Vanished Without A Trace (23 page)

"This is exactly the time that took me to admit the failure," Alon said.

"Yes, I understand you." Gideon really understood, because he felt exactly the same way. He had such a promising portfolio, and he closed it with the biggest question ever, what was Kowalski’s involvement in the murder, if there was a murder? 

"I will prepare the report now." Alon said.

"Be sure to report every move in the investigation, so we can submit it to the woman... "

"I know," Alon interrupted him, "a thick portfolio so we can justify the amount Karina paid us." Failure, failure, failure... The word echoed in his head. He felt as if it was tattooed inside his brain. So much money was paid in this case, and he did not find anything. Alon asked himself, ‘would an investigator other than him be able to succeed better with a very big budget?’

The wound to his ego was still unhealed, and yet he already had to retrieve the pain of his failure through a report intended for Karina, to write and to recall again and again the fact that he failed. He felt the case wouldn’t let go of him and decided to work on the report immediately and get rid of the uneasiness as soon as possible. Also, now that the details were still fresh in his memory, and he was afraid that if he postponed the report, many details would probably be erased from his mind.

He filled the report from his memory. He detailed every step of the investigation. He noted every detail, even the name of the clerk who helped him at the police station. He found himself filling up thirty-seven pages. Writing the report made him miss the case he dreamed would open a door to heaven for him. After writing everything, he took the file off the shelf and marked the pages he wanted to print for Karina to serve as an attachment to the report. He marked emphasis on the pages of questions had troubled them, as well as, those that they examined and tested. Suddenly, he was stuck on a line that was not examined and looked disturbing to him, Naor's company won the bidding after the Electrosky Company gave it up, though there was already a ninety percent chance it would be in their pocket. Why? He asked himself. Why did a company like Electrosky fold on a bidding that they were about to win? Why did he not pay attention to this before; a detail which was shown at the very first page? He did not believe the answer would solve the case, but he was always careful about small details. If he had paid attention about this before, he could have checked the reason. He continued to mark the papers but this information did not give him rest. He couldn’t close the case without investigating the matter.

Alon called Benjamin’s office in the United States and asked to speak with Matthew. It was eight o’clock in the morning in New York and the secretary informed him Matthew had not arrived in the office yet. Alon continued trying to get hold of Matthew, despite the secretary’s promise that she would connect the two the moment Matthew arrived.

Finally, at two o’clock, he decided to try to talk with Benjamin, the boss, despite the inconvenience which involved a discussion with him. The secretary informed him that Mr. Benjamin was asking Alon to get in touch with Matthew, who was familiar with the case. But Alon explained to her that his questions wouldn’t require familiarity of the case, that he was asking for additional information which was small but significant. After a minute of silence, Alon heard Benjamin’s voice. "Yes!" he said briefly, and it was evident he was angry that people were bothering him with irrelevant issues.

"Sorry to bother you, but I have a small question. Matthew sent me a report about Naor’s company. It was written the Electrosky Company quit a very big bidding war conducted by the military, though they were already about to win. Can you check it and find out why the company gave up?"

"Fisher’s company?" Benjamin was surprised.

"Yes," Alon replied.

"To find out why they did not compete?" the question was mainly for himself. There was a slight silence. "I'll see what I can do for you. In any case, I will tell you something every investigator in the US knew. Although it was a commercial competition, their families were pretty close. There has been a friendly relationship between them for years. He probably gave up the bidding while they gave up other bidding for him in return. That's how it works with such high profile companies. Backing off from the bidding did not cause bankruptcy for the Electrosky Company. They continued to excel in the market. There is nothing extraordinary here, so you can save the hassles for both of us, as well as, your client’s money."

"I really appreciate your opinion and your desire to save my client’s money, but can you check it out anyway?" Alon insisted, though he felt he was a little rude, considering the fact that Benjamin was the big boss. 

"Honestly, I prefer not to pry too much there. These are people whom I would not want to be caught in criminal charges with.”

"Benjamin!" Alon pleaded, "Could you please send me the information by email?"

Benjamin closed the phone. He didn’t need to review any document to know the reason. He remembered the story very well. It was an extensive investigation every Investigation Agency hoped to solve. But how was it related to the specific investigation Gideon Granot and his friend were dealing. Was it possible they have a big investigation that involved the tycoons and the US military? Benjamin wondered, and why did Gideon keep it from him? He decided to check in with Gideon as soon as possible.

He wrote a few lines about the bidding and the reason why Fisher quit the bidding, and sent it by mail. After an hour, he was still bothered.

"Get me Matthew as quickly as possible," he told his secretary. After half a minute Matthew was on the line. "Come to my office immediately."

Matthew proudly entered Benjamin’s office, accompanied by curious looks from other investigators- if Benjamin was looking for him, then he was probably working on an important investigation.

"You worked with Alon, right?"

"Yes" Matthew replied, afraid that after all Benjamin’s inten- tions were to get angry with him, and he was not mistaken.

"What information did he ask you for?"

"He wanted information about Naor’s company; personal information, and personal details. Then after that, he asked for all the available information about the company from the day it was established until this day, every detail, and that the material be unaltered."

"Listen to me, Matthew," Benjamin said in a scolding voice," Next time, when you are being asked for information about companies of this scale, you update me. How did you not find it necessary to report to me?"

"Now that you are saying this, I really think I was wrong, that maybe something significant is hidden here," Matthew said, "but you told me he is your friend."

"What's the connection?"

"You told me to give him a hand with what he asked."

‘That's right,’ Benjamin thought, but that was before he suspected that Gideon was hiding something from him.

"Well, if what I think is true, get ready for some field work. Now get out of the office and pray that the time left is not working against us."

When Matthew left the office, Benjamin did not stop to wonder. Naor's company... Fisher's company... What could the connection be? What could be so classified? Was it about the U.S. Army? Something that wasn’t kosher? If this was true, he would be eager to find out. 

Benjamin thought if Gideon knew or suspected something and he did not update him, then there was something wrong between them, but on the other hand, he realized Gideon wanted a good reputation for his office as much as he wanted one for himself, so all laws would apply. Benjamin planned to follow the case and intended to take the first opportunity to send surveillance after Gideon and install wire taps, if necessary.

42

Alon opened the computer and found the e-mail from Benjamin. He began to read, and suddenly, the blood in his face was drained. One short line brought him to complete shock. His eyes ran over the words again and that were written on the screen. He held his head.

‘His son was kidnapped during the negotiations.’

Thoughts were running through his head. Was it possible Daniel was actually Fisher's son? Could it be Julia’s murder was related to the Electrosky Company and the kidnapping of the son? ‘No. It couldn’t be,’ he thought, this was just a strange coincidence. Benjamin did not give additional information that was related to the kidnapping. But Alon felt he was not mistaken, that this was exactly the case. The news seemed to be pretty sensational to believe, but it was right in front of his eyes. With trembling hands, he called Gideon’s home.

"Gideon, are you're sitting?" Alon asked in a shocked voice

"What happened?" Gideon was worried.

"I can’t talk," Alon said, "I will send you the email Benjamin sent me. Read it. I will send it now. Stay with me on the line, don’t hang up."

"Did we not close the case?" Gideon asked.

"Gideon. I’m trembling, I can’t say the words. Open the mail."

Gideon opened his mail and read the line ‘His son was kidnapped during the negotiations.’ 

"I do not understand anything. Who was kidnapped?" Gideon became agitated.

"You don’t understand, since this morning when you asked me to prepare the report for Karina, there has been some developments. In particular, I read the Electrosky Company retracted their bid even though there was ninety nine percent possibility they would get it in their pocket."

"Alon, can you calm down and explain this to me from the beginning? I don’t know what you are talking about at all."

Alon was too nervous to even talk "I wrote the report for Karina. It has a total of thirty-seven pages. After that, I wanted to print some documents for her, appendices, and then I went over the report that came from Benjamin’s office again and marked what was supposed to be printed. It was written on the very first page that the Electrosky Company gave up on a big bidding war conducted by the US army a couple of days before the decision was made, and Kowalski’s company won the bid. Alon took a deep breath. "I called Benjamin and I asked him to check why they gave up. Benjamin claimed that it was customary for large companies to deal with hand shakes, I will give up this time and you will give up next time. But I insisted and asked why they quit, and he sent me this answer by mail. He didn’t even have any idea what kind of bomb he has thrown us."

There was a long silence. "Gideon, are you with me?"

"I'm pretty shocked, honestly. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?"

"Yes, we are thinking the same thing," Alon said.

"Are you telling me that Daniel is the son of Fisher from Elektrosky?"

"So it seems."

Both of them were silent. Gideon recovered first.

"Alon, for now, we really need to maintain a low profile and not to pry too much, so we don’t serve as a strand that would connect to something. This is our case. No one must take it from under our noses. Listen, you are left to check out one thing before we can conclude Daniel is his son. What happened to his son? Maybe they found him or maybe it all worked out?" 

"Imagine a child born to parents who are so affluent it’s every child's dream. But at the end he found himself in another cycle of life, without a family and without money, while in fact he is the son of billionaire Fisher."

"Where will we find Kowalski’s involvement?" Gideon asked.

"Right now, I can’t think of anything other than the bomb that landed on me, but if Kowalski is involved, he is the most despicable and most lousy man on earth."

"You are right, but let’s not go too far and not jump to any hasty conclusion yet. We should verify the information step by step and make sure not to talk more than what is needed." Gideon reassured.

"I will ask Benjamin to send me the whole story of the kidnapping."

"Look, I don’t have a problem involving Benjamin in the case. He might be of help to us. I believe he won’t expose anything, but let’s leave this just between the two of us for the moment. Despite how much I know him, he is already connecting the puzzle by himself."

"So how do we get the information? Alon asked.

"There is only one way, a plane ticket to America,"

"Living la Vida Loca, the good life." Alon said, who really wanted to strike the new discovery.

In the twelve hours he spent in first class, his heart never stopped beating just like a river that falls from a great height. ‘Daniel is the son of Fisher’. He looked at the people sitting around him, wanted to shout to them that soon he would be the hottest news, that first class will be his second home. He wanted to ask them to take a good look at him and engrave his face in their hearts because very soon they will be going to see this face on all the communication channels.

Immediately after landing, without wasting any time, Alon went to the library. He flipped through the papers, looking for the year in which the son was kidnapped, 1981. It was easy enough to find the story that was illustrated across the entire newspaper. It was actually the headline of the news for the whole month. Here, unlike the search for Julia’s body, the year of the kidnapping was revealed.

Tom, this was the name of the child who was kidnapped, was two and a half years old. That same day, the nanny took the boy from the kindergarten and informed the mother she was going for a walk with her son at the mall.

At six o’clock, Tom’s mother called home, but the nanny hadn’t come back yet. The mother was not bothered by this matter. She presumed the two were spending time together and enjoying their shopping. Even at eight o'clock when they were not yet home, she was not worried and never thought something happened. At nine o'clock, the mother started to worry. She called her husband, who called the police right away. The police were asked to be discrete for the moment until the matter became clear. The police assumed if the child was kidnapped, the kidnappers would contact the family and demand a ransom – for now, it was best to wait and see what would happen. At the same time, police officers were deployed and installed wiretaps on the phone at Tom's parents’ home, but there was no phone call came in that day. It was the same for the next three days. Ransom demands did not come in any other form. The parents decided to contact the nanny through other channels of communication and asked to give them their son back. They ensured no harm would befall her. A day after the announcement, the nanny’s body was found inside her car. On the windshield, a letter was found that warned the parents not to go to the police and not to publish the face of the child in any way, otherwise, the child will be killed. After finding the body and the letter, they were concerned the child was thrown into the adjacent lake. There were searches for two days but nothing was found. Six days after the kidnapping, the parents and the police realized that the chance of finding the child was low. Fisher’s son was never found! Just exactly as Alon had imagined.