Hill of Secrets: An Israeli Jewish mystery novel

by Michal Hartstein

  "I understand that since we came out with the story at the press conference yesterday, there have been quite a few calls."

  "Yes," I nodded, "mostly from concerned parents. I assume that most of them are just paranoid, but everyone who turns to us will be referred to youth investigators and social services."

  "And what about the Danilowitz family? Did you get a chance to talk to the families?"

  "Yesterday I spoke to Meirav, Meir's older sister."

  "What did she say?"

  "She was very upset. I think she was a bit angry that we didn't fill her in on the results of the investigation before the press conference."

  "Did you explain to her that we don't do that?"

  "It didn't do much good," I said sadly.

  "You sound sad."

  "Yeah, I liked her, we got on well. They're a nice family and they're going through a difficult time. They’re being judged by the public for Meir's horrible actions."

  "They did raise Meir, who blackmailed a sex offender without turning to the police, and eventually murdered his wife and three small kids and killed himself."

  "I'm not justifying what he did. There's no doubt he committed horrible acts, and if he was alive today he should have been put in jail for many, many years."

  "But?" Alon was curious.

  "But I think he reached a dead end and chose to end it all rather than face reality."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Meir and Hanni were in massive debt, mostly because of an excessive and wasteful lifestyle led by Hanni. From what I gathered from Iris - Hanni's friend - Meir tried to tone down her spending, but it didn't help. The debt grew and grew and Meir couldn't control it."

  "Until he found someone to extort."

  "Not at all."

  "What do you mean?"

  "The money Meir extorted from Yigal was a drop in the ocean. It's only what kept them afloat. In fact, including the extortion money, they were facing bankruptcy. And Yigal testified that with his two last extortion payments, he included a letter saying he couldn’t pay any more."

  "I thought he was a very wealthy man."

  "They lived well, but he didn't have unlimited fortune. He was a salaried employee."

  "And Meir was scared that his source of extortion was going to disappear."

  "Maybe. Maybe he regretted blackmailing him in the first place."

  "That's the problem with murder files, especially those where the killer disappears or kills himself. We'll never know all the answers."

  "Right." I nodded sadly.

  Monday, 7.13.09

  I eventually went to London.

  I felt like I really deserved it. I was physically and mentally exhausted from the investigation and, to my great joy, I managed to buy a plane ticket before Alon found something else for me to do.

  The flurry around the Danilowitz case and Yigal wound down. The newspaper headlines were occupied by new stories, children returned to the playgrounds in Givaat Shmuel and everyone returned to their daily routines.

  My family was up to their neck in preparations for Evyatar's wedding and gave me some rest.

  Yinon didn't come back to me, though I hoped he would.

  Everyone around me was back to normal, but I couldn't stop thinking about the case, even while I was in London. It didn't leave my mind. Something was missing for me, a lost piece of the puzzle that left the picture incomplete.

  The evidence about Meir being the killer was conclusive. Right from the start of the investigation, it was clear that was the story: the apartment was locked and shut from inside, the way the bodies were lying, the gun with Meir's finger prints on it that was lying near his body. The computer hard drive that was deleted, the computer search for how to make a makeshift silencer from mineral wool.

  We also found a motive: a bad financial situation and a family rift. Meir found someone to extort, but this source didn't have enough money.

  As far as the police were concerned, the file was closed and moved on to the state attorney's office. But despite everything being closed, despite the compliments showered on me, there was still something missing for me. I felt as if there was one more secret that I hadn't revealed.

  My desk was a bit messier than I had left it before my trip. I skimmed over the papers and files that had been added to the original mess. A small note peeked through all of the files.

  "Call Meirav, Meir Danilowitz's sister."

  *

  "Meirav?"

  "This is she." She answered in a matter-of-fact voice.

  "This is Hadas Levinger from Israel Police."

  "Hello," she switched to a softer tone. "I understand you were out of the country."

  "Yes. I went to London, I got back last night."

  "Sounds fun. How was it?"

  "It was nice. I rested, walked around, saw a couple of good plays. It was fun to get away for a while, also from Tel-Aviv's dense weather."

  "Good, I'm happy for you. You deserve it."

  "Thank you."

  We were quiet for a moment. Although I called her, it was clear to me that Meirav wasn't looking for me to ask me how London was.

  "Ahh…" she sighed, "I called because I found something important." I felt my heartbeat accelerate. "I have to admit we found it last week, but on Saturday our whole family sat together and we decided to pass on what we found to you. I’d be happy if it didn't get any further, but I know that's not going to happen."

  I nodded my acceptance, not wanting to stop her flow of speech.

  "You just have to believe me that we only found this a couple of days ago."

  "I believe you."

  "Good."

  "What did you find?" I asked carefully.

  "I found Meir's suicide note," she said simply, and I felt all the blood in my body flow right to my feet.

  "What?" I gasped. How the hell did the Danilowitz family just now find Meir's suicide note?

  "On that horrible night," Meirav explained, "Meir sat and wrote my parents a letter. He sent it to my email, because my parents don't have an email account, not an active one anyway."

  "So how did you only just now get this email?"

  "Meir didn't usually send me emails. I have a YAHOO email address that I opened years ago and hardly used."

  "And he didn't know you don't use that email account?"

  "I guess not. I think I sent him something from that account not long ago, so I guess that's the address he had. In any case, I hardly open this account and when I do, it's usually full of junk. I usually delete them without even reading anything. By sheer chance, I looked through the mail this time, since we had an unpleasant situation in the office a little while ago where we deleted an important email without checking."

  "Can you send me that email?"

  "That's what I called for."

  I dictated my email address to her and waited in front of the computer impatiently. Since Meir had deleted the hard disk, unfortunately, that mail had been deleted for good.

  About five minutes later, I received a new message. Meirav forwarded me the email she received from Meir on May 18th, at two o’clock in the morning:

  To my dear family,

  Dad, Mom, Meirav, and Michal,

  When you read this letter, I will no longer be alive. If my plans play out, my whole family will be, too. I am done with my life. There is no point to my life or to my family's life. I am doing all of us a favor. I have wanted to kill myself for a long while, and in the last week I have decided to take my family with me. That would save all of us the shame and hardship. I want you to know I am sorry for everything. For the rift between us, for the dismissive attitude, and mostly for what I am about to do to my children and myself. I should apologize to my father and mother-in-law as well, for taking their daughter away from them, but I admit and confess, I have no bit of sorrow or remorse about what I am about to do to Hanni.

  It's almost midnight. The house is peaceful and quiet. I don't know if I'll have the courage to do
what I want; I don't know if I want or don't want to have the courage. I just know I'm fed up with everything. I'm tired of a loveless life, a life of never-ending money chasing. You will discover after we're gone that we have nothing. Everything belongs to the bank, and even if we sold everything, we would still be in debt. I have no tiny hope that anything will change. To my regret, my "beloved" wife manages to shut her eyes and heart from our dire state and instead of trying to help me get out of the pit we have fallen in, she's only digging it deeper and deeper.

  I married out of great love; although, since the beginning, I had a feeling it was not mutual. I gave everything for my love and now I'm taking it all back—with interest. Every morning I get up and fantasize that today I'll have the courage to depart from this world, from this endless chase. And each day I have another sliver of hope that everything will be fine, that somehow we’ll get by. About a year ago, I discovered that a guy named Yigal—whom I know from synagogue—performed an indecent act on a boy from the neighborhood. For a year I have been holding in my heart the horrible secret about Yigal, extorting this horrible man for my personal purposes. There’s not a day I don't tell myself, 'today is the day I send this video to the police,' but I can't find the strength to leave this fruitful source of income.

  I'm just disgusted with myself. I'm just as bad as he is. I hoped, innocent as I was, that the extortion would prevent him from continuing to carry out his evil deeds. I am so stupid and naïve. In my darkest dreams I never imagined that reality would knock on my door like that, that the wheel would turn on me. A slightly frightened look from Ariel was all it took for me to understand everything. I didn't want this pervert to come to Galit's birthday, and Hanni thought it was because of the money (actually we couldn’t afford a clown, but that's not why I didn't want Yigal). I shuddered at the thought of him touching my children, but that's the way I discovered that he already had. I was so alert at operating Yigal that I couldn't miss Ariel's reaction. I’ve prayed with all my might that I'm wrong and misunderstood, but I understood perfectly.

  Yesterday at noon, two days after the birthday party, I found the time and place and talked to Ariel. We both went down to the garden when Hanni and the girls fell asleep; I managed to get Ariel to talk. Everything started to connect. For years we've been told that Ariel needs treatment, because he’s difficult, and suddenly he calmed down. Hanni was sure she was right all along, that he just needed some time. She was so wrong. Ariel was getting treatment, but not the right kind. My beloved Ariel had to go through what no child should have to experience.

  I almost killed Yigal yesterday. I took my gun and waited for him by his house. I thought I'd kill him and commit suicide, but like everything in life, that went wrong too. When he came home, one second before I went up to him and shot him, his two little girls came running to him. Pretty girls, dressed in blue and white with Bnei Akivah blue ties. They hugged him warmly and he was happy. As happy as I haven't been in years. I knew he deserved to die, but I couldn't do it. His daughters didn't deserve me killing their father. If I’d complained about him a year ago, how many kids would I have spared from this nightmare? Surely Ariel.

  It's time to take responsibility for my actions. I admit I will be taking Hanni's life with joy. She ruined my life and our children's lives. I take the lives of my beloved children with a heavy heart, but I feel that this way I will spare them the sorrow and pain that they will have to face. Mom and Dad—I love you and ask your forgiveness once more.

  Meir

  Dear Reader,

  If you are reading these lines, you have probably finished reading the book and I hope your reading experience was pleasant.

  If you enjoyed the read, I would be very grateful if you would take another minute of your time and leave a positive review on the book's Amazon page.

  I would like to take the last lines of the book to tell you a little about myself. I was born in 1974 in Israel, into a religious Jewish family. After my military service (in Israel, every high school graduate must enlist for military or civilian service), I met my husband and I started studying economics and accounting. I studied at one of the most prestigious faculties in Israel and I was very prominent student. In 1999, I finished my studies and accounting firms fought for the right to hire me. My future as a senior accountant was spread before me and all the people around me expected me to reach one of the top positions in the Israeli economy. In 2000, I started my internship with one of the largest accounting firms in the world and I was sure that I was on the right track.

  Toward the end of that year, when I was twenty-six, I tried to become pregnant for the first time and, unfortunately, suffered a miscarriage. This was the starting point of the most six difficult years of my life. For six years, my life revolved around my attempts to conceive. At one point, it became clear to me that I wouldn't fulfill my career ambitions in the financial field. My desire to become a mother was stronger than my need to be a career woman. The difficulties and the suffering I went through made me reconsider my life, which had been so clear and promising only a few years earlier. I realized that I had no interest in a financial career and I started to look for a purpose in my life. I must note that I still work today as an accountant - but my role does not approach the aspirations that I and others had of me when I started out. I'm using the qualifications I acquired in order to earn a living.

  In 2006, my only son was born, and after his birth I discovered the joy of writing. At first, I invested my energy in writing a blog, but after I went through another crisis, when I realized that I couldn't conceive again, I decided to focus on my creativity rather than sink into depression and self-pity. Writing saved me from the depths of depression and gave a new meaning to my life. I like to let my imagination go free and to convey social messages which are important to me

  My first book, Confessions of an Abandoned Wife, was published in Israel in 2011. The Israeli market is very small and I was advised to translate the book and upload it to Amazon.com in order to reach a wider audience of readers. At first I refused… I couldn't believe that a non-Israeli reader would be interested in a book whose story is intertwined with Israeli daily life. To my great joy, I was persuaded in 2014 to translate my second book, Hill of Secrets, and I uploaded it to Amazon.com. The comments I received just warmed my heart and made it clear that readers really are interested in reading about cultures other than their own. This interest in Israeli culture encouraged me to write a blog in which I describe and explain the uniqueness of Israeli life (daily life here doesn't reach the average viewer of CNN news).

  I invite you to log on to my blog and read about Israel and other topics that interest me.

  I would also be very grateful if you’d sign up to my mailing list. My subscribers receive updates when I post new posts in my blog as well as updates on new books and special deals on my books.

  In conclusion, I want to mention once again how important positive reviews on the Amazon site are to me. Even more important than the enjoyment any creator receives from the positive reinforcement for his work, positive reviews for my books allow me to reach more readers – and without new readers I can't exist as a writer.

  Thank you for reading me. This is the greatest compliment a writer can hope for.

  Yours,

  Michal

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Michal Hartstein was born in 1974 in Israel into a religious family, studied economics and accounting at the University of Tel Aviv and started a career in finance.

  In 2006, after becoming a mother, she decided to change direction and began to write. For several years she has written a popular personal blog, and in 2011 published her first book, Confession of an Abandoned Wife. After two years she published her second book, Hill of Secrets. In 2014 she participated in the Israeli Nanowrimo contest and wrote Déjà vu. The book was one of the winners and was published in Israel in 2015.

  Hartstein’s books vividly describe the life of the Israeli middle class, focusing on middle cl
ass women.

  .