now. It’s their biggest exhibit of the year, and a bunch of congregations thought it would be a great place to do a Hannukah celebration with, you know, an educational component for non-Jews as well.”
“So it’s in the museum?”
“No, we’re having lots of food on offer, so they’ve rolled all the cases down to the south concourse, near the Cultural Education Center entrance.”
Clare looked at Russ for context.
“The concourse is belowground. Open to the public. It runs all the way from the museum to the capital building.”
“Who’s that?” Jess asked.
Russ took her phone. “Rabbi, I’m Clare’s husband, Russ Van Alstyne. I need you to listen to me very carefully.”
“Oh!” Her voice changed. “You’re a cop, right? Am I remembering correctly?”
He hesitated. “Yes. I am. And I have reason to believe a white nationalist militia group might be targeting your Hannukah celebration.” He laid out the situation in short strokes, concluding with, “I’d be a lot happier if you called off the whole thing and got your people out of there.”
“Yeah, no.” Jess sounded much less worried than Clare would have liked. “I’ll pass the word along when I get there and make sure everyone is paying attention. And there’s a state police office a five-minute walk down the concourse from where we’ll be.”
Clare took her phone back. “Jess, Russ has dealt with these men personally. They’re serious, and they’re scary.”
“Clare.” The rabbi sighed. “We’re Jews. If we stopped what we’re doing every time someone spewed hate at us, we’d never step out of doors.”
Clare groaned. “I really dislike that I can’t argue with that.Pleasebe careful.”
“I promise I will. Let’s catch up after the holidays, okay?”
Clare pocketed her phone. “Now what? Was I off-base?”
Russ glanced at the setting sun. “No. I don’t think you were.”
“What the hell do you mean, you’re leaving? I need you here!” Patten swung toward Kevin, who had spun his chair around as soon as Russ had announced his intentions. “I need both of you! You’re the only ones who can ID these creeps!”
Russ raised his hands. “Listen. Vince. It makes sense. I heard the captain run his mouth about the Jews this and the Jews that more than once.”
Kevin nodded. “He thinks there’s a Jewish plot to bring in immigrants. To replace white people.”
