The Hit

by Michal Hartstein

  "You probably know already that Koby Ozri was a former felon and an active police informer."

  "So I heard."

  "But you're telling me that the shooter was shooting in your direction and not at Koby."

  Yoav breathed deeply. "I don't understand anything about the world of crime and about police matters, but if you ask me, that man was shooting at Shirley. That’s why I was wounded so badly."

  I made a great effort to hide my surprise. These words could turn around the entire investigation. Up to that moment, I had assumed that Shirley was an innocent victim of unfortunate circumstances.

  "Do you mean to tell me that the shooter killed Shirley Navon on purpose?"

  "I’m almost certain he did," he said, and bit his lip. "Almost certain… uh… you… uh… you've got to understand that it was a matter of seconds, and I’m not exactly used to such situations. But I remember it quite well. It's actually the last thing I remember of the entire incident, before one of his bullets hit me and I lost consciousness."

  "Which means there’s no point me asking you if you saw him shoot Koby…"

  "No. It must have happened after he shot Shirley and me. That is, he shot Shirley, I’m almost certain about that. I was simply hit by accident. I remember clearly that he was holding his gun up straight and pointed it - actually aimed it - at Shirley."

  "Did you know Shirley? Was she a steady customer?"

  "She came in once in a while."

  "To eat in? Take out?"

  "Both. She worked at one of the offices nearby, as far as I know."

  "She worked at Panda."

  "That's right!" He smiled. "She brought us branded gifts on Passover. Charming girl."

  "Yes. This is what I understand from her parents, as well." I thought about Shirley's father, how agitated he had been by his daughter's tragic and inadvertent death. Was her death really a terrible mistake? The testimony I had just heard was intriguing and unusual, but entirely illogical. I found it hard to believe that Shirley Navon, a young student, had been a target of the underworld. Still, there was no way I could disregard this testimony. I would have to consider other investigative directions. Everything would be a lot simpler if we could finally track down the killer and interrogate him.

  After taking my leave from Yoav, I entered the comfortable, air-conditioned Weitzman Mall. I decided that my digestive system deserved something less challenging than the food offered by the questionable food stalls in the Central Station area, so I sat down in an Aroma Café franchise.

  While I was eating and leafing through the daily issue of Israel Today, a female voice addressed me. "Excuse me?"

  I raised my eyes; it was a young woman with the round belly of pregnancy. "May I take this chair?" She pointed at the empty chair next to me.

  "Sure," I said with a full mouth. She smiled with gratitude. There was something pleasant and soft about her. She caressed her belly and held her back with her other hand for a moment, the way many pregnant women did, I’d noticed. It was probably due to the backache that came along with pregnancy. "Wait up!" I almost shouted when I realized that she intended to pick up the chair and take it away. "Let me help you."

  "There's no need," she smiled, embarrassed.

  "Nonsense. Where do you want it?" I asked. She pointed at a nearby table.

  "Thank you," she said and sat down. "In fact, I’ve just come from the clinic. They told me to rest up. So you’ve been really helpful. Thank you."

  "No problem," I smiled. "My pleasure. Do you need me to bring you your order from the counter?"

  "No," she laughed. "The extra chair’s for my husband. Here he is, with our order." She pointed over my shoulder.

  I turned around.

  It was Yinon.

  CHAPTER 12

  It took both of us a while to come to our senses. We simply stood in front of each other with a frozen look, not knowing what to say or do.

  "Hi," I said to break the odd silence.

  "What are you doing here?" he asked.

  "Eating lunch."

  He shook his head. "No. I meant what are you doing here, next to our table?"

  By this time, Orit had already internalized that we were not strangers. "You know each other?" she asked, but we were busy being startled, so her question hung in the air.

  "I’m sitting over there," I pointed to my table. "I helped Orit bring you a chair."

  "Thank you," he smiled and recalled that he had to perform a round of introductions. He put down the tray of sandwiches and coffee on the table and introduced me to Orit. "Orit, may I introduce Hadas, my ex-wife."

  "What?!" Her eyes opened wide in incredulity. "What a coincidence."

  For a moment, it looked like Orit was going to introduce herself, but Yinon was ahead of her. "Orit’s my partner," he said, his eyes shifting sideways. I knew him. He wanted to escape, but had nowhere to go. "And as you see, we're pregnant."

  "I heard about it," I said and released him from his agony.

  "How?"

  "I met Revital a few days ago and she told me."

  "She didn’t tell me she’d bumped into you."

  "Are you in such a close relationship?" I wondered.

  "I’m quite close to Ronen. Well, maybe they didn’t imagine we’d run into each other. So, well, now you can see for yourself, not just hear about it."

  "My pleasure," I smiled at Orit and extended my hand to her. She pressed it feebly.

  "I was actually wondering why a woman would be walking around with a gun, but Yinon told me you're a policewoman."

  "That's right."

  "Perhaps you'll join us?" she suggested. "I noticed you only just started eating."

  "With pleasure," I said. I was curious. I wanted to get to know Orit and also to speak with Yinon.

  We joined our tables together and I returned to my pasta dish.

  "Now that I know who you are, I can see you really look like the pictures Yinon showed me," Orit said and examined me thoroughly.

  "I don't look my best today," I said. “I've been on surveillance for two days."

  Orit gaped in curiosity. She placed her elbows on the table and held her chin in the palms of her hands. She was all ears and excited. "Really? You don't say! Who are you following?"

  "I can't talk about it."

  She ignored what I said. "Is it someone here? At the hospital?"

  "No."

  "Is everything alright with you?" Yinon asked with concern that warmed my heart.

  "Yes. Why are you asking?"

  "Well, you're in the café attached to the hospital…"

  "Everything's alright," I smiled and rushed to change the direction of the conversation. "And what about you two? Are you alright?"

  "The doctors say everything’s normal," said Orit.

  "Did something happen to give you cause for concern?"

  "Orit tends to faint during pregnancy," Yinon put in.

  "And this is considered normal?"

  "Everything's alright!" Orit burst in before Yinon could get a word in. "Yinon worries too much."

  I wanted Yinon to be concerned about me again, but his concerned gaze was focused on Orit and her round belly.

  "How many months?"

  "I’m in the twenty-ninth week." I stared at her with a hollow gaze.

  "The seventh month," translated Yinon.

  Orit related the challenges of her pregnancy and I was as bored as I had ever been during any conversation about this topic with any girlfriend or with my sisters. She complained to me that Yinon was too worried about her and too protective, as if there was some sort of a womanly camaraderie between the two of us – Yinon's women. I finished eating quickly and got up. "I must get back to work. Good luck with everything," I said and left, almost running.

  The encounter with Yinon was not as difficult as it was embarrassing and onerous. Though I had already known that he was in a new relationship and expecting a child, the encounter with him unsettled me completely.

 
I returned to South Tel-Aviv, but could not concentrate on anything. Orit told me she had seen my picture, which meant that Yinon had kept my pictures, at least one of them. I had thrown away all my pictures of him. I did not want to remember him, and, with time, his image had started to fade in my memory. It was so odd seeing him again. Face to face. He had not changed much -

  "Are you alright?" Someone cut off my train of thought. Shachar, my colleague.

  "So-so… I’m tired, I guess."

  "Then go home. I’ll fill in for you," suggested Shachar. Unusually for me, I accepted his offer and drove home.

  I heard Tsumi's joyful barking as soon as I reached the entrance to my apartment building. Why was he barking like that? I turned on the light in the stairwell and noticed someone lying on my doorstep. I drew my hand to my gun automatically. As I drew closer, the person got up.

  It was Yinon.

  "What are you doing here?" I asked, opening the door.

  "I had to talk to you," he said and followed me into the apartment without asking my permission.

  Tsumi leaped on us in a series of excited jumps and licking. He was barking with enthusiasm and skipped happily from me to Yinon, like a little child whose parents have finally gotten back together. Yinon bent down and hugged the dog warmly.

  "Does he need to go out?" he asked.

  "He was walked by the neighbors' daughter this afternoon. I’ll take him later."

  Yinon wanted to get up from the floor, but as far as Tsumi was concerned, there was no chance of that, and after so many months of separation, he would not be satisfied with a brief petting. The pleasure-seeking dog rolled over and Yinon started to pet his stomach. After a few minutes, he left the dog and followed me into the kitchen.

  "Do you bathe him sometimes?" he asked, washing his hands, which were black from the lengthy massage he had given Tsumi.

  "Once in a while," I answered impatiently. "Do you want anything to eat? I’m making myself a toastie with Swiss cheese."

  "No, thanks. I’ll get myself something to drink, though," he said and opened the refrigerator as casually as if it were his own. He looked at the bare shelves in my refrigerator for a long moment. Finally, he took out a near-empty container of orange juice and poured it into a clean glass he found in the cabinet.

  "My refrigerator’s usually less empty," I tried to justify myself. "I’m simply in the midst of a high-pressure investigation."

  "Are you still working with that Alon?"

  "Yes."

  "I think it's abnormal to live like this."

  "Sorry. I haven't read the Guide for Normal Life," I said, and he laughed.

  "I mean, getting home late like this, eating irregularly. It doesn’t seem healthy to me."

  "Since we were married for several years, I remember you too, like many other common high-tech slaves, coming home late."

  "But at least I eat healthy food regularly."

  "I assume Orit takes care of it."

  "She does. She’s into home cooking."

  "So you've settled down."

  Yinon was silent. He looked at me, his eyes full of anger - or guilt. I could not decipher it. After all, we had not been together for several years, and had not seen each other at all for over a year-and-a-half.

  "I had to speak with you," he said. "I’ve wanted to contact you for a long time, but I simply didn’t have an opportunity."

  "Did you lose my phone number?"

  "I couldn't manage to call you," he said, embarrassed. "It's hard for me," he added, his voice trembling.

  "Yinon, you don't have to ask my permission to date another woman," I said in the most encouraging tone I could manage. The Swiss cheese in the toastie machine started to bubble. I turned it off and put the sandwich on a plate. "Let's go in the living room," I suggested and went to sit on the sofa.

  Yinon sat opposite me and finished the rest of the juice in his glass in one gulp. "It’s important for me that you understand what happened. Last time we spoke, we parted from each other in tears, and less than two years later you meet me with a pregnant woman."

  "Yinon, we talked about this about a billion times. This was exactly the reason for our separation: you wanted kids, I didn’t. It's your right to find yourself another woman and have kids with her," I said. In fact, I was trying to convince myself.

  "So you're completely fine with it?"

  "I won’t lie to you. I took it hard when Revital told me about it. But, after all, I knew this day would come."

  "I'm really sorry you had to find out like that," he said and got up to put the empty glass in the sink. For a moment I was afraid, or hoped, that he would come back and sit next to me, but he returned to his seat. "I really wanted to contact you, but it was hard for me. Orit’s had a lot of problems with the pregnancy, so I truly couldn’t find the right time."

  "Are you married?"

  "Not yet."

  "Not yet?"

  "We thought about getting married early on in the pregnancy, when she wasn’t showing yet. But Orit was sick all the time and it was hard for her to organize it. I suggested we get married in the office of the Rabbinate, but she wanted a wedding in a banquet hall, the white dress, all her friends and all that."

  "How old is she?"

  "Twenty-eight."

  "Then she’s at an age when the party’s important to her."

  "You were also twenty-eight when we got married, but the party didn’t really interest you," he reminded me.

  The real reason I registered at the Rabbinate, wore a white dress and smiled forced smiles for an entire evening had been the knowledge that my parents would not have given me the money for an apartment without the Rabbinate's seal. Since, fundamentally, I had nothing against the institution of marriage, and since I knew that Yinon really, really wanted a wedding, I went along with it. When nobody could see or hear me, I could even admit to myself that I enjoyed it.

  "But, the fact is, we did have a wedding - the full works," I smiled.

  He smiled back. "We had a beautiful wedding."

  "It really was."

  "In any case, the party’s really important for Orit," he continued.

  "And for you?"

  "I admit, less so…"

  "So why are you two planning to do it, then?"

  "I don’t think she should give up something that’s so important to her. In any case, it won’t be a big event." He stopped for a moment and tried to organize his thoughts. "Wait up, I’m getting things confused here. I want to begin at the beginning."

  "You can begin wherever you want."

  "I want to tell you exactly how it started, so you understand that it was all very fortuitous."

  "You don't have to explain anything to me."

  "But I want to," he said. "I think the last time I was here, the pain in my hip joint had just started giving me some trouble. Do you remember it?"

  "I remember something." I remembered perfectly well. It was another innocent meeting that had ended between the sheets. Yinon made a wrong move and cried out in pain. I cried in panic. A few days after that, we decided to stop seeing each other.

  "I went to an orthopedist and he recommended Pilates. I signed up at the gym near my home and I met Orit there."

  "Yes, I heard from Revital that Orit’s a Pilates instructor."

  "Right."

  "This was truly how we met. I didn’t register on a dating site, and she wasn’t introduced to me by someone trying to fix me up. People tried to fix me up with women incessantly. They wouldn’t stop bugging me to join dating sites, but it was hard for me." He lowered his eyes. "It was difficult for me to take steps that meant the termination of our relationship. I gather… although we decided to cut off any contact between us, I still hoped…" He raised his eyes and I noticed they were glistening.

  "In any case, the moment I met Orit, things just started happening on their own. More accurately, they happened because Orit had made them happen. I don't know. Maybe if I was looking for a relationship today
, it might have been another girl. I admit I wasn’t ripe and ready, but she accepted me the way I was."

  "Did she know about me?"

  "She knows I was married before and the reason we separated, but not a lot more. She doesn’t like asking about you, and I don't like telling her."

  "Does she know you're here now?"

  "What?" he asked, horrified. "I slipped out after she fell asleep. She sleeps a lot now she’s pregnant."

  "Well, she’s sleeping for two," I laughed and Yinon joined me.

  "I admit it’s very flattering when a woman loves you like that," he continued. "And it's clear to me that Orit loves me a lot, otherwise she wouldn’t have behaved the way she did. She didn’t play games with me at all. Right away, she made it clear to me and to everybody around that she wanted me and wouldn’t give up. I admit - it was appealing."

  "You don't have to apologize."

  "I’m not apologizing. I’m only telling you what happened. Two months after we met, she moved in with me. In fact, the circumstances sort of led up to it. Her lease was up and she had to leave her apartment. My apartment’s near the gym, so it was quite logical for her to move in with me."

  I smiled to myself. The girl simply marked her target and didn’t give up.

  "Six months after Orit had moved in with me, we found out about the baby coming. It was unplanned…" he hurried to explain.

  I signed inwardly. Yinon was so naïve. I had no doubt that the pregnancy was planned - but by only one party in that relationship.

  "By the time we found out, Orit was already in the third month. Her periods are irregular, so she didn't even know she was pregnant."

  I made an effort not to burst out laughing. Even with my limited knowledge of female fertility, I knew that the third month was more or less the time when an abortion became impossible. The girl had it all planned.

  "And how did you feel when you found out you were going to be a father?"

  "Very excited," he answered, embarrassed. "I admit, it was hard to get used to the new relationship, but the thought that I was about to become a father simply stunned me. I’d waited for it so long." His eyes filled with tears.