The Hit

by Michal Hartstein

  "Nothing’s simple," she said, coming closer.

  "Don't worry, it’ll work out."

  "I heard you and Tom were arrested. Was it in relation to the murder at Zelda's?"

  "Yes."

  "Wow," she said in a worried voice. "That doesn't sound good."

  "Don't worry. The police don't have a clue. They shoot in all directions, so they brought in a lot of people who had dealings with Koby Ozri. This is their line of inquiry. Nobody suspects that there's a connection to the girl."

  "Yes, I know," she sighed. "I was also visited by an odd policewoman who started asking questions about Shirley, but it was something procedural."

  "Don't worry," he said in a fatherly tone. "Nobody in the world would guess your connection to the story."

  "I’m counting on you."

  "I’ve got to say, your idea of eliminating her, supposedly by mistake, was a great idea. It’ll steer the investigation away from you forever."

  "Thank you," she said, and, to my amazement, she smiled briefly. "Before meeting with you, I read a story in the paper. It was an interview with a widower whose wife had been murdered - a case of mistaken identity. Her vehicle exploded when a bomb intended for an organized crime boss was planted in her car instead of his. It gave me the idea."

  "Yes, I remember that case."

  I remembered it, too. Tzila Yeruchami from Karmiel died in June 2008 because her vehicle was identical to the vehicle of one of the most notorious and dangerous criminals in Northern Israel.

  "And how’s everything now?" Yaakov continued.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Did it work out for you at the office?"

  "I'm working on it. The main thing is that this Shirley’s no longer sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong."

  "I suggest you settle your problem as fast as possible, because if she was onto something, someone else may be, too. There's a limit to the number of accidental deaths that can happen in one department," he said lightly. She laughed.

  "Don't worry. I'll have all my problems sorted out within six months at the most. Basically, most of the people in my company are lazy. Each one’s doing only what he has to. The problem with Shirley was that she was far too keen." She wrinkled her nose.

  "May I ask you something?"

  "What?"

  "Do you regret it?"

  "Regret what?"

  "What we did."

  She thought for a moment and said, "I’m not glad that somebody died, but it was me or her, and I chose me. I know it may sound harsh, but I'm not a little girl. Life is harsh, and only the strong survive. I'm sure you agree with me."

  "Sure."

  "On a personal level, I don't miss her. I must admit, I couldn’t stand her. But I wouldn't have thought of killing her like that if it hadn’t been for her being so nosy."

  I already had sufficient material to submit an indictment. I texted Yaakov, telling him that as far as I was concerned, I had what I needed. Yaakov moved on to discussing other things with her.

  A few minutes later, Dorit yelled at them from above. "Are you coming to see Ophir blow out the candles?"

  "Sure," they answered together and went up to the roof.

  CHAPTER 22

  The birthday party went on and on. After endless activities and surprises, the organizer announced that the party was over, extended his thanks to everybody and said cheerily, “See you next year!”

  The parents arrived and took the young ones home one by one. When the last child had left, Sigal started picking up discarded wrappings and crushed candy from the floor.

  "Leave it," Dorit scolded her.

  "Look what a mess they left for you! You think I'd let you clean it up by yourself?"

  "I’m not by myself," Dorit said. "My parents and brother are here, and the cleaner will be here tomorrow. I intend to tidy up a little and go rest, which is exactly what you should do. It's Saturday!"

  Sigal smiled at Dorit and handed the garbage bag to Yaakov. She called her son and departed.

  It was our signal to move in.

  I summoned the two police cars waiting on the street nearby. I went up to Sigal's apartment with two plainclothes cops, while two other cops went up to Dorit's apartment to take Yaakov back to the detention center.

  I knocked on the door and it opened right away. A weary-looking man stood in the doorway. He had the irritable look reserved for someone who had been disturbed during his Saturday siesta.

  "Mr. Elad?" I asked briskly.

  "Yes," he said impatiently.

  "Is Sigal at home?"

  His expression changed at once. He looked concerned.

  "Yes. Has something happened?"

  "Call her, please."

  "Why? What happened? Who are you?"

  "Israel Police," I said and flashed my ID. "I ask that you call Sigal here immediately."

  "Alright, alright," he said, but by the time he turned around, Sigal was standing behind him.

  "Rafi, who's disturbing us on a Saturday afternoon?" she asked, but fell quiet as soon as she saw me.

  I nodded to one of the cops, and he went over to Sigal to handcuff her.

  "Sigal Elad," I said formally, "in case you don't remember, my name is Hadas Levinger of the Israel Police. As of this moment, you are under arrest."

  "Arrest?" Sigal's husband was shocked, Sigal a little less.

  "I’ve a warrant for your arrest on suspicion of murder and conspiracy to commit a crime under aggravated circumstances."

  "Murder?" The man repeated what I had said like an echo. "This must be a mistake!"

  "No, sir, there's no mistake. I believe there are children in the house?"

  "Right," he mumbled.

  "Then I recommend you go and watch over them if you’d rather they didn't see their mother in handcuffs."

  "Rafi, it must be a terrible mistake." Sigal finally opened her mouth. "It's really best if you to go and watch the kids."

  "I’ve no idea how you can be so calm, when -"

  "I am not!" she said angrily. "Go!"

  He turned around and went quickly to the children's room. I read Sigal her rights. I had a feeling she was going to stick to her right to remain silent until she saw a lawyer. However, before we reached the elevator, she asked to say goodbye to her children.

  "Can you please take off the handcuffs?" she begged.

  I agreed. One cop stood by the staircase, another remained by the elevator, and I accompanied her back to her apartment.

  She went to the children's room, where Rafi and three of their children were sitting watching a cartoon.

  "My sweeties," she said in choked voice, "Mommy has to go to an important meeting. I may not be able to come home today. Please be good for your dad."

  "Alright," said the kids without looking up from the television screen.

  Rafi stopped the movie. "Mommy’s telling you that she may not come home today. Say goodbye to her nicely, and give her a hug and a kiss."

  The kids got up with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm and went over to hug their mother. Sigal burst out crying.

  "What’s the matter?" asked the girl, who appeared to be the oldest of the three.

  "Nothing," said Sigal and stroked her head gently. "I just remembered a sad movie I saw yesterday. When Lihi returns from Noa’s, give her a big hug for me." She forced herself to smile and the kids returned to their movie.

  "Shall we go?" I asked in a whisper and Sigal nodded.

  As I expected, Sigal did not open her mouth. I tried to talk to her, but she made it clear that she had no intention of saying anything before consulting a lawyer. I sent her to the detention center and drove home to salvage some of my own weekend.

  Sunday, July 3, 2011

  Sigal maintained her silence. She met with a lawyer and was instructed to adhere to her right to remain silent, to my regret. I was very eager to hear her version of the story. When I realized it was not going to happen at that stage, I thought I’d spend my time more usefu
lly in a place that was completely unaware of the drama that had taken place in its hallways.

  Equipped with a search warrant and a document disclosure warrant, I arrived at the Panda Company offices with a squad of investigators from the Economics Department of the police. I was welcomed again by Orna, the Human Resources V.P. When Orna saw the warrants and my entourage, she led us directly to the CEO's office.

  The Panda CEO was sitting in a huge, extravagant boardroom. He was speaking to a handsome man, and they both looked worried. When we entered, they both stood up.

  "Hello," said the executive, extending his hand to me. "Victor Frankel, CEO." He did not have to introduce himself. His picture and his name were frequently on the front pages.

  I shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you. Inspector Hadas Levinger from the Israel Police," I said and was about to flash my police ID.

  "It's alright," said Victor. "I believe you." I smiled and he introduced the other man. "This is Yoel Porat, our C.F.O.."

  "Nice to meet you," I said and shook his hand.

  I introduced the investigators by name and everybody shook hands. "We’re here to talk about something that’s been going on in your Finance Department," I said. "Can we talk here?" Victor shook his head and turned to Orna.

  "Orna'leh, ask Natalee to open the large conference room. There are too many people here to fit into my office."

  I looked around. The room was one of the biggest I had ever seen. I supposed everyone had his own perception of space.

  Another girl entered the room, introduced herself as Natalee, and asked us to follow her. We entered a spacious conference room. Natalee asked what each of us wanted to drink, went away, and returned after two or three minutes with a tray loaded with refreshments. She distributed the drinks efficiently, wished us a good day, and closed the door behind her. Finally, we can get to business, I thought.

  "What about Guy?" Victor asked Orna the second the door closed behind Natalee.

  "He's on his way," answered Orna. "He's away this week, at a CPA conference in Eilat. He's already there. I texted him to get here urgently and he said he’d take the next flight back. He’ll be a while yet."

  "It doesn't seem reasonable to wait for him," said Victor. He turned to me. "Do you want to wait for Guy Ditzman, our controller?"

  "I think it's very important for him to be present, but we’re not going to wait here for several hours."

  "You're right. You can start and we'll fill him in later."

  I looked at the attentive expressions on Victor's, Orna's and Yoel's faces: three senior managers of one of the largest communications companies in the country. I knew I was about to make their world fall apart.

  "I assume you haven't forgotten the tragic incident that occurred less than a month ago - the murder of Shirley Navon, your employee?"

  "Of course not," they said almost in unison. "How could we forget something like that?" Orna added.

  "I have very unpleasant news for you. Even though Shirley's murder was taken to be a regrettable accident, that was not, in fact, the case. I know this was how the media presented it, and the police didn’t bother denying it. It was certainly our initial assumption that Shirley had been in the wrong place at the wrong time."

  "You're not telling us that her murder was intentional?" said Yoel, his eyes wide open in shock.

  "Regrettably, this is exactly what I'm saying. The assassination of Koby Ozri, the criminal who was also murdered in the same incident, was, in fact, just a cover, so that nobody would suspect Shirley was the real target."

  "Why would anybody want to murder our Shirley?" asked Orna in choked voice. "She was such a lovely girl."

  I took a deep breath and spat out the bomb. "Yesterday afternoon, we arrested Sigal Elad on suspicion of conspiracy to murder."

  I saw the blood drain from the faces of Orna and Yoel. Victor looked at them apprehensively. "Can you remind me who she is?" he asked anxiously.

  "Sigal works in the Controller's Department as a controller's assistant," said Orna.

  "What exactly is she in charge of?" asked Victor.

  "Payments to suppliers," answered Orna almost in a whisper.

  Victor's gaze froze. After a few moments, he turned to me and muttered, distressed, "Can you please explain to me what's going on here?"

  "Certainly. After a strenuous investigation, there's credible suspicion that Mrs. Elad hired the services of a hitman to murder Shirley. The motive for the murder is not entirely clear, which is why we're here. It’s our assumption that Mrs. Elad embezzled money from Panda, and that Shirley Navon discovered the embezzlement and died tragically as a result."

  Orna started to sob. Yoel turned white and his mouth opened in shock. Victor moved his stunned gaze from one to the other.

  "The purpose of my search warrant is to establish the motive. I’d like to go over your books with you. I believe we'll find something. If, in fact, we do find evidence of embezzlement, Panda can submit a criminal complaint against Mrs. Sigal Elad."

  "Can we conduct the audit ourselves and deliver the findings to you?" asked Yoel.

  "No. The audit’s part of a police investigation, which is why any involvement of company employees or representatives is prohibited. We expect your cooperation, of course, but from this moment, all the Finance Department's employees are barred from accessing their workstations. Any such action will be deemed a criminal offense."

  "You're not serious?" whispered Yoel.

  "I'm very serious, regrettably. We don't want to allow potential for any accomplice to erase evidence during the audit."

  "You think Sigal had an accomplice?" asked Orna, her voice distressed.

  "We can't rule it out."

  "No problem," Victor resumed his confident CEO tone. "You’ll have our full assistance and support. Our objective is the same as yours."

  "Definitely!" said Orna.

  "I'm glad to hear that," I said. "Based on my experience in other cases, the most proper course of action is to notify all the department's employees that the system must be rebooted due to a technical problem, and to ask them to close all their files. Then, all the computer systems must be taken down in a systematic manner. That way, nobody can work concurrently with us, and no employee will have enough time to try to obstruct the evidence. When all the systems are taken down, the investigation will become active and we'll get down to business."

  "How long do you think it will take?" Yoel asked with concern.

  I looked in the direction of Gilad, the head of the investigation squad.

  "It's hard for me to tell ahead of time," said Gilad. "It all depends on the complexity of the materials and the degree of cooperation we get from you."

  "You’ll have our full cooperation, you can be sure!" said Victor confidently.

  "I'm glad to hear it, and I definitely believe it will shorten the investigation, but it's impossible to determine how long it’ll take ahead of time. I can reassure you, since we have a suspect, and we already know roughly what we’re looking for that, in most cases, we can allow the employees to return to work, at least partially, within twenty-four hours, depending on our findings."

  "Excellent!" said Victor. "I’d like you to get started as soon as possible!"

  About an hour later, the Finance Department of the Panda Company was almost deserted. Only the police investigators remained, along with two employees from the company's IT Department, who helped them get into Sigal's computer and other computers that were required for the audit.

  At first, I tried to help the team, but soon realized that I was entirely redundant, and mainly a hindrance. Gilad and the other team members were CPAs or trained accountants, and they dived into the task with astonishing efficiency. I am not afraid of numbers or bank documents, but those inspections were definitely beyond my abilities. One of the investigators noticed my discomfort and asked if I was interested in checking the bookkeeping card index. It was clear, even to me, that the card index had no relevance to the audit, an
d that the suggestion had been designed to make me feel a little less useless. I took the fifty-page card index to a side office and started going over the numbers. Within five minutes, I was asleep.

  Three hours later, the investigator who had given me the asleep-inducing materials entered the room.

  "Hadas," he said in a whisper.

  Twisted up from sleeping in an office chair, disheveled, and drooling slightly, I woke with a start. "What?" I shouted. "Ah, it's you!" I said, confused. "I’ve almost finished going over that index..."

  "It's alright," he said in a relaxing tone. "It's not needed after all."

  You don't say. "Great. It didn't look like there was anything there," I said in the most serious tone I could manage.

  "Gilad wants to speak with you."

  "Okay, I’ll just hop over to the bathroom and then I’ll come straight up."

  I ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I looked terrible. I washed my face and tried to fix my hair to convey a less disheveled appearance. I didn't really succeed. I knew that anybody looking at me would instantly recognize that I had just woken up from a deep sleep. So be it.

  Gilad was waiting for me in the conference room that I had been to the first time I came to the Panda Company. He looked fresh and alert. He radiated satisfaction. I knew that he was a brilliant CPA who had completed his internship in one of the leading firms in the country. He had received many job offers, but preferred to work for the police. We had a lot in common, except that, at that moment, he looked like someone who was about to crack a case, while I looked like someone who had dozed off during her watch.

  "I dozed off a little," I confessed before sitting down across from him. "I've been working non-stop for over a week and -"

  "It's alright," he laughed, "perfectly understandable. You don't have to apologize."

  I smiled with embarrassment and sat down.

  "I think I managed to crack Sigal's method, more or less. I can say with near-certainty that she didn’t have any accomplices, certainly not within the company. As far as I’m concerned, if you approve, Panda can bring the accounting system for customers and sales back online, and allow the staff to resume their activities in full."