Vanished Without A Trace

by Nava Dijkstra

  "Mikhail, Karin had promised not to tell anyone, but trust me you’re missing a pretty good joke here. You can even laugh at it until I come back."

  "Enough with the jokes, don’t give up, you already have a chance." Mikhail whispered.

  "Relax, she's already married, I missed her."

  "When are you coming back?"

  "Wait, I will ask her," Daniel replied with a smile. He asked Karina and turned back to Mikhail, "She said it will be in a week. It depends on how my new family will accept me." He laughed.

  "Daniel, we don’t have time,” Karina urged him.

  After a couple of hours they were on the plane heading to the United States.

  "Are you still mad at me?" Daniel asked.

  "Yes," she could not lie.

  "Even now you're already married to Odi?"

  "What are you getting at with your questions?"

  "You know what, Karin, with all your wisdom and your money, you don’t understand anything about love."

  "And you understand a lot about love." She mocked.

  "No, but I'm not smart like you."

  "Why doesn’t that seem to be a compliment?"

  "Because it's not. I'd rather be stupid and stay single."

  "So you have the half of the formula for sure. Make an analogy with the other half."

  "I admit you deserve a kiss for your answer."

  "Don’t try. I’m a married woman." Karina said firmly.

  "You really are scary when you want to be." He looked at her for a while and fell asleep in the seat.

  She looked at him, knowing that if he tried to kiss her, she wouldn’t be able to resist.

  44

  Gideon and Alon sat in the lobby of the Warwick Hotel, waiting for Daniel and Karina, who should be arriving any minute. Tension and excitement were evident in their faces. They were accompanied by intense anxiety the story would get out. Amos had already threatened to write about the case of Kowalski and Daniel, an article that would reveal the true story, and Benjamin probably knew about the case which involved the two major companies, so they needed to be careful.

  Another problem caused them stress; how to get to Fisher. They were asked to leave a message, but clearly they could not do it. After calling ten times, different people from his office got back to them, but none of them was Fisher. The secretary did not agree, in any way, to connect them with him or even give them the phone number to his house, but it did not stop the flow of telephone calls Alon made to the office. He bothered the secretary again and again. They connected him to all kinds of secretaries, chief executives, speakers and even a lawyer, but Alon told everyone the same statement, ‘This is something confidential, I want to talk about personally with Mr. Fisher.’ They tried to convince him to talk to them, assuring him it will be taken care of as if he had talked to Fisher personally, but Alon drank water. In between the phone calls, he walked around the lobby just like a wounded animal in a cage, walking to and fro restlessly. "If he doesn’t get back to me soon, I will just simply barge into his office," he said angrily. "Do you realize he doesn’t even know I’m looking for him?" he turned to Gideon.

  Gideon was more relaxed. He knew he had an interesting case and he was not worried. He knew things would work out eventually. "We’ll wait for Karina and we’ll let her try to call him," he said. Gideon's words caused Alon to wait for her impatiently and every minute that passed seemed to be an hour. He couldn’t resist anymore and called the office. Gideon heard him shouting and insulting the secretary. "I'm sure you hear an echo in your head when you talk, you know why? Because everything there is empty. I guess a lonely IQ is roaming around there alone, and probably will die of boredom or suicide because of your stupidity…."

  "Bitch, she hung up again," he burst. "We are here to help him and look what we are getting, as if we are leeches. Who is this Fisher anyway? If it was not about our name and about Daniel's life, I would have given up on this whole thing."

  "Alon, you're angry for nothing," Gideon tried to calm him, "The meeting will take place eventually. We need patience."

  "I don’t have it. Believe me, I'm waiting for the moment when Fisher will find out he’s wasting his precious time each day he doesn’t answer us."

  "This has waited for twenty-five years. So this can wait for another day." Gideon said.

  They saw Karina and Daniel entering the lobby. Alon admitted to himself posture was passed through the genes. Daniel's walk was proud, erect and impressive. He had poise. Karina introduced Daniel to Alon and Gideon. They smiled at him, but he kept his face frozen. 'Snob like his father,’ Alon thought.

  Gideon opened up and tried to explain to Karina about the difficulties in getting hold of Fisher. Unfortunately, Karina was as enthusiastic as they were to hurry up with it. She apologized and told them she wanted to go and rest, because she hadn’t slept in the last thirty six hours.

  Alon watched them with dismay, "They didn’t even want to hear the news, and they didn’t even ask if we had already set a meeting with Fisher or talked to him at all, as if they came for a vacation." He looked at Karina and Daniel who went to the reception desk.

  "Do you understand this, Gideon? You're doing everything to advance the investigation, you are full of adrenaline to finish the case, and they have time to sleep. He acts as if this whole thing is not about him, and she acts like she's doing me a favor to meet me later." Despite his anger, the looks of Karina soothed him. "The woman is beautiful. It seems to me that there is something between the two. Listen, until you find the perfect girl for you, she is already taken."

  "You have high standards," Gideon said.

  "I know."

  "Well, there’s a problem, she got married a few days ago."

  "Married? She cancelled it three days before," Alon said.

  Gideon raised his eyebrows doubtfully.

  "I read an article in Natalie’s weekly newspaper entitled

  ’Woman’, and believe me, we can get along well. We have a lot of things in common."

  "Are you back with Natalie?" Gideon was surprised.

  "We aren’t back together yet, I started working on it. But this case does not allow me to spend time on it. I am trying to stay optimistic."

  "You still have Deborah," Gideon was joking, but Alon's expression made it definitely clear that the joke was rude.

  "I think I'll go to the pool and wash my eyes with the looks of young American women. It might help me get over this queasy feeling you caused me by mentioning Deborah."

  "I will come with you to smoke. I also have a few thoughts in my head to clear up."

  Gideon's phone rang. "Gideon, this is Benjamin. Where are you?"

  Gideon did not hesitate, "I'm here at the Warwick."

  "In New York? What are you doing here?"

  Gideon was silent for a while. He looked at Alon and realized he didn’t have many options. He needed to lie to Benjamin until Alon decided he was willing to involve more people in the case that he laboriously cracked. "Vacation, you know."

  "Well, how come you did not update your friend you're here?"

  "I just arrived yesterday and I was going to call you today." Gideon lied.

  "I would love to meet an old friend," Benjamin said, "What do you think about getting together today?"

  Gideon realized he was in a vortex of lies, "I am currently in the lobby. I'll ask my wife. If it suits her, we’ll come to visit you."

  Benjamin closed the phone. 'His wife? Five minutes ago he called Israel and spoke with Gideon’s wife and she told him Gideon was in the United States and even gave him the secret code for filtering calls. Benjamin had no doubt Gideon didn’t intend to see him. Now it was important to hold a meeting with Gideon or even go to him without notice. If an investigation case brought Gideon to the United States, it means there were big and serious things made Gideon change the terms of their friendship. He called Matthew and asked him to come to him. "About the case I talked to you about, I want you to monitor Alon and Gide
on and everyone who is with them. Use a wire tap and don’t leave them even for a moment. You already know Alon." Benjamin gave Matthew a piece of paper where Gideon’s room number was written. "Move!"

  Two hours later, Daniel and Karina went down to the lobby, Gideon and Alon were already there, waiting as if they had never moved from there at all. "What’s going on?" Karina asked. Her sleep definitely revived her. She was more pleasant than the first few minutes when she entered the hotel.

  "Nothing," Alon said quickly, "We talked to all the employees of Mr. Fisher, but we were not able to get hold of Fisher."

  45

  Karina tried to call the phone number Alon gave her, but she got the same treatment. After half an hour, she made another attempt, as she explained to the secretary in a very sweet voice there were several people who wanted to see him for a very serious and important matter. "Let's put it this way, if you can get Mr. Fisher for us, he will increase your salary after he hears what I have to tell him. Or, let’s say it in another way, if you can not convince him to meet us, because we really have something very important to tell him, then I guess you won’t have a job in the near future." Everyone was smiling at her words, except Daniel, who didn’t feel anything from the whole thing. For him, the whole thing was absurd. He even felt a sense of compassion for the two investigators, who played in the film "The Pink Panther Strikes Again."

  After half an hour, Karina tried to call again and got the Chief Executive Officer. "What can I help you with?" he asked.

  "You're not helping me. I want to help Mr. Fisher. I have something that will interest him very much."

  "You have to understand he doesn’t work in the company. You can tell me everything you want to say related to the company."

  "It’s not related to the company, this has something to do with Mr. Fisher personally. I think he wouldn’t want you to know the things I want to tell him."

  The Chief Executive Officer explained he was willing to meet and talk to her any time she wanted, but in terms of meeting with Fisher, he certainly couldn’t help her. "Mr. Fisher alone can decide who he wants to meet. He has heard about you, and I do not know what he intends to do."

  Karina closed the phone, noticing the disappointment in the faces of Gideon and Alon. "Look, maybe after all it's not so bad. We will meet the Chief Executive Officer and tell him face to face we want to meet Fisher himself. If he sees we made the effort to get to him, he will be convinced."

  "If there is no other choice, that may be a good idea," Gideon admitted. “Now I'd better go to sleep, if I can make it."

  "Keep pressing them and update us in case Fisher calls you." Alon said. He was worried Mr. Fisher might call the moment he closed his eyes. "Just don’t forget to wake me up if he calls." After retreating, he turned to Gideon, "Did you notice he did not ask anything about Julia, his supposed mother? Something is weird with this guy. He is acting as if he has the whole world in his hands."

  Two hours later, Karina went up to her room. While she opened the door, her cell phone rang. She was excited because she thought it was from Fisher and found herself dropping the keys of the door. Her bracelet was stuck on the buckle of her bag, and she took a while to look for her cell, eventually not being able to answer it. She cursed, causing Daniel, who was standing in the hallway, to smile. "Will you be okay?" He asked, and vanished into his room. She didn’t have any option to return the call because it was from a private number. She tried to check on the voice mail, but there was no message. She sat on the couch and put her legs on the armrest, while the phone was next to her. A second later Fisher’s secretary was on the line. Karina's heart pounded rapidly. "I'm connecting you to the personal secretary of Mr. Fisher."

  Karina was really furious. "Listen to me and listen to me good, do not connect me to any director or secretary. I want to talk with that fucking Fisher, if he will not get back to me, he will never know what I wanted to tell him, and I promise you if he doesn’t call me back today, do you hear that? Today! I will never take his call anymore, just like he behaved." Karina slammed down the phone.

  She apologized about her yelling to the worker who was doing slight repairs in the bathroom.

  ‘Not a bad job at all’, Matthew thought, after hearing the conversation in her room while installing the wiretap. Although he was not required to do so, it was always nice to chase a beautiful woman. He went out of Karina's room and called Benjamin. "There are many surprising things. Gideon, your friend, and his partner are not alone, they are here with a couple. Well, not a couple, because they stay in separate rooms. Five minutes ago the woman tried to get hold of Fisher and she was so angry they didn’t agree to connect her to him."

  Benjamin was silent, trying to clear things up in his head. "The guy who is with her, who is he?"

  "I have no idea," Matthew said, "They are in separate rooms."

  Benjamin retrieved the thoughts in his head. ‘At first Alon wanted to know about Naor’s company. Then, he wanted information about the relationship between Naor and Fisher and then asked why Fisher gave up the bidding. Could it be possible the woman is threatening Fisher after twenty-five years? Does she know anything? Yes, it must be something she knows, probably corruption involving all parties.’ "Matthew, tell me exactly what she said on the phone?" Benjamin asked.

  "She said if this fucking Fischer won’t get back to her today, he will never know what she wanted to tell him because she won’t answer his calls ."

  "Strange," Benjamin said, "Continue to monitor and report back to me."

  "But there is a problem. She is not on the floor where Gideon and Alon are staying. I think we should follow her and them."

  "We will focus on the girl. We have taps in Gideon’s room."

  "I also put some in her room, for insurance," Matthew said, pleased with himself.

  "Good job, Matthew."

  In the evening, when they all met in the hotel's pub, Karina saw the tension on Alon’s face. "We need to go to his office tomorrow." Alon said decisively.

  "What are you talking about?" Gideon said, "Security will throw you out of there in a second. Do you know how many crazy people are roaming in this world? Why would he meet a group who wants to talk to him about something secret? What could be so secret that only Fisher must know?"

  "His son," Alon said.

  "Yes, but he doesn’t know that. Honestly, we are not a hundred percent sure as well. If we are sure, I will be more decisive in demanding a meeting with Fisher." Gideon said.

  "I would not be surprised if, just in case Daniel was not the son, and the kidnapper called somehow, and Mr. Fisher did not answer the call. Mr. Fisher does not answer everyone, especially to an anonymous pedophile."

  Daniel did not feel comfortable seeing Gideon and Alon directing an erroneous movie featuring him extensively. It was too much for him. He apologized and left them.

  "Tell me, what’s happening to this guy? He never tried to be nice." Alon told Karina. "Is he hurt when I talk about Mr. Fisher like that? Does he even believe he has a connection with him?"

  "I don’t think it’s anything like that. I guess this whole thing isn't comfortable for him."

  "What’s uncomfortable here? Is it uncomfortable to find out you are the son of the phenomenal Mr. Fisher?" Alon asked with sarcasm.

  "You know, for us, it’s a discovery and for him, it’s his life. He preferred to be detached from the situation at the moment, at least until things become clearer." Karina said and Gideon nodded.

  Karina separated from them five minutes after Daniel went to his room, leaving them smiling suspiciously. She stood several minutes at Daniel's door and pondered whether to enter or go to her room. She heard the television on. He isn’t asleep yet, she thought, maybe he's waiting for me, she tried to convince herself, but eventually she let go of her thoughts and went to her room. She saw Daniel through the balcony standing and talking with someone quietly. She didn’t have any idea with whom. She concluded he had someone waiting for him in Romania.r />
  46

  After five days of failed attempts to get hold of Fisher, Karina woke up to the sound of the phone ringing. It was a private number. She assumed it was another phone call from Fisher's office, but she was surprised to hear a deep and impressive voice on the line. "David Fisher speaking."

  There was silence. Karina thought that’s how Daniel exactly acts, he says something and waits for the other party to open up.

  "I'm Karina, nice to hear from you, I think I have something that will really interest you."

  "Yes?" Mr. Fisher responded briefly.

  "It's not through the phone. Believe me, if you hear what I have to tell you, you will agree with my decision." Karina was very excited. There was silence and she assumed he was looking at the calendar checking for availability. "Next week, on Monday, is it okay for you?" He asked.

  "No. I'm very sorry, but I’m flying from here in two days. I don’t live in the United States. Is it possible to advance the meeting?"

  After a short pause she heard Fisher again, "Okay, come to my office at one."

  "I hate to be rude, but I'd rather meet somewhere else, your home is more suitable."

  "In the office please," he said firmly.

  "Look, Mr. Fisher, I came from Israel exclusively for this purpose, please spare the minimum for me and let me talk to you about the subject I came here for, in a relaxed atmosphere, and only with you."

  Fisher was convinced and they agreed to meet at his home at one after his driver picked them up from the entrance of the hotel.

  At twelve thirty, the driver arrived. They drove off a certain distance and entered Long Island. While entering the Hamptons, Gideon, Alon and Karina were looking at the large, beautiful mansions along the way. The driver turned and entered into one of the mansions. The gate opened and they drove onto a gravel road. On both sides there was a large forest, apparently to hide the house from passers-by. As they approached the house, there was a colorful, low garden and the yard was green grass and long winding fish ponds. They crossed fountains and bridges and finally parked in a small, beautiful wooden structure at the back of the mansion. The servant led them to Fisher’s office, which was at the back of the eastern part of the house. After a while, he entered and served them a drink. They waited in a gloomy room. On the wall behind Fisher’s big chair was a giant portrait of a beautiful little boy of about two and a half years old. Karina presumed he was the abducted son and she was happy to see the basic resemblance of Daniel’s characteristics – his long eyelashes, gray eyes and his light-brown hair. In the room were lots of pictures were painted on wood, dating back probably to the seventeenth or eighteenth century. On the ceiling was a large, ancient chandelier, remarkably impressive, from the period before the invention of electric light bulbs, and someone had bothered to modify it to be usable with bulbs. Large wall clocks were almost everywhere. One was particularly impressive, displayed in the corner of the wall. At the edge of the office, were two brown leather sofas with a gigantic table, carved with fire breathing snakes.