Hill of Secrets: An Israeli Jewish mystery novel

by Michal Hartstein

  I left the room. Alon came out of his room and caught up to me at the water fountain. "The little shit came prepared."

  "What do I do?"

  "Give me that." He yanked the cup of water from my hand and walked to the interrogation room, I thought I saw him spit into the cup before he entered. I ran to his room to watch him.

  "Here's your water, Mister Yigal Einav." Alon slammed the cup onto the table. Half of it splashed on Yigal. "You have to understand that not all of the cops here at the station are as sensitive and respectful of human rights as Inspector Hadas Levinger. I have a few investigators here at the station who would hang you out to dry for a long while after I let them watch the perverse collection of videos we found on your laptop."

  Yigal looked up in shock. He didn't know we had searched his house.

  "Yes, yes, dear Mr. Einav, we have searched your home and your secret computer is in our possession."

  "I want a lawyer," Yigal said, whimpered almost.

  "First, answer a few questions for us."

  "I want a lawyer!” Yigal started to cry.

  "You'll get a lawyer after you answer a few questions for us."

  Yigal was silent, probably in an attempt to stop his crying, and then said again, "I know my rights. I want a lawyer."

  We switched back and forth like that a number of times. I was the "good" cop; Alon was the "bad" cop. It didn't work. Yigal was completely mute except for his pleas to get a lawyer.

  After about an hour of this we gave up. Yigal wouldn't even confirm his personal details for protocol. Of course, he didn't want public defense and he called a criminal attorney who had handled cases of incest and pedophilia in the past.

  He had his phone number ready in advance. He knew this day could come.

  Chapter 25

  Tuesday, 6.2.2009

  Yigal spent the night in Abu-Cabir. We could have left him in the station, but he was giving us a hard time, so we decided not to take it easy on him.

  I felt sorry for his wife, who had no idea what this was about, why her husband was arrested and why her house was searched. Just before he was taken to Abu-Cabir, I allowed Yigal to call her in my presence.

  "Hello?"

  "Dina?" Yigal said gently.

  "Yigal?" Dina broke into tears "Where are you? What's going on? Do you have any idea how many reporters are standing outside our house? My phone’s ringing non-stop."

  It didn't take the leeches too long to make the connection between the arrest of a high-tech executive and the fact that he lived in the Danilowitz neighborhood.

  "I'm sorry," he joined her crying, "I'm really sorry." It was hard for him to calm down. I took the receiver from him.

  "Mrs. Einav?"

  "Who is this?" she asked in a voice choked up with tears.

  "This is Inspector Hadas Levinger. I was at your house today." I heard her blow her nose. "We have issued a warrant for your husband's arrest for forty-eight hours. I assume that we'll extend it tomorrow. We’ll be arranging to pick you up to be interrogated first thing tomorrow morning."

  "Can you tell me what this is about?"

  "Tomorrow," I replied and hung up.

  *

  The fact that we issued a gag order on the investigation didn't deter the press photographers from accompanying Dina on her way to the police station. No newscast could afford to miss this giant story the second the order was revoked. On some websites, the fact that the Danilowitz family's neighbor had been arrested was already out in the open. I knew it was a matter of time before the whole story blew up.

  Dina entered the station accompanied by two police officers. My heart went out to her. It was evident that she hadn't slept all night. Her eyes were red with tears and surrounded by dark circles. In spite of the difficult situation, she was dressed nicely and put together in a short denim skirt and a trendy wrap blouse. Her hair was down and tied with a ribbon that matched her top. She was a pretty good-looking woman and very well kept.

  I tried to think how I would look if I was summoned for an interrogation after my husband and the father of my daughters was mysteriously arrested. I escorted Dina to the interrogation room. I was curious to know if she was going to answer my questions. Yigal had already contacted a lawyer, who apparently advised him to go on with his silence. I assumed the lawyer had briefed her as well.

  She sat down where Yigal had sat the day before, crossed her arms and legs and waited for me to speak.

  "Would you like anything to drink before we start?"

  "Water, please."

  I looked toward the camera; I knew Alon was watching us.

  "It'll be here in a minute," I assured her.

  "Are we being recorded?" she asked in astonishment.

  "Of course. This is a police investigation. Neither of us wants any dispute over what we said or didn’t say."

  "No problem."

  "Have you already spoken to your husband's lawyer?"

  "Yes."

  "So you're aware of the fact that you may reserve your right to silence if you are afraid of incriminating Yigal? This is your right by law."

  "I'm aware of that, but I still have no idea what this is about."

  "Would you like to proceed with the investigation?"

  "I have no problem; I can't incriminate my husband since I have no idea why he's even under arrest."

  Riki came in with a cup of water. Dina thanked her and took a drink.

  "Okay," I said, and opened a blank pad of paper. "Let's get started."

  "Can you start by explaining to me what I'm doing here?"

  "In a minute. I'd like to get to know you first." Dina shrugged and I went on, "Please state your name, age and address for the record."

  "Dina Einav, thirty-eight years old from Shivaat Haminim Street 7, Givaat Shmuel."

  "Please tell me what you do for a living."

  "I have an in-home nursery for toddlers aged six months to two."

  "How did you come to open it?" It didn't exactly interest me, but I wanted to let her loosen up a bit.

  "I opened it when we were still living in Givatayim. Before I had the nursery, I worked for an insurance agency. But after I had the girls I preferred to stay at home, so I took on a few more kids to watch and I saw that I loved it."

  "I understand you moved from Givatayim?"

  "Yes, we moved to Givaat Shmuel five years ago."

  "Please tell me how you met Yigal?"

  "I did my civil service in the maternity ward in Tel-Hashomer. I met a nice girl from Elkana there. I went to her house for Shabbat one weekend. Yigal's parents are the neighbors of that friend's parents. Yigal's mother saw me and immediately wanted to introduce me to Yigal."

  "Your friend didn't think to make this match herself?"

  "She didn't even think about it. She said he was a very quiet and introverted guy—a little strange, played with magic. She didn't even think about introducing us. She thought I was looking for someone who was good-looking and dominant, but she was wrong. I didn't want someone who'd play games with me. I was looking for a good husband."

  "How old were you?"

  "I was nineteen-and-a-half."

  "Isn't that a bit young to think of marriage?"

  "In our circle, that's the age you start thinking about marriage. Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a wife and mother."

  "What can you tell me about Yigal? What kind of person is he?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Is he a good father?"

  "He's a great father."

  "Does he have a tendency to get irritated? Angry?"

  "No, I can’t say he never got angry or annoyed, but he's definitely a calm, easygoing person."

  "What's your relationship like? How open are you with one another?"

  She hesitated before replying. "Yigal’s a wonderful husband. We're happy together. I thought we were very open with one another, but apparently not enough, if I'm sitting here without understanding why."

  I decided
to take it up a notch. "How's your sex life?"

  She threw her head back, as if I had slapped her. It was like I’d punched her. "I don't think I want to answer that question. I'm sure it's none of your business."

  I thought for a minute and then pulled out a photograph of one of the children found on Yigal's computer. An eight-year-old boy, completely naked, holding an erect penis.

  I placed the photo in front of Dina. She leaned in closer to see what it showed and immediately twisted her face in horror and disgust and pushed the photo away.

  "We found this picture on your husband's laptop."

  "Which one? The computer that was in the bedroom closet?"

  "Yes."

  She thought for a few seconds. I couldn't decipher her expression. She was undoubtedly shocked by the picture, but it seemed as if she was trying to figure out her place in this story.

  "Don't get me wrong," she eventually said, "the picture is absolutely horrid, but if that's what you found on Yigal's computer, I think this whole ordeal is a bit much. There are a lot of people with shocking photos on their computer. Not all of them are even real."

  "Dina, I really hope you don't think we arrested your husband and searched your house because of one picture, horrible as it may be."

  I turned behind me and switched on the television set that was in the room. The movie we had seen came up on the screen of the boy conducting oral sex and then being sodomized. I fast-forwarded the movie, so Dina would get an idea about the severity of the material we found on Yigal's computer.

  She shut her eyes and begged me to turn the TV off.

  "This is one video out of over a hundred on Yigal's computer." Dina put her hand to her mouth; her eyes and cheeks were wet with tears. "Our computer specialist located some of the sites which Yigal downloaded the videos from. The only good thing I can tell you is that all of the videos and all of the sites were from abroad. Meanwhile, we've forwarded the information we have to Interpol and police forces in the countries these sites operate from."

  She looked at me, stunned.

  "Would you like some more water?" I asked and she nodded. It was hard for her to speak.

  I went out to fill her cup and get a fresh pack of tissues.

  She sipped her water slowly, as if she was drinking scorching hot tea. Then she blew her nose.

  "I thought you arrested him because of the whole Danilowitz family story, I really had no idea how he could have anything to do with this whole ordeal, not that what you've shown me now isn't shocking in and of itself. Believe me, I had no idea I had this inside my home."

  "We have reason to believe that Meir Danilowitz, God rest his soul, was extorting your husband."

  "What?" she gasped.

  "Do you have any idea about this? Maybe Yigal told you he was being blackmailed? Do you know about any sums money that Yigal withdrew from your account without any explanation?"

  She opened her eyes wide and shook her head. "Wow, I really have no idea. Yigal didn't share anything like that with me."

  "And you didn't notice inexplicable sums of money withdrawn from your account?"

  "I'm embarrassed to say that I never checked our bank account. I always trusted Yigal completely. I'm not good with numbers."

  "Did Yigal seem agitated during this year?"

  "He was blackmailing him for a year?" she asked, astonished.

  "We're still not a hundred percent sure if he was indeed blackmailing him, but if he was, that was more or less the time frame."

  "But how did Meir find out about these videos? I lived with Yigal and I had no idea."

  I bit my lips. Dina didn't yet understand that the videos were the least of it. "Meir was blackmailing him about something else."

  "What?" She couldn't even imagine that there could be something worse.

  "We suspect Meir caught Yigal molesting a child."

  This time she covered her face with both her hands and began sobbing. Within minutes, the man she married at the age of twenty, with whom she raised three girls and built a magnificent house in Givaat Shmuel, had become a dangerous sex offender.

  I felt sorry for her. She was also a victim in this horrible story.

  I felt the need to get close to her, to let her feel and understand that I saw her as a victim. She was the set-up for a dangerous person. She was Yigal's cover story. I got up from my seat and sat down next to her. I felt a bit strange. I'm not an especially sentimental person; I never had any female friends that I felt comfortable enough to cry with and hug in times of crisis. I gently stroked her hair and gave her some more tissues.

  Before I could understand what was happening she just leaned towards me and hugged me tightly. I'm sure she didn't feel close to me, she needed a shoulder to cry on and I was there. I held her for a few minutes. It was very uncomfortable for me quite quickly. The position was forced and she wet my shoulder with her tears, but I had that bit of compassion to know that I couldn't move until she disengaged from me herself.

  She stepped away from me and said, quivering, "I married a deviant and a murderer." I knew it would be said eventually, more or less.

  "Murderer?" I asked in amazement.

  "I understand you also suspect he killed the Danilowitz family."

  I got up and returned to my chair. "Dina, we don't suspect your husband killed the Danilowitz family. We're pretty convinced that Meir killed his family and committed suicide."

  "But why?"

  "That's what we're investigating. During the investigation we found your husband."

  She thought for a long while and then asked, "Am I a suspect or anything?"

  "No."

  "I lied to you before." She surprised me.

  "When?"

  "When I told you we had a good relationship. You asked me before how our sex life was… the truth is, there was no sex life." I was stunned by her frankness. I let her go on. "The last time I had sex with my husband was two years ago, maybe three. This must sound shocking to you, but you have to understand that Yigal hardly ever touched me before that either, even when we were newlyweds and were supposed to be in love and overcome with lust. It bothered me, but I never talked about it.

  “In our circles, you just don't talk about that. Occasionally people joke, maybe even tell dirty ones, but no one ever really talks about it. It's sort of taboo. I assumed that was what it was like for everyone. I suspected we might be different because of what I saw on television and in the movies. I really love that show Everybody Loves Raymond, for instance, as it always seemed to me like a show that talks about subjects that anyone can relate to.

  “Like all kinds of problems with kids and family. Yigal's mother can be pretty bossy, like Raymond's mother. The only thing that bothered me was how Raymond was always begging for sex and willing to do anything for his wife so she'd agree to sleep with him. I wasn't familiar with that. Yigal never, ever, begged for sex. The only times it was important to Yigal that we have sex was when we planned to expand the family. The only other very few times, it was something very, very planned and dispassionate. I sometimes felt that he was doing it to please me because it bothered me and I spoke to him about it, so he slept with me to shut me up."

  "And that didn't seem strange to you?"

  "As I told you, we don't talk about those things in our society. I married very young and was very inexperienced. Every time I brought it up, Yigal told me that's what it's like for everyone and that I should stop believing what I see on TV. Otherwise, he really had to be forced to sleep with me."

  She lowered her gaze. She seemed so humiliated. Again, my heart pitied her.

  "I sensed that that was not what it was meant to be like," she continued. "Now I know I was right all along… he just didn't want me. I was some kind of cover story for him."

  I looked at her. Despite her puffy eyes and red nose, she was a very attractive woman. I had the feeling that quite a few men would have been happy to be with her, but instead, she spent years in an emotional prison.


  "So why did you stay?"

  "Because I believed him that it's like that for everyone. I thought that if we separated I’d only lose out. Except for the intimacy issue, I was pretty comfortable with him. He's a kind, calm man. We raised our girls in relative harmony. He was a good father." She was suddenly reminded of her daughters and her expression changed. "I will kill that dog if he touched our girls!"

  "I doubt that," I tried to calm her down. "We didn't find one video or picture of a girl—just boys."

  She closed her eyes and prayed or thanked God.

  Chapter 26

  About an hour after Dina was released, Yigal returned to the station after his night in Abu-Cabir. I hoped it would break him. After all, it's hardly an easy experience, especially for a senior high-tech engineer who's used to the good life, but, unfortunately, Yigal went on with his silence. He’d already been briefed by his lawyer, whom he met in the morning at Abu-Cabir.

  We slowly revealed to him the material we had. I didn't want to do this, because a confession that’s made without the suspect's exposure to the evidence is stronger, but there was no choice. I wanted to rattle him, to let him know we were on to him.

  But he was silent.

  It was evident from his expression that nothing surprised him. Maybe there was even some sense of relief there that criminals sometimes feel when they're caught and the burden of concealment is lifted from them. I had no doubt Yigal had done horrible things and that he had something to hide. Otherwise he wouldn't refuse to speak.

  Keeping silent is no easy feat… sitting for hours across from an investigator who asks you the same questions in different ways… all that you’re trying to conceal being slowly revealed to everyone. It's not easy for the investigator either, that I can confirm. It's very frustrating. You try to touch the right spot, press the button that will make the suspect talk.

  In the evening, after six hours of silence, we sent Yigal back to Abu-Cabir.