Forced Silence

by Vered Cohen Wisotzki

  Meanwhile, a dramatic scene was taking place by the departure gates. Doron and the rest of the police deployed throughout the airport were notified that Shir might be near Departure Gate Fifteen. She was being led towards one of the adjacent gates by a young man. Within seconds, without endangering or alarming other travelers, Doron and the other cops reached the gate.

  Doron spoke to the commander, requesting that he be allowed to be the vanguard, in order to prevent panic and possible escape by the suspect escorting Shir.

  Slowly, with determination, Doron quickly went through the departure gates, checking every bench, store, and counter. He inspected the bathrooms too. However, he could not find a young man with a little girl — and certainly not Shir.

  Fighting desperation, he completed his search and turned back to report his failure. Maybe they were looking in the wrong place?

  Then he saw a little girl with long black hair, sitting alone on a bench at the last gate. He could see nothing more than her back from where he stood, so he slowly moved towards her, feeling his accelerated heartbeat. He was totally covered in sweat as he hesitantly and fearfully asked, “Shiri?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The little girl turned around and stood up. “Daddy!” she cried and jumped into his arms.

  Doron was overwhelmed with joy and relief. “Daddy, I waited quietly, like Binyamin told me…” Awash in a wave of emotions, Doron hugged Shir and showered her with kisses. “Are you all right? Do you feel well? Are you hungry? Thirsty?” He released this torrent of questions as other cops joined him, having heard him over the comm. They shared his happiness.

  Once he ascertained that Shir was fine, Doron needed to get a hold of himself and dry his tears. Then he said to the cop standing next to him, “Please, take Shir to the control room, that’s where her mother is. We will stay here to look for the suspects, until we catch them.” He hugged Shir again and promised her that he would arrive soon to be with her and Mommy.

  As Galia slowly opened her eyes, she noticed how dry her lips were. The figures around her were still indistinct. Her head hurt, and when she turned to the side, she noticed that she had an IV in her arm. She tried to get up, but the man next to her stopped her.

  “Stay seated, don’t get up. You were unconscious for almost ten minutes. You need your body to recover a bit.”

  “What happened? What about Shir?” She turned her head, looking for the screen on which Shir had appeared before everything went black. Her vision was still cloudy.

  The door of the room suddenly opened, and a small figure entered. Everyone fell silent. All of them looked at the little girl who walked in, looking around and suddenly realizing that the woman sitting on the chair in the corner of the room was her mother. Her brow furrowed with the effort to understand what was happening around her, as she was slowly brought to Galia.

  “Shir! Sweetie!” Despite how hard it was, she extended her free hand to wrap Shir in her embrace, while the little girl giggled and shouted in joy.

  Galia inspected every inch of Shir’s body, making sure she was all right. Only then did she pull her close as she uncontrollably collapsed in tears.

  All of the people around were crying as well. They watched the mother and daughter embracing. Galia was crying bitterly, even as Shir hugged her and stroked her face. Galia passed a hand over her body, once again inspecting every inch of her little girl to make sure she was healthy and whole.

  “Shir, Shir, my sweetheart, are you all right? I missed you so very much!”

  “Mommy, I missed you too. I waited every day for you to come. Why didn’t you come?”

  These words were too much for Galia, and she broke down sobbing again.

  “I saw Daddy, he was crying too. Why are you so sad? Because your head got hurt?” A small, soft hand stroked her forehead.

  Galia laughed weakly. “No, no, my love, we’re not sad at all. We’re very happy.”

  She continued to hold Shir tightly and rain kisses on her. Doron wasn’t in the room. As Galia looked around questioningly, one of the police told her that they were still looking for Naama and Immanuel. She no longer had her earpiece; it must have fallen off when she fainted.

  As she sat Shir next to her at the desk, one of the medics handed her the earpiece. She put it back on her ear, even as she hugged Shir. She asked the medic, “Can you please examine her and make sure she’s all right?”

  As she held Shir, she heard Doron giving orders to the other cops, as they reported from all over the terminal. Long minutes then passed until she heard Doron’s voice reporting that he saw a suspicious woman, pushing a man in a wheelchair towards one of the exits.

  Galia held Shir tightly, as she heard Doron and the other cops order Naama to stop, to put the suitcases down and to raise her hands. There was quite a ruckus in the airport, which Galia could see on one of the screens far away from her. She looked for her sister’s face. Without saying a word, she left Shir in the generous hands of one of the policewomen as she approached the screen on which Naama’s face appeared.

  There, eyes wide, she observed her own face.

  It was her face, and yet…

  Galia’s legs began to shake, and she turned away from the screen. This is not the time, she told herself. I’ll have time later.

  Before she looked away, she noticed the disappointment on her sister’s face, as cops surrounded her with guns drawn. She was handcuffed, as was the young man in the wheelchair with her. Galia surmised that they would now be transferred to a police car which would take them away. The security forces tried to calm everyone down, and soon the figures disappeared from the screen.

  Galia returned her gaze to Shir. “You’re the whole world to me,” she whispered, determined that she would never allow her daughter to be put in peril again. She was still moving slowly, what with the IV in her arm, amidst the pain and dizziness. She returned to Shir and hugged her. The policewoman stood next to them and looked at the doorway, where Doron had just arrived and was watching both of them.

  Quietly, with his eyes riveted to Shir’s sweet face, he strode towards her, grabbing her and throwing her into the air. Her eyes beamed with happiness, and she hugged him as hard as she could. “Daddy, I love you.”

  Doron’s eyes were red, but was it from exhaustion or tears? He looked at her with love. “Come, sweetie, it’s time to get out of here. Let’s take Mommy to the hospital. She has a big cut on her forehead, and it has to be looked at. Then we can take you home.”

  “Yes, yes, I want to go home. I miss my dolls!” she exclaimed jubilantly.

  Holding Shir in his arms, Doron escorted the stretcher which had been brought to transport Galia to the ambulance, and from there to the hospital. The whole way down, Galia held Shir’s tiny hand as Doron stuck to her side.

  “Why didn’t you tell me your arm is hurt too?” he asked after the policewoman notified him. “You’re nuts. It looks like a fracture. I have no idea how you lasted this long!”

  She didn’t have the energy to respond. She knew that he wasn’t expecting an answer, and he himself knew the reason. As they went outside, the lights of the police cars blinded her. The road opposite the gate and the employees’ parking lot were full of police and GSS vehicles. Police and other security personnel were running back and forth, talking into their comms. Dawn slowly broke, with the dark of the night dispersed by a cold wind.

  Doron adjusted the blanket covering Galia, but he didn’t say a word. He stood next to the stretcher as it was being loaded into the ambulance. To prevent him from seeing the pain on her face, Galia turned her head to the side, and then she could see the face staring at her from the backseat of the nearest police car.

  Naama.

  She raised her head to try to study her sister, to analyze her appearance, to catch her gaze, but Naama continued to stare unwaveringly and coldly at the person next to her.


  Doron.

  They exchanged glances.

  Doron tightened his grip on Shir. He turned her around so she wouldn’t have to see Naama. His look said everything. The muscles of his jaw tightened, and his eyes flashed with fury. The police car began to drive away, but they kept looking at each other until it disappeared.

  Galia was aware of the intensity of Doron’s ire. She knew that this would not be the end of the story… Doron would make sure everyone involved received their just deserts, including me, she thought bitterly.

  “We’ll follow you,” he said to Galia before the ambulance crew shut the door and sped away.

  The entire area was lit up by the flashing lightbars on all of the emergency vehicles. Doron walked back to his car, as he was stopped often by colleagues running to and fro, who slapped him on the back in congratulation.

  “Good job,” he heard Udi say behind him. Doron turned around and shook his hand.

  Udi patted Shir on the head. “You’re a very lucky girl to have a father like that. So I hear you’re on your way to the hospital.”

  “Yeah, Galia is already on the road. She needed urgent treatment. She insisted on staying until the end. She’s stubborn. Even a broken arm wouldn’t stop her.”

  There was a twinkle in Udi’s eyes. “Stubborn. Sounds like someone I know.” Doron smiled back, through his exhaustion. “Look, I can see you’re tired and impatient. I think it’d be best if you get the hell out of here before the media show up. Hit the road! When everything calms down, you can see me at the office. You have to be debriefed about last night, you know.”

  “Yeah, sure thing. But remember, I don’t work for you anymore.”

  “For the time being.” His friend smiled.

  In the hospital, Doron was quickly referred by one of the ER nurses to a small room on the side, where Galia was lying. Her laceration had been stitched up, while her right arm now had a cast on it. She appeared to have received an anesthetic. One of the nurses had approached Doron and kindly asked if she could help, if she could take Shir off his hands.

  “I can watch her until you come out,” she offered.

  Doron would not hear of it. “No, no, that’s all right, I cannot bear to take my eyes off her ever again. She has to stay with me…” He said this with a smile that was dead serious.

  Doron took a seat next to Galia’s bed, with Shir on his knees. The doctor who had stitched Galia up was still there, and he looked at him closely. “So that laceration was no joke. I understand the injury occurred about four hours ago?” His hand hovered over the relevant forms.

  “Yeah, I was trying to swerve around a road sign and she hit the passenger side window and it shattered.”

  “‘Hit’? That’s a mild way of putting it. Generally, when you hit a window in a car accident, you get a bruise, swelling, turning blue. But this… I don’t know how she held out for hours with such a deep, serious cut — not to mention the broken arm. That alone must have been excruciating…” The doctor’s eyes betrayed how impressed he was with Galia’s high tolerance for pain.

  “It was excruciating, but she refused to let me take her here. I didn’t dare force her. You know how it is when women are stubborn…” Doron grinned, but when he looked back at Galia, it was obvious that the smile didn’t reach his blue eyes.

  “Stubborn, is that it?! Hold on, I’ll be done soon. But I have to say, you did a good job of cleaning and bandaging the wound. She owes you one, I’d say…” The doctor finished up. “The anesthetic will be wearing off soon. In the meantime, you can sit with her. I’ll be back in a few minutes to make sure she’s fully awake and feeling better.”

  Doron sat next to her, looking at her pale face. She had gone through a lot in the past few days too. How had this all happened? How had she gotten caught up in all these secrets and lies? Her grandfather, her sister, Daniel… She would need deep reserves of strength to face that all now. He could not stop himself from stroking her hair.

  She opened her eyes. “Doron?”

  “Sh, sh, don’t speak. Just rest. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about everything. For now, you need rest. I’ll take Shir home, and we’ll be back in a few hours. All right?”

  Galia hesitantly put her hand on his. “You have to forgive me…” she said, looking for some sign of absolution in his gaze.

  “Just sleep,” he said, and with that he left.

  Outside the room, Yael was waiting. She hugged little Shir and explained to Doron that his assistant Orna had called them earlier and updated them about all the latest developments. Once she’d heard that Galia was on her way to the hospital, she had come to help. She also told him that Daniel had cancelled the board meeting he had scheduled for that morning and had apparently abandoned the idea of getting rid of Galia.

  Yael accompanied them as they left the hospital for the parking lot. There Doron could no longer hold himself.

  “Yael, did you know that Daniel came to see Galia last night?” He got to the car and started putting Shir in her seat.

  “No, I had no idea. What time was it? It’s interesting, because when he called about the meeting he was planning, he sounded very agitated and impatient. Was there some fight between them, some disagreement? Now that you mention it, what makes the most sense is that he must have called after he was over at her apartment.”

  Doron took a deep breath. It was hard to imagine, all the more so to verbalize, what had happened to Galia the previous night. “I wish it were a disagreement or fight, Yael, because Galia could handle that, I think. He tried to mess with her, the bastard. He said he wanted to come and help, but when he arrived he tried to take advantage of the situation.”

  The two of them stood next to the car, Yael looking at Doron, dumbstruck. “What? That asshole! What about Galia? What happened? When did she tell you?”

  “She was barely able to tell me what happened. I think she was still in shock. All I know as of now is that he showed up drunk. You know how it is. She wouldn’t let him have his way with her, she fought back. I don’t know the details. It was hard for her to talk about it.” Doron sighed heavily, struggling to describe what Galia had experienced.

  “Doron, that’s awful, poor thing… I have to go back to her room. I need to see her, to make sure she’s all right… As if the whole situation with Shir weren’t bad enough… What a bastard!” she whispered, so Shir wouldn’t hear her.

  Yael gave Shir a kiss, then got on her tiptoes to embrace Doron. “I know you’ll deal with Daniel. I’m going to make sure my best friend is all right.”

  On her way back to the emergency room, Yael tried to reconstruct her conversation with Daniel, when he had called so late the previous evening, trying to find some hint in his tone to what had happened with Galia earlier. She found her friend napping on a bed in the ER, with an IV in one arm and a cast on the other.

  “Galia? Sweetie?” Yael whispered as she approached her.

  Galia opened her eyes, a small smile coming to her lips.

  “Yael, what are you doing here? Who threw you out of bed?”

  The two of them smiled at each other. “Glad to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor over the past few days.”

  “Yeah, right?” Galia’s eyes were tired and sad. “I’m happy that it’s behind me… I don’t know how much longer I could have lasted without Shir, and lying to Doron all the time.”

  Yael hesitated. “Doron… he told me about what happened with Daniel.”

  Galia looked away from her friend, trying to keep her from seeing her vulnerability. Now that it was all over and Shir was in safe hands, she could not ignore what had happened. Tears filled her eyes, as she was flooded with terror. Everything which had happened in the past few days, everything she had struggled with—worry for Shir, putting up a front for Doron, lying to him and the police, Daniel’s attempt to force himself on her—it was all too much
to bear.

  She burst into bitter tears, tears she could not shed the last few days, as she had been struggling to conserve her strength and her courage, to do everything she believed she had to.

  Yael hurriedly embraced her and patted her hair. “Cry, it’s all right. Cry, Galia, let it all out,” she said softly. “I’m here with you. I’m not leaving until you get it all out. It’s all right.”

  Galia put an arm around Yael’s waist, crying out all the fears, worry, and terror.

  Chapter Seventeen

  It took a week for Galia to return to full strength, a week she spent on full bed rest, following the doctors’ orders.

  Doron, though the doctors told him to rest, spent the week of her recuperation tending to her. He was helped by Yael, her faithful assistant and friend.

  Their home was filled with flowers sent by everyone who wished her a speedy recovery. Shir enjoyed being able to spend time with both her parents, not to mention the attention paid to her by all the visitors.

  Doron, who was constantly updated about developments in the investigation, tried to keep the details from Galia, but to no avail. He had to report to her every time the telephone rang, and he had to keep quiet while the news was on. That was how they found out about the arrests of so many of the people involved in the affair, from Rabbi Bender and his assistant Elisha to numerous young men and women who were accused of knowing about and assisting Naama and Immanuel’s plans to attack the minister and to kidnap Shir.

  For Galia and Doron, the week was not easy. Doron managed to repel all the reporters who flocked to them, trying to interview them and hear their story, but he could not prevent Galia from being interested in everything said about them. News broadcasts, political programs, all the editions of the newspapers — local, national, and foreign — were obsessed with the assassination attempt and the arrests of all the suspects.