by Niv Kaplan
The two agents knelt beside her.
"Are you Karen?" Janey asked softly, supporting the teetering frame.
The woman nodded staring at them numbly.
Janey shot Sheridan an abrupt look and the two agents lifted her and rushed her to their cars.
EPILOGUE
Three figures appeared faintly in the haze, slowly inching up the steep incline on a hot summer day among marble gravestones in a cemetery on Mount Carmel. On the fourth anniversary of Captain Gabi Gadot's death, Mikki looked around at the assembled crowd.
Yossi Gadot was speaking over his brother's grave, combining his own words with phrases from the Bible. Yossi's wife Gila stood by him to one side with their daughter Ronit, now a slender seven, and their four-year-old son Gabriel, named after the Captain. On his other flank stood Rachel, Gabi's widow with Jonathan, now nine, and redhead Assaf, a spitting image of his late father, now twelve. Rachel Gadot had never remarried.
Yossi's parents stood a little to the side holding hands, his mother blowing into a handkerchief. Next to them stood Ruthi, Gabi's former secretary, holding a wreath of red flowers.
Sarah stood apart on an elevated patch of ground in her usual jeans and baseball cap, hands in her back pockets, eyes camouflaged with dark sunglasses. Mikki felt Naomi stirring by his side. They had been spending quite a bit of time together since Eitan was buried, six months ago, after he and eight others were found dead in the aftermath of the well-publicized Oyster Bay massacre, as the tabloids had extravagantly proclaimed the affair that shocked the Long Island community and America.
None of them would ever forget, Mikki thought, still wavering every time he was reminded of the dreadful funeral, him walking in the rain among Eitan's family, friends, and members of the kibbutz, following the wooden casket to his final resting place. He had felt responsible then and from time to time he still pondered it.
Facing Eitan's parents was worst of all but he had prevailed, sitting through the customary mourning period of seven days, spending time with the family telling of the affair and of Eitan's heroic effort to save Karen.
No one knew exactly what had gone on during those decisive moments inside the house, and Mikki could only piece together the events from bits and pieces of testimony coming from forensic reports he was allowed to see, a few of the neighbors talking to the media, and the FBI agents who first appeared on the scene.
It was during that period that he became close to Naomi who had been just as devastated but managed to keep him acceptable company. Together they would visit Eitan's fresh grave each day of the seven-day period and would sit and talk about him helping one another ease the pain. Nadav would sometimes join them, keeping in touch throughout, whenever the military allowed him time off.
Sarah, too, had been there. Partial details of the affair leaked to the Israeli media and the evening papers were willing to pay handsomely for her personal side of their story. But they were gagged by a pact Resnik and his lot had drawn up as a condition to giving Dan Arbel the assurances he had requested and Sarah had missed out on what could have been the biggest story of her career and even more disheartening, letting Gabi's assassins off the hook.
The figures were quite close now, slowing their pace down so as not to disturb the eulogy. Karen, her hair blonde again and quite grown, was pressed between Lisa and Nadav who was now a civilian.
Mikki watched her gingerly nod her head in the direction of the few people who had turned to stare, then as the trio stopped next to Sarah, her gaze landed on him and she seemed to relax a bit, flashing him a tender smile, reminiscent of the one he could still recall, the day he first saw her.
She looked recovered, tastefully dressed and properly made up, but he knew the mental wounds were quite deep and still open. She had escaped the shootout with minor injuries, and hers was the only true testimony of what had happened inside, though she had admitted most of it was a blur.
He had seen her in the Long Island hospital immediately after getting word that she had been released, but upon the discovery of Eitan's fate, he had gotten extremely busy with the arrangements, notifying the family and flying the body to Israel, so they ended up with little time together.
In the hospital she had looked frail but surprisingly animated, holding on to both Lisa and him for dear life, crying and laughing at the same time. They had sat with her until morning when the FBI agents came back to check on her and with them came the confirmation of Eitan's death, as they asked Mikki to help identify the body. Accompanying the federal agents to the morgue he had learned of the bloody battle and its horrifying consequences. Most of the bodies had not been identified by then, but when they eventually were, the name Dan Hasson, alias Dan Arbel, was not among them.
Three months later he was invited to visit her in Los Angeles and they spent several days together. Her father had left the house and was renting somewhere, spending most of his time preparing for the Langone trial in which he was the star witness for the prosecution. Lisa was back at her old job, working for Ed Lambert.
Of all her wounds, none had cut deeper than her father's betrayal; that was beyond comprehension and though she managed to articulate the pain she found it difficult to talk about. The rest, she could talk about, though Mikki suspected she did not reveal all, particularly shying away from issues having to do with her relations with her captors. But just seeing her able to communicate and smile after three and a half years in captivity, telling him most of what had happened to her since that terrible instant at the Kiryat Shmona gas station, was all he had hoped for and more, finally allowing him to slam the door shut on that gaping abyss in his life.
In the four days they had rediscovered each other and had parted with a friendship of a different nature. Now, as he looked across at the beautiful woman he had helped give a second chance at life, watching her shake the hands offered to her as people began dispersing after the last of the eulogies had been given, and as he felt Naomi's hand clutch his own, he knew he had at last found some peace.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Niv Kaplan was born on Kibbutz Ayelet Hashahar in Northern Israel in 1959. At age 11 he moved with his parents to NYC for three years. After completing high school, Niv served three years in a special-forces reconnaissance outfit and had taken an active part in forming the IDF’s Alpine unit which he served in reserve duty.
Niv received his BSc degree in Business Development (Marketing) from the Cal State University Northridge in 1992, spending close to ten years in New York and Los Angeles. He started writing Disappearance right after receiving his university degree, completing it in 1997. The book was written in English, translated and published in Hebrew in Israel in June, 2012, and had since sold over 6000 copies, received praise for its suspenseful plot, precise structure, and identifiable characters, and is considered a surprise success for a first time author in Israel.
Niv's second book has been completed in English this year, translated to Hebrew and will be in bookstores this year.
Niv has been working in the Aerospace industry for the last 19 years, marketing electro-optical sensors to fighter aircraft.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PROLOGUE
PART ONE THE ABDUCTION
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
PART TWO THE DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
PART THREE THE HUNT
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAP
TER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
PART FOUR THE SIGHTING
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
PART FIVE SHOWDOWN
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR