Fire in a Haystack: A Thrilling Novel (Legal Mystery Book Book 1) (13 page)

Chapter 16

It was late in the afternoon. Igor Harsovsky’s room in the Tel Hashomer Hospital internal medicine ward was empty. He wasn’t to be found in the dining area either. A grim-faced muscular man, dressed in black, sat at the entrance to the room and refused to answer Gali’s questions about the patient’s condition.

The nurse at the reception desk was nicer. “He was taken for an X-ray and immediately after that to undergo a small operation. Who are you?” she asked.

“I’m a colleague from work. Please tell him Gali Shviro came by to visit.”

Gali left the hospital and continued on her way. It was almost the end of the day and she still had many plans. She was happy to hear Igor’s condition was improving, but the fact that a bodyguard was in front of his room filled her with discomfort.
I have to clear a few things with him first chance I get
, she thought.

The GPS led her to Cyrus Street in the Lod industrial area, even though no street sign could be seen in the rundown environment. The Aerospace Industries factory Fliegelman had mentioned was deserted. Beyond the ruined fence, half demolished buildings could be seen. The yard was laden with wreckage and bonfire remains. Gali could only picture to herself what went on there during the nights.

Cyrus Street itself was short and had a few large, windowless buildings. Gali easily found what she was looking for. The archive looked as one would expect it to; it was a vast warehouse in a building shaped like a large, sealed shoebox, dull and graceless.

At the archive’s entrance sat a young girl who chewed her gum busily. She raised her head from the crossword puzzle she was solving and sent a bored yawn into the air without bothering to cover her mouth. Undoubtedly she had much more fascinating dreams than being a receptionist in a file box cemetery.

Gali walked right up to her, filled with confidence.

“Hello, I’m attorney Gali Shviro. Can I help you with your crossword puzzle?”

“Come on, you didn’t come all the way here for that?”

“No, I’m just kidding. I didn’t come here for that, even though I really can help you with your crossword puzzle. I represent a large insurance company that wants to utilize your services.”

“Well, ma’am…you need to talk to Joseph, he’s the manager. He’s not here now.”

“So who’s here now?”

“Only the laborers and the delivery people, they’re responsible for arranging the warehouses. They’re on their coffee break. It’s almost the end of the day.”

Gali didn’t give up. “So I’ll wait for the manager,” she said.

“We’re almost closing and I’m about to leave. He won’t be coming today. He’s moving.” She continued to look bored and didn’t show any signs of awakening.

“Got it. So with your permission, I just want to have a quick look around. I don’t want to come here again. All I want is to check the security arrangements. If I like what I see, I’ll schedule a meeting with the manager to move forward.”

“All right, you can have your look. What do you think you’ll see? Just piles of boxes, this is the only thing this boring place has.”

“Don’t you like your job?” Gali was interested.

“I like it. But it’s tedious. You can die from boredom here. Who needs to save documents anymore? Everything’s online,” said the clerk and returned to chewing the gum she hid in her mouth.

“Thanks, sweetheart and you’re right, of course. Soon there won’t be any more places like this one. But believe me, all jobs are boring. At least there’s no one to bother you here.” Gali winked at her.

“You need an escort, even though you look like someone who knows how to walk by herself between straight rows of boxes.”

“No need, just a quick look and I’ll be out. Don’t bother yourself, I’ll manage on my own,” said Gali and strode with confidence into the huge warehouse.

“You need to have someone with you. Those are the regulations. I’ll come with you.” She closed the outer door and accompanied Gali.

They went in through the main entrance. Gali found herself in a hall, its walls filled from top to bottom with rows and rows of gigantic steel shelves. The shelves were filled with single-sized cardboard boxes. Her eyes glanced over miniscule signs that showed the alphabetical order. At the end of the third row, she saw the letter V. She slowed down her pace, her eyes flickering on the file names. There was no trace of Viromedical.

At the end of the row, a stairway leading to a lower floor was revealed.

“What’s down there?” Gali asked.

“That’s where they put the prehistoric stuff. Files that are more than ten years old.”

“And where are the restrooms?” asked Gali.

“Down there as well.”

“May I…”

“Sure you can, downstairs at the end of the corridor. I’ll wait for you here.”

Gali went downstairs. She was surprised to discover the place had a cellar. She had come there without a definite plan, but now one formed in her mind.
I’ll study the place and return at a later time
, she thought.

She turned right at the end of the stairway. At the corridor’s end, there was a white steel door. A bundle of keys hung next to the door. She tried to fit the keys into the lock. The third one did the trick. She unlocked the door and found the light switch on the right. She went inside and locked herself in. Only then did she notice she hadn’t taken a single breath since she went downstairs. She filled her lungs with oxygen and turned on the light. Here too, the view was of long rows of metal cabinets, filled to the brim with folders.

Where do I even begin and what can I do with the little time I’ve got?
she asked herself. For a moment, she was filled with desperation.

She took a quick look at the long shelves. A few of the folders were marked only with years. Others had initials she was unable to decipher.

Luckily enough, she recognized that each shelf contained alphabetical marks, just like the ones upstairs.

She marched quickly towards the letter V. She passed an entire row, from the beginning of the archive to its end, walking quickly, her head slanted sideways and her eyes examining the writing on the dusty folders. Nothing grabbed her attention.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of rustling papers. She froze in her tracks, leaned back against the passageway between the cabinet rows and stopped breathing. The heavy smell of dust rose in her nostrils and she felt an involuntary sneeze coming.

She heard the rustling sound again. She peeked around the corner.

In the middle of the space between the cabinets, an oversized black mouse was moving about slowly, carrying something unidentifiable in its mouth.

She looked at the ugly rodent and her heart almost stopped beating. “Anything but mice,” she sighed quietly, “They really give me the creeps.” She may have been disgusted, but she continued to follow the creature that passed beneath the cabinets and continued to the other end of the archive.
Perhaps he’s signaling something to me
, she said to herself, gathering all her mental strength to steady her quivering legs.

The mouse continued to the edge of the room and crawled beneath a gray cabinet. She slowly approached the place he disappeared and bent to check where he vanished to. Nothing could be seen down the track the mouse had taken.

She returned to the shelves bearing the letter V. What a relief. She found the boxes that were marked “Viromedical.” They filled up nearly ten rows. The last box was labeled “Top Secret.” She pulled out the box. It was comparatively light. The tape that sealed the lid was falling apart. She lifted it. Inside the box were two folders with red labeling.

With trembling fingers, she took out the two folders.

The mouse was nowhere to be seen.
It will probably burst unexpectedly from somewhere
, she said to herself, examining her surroundings every few seconds to ensure it wasn’t sneaking up on her.

I’m sure he’s not here by himself, he must have an entire family, a whole pack of tiny, disgusting rodents
, she thought, carrying the two folders to a small reading table.

She shook the folders to ensure they did not contain any unexpected creatures.

A slight cloud of dust rose with each shake, and she sneezed loudly, in spite of her efforts to bite her lip tightly. She glanced at her watch. She’d been downstairs for almost four minutes. The receptionist upstairs and perhaps the rest of the employees would soon come looking for her.

The initials I.B.R. were written with red ink on the folders.
What the hell is I.B.R.?
she wondered.

She quickly went through the contents of the folders. While doing so, she moved her feet to and fro and continued to examine her surroundings to make sure no creature was stalking her. The first pages of one folder included reports written in an indecipherable handwriting. Following them were printed documents.

She skipped those and began to read the letters that bore the address of the head of the Institute for Biological Research. The solution now seemed so simple—that’s what the I.B.R. initials stood for.

A large question mark filled her entire being. What did these folders have to do with the Viromedical factory?

In one letter, she read a report written by the I.B.R.’s deputy director, Dr. Aryeh Friedman, in which he complained about poor maintenance and insufficient security procedures.
Dr. Aryeh Friedman?
In a second letter, written by that same anonymous Dr. Aryeh Friedman, it was stated that if the Viromedical management did not comply with the new demands, he would be forced to require the transfer of the laboratory to a new location, and he would therefore adjust the budget the factory receives.

In a third letter, marked with a red “Top Secret” title, was written:

“As you well know, the authorities have decided not to comply with the demands of the international treaty which demands the eradication of deadly viruses (such as smallpox, etc.) (See addendum). The military and scientific motives for this important decision are obvious. You were chosen to supply the environment for safekeeping this project whose national importance is supreme, therefore…”

Out of amazement, Gali clutched the sides of the table with her hands until her knuckles whitened.

Time was running out. Gali didn’t think twice; she took the three letters out of the folder, folded them carefully and stuffed them into her pocket. She turned off the light, locked the door and moved across the corridor, feeling her way by touching the wall.

The next moment, a light was turned on at the end of the corridor. She froze in her tracks and squatted. She noticed a large figure wearing dark clothes passing through the stairway on the way up. A laborer appeared at the end of the corridor, pushing a cart loaded with boxes.

She held her breath. She remained squatting for another minute that seemed like an eternity and then she broke into a quick run and quickly climbed upstairs. The receptionist wasn’t waiting at the end of the stairway. Gali continued to the entrance, worried.

“What happened to you? Is everything all right? I was afraid you drowned in the toilets. I thought of coming to rescue you.” The same gum was still chewed in the bored receptionist’s mouth. Apparently, she had returned to her station.

“Don’t ask. I’ve got indigestion. Last time I eat falafel in the street. Anyway, thanks a lot. I really like this archive and I’ll be in touch,” said Gali and left the place.

Chapter 17

When Ofer woke up, the sun was already in the middle of the sky. The aftertaste of nausea remained in his mouth and even worsened when he recalled how the apartment he had slept in now looked. A sudden fear gripped him. He felt as if he were suffocating and urgently needed to go outside. The apartment he loved so much now appeared to him like a strange, alien place, desecrated by the burglars.

At the door, he remembered he had forgotten something. He went back, took Rodety’s bag and went downstairs, hopping three steps at a time.

Abraham, the watchmaker, was already sitting in his usual spot. A watchmaker’s loupe was stuck in his eye, and he bent over a clock that needed fixing, beneath the beam of a powerful night light.  When he noticed Ofer, he took the magnifying glass out of his eye and rose towards him, brimming with kind smiles.

“Good day to you, my good sir. How fare thee on this finest of days?” asked Abraham. A row of gleaming teeth peeked from his white beard.

“Yes, yes. Thank you,” answered Ofer impatiently. Abraham’s habit of using high language did not suit his current state of mind. He instantly added, “Someone broke into my apartment, they turned the place upside down. Did you happen to see anyone suspicious coming into the building or the surrounding area?”

“You don’t say,” whispered Abraham into the whiteness of his beard. “How could something like this happen? I’m here almost all day. I may have been out for an hour or two to go to the market—”

“It’s not your fault, Mr. Mansherov. It must have taken place while you weren’t here. They broke in when we were both out,” said Ofer but refrained from detailing why he wasn’t in his apartment and where he was last night.

Abraham clutched his head. A moment later he extended his hands, gripped Ofer’s shoulders and said, “Now I remember. There really was someone who asked about you. I told him you’d be back later because you were at school. I asked whether or not I could relay a message, but he said, ‘No thank you.’ After that, he left. I asked what it was about, but he refused to elaborate.”

“You’d remember him if you see him again?” asked Ofer.

“Why wouldn’t I? Of course I’ll remember him. Tell me, are you feeling ill? You don’t look like your normal self.”

“I don’t feel so well, but it’s nothing serious.” Ofer did not want to worry him. “Thanks anyway. So pay attention. If you happen to see him, let me know immediately,” he said and went on his way.

The sky was quickly turning gray, as if summer had decided to migrate to different territories. The sun played a game of hide and seek with the clouds, only occasionally showing her face. For her, it was simply another fun-filled vacation day.

Ofer thrust Rodety’s bag into the motorcycle’s pannier and began to drive quickly towards the Yad Eliyahu neighborhood, treating most traffic laws as mere recommendations.

His mother was home just as he knew she would be. She had taken early retirement, left her job at the bank and preferred to spend her days between the walls of her small apartment rather than chatting idly with her elderly friends.

Despite her surprise over his unexpected visit in the middle of the day, she welcomed him with a big hug.

“What happened that made you suddenly remember to visit your old mother?” she asked, laughing.

“Mother, you have to tell me the truth about what happened to Dad,” said Ofer without delay or introductions.

“What happened to you, son?” asked his mother, concerned. “Why today after all this time?”

“Mom, it’s important to me. I want an answer right now. Is it true that he killed himself?”

“I don’t want to talk about this. Your father passed away during a very difficult time, and now he’s been resting peacefully for more than ten years. There’s no point in speaking about this.”

“Mother, please…”

Mrs. Angel persisted with her refusal. She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and moved towards the kitchen.

“Come, sweetheart, eat something. I made roast chicken with plums. I know how much you like it,” she beseeched him. “Forget about the past. I’ve managed to have you and Dana focus on the most important things in life—to think about the future, to learn, to move forward, there’s no use in opening old wounds.”

“I don’t want to eat anything. I won’t be staying either,” Ofer let his mother know decisively.

His mother tried to stop him, “Ofer, don’t be stubborn. Please stop with this, I beg you—”

“Mother, people say he killed himself. I stand in front of them and I don’t know what to say. I want to know once and for all. For myself. What happened to my dad?”

“Why should you care about what people say? People say a lot of things. Just ignore them.”  She paused for a moment and asked, “Who told you?”

“Rodety. Jacob Rodety.”

“You don’t say. Rodety…” Her eyes widened with surprise. “He…he just died. I saw the obituary today. I don’t know how it happened. Haven’t heard from him in years.”

“Mom, I was the one who discovered his body. In a Tel Aviv hotel room. Rodety was invited by Yitzhak Brick, a very important client of my law firm, to serve as an expert witness in a trial. I needed to escort him to an appointment. He even asked me to give you his regards,” Ofer spoke with the speed of a locomotive about to go off the tracks.

“So when did he tell you your father committed suicide?” His mother gave him an inquisitive stare.

“At Dad’s funeral. I stood next to him, and he said that to all the friends around him. Then he said it again, to me personally. Is this the first time you’ve heard about it?”

“But you said you found his body…”

“Yes. He told me that on the previous evening.”

“Rodety was your father’s boss. Why did he need to say something like that next to you at the funeral, why…?” She withdrew into herself and a great tiredness fell on her.

Ofer rose from his seat. He looked at her from the corner of his eye. She suddenly appeared small, shrunken within the kitchen chair, holding her face in her hands. He took his helmet and prepared to leave.

While he was on his way to the door, she lowered her hands and said, “All right, come sit down. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

She closed her eyes for a long moment then began to speak slowly and quietly. “Your father was a biochemist. He worked for the Viromedical factory in a department that was under the authority of the Institute for…Biological Research, if I remember the name correctly. He was considered to be a genius, a prodigy. A genius at work and a genius at running his family’s financial affairs. He was working on a top secret project. You remember how he enjoyed learning about new things… model airplanes, trains, anything that moved. He loved toys even more than you children did. A small child with a genius mind trapped in an adult’s body. He never told me any of the details. You know how men are with such things. They keep all the secrets to themselves. Right before he died, he was deeply distressed. He was under a lot of pressure at work, but he didn’t share anything with me so as not to have me worrying—”

“So what killed him?” Ofer burst into her words, unable to contain himself.

“I don’t know. It must have been a stroke, a heart failure or God only knows what. Do you really think I know?”

“So why did you refuse to have him autopsied?” asked Ofer.

“How do you know about that?”

“You told me that. Don’t you remember not allowing me to go and see the body?” answered Ofer with a question of his own.

“Maybe I was confused or upset. How can you judge a person under such circumstances? I did not agree to have him autopsied. I’m sure that’s what your father would have wanted… He was a traditional man…I can’t tell you today why I refused. People make all sorts of mistakes. I loved him so. He was the father of my children…our children…you and Dana…” She lowered her trembling voice.

“I’m not sure Dad didn’t kill himself.”

“Please don’t say that. I’m begging you.” She wiped her tears with a tissue.

“What are the chances Dad felt guilty about wronging someone else?”

“Nonsense, your father couldn’t hurt a fly. He even refused to work with laboratory animals. It’s surreal to even imagine something like that.”

“Do you remember him ever complaining about malfunctions or disorders in the factory?”

“No. And he wouldn’t tell me something like that even if there were any.”

“Did he tell you he was about to go to the press with a story that was bugging him?”

“Are you dreaming? Where are all these inventions coming from?”

“I remember that during the shiva some people came and told you he had done something terrible. That he sold factory secrets. That an indictment would have been issued if he hadn’t killed himself.”

His mom gave him a long stare. “So you do know.”

“Yes, I know. And I also know you needed money because of my medical treatments.” Everything came out of his mouth after being buried deep inside him for over ten years.

His mother was silent. The tears continued to roll down her cheeks ceaselessly. “We wanted to do good. That’s everything we ever wanted. We wanted our children to have a good life…”

“Tell me, Mother, did you ever go through his documents? Did you check if he had left anything that could shed some light on what went on with him? Perhaps a note or a letter?”

“He didn’t leave anything for me. He was a scientist. Meticulous. Had he wanted to leave something for me before going to that hotel, he would have known exactly where to leave it…had he wanted me to read anything. But if you insist, I have a bunch of documents I’ve never gone through.”

Before Ofer could reply, she walked into the bedroom and returned with a brown cardboard file folder, ancient looking and full of documents.

“Here, take it. Read it for yourself and see if we’ve missed anything. All that dust gives me allergies.”

“All right, Mom. I have to go now.” Ofer wasn’t able to stay there even another minute.

He took the cardboard folder and turned to leave. He didn’t even have time to tell her about his physical condition. About the danger he was in. About the fact that in a few days he might be in critical condition. About the fact that there wasn’t any cure or vaccine. Perhaps this was their last meeting? Once more, he felt nauseous. He hoped he wasn’t going to throw up.

All at once he recalled the fact he hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for an entire day.

He got out of the apartment and refused her request to return and eat something. In any event, he comforted himself, he shouldn’t tell her anything so as not to upset her.

He mounted his motorcycle.

The moment he turned the throttle, a commercial vehicle passed him by with insane speed. It seemed to him that it was parked in front of the house when he had arrived to visit his mother. He broke to the right with the handlebar and managed to get out of harm’s way. Had he reacted an instant later, he would have been splattered like a pressed flower on the vehicle’s windshield or under its wheels.

Must be a woman
, he thought and shouted out loud, “You fucking bitch!”

He felt extremely ill. A fit of dizziness descended and the world whirled around him. All he wanted at that moment was a warm and loving embrace. Gali’s image popped into his mind.

I wish I had the courage to call her right now
, thought Ofer.