Vanished Without A Trace (25 page)

Daniel raised his head from the dog. She definitely surprised him. He never thought she continued to investigate the matter, not after he reprimanded her for it and absolutely not after her wedding.

"Well, I got quite encouraging news," she said.

He was silent and stared at her intently.

Karina thought the best way to approach the subject was to describe the process of the investigation in detail so he could digest the news slowly and better." The Investigation Agency tried to find traces of Julia, but they didn’t find anyone who lived in Israel or even left Israel that matched the description. But they found someone who was killed at around the same time that matched the description. She was apparently murdered." Daniel's face became serious, but he didn’t say anything. Karina took a deep breath. Daniel wanted so much to take her into his arms and embrace her. She looked so young and blooming with her white skirt and white shirt, but he knew she was married and he wouldn’t struggle for something where the results were known to him in advance.

"The investigators decided to investigate the business of Moshe Kowalski." Karina continued. "They tried to find some motives for the murder there, because he was the only connection that Julia had and it was known to them."

"It’s not Julia, ‘my mom’," Daniel corrected her, but Karina continued to use the word Julia.

"They worked for three months and through their extensive efforts they have discovered the son of David Fisher, the owner of the Electrosky Company, and a friend of Kowalski, was missing. This happened just before the result of a big bidding war where two companies competed; Naor Kowalski and David Fisher." Karina stopped. She took a large black bag full of documents and handed them to Daniel. "This is the investigation case they were supposed to submit to me."

"Yes?" Daniel said, not understanding the gesture. He certainly realized that a lot of work had been done about his story, but what was the connection with the huge Electrosky Company that does business all over the world?

"Daniel, I do not know how to do it simpler, but the investigators think you are the abducted son of David Fisher."

"Your marriage to Odi definitely knocked your head off," Daniel said, while bursting out laughing.

Karina looked at him. She did not expect any other reaction. "We need to fly to the United States in a couple of hours and there we will try to persuade David Fisher to do some blood tests. The investigators are already trying to meet him now and explain the conclusions to him, just as what I’m doing to you."

Daniel stood up. "I'm not going to make a fool of myself. They once threw me out when I claimed that someone was my grandfather. I'm not going to another someone to claim he is my father. Do you think I am a serial parent-searcher?" Daniel smiled, "Especially considering the fact I know that this will be the joke of the century, that I am the son of Fisher." Daniel continued to play with the dog, and Karina's words did not seem to change anything in him.

"You’re not going to see him. We will ask to do the test secretly. If the result is positive, the two of you will meet. If not, nothing happens. No one knows about it except him, the investigators, you and me."

Daniel rubbed his neck.

"We don’t have time. We need to get organized. I came all the way here and I don’t intend to give you a chance to ruin my fun." Daniel looked at her, still evident in his face that he was embarrassed by the revelation, and afraid he might acquire another disappointment.

Karina moved closer to him. She knew that he needed a hug from her now. She put her hand on his shoulder. "Daniel, I know it's not easy for you, it jumbles your life, but you wanted to take revenge on Kowalski’s behavior. If there is truth in the story, and Moshe Kowalski was involved in your kidnapping, there is no greater justice than this. I know that I’m dragging you into this and it burdens you. But there is nothing worse than what you have today. You can’t lose a family, which you don’t already have right now." She kissed his cheek and he remained with his head bowed, unable to make a decision. "I do not know what to tell you."

"Do you want to lose the opportunity to find your family? Don’t you want to take revenge on the one who disconnected you from them? Look, he apparently kidnapped you. He ruined your family long before you came to Israel. You owe this to your family."

"No, Karin, I won’t do this," he insisted, "I'm not going to make a fool of myself."

"Not even for me, after all I did for you?" She pulled the last trick she had.

Daniel was silent. He lowered his head and held his face with his hands. It was evident this situation caused him torment. "Okay, but on one condition, that I won’t see a rat around, otherwise I'm leaving the U.S. and coming back to Romania."

"Agreed, Odi is not coming, "she said.

Daniel laughed to himself. She had caught the exact meaning of his words. "Well, I have to close the yacht and go to the apartment to pack some things and close some business."

They both walked to his apartment where he threw some things into a suitcase. Then he called Mikhail. "I am flying to the United States today."

"Just like that? What happened?" Mikhail was surprised.

"Are you sitting?" Daniel asked, "Karina thinks she found my parents, and you still haven’t heard everything." Karina stopped him. "I promised not to tell."

"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 Gideon 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."