The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Landsman spends the rest of the night in a drunken state of frustration, which causes him to oversleep and obsess over Mendel’s chessboard. Because he is late for his meeting with Bina, she comes to his room to check on him.

Landsman tries to quit his job, believing it is futile to work for Bina. She tells him that she went through his open cases to find out which of them was linked to the Verbovers. She suspects that he is still investigating the suspended Lasker case. Landsman admits that he is and explains that he is disturbed by the idea that someone came into his hotel and killed his neighbor. Bina warns him that she will disavow any knowledge of his investigation if he gets himself into trouble. She refuses to learn anything more about the case to maintain plausible deniability. Nevertheless, Landsman informs her that the murder victim was Heskel Shpilman’s only son, a fact that compels Bina’s curiosity.

Landsman shares his theory that either Heskel or Baronshteyn may have been involved in Mendel’s murder, just so that Bina can anticipate that Baronshteyn might give her a call soon. He also shares the rumor that Mendel may have been the Tzaddik Ha-Dor, though they also acknowledge that the principle behind this teaching is that anyone can be the Messiah.