Vanished Without A Trace (9 page)

"That's because everything is going better day by day."

"Tell me, how will I pay her salary? Business is not so good, you know." Daniel realized it was no longer about kicking Sultana out after the cleaning. He did not answer, but when he finished his meal, he left a big tip on the table, "This is for Sultana," he said, and headed in the direction of David Continental. He sat in the lobby and had coffee. After he finished, he called Karina. "I’m in the lobby." he informed her briefly.

There was silence from the other line, silence that was expected from her.

"Come up to the suite, and I'll open the floor for you, it is isolated from the rest of the floors. I thought I would get a call from you before you came."

"Did you no?"

"I thought there would be more notice."

"I can come back in an hour."

"It's okay," she said as she noticed the sarcasm in his voice. She quickly went to put on a nice dress, but nothing too fancy. Eventually, when there was a knock at the door, she was already dressed in a white shirt and pants. She put on her shoes just a second before she opened the door. The amused expression on his face reminded her of the roller in her hair she forgot to remove. She pulled at it, a little bit embarrassed. He walked into the living room and sat on the long couch without waiting for an invitation. She stood in front of the small refrigerator. "I do not have anything here except some soft drinks and bottles of alcohol."

"Maybe later," he said, leaving her to wonder about his intentions. She sat across from him, quiet, trying to escape his gaze. "Sixty-forty," he said straight, and without hesitation.

She wanted to agree immediately, that way at least the meeting would be over and would remove the discomfort she felt. "Look, I think my proposal is quite good. You're a young man, inexperienced, and I'm willing to invest a fortune on you. To give you forty percent is a lot, I think."

"Who’s talking about forty percent for me?" Daniel asked.

Her green-brown eyes widened. Daniel sat in front of her, biting his lower lip and playing with his mobile phone with his right hand. The more he was talking out of the blue, the more Karina was attracted to him. "I can’t agree to it. You really have some nerve." She tried to give her voice an authoritarian tone, but all that came out was an insignificant tweet.

"It's not about having the nerve. I just definitely think you will gain a lot in investing with me. "

"I think it’s my turn to take some time to think. I have a huge investment here. You went down from seventy percent to forty, and as I said, you still lack experience. Give me some time to think, at the moment the answer would be negative."

"Theoretically you have seventy," Daniel corrected her and stood up.

"Do you realize you are missing the opportunity of your life?"

"It's strange you’re telling me that. Just a moment ago, you were questioning my abilities, so perhaps the loss is not that big after all, at least to one of us."

He stood near the table and gave her an insignificant smile that she didn’t succeed in understanding. Then he turned and intended to leave, but stopped at the door. "When are you going back to Israel?"

"Two more days," she replied.

"Okay, maybe you might want to have dinner with me today?" He wanted to keep in touch with her, so as not to let the opportunity slip away, even if he had to agree to forty percent or even thirty. He just did not want to keep the ball in her hands.

"Gladly, "she said.

"I'll wait for you at the entrance at eight, okay?"

"Fine!" Karina did not understand what was going on. She was twenty-eight and this guy was just twenty-three, and she couldn’t get him off her mind.

From the hotel, Daniel went to Gustavo's office, as usual, without notifying him of his arrival. He entered the office and sat across from him. He let Gustavo flood him with tons of reasons why he couldn’t entertain him. "Well," Daniel said, just as Gustavo was done grumbling. "I want to upgrade the cabin project in Brasov. I need a higher standard."

"Did you just hear what I’ve said?" Gustavo asked.

"I need it tomorrow," Daniel said, ignoring the question.

Gustavo looked at him. "Do you think I work just for you? Every time you come here, you are always in a hurry."

"I'm not, things just happen so quickly. Besides, this idea of working just for me is not bad at all."

The architect looked at him with a lack of seriousness.

"Well, I offered…" Daniel smiled. "See what you can do about the project. I want to come here tomorrow with the investor and show her the plan. Maybe she might want to make some changes."

"What are you saying? You want the plan tomorrow and at the same time you want to come with the investor? I'm not in the office tomorrow, bad luck."

"So we're in trouble, because the investor will no longer be here the day after tomorrow," he said with a smirk. I’m sorry if I pressure you, but I can’t let the investor take back her plans to invest just because my architect has other plans."

Gustavo blew out, "Well, come early tomorrow. I'll finish with you first and then I will continue my plans."

In the evening, when Daniel drove to meet Karina, he felt more relaxed. The last couple of days were not easy. His insistence to begin the construction of the cabins and Mikhail’s distance as a result, had hampered him. But now, finding an investor probably took some of the burden off his shoulders. When he got to the hotel he found her waiting outside, wearing a black dress that was decorated with different fabrics, and a scarf that covered her shoulders.

"You look pretty good," he said, as he opened the door for her. He drove to the university area, which was also an area where different kinds of restaurant were found. They decided to go to a French restaurant where the seats were divided into cubicles that allow a conversation without interruption. He sat next to her, allowing her to feel the occasional touch of his hand. After pouring wine into the glasses, they made a toast.

"Toast for what?" Karina asked.

"For Success in business, of course," Daniel replied.

"Do you want to talk about percentage?"

"No, I prefer to talk about it when you're a little drunk."

Karina didn’t think she needed to drink to get drunk; Daniel’s presence was enough to stir her mind. "Right now I have lots of good desire," she said.

"Do you have a good desire for fifty-fifty?" Daniel asked.

"I wanted to tell you that I am taking yesterday’s offer, but let’s make a toast for a fifty-fifty offer."

Daniel touched her glass. "Cheers for a good business venture!"

"Are you not sorry? Now you lost ten percent," she teased him.

"After I met you, I can’t rob more than fifty percent from you."

When they finished the meal, Daniel left his car in the parking lot and they walked a long way on foot, laughing and swinging with exaggeration.

"I think we should go to my room, our situation is not good." Karina said. Daniel had to agree. It was not really advisable for him to roam around the streets of Bucharest in a situation like this. They sat on the comfortable chairs on the balcony of her room, while Daniel laughed at her offer to have some hard drinks.

"Tell me about yourself", Karina surprised him.

"You don’t even know what kind of movies you are asking to go into." He joked. But a second later he became serious. This was the power of alcohol, making a fool of yourself in one way or another. Manic depression, he thought, when he felt the situation turned into sadness and self-pity. He found himself telling her about the boarding school and about his mother who ran away to America and left him at the mercy of his grandfather, who disowned him. He tried to fight the depression that attacked him, but he failed. The empathy in her eyes made him feel he was trapped. He did not want this. Those were the beers and whiskey that were mixed and spoke from his throat, controlling every syllable that came out of his mouth.

"I can’t believe it. Moshe Kowalski is your grandfather?"

Daniel nodded, turned his face away and lay down on the tanning bed, looking at the sky. "I was five years old when she left for America. I remember we flew to Israel to visit my grandfather in his office, and after that, she flew to America and I never saw her again."

Karina noticed the angry gestures in his hands as if he was trying to erase the distressing thought.

"Wait, wait ...take it slow. You can’t tell me those things in just two sentences. Are you saying you are the grandson of Kowalski? C’mon, elaborate more."

"What’s more to elaborate? I was just five years old." He smiled.

"Did you not try to find your mother?"

"Actually Mikhail, my partner, helped me try to find someone from the family here, but it was such a mess. We didn’t succeed."

"Would you like me to try to locate her in America for you? It's not a very hard task, you know."

He brought the chair near her. His face was close to her. She closed her eyes and felt his lips slightly brush her lips. "Well, I need to go," he said, while his face was still close to her. "I'd like to stay with you tonight, but I guess we did a lot in one night. Besides, we are both drunk, and it’s not good to do things we might regret tomorrow."

"Yes, but still, it would be wiser if you stay here. You can’t drive in such a condition." she said quietly.

"You're right, I'll take a cab. Just do not forget tomorrow morning we will have a meeting with the architect. I want to show you the plans and let you decide if you want a change or take the plan with you and consult with someone else."

"Yes, I think I should take the plan with me and consult with someone so we can start to move things and attract potential investors and buyers. I know at least twenty people. Just the fact I took part in the project would be enough for them to put their money in it. For them it's not a very big investment."

The next day, in Gustavo's office, Daniel was surprised by Karina. She analyzed the plans for more than half an hour. From time to time she asked pertinent questions to Gustavo who explained everything in detail and was moved by her beauty. He forgot he was in a hurry for a very important meeting. Karina made minor changes and admitted to herself the architect was a real prodigy – a divine architect

"How did you find him?" She asked as they left the office.

"I searched for a young architect in his early years." Daniel smiled. He drove in silence to the lawyer's office and Karina’s lawyer was already waiting. Karina signed the papers to transfer the funds to the company account for the completion of the bungalow project in Brasov. Just after it was all carried out, Daniel was able to feel the air he breathed. When he took her back to the hotel, he could not find the right words to thank her. Karina felt a strong need to invite him up to her room, but she was afraid he would recognize her intentions. She got out of the car, shaking his hand like a distant friend. The magic of the day before was gone as if it was never there. Now, they were like two strangers who had just met.

"Have a good trip, we will be in touch," that was all he said. She gave him a dull and a frustrated smile.

Daniel stopped at the traffic light. He couldn’t believe all of these good things were happening to him here and now. He could settle down within a year and return to Israel, to Neta. Oh, how she seemed so distant. He hoped his fate would not disappoint him and Neta would still want him the way he wanted her, though three years had already passed.

13

Karina was sitting in her office, in love. This trip was something special. When her friend suggested she join the cruise from Turkey to Romania, it did not seem exciting to her, but it was not nice to refuse. Since the death of her husband, everybody tried to entertain her, visit her, invite her to their homes or even find a match, but she evaded all the offers. This time she had no excuses, and she was captured by the beauty of the sea. Somehow, there was something calming in it. An hour after they started the cruise, there were no more memories left from these thoughts. The sea was stormy and noisy. The yacht shook left and right, back and forth, and she consoled herself by the fact it was a motor boat and not a sailboat, and her journey would only take twelve hours instead of thirty-six. The stickers she put behind her ears were useful only to prevent nausea, but they could not prevent the tormenting and shaking. Her friends, however, did not feel the shaking at all. She didn’t even get excited at the crowd of dolphins. The only excitement that radiated from her was the sight of the land when they approached Romania and saw signs of civilization.

All the agony turned out to be worthwhile the moment she saw Daniel stepping on the dock waking the marina from a nap. There wasn’t too much to do in the Marina other than random encounters with each other. Daniel's proposal to take everyone who wanted to see the cabins made everybody excited, especially her, who gained an additional meeting with him. Her friends noticed her sudden arousal, and she was worried they were able to read her mind.

When they returned from Romania, she did not dare to tell her friends she became Daniel's partner, for the fear they would just laugh at her with contempt for her lack of knowledge in business. But here, it was not about business, it was about a man; the only one who managed to inspire her heart. She had a boyfriend for several months, but she was not in love with him. She had never been in love all her life, until now.

She called a taxi and went to see Gilad, a friend and a senior police officer. "Hello, beautiful. What honor did I earn that brought you all the way to me?"

"Information," Karina said, "I want information about Julia Montaigne. She left Israel for America in nineteen eighty-three ..."

"Can I ask who she is?"

Karina told Gilad the things Daniel told her and asked him to keep quiet about it, especially all matters related to Moshe Kowalski, at least until all things became clear.

Gilad looked at her in disbelief. "Don’t tell me you agreed to invest your money with this guy. Don’t tell me you believed in this story. Do you know how many cheaters there are in Romania?"