Haunted Blood

by Elik Katzav

  I continue to browse the links. The following year, 2004, Lynn is discharged from the hospital in what her medical team dubs ‘a medical miracle.’ Her father, whom the medical staff say nursed Lynn for months before vanishing, returned one fine morning, and his daughter woke that very same day, as if she knew he was about to arrive.

  There’s a short clip featuring her attending doctor giving an account of how Lynn presented with serious head injuries as a result of the accident she had been in. She was in such a state that there was no hope for recovery. They could not save her, so they had implored her father to have Lynn’s organs harvested and donated, but he would not hear of it.

  “His faith in her full recovery was true, for this was a real miracle,” the doctor concluded.

  Adam Hacohen refused to comment on the story. It seems he chose to disappear altogether and return to obscurity along with his daughter.

  I text Na’ama.

  - Any chance you’ll run a quick check on an Adam Hacohen for me, please?

  Once again, rather than text me back, she calls right back after a few minutes.

  “Hey, what’s wrong with you?”

  - What? All I wanted was to find out was a few details associated with that person. If this is a problem, fine, no pressure, ’sall good.

  “Not that, the people you’re hanging out with. How did you happen to run into Adam?”

  - Oh. Well, he’s Lynn’s dad, the girl I suppose Idan was ditching school to visit.

  The line goes silent.

  “Do you remember the triple ritual?”

  - Sure, it’s one of the Counter Cult Squad’s landmark cases, one of the first sacrifice ceremonies recorded in Israel and attributed to a rise in cult activity in the north of the country.

  “Yes. This was back in 2004. So your guy, Adam, is a person of interest in that investigation. His fingerprints were found everywhere at the scene. We verified them from his file back when he had applied for Israel’s General Security Service a few years earlier.”

  Chapter 12

  Now it’s my turn to keep still, after which I reply.

  - 2004 is when Adam Hacohen lost his wife and nearly lost Lynn in a car accident. I just read up about it.

  “So he’s a person of interest in an investigation, like I just told you. This happened right after he disappeared. He went off the grid over a decade ago.”

  - The house I was in earlier today, where I called you from—he was there. That was his house; he used to live there with Lynn. She was using her mother’s last name. That’s why you guys weren’t able to trace him through her.

  “That’s where you found the cable ties with the blood on them?”

  A chill runs down my spine and for a moment there I pick up a pair of yellow eyes watching me. I blink, and they revert back to the shape of plain lamps.

  - Yes. There were cable ties covered in blood in his basement. And he wasn’t alone—besides Lynn, I mean. Looks like other people had lived in that house with them.

  “Ok. I’m calling the Be’er Sheva Police Department. I wanna find out the status of their investigation. Maybe if I point them to Adam they’ll step on it. I am up to my neck with this investigation of Noga’s murder here. Cannot go myself.”

  - Keep me posted on any developments?

  “If I can,” she hangs up.

  Damn, Idan might be hanging out with this potential psycho’s daughter now. I’ve got really bad vibes about that. This entire investigation is getting darker and heavier.

  I blink, and the feeling begins to dissipate. Gotta do what I do best: follow all the leads, find Idan, and bring him back home. That’s what I have to do.

  I look at the screen again and delete the search in favor of a new one, about the cult case from 2004.

  I do not have access to everything the police have, but still, the web has much of the basic details of the event, complete with theories. People love theories, especially theories concerning unsolved cases.

  I begin with mainstream media, news sites. Pretty much the same all round. They all feature the triple ritual as some triple homicide at the Galilee Park in Karmiel, right inside the amphitheater. The park had not been inaugurated as yet, so it was still fenced. The three bodies were found positioned in such a way that their blood had drained into one central point. The papers described the scene as having been covered with graffiti written in blood. However, they fall short of describing what that graffiti said.

  An interview with the chief of police at the time features this guy saying the police suspects a group of teenagers believed to be devil worshipers, probably immigrants from the former USSR. That remark cost him his job. His accusations accusing new immigrants from Russia of being members of a devil’s cult met with enormous public backlash, so he had to retire at the end of that year, supposedly on personal grounds, but it was common knowledge that this slip up was the real reason for his stepping down.

  A moment before I am about to close the window, I notice the date. They found the bodies the very same morning Lynn woke up back at the hospital. The police believe the killings took place the night before. Too many coincidences.

  Then I begin to browse the less formal sites—discussion groups and blogs, or the 2004 version thereof. They’re all talking about the police cover up, about there being gangs of “Russians” who commit murders in the name of the devil, and the police are keeping it on the down low. They mention this one murderer who picked homeless people up from the street and murdered them, allegedly ‘in order to cleanse the town.’ They even talk about aliens, claiming that the bodies were lined up according to some message they had communicated to us, and those poor people were experimented on before they turned up as they were, and that the police won’t release the data, in particular the signs and symbols found at the scene, in order not to cause panic. This theory was even published along with a few eyewitness accounts of flashing lights over the park. The spaceship, of course...

  I can make a note of all that, but none of it is going to help my case at the moment, so I continue to browse these web pages from 2004 until I come across this vlog by some girl called Liat. It’s a small amateur site, complete with texts, poems, and clips, but it isn’t from 2004. It’s dated 2010.

  She appears in her own videos, seated on the floor, legs crossed, letting her long black hair cover her face, which is dimly lit as it is. She recites lines she had probably written herself. Some of these vids feature her speaking, moving and bending back and forth as she goes along.

  Her texts revolve around pain, break-ups, the physical pain she’s feeling on account of her boyfriend having left her, after everything she did for him, after the triple ritual. Right in line with my search.

  These video clips on Liat’s website are all shot in the dark. Silhouettes running across the light. She’s reading her poems and concludes by saying she had done whatever he asked, followed him through blood and fire, in particular blood. And then, she stretches her hand out, revealing a fresh cut. Her arm is bleeding. She’s shouting, “Blood, you were after blood, so here, take mine as well, here you go.”

  I pause and run the clip back. The words are highly important, but the image is even more so. The blood is dripping down Liat’s arm and hand. I pause again when she shows off her cut wrists. The frame freezes with her blood. I seem to spot something. The image on the screen of my phone shows those pages torn from those library books. It’s the same sign as the one on Liat’s bloody arm. It’s the first sign that appears on Adam Hacohen’s page.

  Chapter 13

  Liat knew about this symbol. She mentioned the triple ritual. She might be the key.

  I run the following clips, freezing the feed whenever I spot the chance to have another look at that sign. They all serve to strengthen my certainty that she is involved somehow, even with what’s going on now.

  The last clip is very
different from what I had expected. It is tagged as dated December 2010 and it features an older couple, more nervous than uncomfortable as they begin to talk about Liat, their daughter from that vlog.

  Liat’s parents describe their daughter’s website as a caution to other parents whose kids are in a similar predicament. They recount how she attempted to take her own life over and over again, and that she was now at a place where she’s being cared for. They’re keeping the vlog online because it is their memory of her. Painful as it may be, they want everyone to share in the last time during her lifetime she was still sane, in the hope they might be able to prevent such cases in the future. They even reference a phone number for a mental health clinic.

  “May your parents never have to sit here and mention you in past tense. Talk to a professional! There is no well too deep you cannot escape from,” the mother concludes the vid, teary eyed.

  Ok. If she’s still locked up in a padded room somewhere, then she couldn’t have had anything to do with Idan’s disappearance. Shit.

  I didn’t expect to follow the lead all the way to this dead end. I retrace my steps and go over Liat’s texts. Unrequited love. She describes her doing things out of her love for this guy, whose name she does not mention. Never. Nowhere.

  If it’s someone from her past, perhaps her parents might know. Oh, this is going to turn very unpleasant. No time to think about it. My concern for Idan grows still.

  Liat’s parents said they were maintaining the vlog online. This should make it easier for me to track them. Lucky for me, I remember the stuff Rose takes the trouble to teach me. I log on to a site that reports who owns certain pages and click the name for Liat’s web address. The parents’ details soon appear. I make a note in my pad and launch a separate search, in another window, for their contact details. A few seconds later, I find their phone number in Karmiel.

  Deep breath. I dial. One ring. Two rings. A woman’s voice picks up.

  - Hello, my name is David Maharani. I’m a private investigator.

  The best way to reduce their suspicions is to present myself right up front.

  “Hi, David. I am not sure you’ve come to the right place.”

  - I hope I have. I am so sorry about your daughter Liat. I came across her vlog in the process of a case I am working on. I have a few questions for you, please.

  She goes silent.

  Keeping it short and simple sometimes helps me handle their questions more easily, seeing as I am being direct.

  “What sort of investigation are you conducting?” She sounds more tense now.

  - I am looking for this missing kid. He’s been gone a few weeks. I reached Liat’s web page in the course of my search.

  “Our Liat was hospitalized nearly four years ago, and that’s where she still is, without any contact with the outside world, so how did you ‘come across her vlog’ if the boy you are searching for has only been gone for a few weeks? Are his parents concerned for his life?”

  Her tone suddenly softens before she adds, sounding differently now, “Do you think he is in the same situation Liat was? I shall help any way I can.”

  - I don’t think he is in the same place, but he probably got mixed up in things that might put him in harm’s way. So yes, I wanted to ask: your daughter mentions this unrequited love affair she had, someone who had left her, but she makes no mention of his identity. Do you happen to have any idea who it was?

  The line goes silent once more before she says, “Sure I know. He is the very reason Liat isn’t home with us. She was an only child, you see, a sensitive girl, not very independent, you might say. Perhaps we spoiled her too much or didn’t allow her enough freedom. Either way, she was very naïve, if you understand my meaning. And then she met him. Itzik. He was six years older, and Liat, inexperienced as she was when it came to men, fell under his spell. The more we tried to resist their relationship, the further she got from us. He really had her wrapped around his little finger.”

  - So sorry to hear. Do you happen to know where I might find this Itzik? His last name, perhaps?

  “He disappeared after Liat got committed. We tried to track him down, which is what any parent would do concerning the person who had murdered their daughter’s soul. He vanished. Along with the rest of the gang.”

  - What gang?

  “Cult”, to be exact. They are more like a cult, following this guy, dazed. They swept Liat with them, and when they were through with her, they dumped her, so she is no longer with us.”

  - One last question, if I may. I notice a mark on Liat’s wrist in the video clips on her vlog. It looks like a tattoo. Do you know what it means?

  “The tattoo? That was something she got after meeting Itzik. She said the whole group went and got it. ‘My family’ she called them, all older than her. I was so worried they might do something to her. She refused to stop seeing them. Kept saying they cared for her, were teaching her stuff. She hung around with them for a long time. When Itzik broke it off, she remained on her own.”

  She paused. Understandably. Then, she added, “If I remember correctly, my husband spoke with her about the tattoo. He was angry she did it. She told him it was an ancient symbol, that it marked her out as a goddess. Something like that. Or that she was now part of a group of gods.”

  Chapter 14

  Former cop or active cop; either way, arriving at a mental asylum and seeking an interview with a patient is not the sort of thing that happens just like that. It takes time. Besides, I’m pretty sure it’s a dead end lead anyway. Seeing as she has been committed there as a patient all this time, the chances she’s got anything to do with Idan are next to nothing; but whether she does or not, she might know people from Idan’s circle she could refer me to. They might prove less elusive than Adam, so if I got to them, I would get to Idan as well.

  Asking doesn’t cost anything. I take my cell phone out of my pocket and text Na’ama. Halfway through typing it, I stop and backspace. She’s got enough on her plate even without my ludicrous demands. I haven’t got a choice. I text Aharon the message I planned to text to Na’ama.

  Let’s work with what I’ve got. I return to my notes.

  Adam Hacohen’s electric bill is peeking through the paperwork. There might be a chance whoever leased him the house might know a thing or two about their client. “Lgt. Immobilier” has a European ring to it. I type it in but find no search results online. Sigh. I try to type it again, in English this time, and eventually come up with numerous results for a similar name, belonging to a real estate company from Paris. Might be a firm with property holdings. But what would a real estate company from Paris have to do with a house in Omer?

  Their homepage is a translated version of their French page, so it holds very little by way of any info, but when I open their list of branches worldwide, there is a mention of their representatives in Israel, in the form of some law firm. I click this link and it launches their Israeli website, Porat, Avital, and Weiss: Attorneys at Law Ltd. Their homepage has no mention of any assets or even any connection with Omer. It appears to be a highly prosperous, well-established Tel Aviv law firm.

  The second I am about to close this window, I hit the “News about us” link, which leads me to press clippings about their cases which received some coverage in the press, in addition to each partner’s legal career. I browse the list, rather bored, but then I come across this article from ten years ago, complete with a pic featuring two excited young men shaking hands. The caption reads “The largest ever exit in Israel,” with a legend of the persons involved: Attorney Porat, who is the legal counsel for the “historic” stock offering of Eldad Ben Ya’ar’s startup company.

  Hang on! I know that name!

  I reopen my emails and pull up the email Rose sent me yesterday with Idan’s links. Among the YouTube videos I had already gone over yesterday, here it is, the political blog and interview about Eldad Be
n Ya’ar. “A hi-tech entrepreneur who made a fortune for himself and then became a Member of Israel’s Knesset. It is usually the other way around: former MKs make money after they retire from politics”.

  In her piece, the journalist adds, “He is indeed an extraordinary person, not your typical case. Eldad Ben Ya’ar sold his company for hundreds of millions and decided to jump head first into the quagmire of political life”.

  The following minutes of the interview with Eldad focus on the startup he sold, what he did with the proceeds of the sale, and his reasons for entering politics despite the fact he could afford to retire at thirty-two. He is very eloquent, not so say smooth, already sounding like quite the seasoned politician. He has a ready answer for every question, just as you might expect from a businessman and a calculating person. There are no awkward silences. The conversation flows. He then elaborates on his right wing views. His ideology champions “the love of God,” his “love for his country,” and his “burning desire to make it great again.” He discusses his military career and the tools his tenure in the IDF had given him to become part of the top of the Israeli economy, and, “thanks to God’s grace,” propelled him to his current status.

  The interviewer does her best to get him to divulge any juicy details about his private life, him being a millionaire and a bachelor, so how come no woman ever “snared him,” as she put it. The whole thing feels a bit uncomfortable at this point. Eldad is smiling, taking his time before answering. He explains that “I am already married, Israel is my beloved land, you see,” and, “I am devoted to the work, to my calling,” and that “as much as I understand the importance of starting a family of my own, in particular in the circles I come from and represent, my time will come,” and that “it is all in His hands,” he reiterates.

  I run another search after this interview is over and open another link. It leads to a section in a news report, dated two years ago, where Eldad is seen once again, giving another press conference, right after being elected as MK for the second time. I remember it. He announces his retirement from public life. He discloses that he has been diagnosed with ALS. I have already seen this. It was one of the links on Idan’s PC I had followed up on at an internet café.