Vanished Without A Trace (17 page)

"You love everything in me, just not me."

He slipped his fingers to her feet that were on his knees, and released a smile that made her wonder what was running through his mind.

"What?"

"You remind me of my mother."

"I'm not sure I like that."

He touched the ring on her toes. "She was actually very impressive. She also loved to put rings on her toes, not to mention she did it even before it was fashionable."

When she left his apartment, she couldn’t resist inviting him to her parents' wedding party. She knew Odi and her family would not like it but every minute with him was significant for her. When Odi heard Daniel was also invited, he argued with her for a long time. He noticed Karina was acting completely different towards him when Daniel was around
.
There were hot looks between them. "I'd prefer that he didn’t come.”

"Stop being jealous, it's just a friendly gesture. After all, I'll be with you and not with him."

23

Daniel arrived a little bit after Karina and Odi arrived. Irena, Karina’s sister, opened the door and there was no need for any further explanation of her sister's desire to invite him. She led him to the table where he was reserved and he felt bad he had to sit across from Karina and not by her side where he would have held her hand. The meal was elaborate. He ate too much homemade food lately, he thought. During dinner he tried to hide the direct glances to Karina and concentrate on those around him. Karina's mother was beautiful and she looked young for her age. Her father's face looked serious and not smiley, but seemed to be full of love for his daughters. When he talked to them, he used expressions of support all the time. But most of all, he enjoyed talking with Odi about the big business he owned while everyone around the table was listening to his detailed explanations on the successful glass business in China, and how they were affected by the bird flu. Odi really fascinated them. Only Daniel and Karina looked at each other and seemed to be fascinated by something else.

After the meal, another five couples came and Irena played music. Odi invited Karina to dance, and she was a little embarrassed and threw an apologetic look towards Daniel. Odi put his hands on Karina’s hips and she put her hands on his shoulders carelessly. All the while, Odi was kissing her lips while she tried to avoid Daniel’s gaze. Daniel couldn’t understand why he felt annoyed about it. He convinced himself it is because he don't like Odi and not because his attraction to Karina.

Around midnight, he apologized he had to leave. He parted with everybody and headed towards the door. Karina ran after him, "I’m sorry." She said.

Daniel raised his eyebrows a bit and disappeared into the darkness. She stood a few seconds in the doorway looking at her mother beside her. "I know what you want to say. Spare me, I'm a big girl."

"You’re in love with him," her mother said.

"What's wrong with that?" Karina defended herself.

"Nothing," her mother answered and added, "As long as you make the right choice and marry Odi."

"You don’t need to worry. Your daughter has no choice in the matter. The guy doesn’t want me, so everybody can calm down."

"Good", she said.

Karina looked straight into her eyes. "Listen to me, don’t ever dare to choose a man for me again. You have done this once and once is too much."

"Well, look at which level you are living now?" her mother said in a sarcastic voice.

Karina went away. She knew her mother pushed her to get married just for financial motivations, but she did not want to drift into a conversation
wherein somebody would think she was not satisfied from her marriage to her husband. After all, he treated her with great respect.

Daniel did not see Karina for two days. And during those days, the image of Karina dancing with Odi never left his mind. However, he believed she would try to contact him after the Passionate night they had together. But when she didn’t call, he felt a weird feeling of disappointment and decided to call her. She answered him quietly and he presumed Odi was standing next to her but he continued. "Karina, I miss you, I need to see you before you fly back."

"I can’t talk right now," she replied, and closed the phone.

He sat in the living room and opened a bottle of vodka, thinking it might help him sleep, because his strong thoughts and yearning for her were suddenly intolerable. Even the thought she was sleeping with Odi during the night bothered him. This was the first time he felt jealousy and anger towards him, and he was quite surprised. It was ten o'clock at night when Daniel heard a knock at the door. He was filled with joy at the thought Karina came somehow, but when he opened the door, the neighbor was standing there.

"Yes?"

"May I come in?"

Daniel stepped away from the doorway and allowed her to come in. Anyway, he didn’t have anything better to do and there was nothing better than a friend who would take these thoughts away from him. When he found himself in bed with her, he did not totally resist, though this neighbor was the last woman on earth whom he wanted to get into. Neighbors are not good, he thought. But after three glasses of vodka, and the thoughts about Karina lying next to Odi after having sickening
sex, he did not feel he had to be faithful to her.

In the morning, he woke up with a terrible headache, angry at himself when he saw the neighbor lying beside him. He thought he was incredibly stupid and now he would also have a problem with how to get rid of her. He heard the front door open, the ticking of a heel on the floor was coming closer to the bedroom. He looked at the door and his eyes were dimmed.
Karina was standing at the door. Her smile quickly turned into shock. He quickly jumped out of bed, naked, retraced his steps, put a towel around his waist and ran after her. He got hold of her in the car. He tried to open the door next to her but it was locked. "Karin, Karin! Wait a minute!" he shouted, but she drove off in a squeal of tires and he was hurdled backward, releasing a curse into the air after she nearly hit him.

He lifted his hands over his head, struck with shock. Only now did he notice the towel
fell down and he
stood naked in the driveway. He lifted the towel back. "What?!" he yelled angrily at the guard who was watching him, and then he took the elevator.

"Who was she?" the neighbor asked.

"My wife."

"Are you married? I did not know."

"I’m sorry, but you should leave now because I think she'll be coming back."

The neighbor left and he tried to call Karina, though he knew there was no chance she would answer him.

Karina drove the car to the hotel. She did not think Daniel had to be faithful to her or be a monk who didn’t go out with women, but she wanted to believe she was important to him. She was not disappointed with him, but disappointed at her expectations. She didn’t even seem to be hurt. He didn’t promise her anything. He never told her anything made her believe or even think he owed her loyalty or dedication.

She even recalled she also kissed Odi while dancing right in front of Daniel’s face. He probably felt what she was feeling right now. This thought bothered her and she couldn’t concentrate on driving.

24

Alon was happy to get to the office, actually any place that would distant him from the smelly room of the motel. He put some hot pastry from the bakery shop near the office, on the receptionist’s table; seductive moments in the form of good-smelling high-fat food. As expected, he heard her constant complaints about obesity and unsuccessful dieting. In an unexpected switch, she asked him who died. Alon presumed the next question would be about his tired look. He replied with a joke. "Me. Slowly, slowly." Just when he entered and saw the round bouquet sitting in the corner, he realized what she meant. ‘This is a comment as well', he thought.

"Who is this for?" he heard Gideon from behind.

"Natalie sent them to me."

"I thought it was over between the two of you two months ago."

"That is exactly the significance of the bouquet," Alon said, "I tried to contact her to get myself some more comfortable housing."

"You have a lot of courage if you tried to call her after you cancelled the wedding. I really couldn’t understand what made you cancel the wedding at the last minute."

"It’s not her, it’s me," Alon replied, while laying the bouquet next to the trash can and sitting down to tell Gideon about all the things he heard from Deborah, as well as, the things he had gone through the night before.

"It’s not easy. Do you want a short break to sort things out with Natalie?"

"I need a lot more than a short break. I need to buy half of the mall to get her back. Finding Julia is far easier, believe me."

"Speaking about Julia, Karina could be right. When I checked a month ago, I did not find any entry or exit by a woman named Julia, and I assumed Karina’s story was not true. But apparently, based on what you said, Deborah’s story reinforces Karina’s claim. If so, we need to check if Julia is in the country under cover or if maybe
someone interrupted her plans to leave. Second, we should examine the relationship between Julia and Kowalski, and if Daniel is indeed his grandson. Deborah provides reinforcement of the existence of such a connection, right? "

Alon looked at him. "Are you not getting carried away too much? Why would anyone want to interrupt Julia’s plans? Who would gain if Julia would die?"

"Leave this for now. I am just outlining the options. With investigations everything is open, as you know." Gideon thought for a moment. "I think you should fly to New York to the office of Benjamin, a friend of mine, and ask him any information on the existence of Kowalski's son, Naor, from the time he arrived in America, until today. I will stay
here and
collect information about him in this country, and I’ll see if there is something interesting could connect him to Daniel."

"Why do I need to go? It can be done by phone, you know."

"Why don’t you take the opportunity for a vacation from all the hassles you have here, clear your head and come back to us? After all, we have a woman who pays all the expenses. Enjoy it!"

Alon arrived in Benjamin’s office in Rockefeller building in Manhattan. Although Benjamin was a good friend of Gideon, Alon did not know him personally. The only identity he had was the logo stamped on the documents he had received from him. Alon was thrilled by the large, impressive office was very sophisticated in design, yet small with regards to the number of employees who shared small cubicles with low walls and lacked privacy between them. There had been a great feature in the office. The place looked more like Wall Street than an Investigation office. Alon felt all the major investigation cases he did in his country were nothing compared to what was happening in this office. He wanted an office like this, or more of a right to say he wanted to get to a level where he would be able to stand working in this kind of office.

He was proud of the honor he was given to meet, with Benjamin himself, the man who held all this power. After all, Benjamin was a good friend of Gideon, from the army. He walked towards the counter. The secretary was busy in a conversation. When she finished, Alon explained with a confident tone that he was there to meet Benjamin, but the secretary was not impressed and asked him to wait.

Alon sat in the waiting room, feeling like a schoolboy waiting for the principal to hear his punishment. Fifteen minutes had passed when the secretary came to ask him if he wanted something to drink.

"Please," he said softly.

When the secretary came back with the coffee, he dared to ask whether Benjamin would be free any time soon.

"Honestly, Benjamin could not meet with you. You need to talk to Matthew, who will be here in fifteen minutes."

"But I am supposed to have a meeting with Benjamin," Alon insisted.

"Don’t worry, Matthew is one of our best employees. In any case, Benjamin is not doing the investigation himself, it might be better for you to talk directly to Matthew."

Alon felt resentment to discover he was waiting nearly half an hour for a junior employee of Benjamin’s, but he was happy when the secretary finally led him to Matthew’s office. He quickly finished his coffee and followed her, comforted by the fact he was referred
to someone with
a nice, big office, and not to one of the people seated inside the cubicles.

Matthew was kind. When Alon came in, he stood and shook his hand. "I'm Matthew. How can I help you?"

Alon felt much more relieved to find a guy of his own age. He gave Matthew the general background of the investigation and asked personal information about Naor, his family and his business. Matthew tried to obtain more details about the investigation in order to gain more useful material, but Alon did not elaborate more. The investigation was just getting started, so he really did not have much information.

Gideon had called him in the evening. "Well, did you get a report from Benjamin’s office?"

"No, it was just today I was in their office. It will take several days. Why? Do you have something?"

"It’s not something that helps our investigation; this is an ordinary story about an unusual father, you know. Naor served as a combat soldier in the army despite his father’s disapproval, and it turned out the boy was accustomed to a silver spoon in his mouth, so his act of rebellion did not help. He had a hard time going through basic training and exercises. He was crushed. The officers were tough, and the fact he was the son of Moshe Kowalski made his life even more difficult. The commanders would throw him words just like anyone else, but it affected him more than the others. How do I know? He tried to commit suicide. A friend found him lying in bed after taking pills. Do you understand? The boy preferred to die rather than admitting his father was right. In short, he told stories to his father, he blamed everything on the officers. After a month, he received a release from the army and he flew straight to the United States to manage his father's business.”

"Well, it may not say much about Naor, but it tells us a lot about his father. However, a child who prefers to commit suicide ..."