Vanished Without A Trace (27 page)

"But he threw us out of the office. I probably wouldn’t have another chance to tell him. You saw how much time it took us to get hold of him." Alon replied.

"Few days," Karina replied with rage. "You're so stressed that every hour seems to be a whole day for you."

"It was harder than I thought," Gideon said, "So what will we do now?"

"We will let him sit and think about it and we’ll hope for the best." Karina replied.

Matthew kept waiting outside the gate. When he saw the car coming out from the mansion, he called Benjamin.

"At the moment they left Fisher’s mansion."

"They visited Fisher's mansion?!" Benjamin was surprised. He couldn’t believe Gideon, a junior investigator, gained entry to the house of the illustrious Mr. Fisher. It must be something important if Mr. Fisher let them into his house. Or, on second thought, they know something very important about Fisher, and Fisher was playing into their hands. "Tell me, Matthew, all four of them were there?"

"No. The one who is staying next to Karina's room was not with them."

Benjamin scratched his head and hung up.

47

Daniel sat in the hotel pool , when Karina came back from the meeting with Fisher, and joined him. He looked at the small swimsuit on her body and straightened his back to improve the angle of sight. Her hair was a little bit straight in front and Daniel preferred it curly. "Where are your curls?" He asked.

"There are places where the weather affects the hair one way or the other."

He kept looking at her. "How was it?"

Karina told him the story. When she finished he did not respond, but continued to look at her. Then he lay on his side, his hand supporting his head so he could continue to talk to her.

"He has a large drawing of a small boy in his office, about two and a half years old or so. You know, not everything is circumstantial, he also has gray eyes and long eyelashes and your age corresponds exactly to the age of his son."

Daniel smiled at her.

"Why are you smiling?"

"Do you know how many children match his age? There’s no need to go to the other side of the world."

She touched his tanned, golden arm. "We have to cancel the flight and postpone it for a few days." She said, knowing that he would disagree.

"I think that's impossible. I have many things to take care of at the office. I have no option to postpone. Do you remember I doubted all this at the very beginning? Then it’s good it's over so it will save us all from embarrassment."

Karina thought anyone who was in his situation would be excited to discover he might have a family member on the other side of the world; a rich family, but Daniel didn’t seem to fill his head with dreams. He tried to be realistic and stay grounded. "Daniel, you're not going anywhere. You are staying with me for a few more days, it’s better for you to go up to the hotel instead of sitting here in the pool and take care of all the necessary arrangements for your stay here in the coming days. Gideon and Alon will also do the same, so why would you run from it when in fact this is all in your own interest?"

"Well, maybe because I'm the only sane one in this story?" he replied sarcastically, "You created yourselves a script and you are not willing to consider any other option."

"Like what?"

"Just like the simplest story. Julia was my mother. My grandfather could actually be my father, and he was afraid someone would hear about it."

"So how can he throw out his son and just ignore him?"

Daniel could not choke his laughter, "Do you know how many of those were with me in the boarding school?" He shook his head. "You took two different stories and connected them. If I was not the main character, I wouldn’t have been bothered. Believe me, you will pay a lot when this is over. All that I owe you, financially and emotionally, will become null and void. You will even be indebted to me."

"Do you believe he killed Julia?"

"My mother," Daniel corrected. "Yes, I can believe everything about him. I met him as he was, and not as you saw him." 

Karina ignored his reminder. "Look, if we do the blood tests with Fisher and it isn’t a match, at least you'll know Kowalski is your grandfather."

"I know it now. I don’t doubt it. You were the ones who were skeptical about it."

"How can you be so sure after all the things you’ve heard? I actually think you are Fisher’s son. Let’s extend our vacation for another week and we’ll see what the days will bring us."

"I see you still believe he will call you in the end," he said jokingly, "He knows you and I will be staying here until tomorrow, so if he really wanted to, he would have called you today. Did you ever think of that?"

"Excuse me, we are in the age of communication. I can get to you anywhere. He will call me back when he finds it necessary, when he makes his decision. We took several months to digest the story. We knew it step by step. Fisher got the whole story in fifteen minutes. He needs time to believe in it. Forget about Fisher, say for example, someone would tell where you could find Julia, would you give up on it?"

"Tomorrow I will fly from here as planned," Daniel said firmly. He turned his back, put on his glasses and felt the caress of the sun, thinking about Karina, who could be the best woman for him, when it was crazy Odi who won her.

Karina thought if Fisher waited for more than a week, there will be no one to talk to. Daniel would not agree to any additional steps to expose the truth. She wouldn’t be able to convince him anymore.

Alon joined them.

"Where is Gideon?" Karina asked.

"He went for a walk in Central Park. He is tired of sitting all day at the hotel. For me it's the best, I am always on the run from office to office, from site to site, that’s why I really need this vacation and enjoy lying down under the sun all day.

"Are you married?" Karina asked.

"No. I canceled it a few days before." He wanted to say 'just like you', but he thought that was rude, "We got back together just a few days ago, but she still can’t forgive me."

Alon's story caused Daniel to throw a gaze at him.

Alon continued, "I know what you’re thinking, how one can cancel a wedding and then go back to the same woman. It's because I'm selfish. I don’t want to commit, but I do not want someone else to take her from me either."

"But eventually someone would take her from you, if you keep it that way, right?" Karina asked.

Daniel wanted to say, 'Believe me, she knows what she's talking about,’ but he kept quiet.

"Well, now that you already got her back, are you going to marry her?"

"If she wants to." Alon laughed.

"Well, call her, offer her a wedding." Karina urged him.

"You have to understand I canceled the wedding, and now you’re telling me to offer her a wedding again? It's just like giving a plastic ring to someone. There is no significance to a wedding proposal, at least not with the same girl. You won’t believe if I tell you half of the world wasn’t talking to me, including my mother."

"Tell her to come here and marry her. What is more beautiful and original with this view, and if you cancel, at least she earned a beautiful trip."

Alon looked at Karina, smiling. "You are smart. I must admit, it sounds less scary to get married here than with four hundred people."

"There is for sure a psychological explanation for this fear, Lots of men have this, wedding phobia right?" Karina turned to Daniel. "Don’t you think it's a great idea if they get married here?"

"Regarding weddings, I think you understand better than me." Daniel replied dryly.

"Well, call her now. Ask her to come to New York. You will get married within a day," she turned back to Alon.

Alon looked at her, "Do you think so?"

Daniel felt himself drift away when he heard Alon was convinced by Karina’s suggestion and offer to call his girlfriend to get married in America. Then, after a while, he heard Karina and Alon agreed to meet the next day after breakfast and after that, he didn’t hear anything else.

48

Benjamin arrived at the hotel and went straight to Gideon's room. He knocked on the door, which was a little bit open,
and entered without waiting for an answer. He saw complete shock on Gideon’s face. "How are you, my brother?"

Gideon was completely surprised and
was not able to fabricate an immediate story about the fact he slept with a man in his room instead of his wife. Benjamin hugged Gideon and shook hands with Alon. "You have a hard worker,"

Benjamin said, then looked at Alon. "If you ever don’t have a job, you can always come to me", he
chuckled. "The guy did an excellent investigation for you huh?" He turned to Gideon again.

"Yes," Gideon replied briefly.

"What are you doing here? Where's your wife? Tell me, did you start to betray her with men?" Benjamin tried to joke. At the same moment there was a knock at the door and Karina came in. "Or perhaps with women?" Benjamin said.

"Karina, meet my friend from the army."

"And who is this beautiful lady, may I ask?"

"I'm their client. They are doing some investigations for me."

"I hope the price is good, because I would have done it for you for free. Where's your beautiful wife? I miss her." Benjamin said back to Gideon.

"She flew back to the country today. We had a quarrel. She did not want to understand I'm here for business." Gideon said and went to the balcony.

"Yes, that's how women are." Benjamin said "You're lucky you know how to investigate better than to lie. How is Alon’s investigation going? What’s going on between Fisher's and Naor’s company? What made you come all the way here?"

"What do you think?" Gideon asked.

"Honestly, I think you have something important to sell to Fisher. I do not know what, but you're holding something is very important to Fisher and you can’t even share with me, your friend."

Gideon admired Benjamin on how he managed to guess they were staying here because of Fisher and not because of Naor. After all, he had checked Naor’s information for them, but nothing about Fisher.’

"Am I right?" Benjamin asked.

Gideon scratched his ear. "Let's just say you have to wait for a few days and I can tell you by then. At the moment, my client Karina does not allow me in any way to share the matter with you. Try to cast your charms on her, and if she agrees, then it’s okay with me."

Benjamin thought that a few days was too long to wait, especially due to the fact they had visited Fisher that same day. He wanted Gideon to throw him a bone
.
It was best to offer Gideon lunch, just the two of them. Maybe if Benjamin could pressure him and remind him of their friendship, Gideon would release the information. "Is it something important?" Benjamin asked.

"It is very important, but clients come first and I believe that it’s also the same for you."

Benjamin got up and tapped Gideon’s shoulder. "Come on, let's eat something. I know a special restaurant on Fifty-sixth. We’ll sit down and remember the old days."

When they opened the door, Daniel was standing at the entrance. Gideon thought nothing more could go wrong. First, Benjamin found him in his room with a man instead of his wife, then Karina entered, who couldn’t get him out of the mud, and now Daniel. Gideon did not know the day before, when he went for a walk in Central Park, Karina and Alon agreed to meet after breakfast and organize his reconciliation with Natalie.

Benjamin looked at Gideon, "Who is this?"

"He’s Karina’s brother."

Benjamin remained standing at the entrance, staring at Daniel. He stood like that for a while, blocking the entrance and looking straight into Daniel’s face.

Gideon could have sworn Benjamin’s face was filled with softness. Gideon pulled Benjamin to the elevator, and thought he had one more week to finish the issue; then he wouldn't have enough strength left to even repel flies. He did not realize when Benjamin looked at Daniel, he remembered the email to Alon, "His son was kidnapped during the negotiations." Benjamin understood the whole story. This ability to perceive things made him the owner of the largest investigating agency in New York.

He said nothing as he entered the elevator with Gideon. It was an awkward silence. Gideon felt Benjamin was just a touch away from the truth, and judging by his face and his behavior he might have touched it already. He decided to tell him the whole truth.

49

For two days, Amos tried to call Gideon, but a code was required. He left messages, but Gideon did not call back. The office didn’t give him an answer as to where or when Gideon would be back. Gideon's wife even tried to avoid the question by guilting Amos over his emotional manipulation. "Ever since I told you about the child's case, he has been mad at me and hasn’t informed me of what is happening." Amos knew that Gideon was angry about the manipulation he did to his wife, that’s why he did not leave him the filtering code.

A short phone call to Benjamin informed him Gideon was in New York and Benjamin even gave him the call filtering code of Gideon without any problem.

Amos sat in his office trying to figure out what Gideon was possibly hiding. If the things he heard from Gideon’s wife about Kowalski were right, then why wouldn’t Gideon or even Daniel force Kowalski to do a test? On the other hand, now that the child was already grown up, they could not force Kowalski or his son Naor to do the test. Amos smiled to himself. He knew as a journalist, he was in a better position to pressure Kowalski especially when there was suspicion of murder. Amos was not worried about Kowalski. Actually, he did not think for a moment there was a chance Kowalski murdered Daniel’s mother, but he realized this was an interesting story and he was almost sure Kowalski could explain it. In any case, Gideon would not lose anything from the investigation, to the contrary, Gideon would be grateful.

He called Kowalski’s house. The answering machine came on, and Amos left a message. After an hour, Kowalski called him. "Mr. Amos, how are you?" Kowalski’s voice was pleasant. "What’s going on? Why are you looking for me?"