Peter Jamison  — June 1, 2013

CLEARWATER — Ivan “Van” Farber, 68, careens through suburban traffic beneath a Florida sky the color of ash and indigo, squinting against the wind as his convertible speeds and slows. Farber’s is a face that could have adorned a coin of the Roman Empire, a sloping brow and strong nose that easily express aggrieved dignity. His erratic handling of this Ford Mustang might lack gravitas, but he is nervous just now, as befits a man running from unseen enemies. It’s not his car, anyway. His car went up in flames on Easter.

“My car blew up here,” he says, once he has reached his destination, the On Top of the World retirement community off U.S. 19 in Clearwater. Standing in an empty parking space encrusted with melted tire rubber, Farber shakes his head and gestures toward his boarded-up, second-floor condo, damaged twice in recent weeks by arson. “It’s beyond imagination,” he says in a Bronx accent. “It’s not what people retired to be able to do.” On the stairway, Farber meets an elderly woman whose eyes widen when his white hair and graven features bob into view. He says hello. She moves uneasily toward the elevator. “She’s afraid,” Farber says when she is gone. “They’re all afraid.”  Read more: