Vanished Without A Trace

by Nava Dijkstra

  He took out money from his pocket, but she stopped him, "It's mine."

  He refused her offer. "I am kind of primitive in these matters. I insist you let me pay otherwise it will hurt my ego." Gideon left a big tip on the table, shook her hand and left. Karina continued to sit in the restaurant and asked for dessert to have a reason to continue sitting there. At that same moment she noticed Odi entering the restaurant with two businessmen. It was too late to cancel the order or to sneak away from the restaurant. She did not want to meet him, especially now that Daniel entered into her life again. She saw his gaze pass around and stop at her with great joy.

  "Come, join us," he said.

  "No, thanks, I just finished eating and I need to get back to the office," she tried her luck to avoid him.

  "I'll drop by your office after I finish here, okay?"

  She nodded. Her office was just a few yards from the restaurant therefore there was no way to refuse. An hour later he came to her office waving two plane tickets. "How about a flight to Amsterdam?"

  "I asked for two weeks’ time Odi, please respect it."

  "Okay, but a week had already passed and the tickets are due in another week, what's wrong here? You won’t get Daniel even if you ask for a twenty years break from me. Get over it."

  Karina did not care she was so transparent, Odi could see she was broken to pieces because of Daniel, she was in love with him body and soul. It bothered her more he was abusing her.

  "I'm surprised at you," Odi continued, "The guy is younger than you by almost a decade. You are nothing to him. You're just torturing yourself. Look at me. I'm willing to marry you despite everything. I understand you completely and I’m ready to absorb the circumstances because I know it will change. If Daniel were to meet a young girl, he would marry her and everything will be over."

  She felt involuntary tears. His words hurt her so much and almost caused her to throw him out, but she admitted to herself that he was right.

  "I suggest we both go for a short vacation to Holland. You’ll see it will do you good. It’s the month of May, it’s a nice time to be in Holland. It’s not so cold. Be optimistic. Come with good intentions towards me. After all, we lived quite well together until the day you met Daniel again. There's no reason we can’t carry on the life we had and start all over again from where we stopped.”

  Karina thought if she wouldn’t marry Daniel, any guy could be a match to this target, including Odi.

  They stayed at the Marriott hotel in Amsterdam and went down to the cafe. There was an atmosphere of peace and calmness around, something was detached from reality. People talked quietly, as if they were afraid to break the silence. A couple was sitting in the corner, away from the rest. There was a loving look in the eyes of the girl. She gave her boyfriend a long kiss, forgetting she was not alone. He couldn’t stop touching her on the forehead with his forefinger. They look at Karina, and saw her looking at them. She immediately turned awayand was sure she will never know what true love is. That was how it was with her first husband and that’s how it will be with Odi. Emotions, apparently, lead us to the twilight zone, to hallucinations and lack of logic. Every step she had made with Daniel was illogical.

  On the third day, they moved to a small hotel in Volendam where there was a housing unit owned by Odi’s father. They enjoyed the pleasant weather. The forecast was calling for five sunny days. Karina loved Volendam, and the beautiful boat docks where colorful shops were surrounding them, offering a variety of souvenirs for tourists. From Volendam they cruised to Marken, a small village stood apart from the two coffee houses; there was nothing there. They settled in one of them and Karina surrendered to the waiter’s encouragement to try their bitter chocolate cake, although there was no need for any extra bitterness. She looked at the woman sitting at the dock, fishing and giving the fish to the Pelican with injured legs that were standing next to her. After a while she noticed the woman's boyfriend, who joined the fishing task. They did not talk much. 'How much love there is between them, that they don’t need words,’ she thought. That’s how she felt when she was with Daniel. Daniel was not a big talker. She had so much love towards him. But on the contrary with the fisherman, Daniel didn’t love her.

  In the evening, Odi went to the casino and Karina preferred to stay in the room to read a book. When he left, she closed her eyes and the thoughts of Daniel flooded her head . At two thirty in the morning she heard Odi come back.

  "How did it go?" she asked.

  "I lost a thousand euros."

  "You should have stayed here," she said.

  "I wanted to, but I preferred to give you a few hours of freedom from me."

  How thoughtful of him, she thought. "You paid a lot for it."

  "You're worth it."

  A day before the flight back, Odi asked her if she had any plans, or a preference to go to a specific location. She replied she wanted to eat at Rembrandt Square. There was a restaurant where she and her husband often used to go. Karina loved their onion soup. It was worth flying to Holland just because of it. When they arrived, she was surprised to see the restaurant was empty except for some cooks and waitresses.

  "I closed the place for us," Odi said.

  Karina was familiar with the restaurant and knew it was usually packed at this hour. She wondered how he managed to close it. The food there was the best thing she knew, and Odi knew it. After dinner, he was on his knees. His hand was holding an open red box where a four karat diamond ring was seated. "Will you marry me, Karina?"

  Karina looked at him. She did not like the idea he proposed marriage in a place where she used to spend time with her husband, but on second thought she saw as a kind of sign from her husband. A tear fell from her eyes. She knew her positive response was an admission that Daniel would never be hers. Odi interpreted the tear as excitement, and no one was happier than him when she let him put it on her finger.

  29

  Who killed Julia? Alon asked himself again and again. Was it a stranger she met during her stay in Israel, or was Kowalski involved in the murder? And why would the killer bother to bury her? Pathological killers do not bury their victims or hide the body. Only people who might be suspected of doing so and only those who fear the body could link them, will conceal them. What’s the motive of the murder? How to start such an investigation?

  He took the papers he received from Matthew and reviewed them again, trying to find a shred of a clue or any leads. He reviewed the connection between Naor’s company and the company that his wife’s father owned, a connection turned to a big telecommunication company in the United States. Could Naor’s illegitimate child have sabotaged the connection?

  Alon stretched in his chair, considering again and again the possibility this was the reason. The more he thought about it, the more likely it would have served a good basis to develop hatred to the grandson and ignore him. But from hatred to the murder?

  Alon felt he had to get advice from Gideon.

  He knocked at the door of Gideon's office and opened it without waiting for an answer. There were clients. He apologized and closed the door, but Gideon called him in and introduced him to the clients and invited him to sit. Alon apologized he had to check something important for a client, and left again. He couldn’t contain anything other than the murder case settled in his head. He returned to his office and sat down without doing anything, waiting for Gideon to finish the session with Dedre Company. When he heard them leaving, he intended to go to Gideon, who came to him instead.

  "Has something happened?" Gideon asked anxiously.

  "Actually, I reviewed the papers Matthew gave me. I thought maybe we could find the answer we are looking for in there, but honestly I am locked up. My intelligence is not extensive enough. I'm pinned. I'm aiming just for one target, Kowalski. You know, the primary suspect. Every question I ask myself, I get the same answer, Kowalski. For example, I found out Naor’s company was connected to the company of his wife’s father and concluded right away they
feared that Naor’s wife would come to know about Naor’s illegitimate child, and that’s why they hid him and murdered Julia." Alon exhaled. "It’s weak, very weak, to get involved in a murder just to hide an illegitimate child."

  "Alon, it's not about hiding an illegitimate child. It’s about losing millions. If the company falls apart, do you know how much money the Kowalski family would lose?"

  Alon scratched his jaw. "I don’t know." He handed the papers to Gideon. "Take this and read it. Maybe you'll find something I didn’t see."

  Gideon took the papers from Alon, "I will review them this evening. I really wanted to ask you long ago to give me the papers for review in order to be familiar with the people involved, you know, to be a little more involved in the investigation."

  Gideon was happy to discover his wife decided to go to the movies with her friends. He imagined himself sitting in the living room in front of the TV on low volume while reviewing the papers. "Take your time, you know, Cinema City is open until late hours. You can also do some shopping." He took out a thousand shekels in the hope it would keep her outside the house for a long time and allow him to concentrate on reading; not that she disturbs him, but she did not like when he brought his work home with him.

  He showered, put on something casual and comfortable, made coffee and sat down with the papers. He passed through the first thirty pages at once and did not find anything unusual. Everything was a dull affair. He went on reading another twenty pages, and still couldn’t find anything would wake him up. He was disappointed and felt he was about to fall asleep. In the twilight he thought if he wanted to maintain his reputation in the office, he had to make Alon his partner, before he opens his own office. At the end, he apparently fell asleep completely. He heard the key in the lock. His wife walked in and her hands were loaded with her purchases. He glanced at the clock. It was three o'clock in the morning.

  "Are you sleeping?" his wife yelled.

  "How can I go on sleeping if you are shouting like that?"

  "Angry, huh? What happened, the mistress of the night was not good enough? Do you think I didn’t notice you threw me out?" She tried to make him laugh. "What are these papers? You brought work home? Now I understand why you pushed me away."

  "Don’t worry, this will be the last time I do it. I'm not built for an investigation any more. My mind is gone. I fell asleep right away after reading the first page or maybe the second. How was the movie?"

  "Shocking. Ronit came late so we arrived at Cinema City only at ten, and there were no tickets to any movie anymore. She was not just late but she even insisted we go to the movie at twelve twenty at night. We did not want to disappoint her. We roamed around in the coffee shops and stores until midnight and then went to a movie. But during those hours there were only five movies and only one movie had tickets. In short, we stayed for some silly action movie, you know, the one you love, Bruce Willis, Steven Seagal ... and the like... "

  "It's always nice to hear your positive thoughts about me."

  She kissed him. "You're not perfect, much less than that. But after forty years I still love you." She made two cups of coffee and put cookies on a saucer and sat down beside him.

  "What was the movie all about?" He asked. She was always saying he was not interested in her, so he tried to show as if it interested him.

  She took a bite from the cookies and motioned her hand. "It was nonsense. A company steals information from another company just like industrial espionage, you know, good against evil. I thought it was a movie suits you. Actually it started well, until I saw the man, who came to save the world. Leave it, it’s not for us. We were in these movies already. I have lived in this film for forty years."

  Gideon could not help but laugh. She really was a funny woman, who takes life easy, moving and dynamic. He recalled one time when he invited his friends from the police headquarters, and the curiosity was he had to cook for them. He really managed to make a special meal and was proud. One of the women complimented him and said that he could open a restaurant, and at once, like a rocket, his wife replied, "A restaurant that opens once a year?"

  "So the movie was not something special?"

  "Never mind, I consoled myself with a thousand shekels. Feel free to bring work home any time. Now seriously, why did you bring work home?"

  "A tough case fell on me. It’s too hard to crack."

  "What is it?" she encouraged him while munching some cookies.

  "Never mind, it's complicated. They found a woman's body who claimed she had an illegitimate son from Moshe Kowalski’s married son."

  "Who is Kowalski? The one from the media?" She was surprised and impressed, "Well, do you think Kowalski killed her?"

  "Probably, because for all we know, no one knows her except him."

  "Come on, no one kills someone just because she is pregnant out of wedlock," she said, "Well, except for Arabs."

  "So why did he murder her?"

  "I'm surprised you are even asking such a question. There are two reasons to kill, it’s either because of unrequited love, which is the most common, or because of money!"

  "That's what I told Alon, that his son was afraid if his wife found out he had an illegitimate child, she would divorce him, dismantle the financial partnership and cost him a fortune."

  "She wouldn’t get a divorce. She would be angry but she would get over it. After all, she would also be part of the breakdown, wouldn’t she? It’s definitely about money, but you are looking for it in the wrong place."

  Gideon looked at her with admiration, convinced she was right. "If it is not about an illegitimate child, why kill the mother of the child?" Gideon looked for answers from his wife.

  "You're going the other way. You are looking for the killer before you understand the motives of the murder, and you can’t get the correct answers that way. Look for the cause, then find the killer. The woman died. Even if you find a killer, you can’t prove it was him because you have no motive for the murder, right?"

  Gideon looked at her solemnly.

  "What?"

  "Did you learn all these in the teacher’s seminar?"

  "No, I learned it from work in the field with the students. You need to be smarter than the thirty clever students."

  It was five o'clock in the morning. Gideon and his wife had not been in the business of mutual pleasuring. There had been no sex between them for a long time, but now she was the sexiest woman in his eyes. Her sharp mind turned him on. The dress she had worn to the movies flattered her. And she was the woman whom he wanted to sleep with the most.

  He woke up at seven in the morning. He barely slept an hour. Now he had to talk to Alon, who was still asleep when he heard the phone ring. "Alon, I have a new lead." Alon sat at the back of the sofa and looked at the clock. He never woke up before eight. Gideon continued, "Let's drop the subject about Julia and Daniel. The murder of Julia is suggesting there are more serious things. People kill because of two things, unrequited love, or money. Julia's murder was not due to unrequited love because Naor didn’t love her and Kowalski certainly did not either. Therefore, there is only one piece missing in the equation - money. We must look for the money trail as a motive. Even if we can find the killer and pinpoint him for sure, we still can’t prove anything without a motive for the murder. Talk to Matthew or Benjamin and ask them to send you some information about their business, their liabilities, rivals and the stages of the development of the company, as well as, potential enemies, if there are any."

  "Did you get all this drive from reading the material?"

  "Don’t ask. Better not ask," Gideon said,

  "I’m not asking. It is late night in New York now. I will call Matthew at six. It will probably take him a couple of days to send me the information. Extracting information from the computer can be done anytime but we have to work on finding a connection and more extensive .details. I will ask him for detailed information about the progression of Naor’s business from beginning to present, a business res
ume, as well as, things that are seemingly not important and information that is seemingly not related. There may be some leads. I'll ask him not to alter the information but instead to send me as is."

  Gideon loved Alon’s mind. He understood how important it was to get unaltered information, especially when there was a suspicion of criminal activity. The end of the rope can always be found in small details which are ignored, in details the criminal didn’t pay much attention to.

  Now Gideon was sure he wanted Alon as a partner in the firm. "Alon, we need to sit down and talk about some personal matters."

  "Like what?" Alon wondered.

  "It’s not something we can do over the phone."

  30

  Alon called Matthew at six in the afternoon, Israel time, to ask for the information, but got some sort of resistance.

  "But I just recently gave you the information about Naor," Matthew said.

  "Yes, you gave me information on when he arrived in the United States, when he got married, when he started his business. Now I want to know about his business management from the beginning up to date.”

  "May I ask why you need it?"

  Alon wanted to tell him he was paid to give information and not to be a part of the investigation, but he decided to be polite. After all, Americans were attentive when it comes to good manners. "I'm looking for something will shed light on a case that I’m investigating."

  It sounded strange to Matthew the man did not know exactly what he was looking for, but the order he received from Benjamin was to do everything Alon asked him to do, especially since it was just simple paperwork and the payment was pretty decent; so he didn’t have any reason to refuse. However, Matthew’s intuition began to raise warning signs. He concluded to himself that given the opportunity, he had to talk to Benjamin about it, but not until he was sure about the matter, so as not to bother his boss for nothing.

  "How long will it take for your assessment?" Alon asked.