Lineup (14 page)

Chapter 24

ELI
Nachum stepped out of the office of his commander, Superintendent Moshe Navon, and leaned on the wall in an effort to tame the storm raging inside him. Without the wall for support, he felt his knees would buckle, and he couldn’t allow that to happen. He’d always been careful to keep his feelings to himself, especially when it came to work. All these years he’d built up the image of a tough cop who was as hard on himself as he was on subordinates or suspects.

A cop walking down the hall threw him a puzzled look, undoubtedly wondering what he was doing standing there like a zombie, not moving. Nachum flashed him a polite smile, gesturing for him to keep going. There’s nothing to see here.

“You okay?” the cop asked, stopping anyway.

“I’m good,” Nachum said, nodding with obvious impatience.

The cop gave him another curious look and went on his way. He had to get out of here. It wouldn’t be long before everyone knew what had gone down in the superintendent’s office. Malicious tongues would wag. At least he had to prevent them from adding a melodramatic description of him standing stock-still in the hallway as pale as a ghost.

Nachum had known he’d pay a heavy price for fucking up the Regev case. He’d been hoping Galit wouldn’t reveal his role in the screwup, although he knew the chances of that happening were slim. He’d prepared himself for his commander’s recriminations, an official reprimand in his file, or worse. But not this. After years of working side by side with him, Navon had informed him that he was suspended for two months, pending the decision of whether or not to convene a disciplinary hearing. “IA is in the picture, and they’re not going to look the other way,” Navon had said quietly.

The color had drained from his face. He’d tried to explain that he’d only been trying to save the case, to clean up the mess the victim’s father had made. Navon merely nodded. From the glazed look in his eyes, Nachum could tell that he wasn’t interested in hearing what he had to say. The meeting was only a matter of protocol. The decision had been made.

Nachum’s mouth went dry. He was familiar enough with the system to know that this suspension meant the end of the line for him. He felt the rage building up inside him. After all these years of devoted service, he deserved better. He had no intention of going quietly, of letting them throw him to the dogs.

But before he could utter a word in his defense, the door opened, and with perfect timing that seemed highly suspect, Navon’s assistant walked in and told him the district commander wanted to see him urgently. Obviously anticipating the supposed summons, Navon jumped up quickly. What a coward.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, patting Nachum on the back as he ushered him out. “As long as the national press doesn’t get its teeth into it, as long as it doesn’t go further than that local guy Giladi, I’ll do whatever I can to avoid a disciplinary hearing.”

“And what if you can’t?”

“We both know there are creative solutions to the problem if it comes to that,” Navon said, barely above a whisper. Nachum didn’t need him to spell it out: he could take early retirement.

“This isn’t right, Moshe,” Nachum answered angrily. “Everything I did was for the good of the case, just like always. I was put in an impossible position and I did what I had to do.”

Navon remained silent, making the detective’s blood boil even more. When they wanted to, the higher-ups knew very well how to turn a blind eye, to cover for a cop in order to make Internal Affairs go away. He used to enjoy that sort of immunity. Apparently, he didn’t anymore.

“Everything’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ll look out for you,” Navon had muttered, virtually shoving him out the door.

Nachum moved away from the wall and started down the hall. His feet felt like lead. Despite Navon’s parting words, he didn’t have a good feeling about this. He was very good at reading between the lines.

What would he tell his wife? His kids? He worked long hours and brought his work home with him, but they knew they could count on him to be their rock, to provide for them. Now what? He’d be out of a job? Mope around the house all day? He had to do something.

He needed a strategy. The police force was more than just a job. He’d invested his heart and soul in it, the best years of his life. And he loved his work. Was it all over for him?

No way! He wasn’t going to throw in the towel. If he had to, he’d knock on every door, and if they threw him out the door, he’d climb in through the window. There were plenty of people on the job who’d understand what he’d done, plenty of people who remembered what he’d been like in his heyday and still looked up to him. Taking encouragement from these thoughts, his mood was lighter as he went down the stairs. It wasn’t over yet. He’d still have the last word.

He decided to go by his office and make sure he didn’t leave anything behind. As he passed Ohad’s office, he stopped. Ohad was sitting behind the desk with a big grin on his face, surrounded by the cops who’d been Nachum’s subordinates until a few minutes ago. They seemed to be having a grand old time. News of his suspension had traveled fast. He didn’t even get the chance to tell them himself.

He felt like he’d been punched in the gut. In a month’s time they’d come and say they were sorry to inform him that they’d decided to convene a disciplinary hearing, or worse. Holding that gun to his head, they’d give him the friendly advice to take early retirement.

He moved a few steps back. He didn’t want them to see him like this: angry, hurt, humiliated. He had to get out of there fast.

He was starting down the stairs to the exit when he heard Ohad behind him. “Wait up, Eli. I want to talk to you.”

He took the stairs two at a time, pretending not to hear.

Chapter 25

MERAV
was waiting to order a salad at the deli under her office. She glanced impatiently at the long line ahead of her that was inching forward very slowly. She had to pick Gili up from preschool at four thirty, and she couldn’t be late. She was all on her own. There was no one else to do things for her, no one to share her burdens. She knew she’d be eating at her desk again today.

The first time she heard her name called, she thought she must be mistaken. He was in jail, wasn’t he? Being held on suspicion of rape. She’d heard from the friend of a friend of a friend that they had a rock-solid case against him, so there was no chance he’d be getting out anytime soon. She was stunned when she learned of his arrest. It might be true that you never really know someone, not even the people closest to you, that everyone has secrets, but she didn’t believe for a second that Ziv could commit rape. Despite what she thought of him, and despite the violence of their last encounter, she knew he could never do such a thing. Not Ziv. “Merav,” she heard again in a soft voice. Turning around, she saw him standing right behind her in line. How could that be?

“What are you doing here?” she whispered. Alarmed, she took a step back. She hadn’t been this close to him in a very long time. “They let me go,” he said. “They realized it wasn’t me, they made a mistake.”

When he was arrested, her divorce attorney, Guy Bernstein, told her she’d be able to get whatever she wanted now: sole custody of Gili, supervised visitation once a week with no sleepovers, increased child support. His arrest was like an atom bomb in the war between them, he’d said, almost licking his chops. Still, she was glad to see that he’d been released and was no longer suspected of rape. And not just so Gili wouldn’t have to bear the stain of being a rapist’s son for the rest of his life. Not just for Ziv’s sake either. It was also because it confirmed what her heart had always told her—Ziv wasn’t a bad man. He wasn’t capable of hurting anyone intentionally. She was still furious with him for cheating on her, for lying to her for months about the real reason he lost his job, for ruining the family financially and destroying their marriage. She was still paying off the debts that had piled up when he wasn’t earning a salary, and child support was a joke. He hadn’t been able to make regular payments since the divorce.

When a friend recommended she hire Bernstein, she hadn’t hesitated for a second. He had a reputation for taking no prisoners. Bernstein told her she’d have to file for divorce with the rabbinical court, and they always favored the husband. If she didn’t want to see Ziv walk away with everything despite the affair, she had to be ruthless. “You don’t have a choice,” he repeated whenever she showed any sign of weakness or questioned a tactic he proposed. Trusting in his sharp legal mind, and eager to get back at Ziv and hurt him as much as he’d hurt her, she agreed to do exactly as he said. That’s why she’d filed a complaint against him for assault. It’s true he’d pushed her, and she’d been shocked and frightened by his unaccustomed violence, but even then she’d known he hadn’t meant to do her harm and he was sorry for it the minute it happened.

“WE
have to talk,” he said, moving nearer to close the distance she’d opened between them.

She stared at him in silence, unsure how to respond. They’d met in the army. She’d been stationed at the command post of his sapper unit. One day he came into the office to talk to the unit commander. While he was waiting, he told her he’d come to try to convince him to go easy on a soldier who’d gone AWOL. The guy’s father had died, and ever since he’d disappeared from base from time to time. But he always came back. She listened without interrupting, enchanted by the handsome, charismatic officer who cared so much about his soldiers. When he came out of the meeting, he stopped by her desk to tell her he’d managed to talk the commander into looking the other way. She couldn’t believe it. The colonel had a reputation for being very tough on anyone who thought the rules didn’t apply to them. “How did you do that?” she asked. “I invoked the brotherhood of orphans,” he said with a wink. She assumed he was teasing her and took offense. It was only later that she learned he’d lost both his parents in a car crash.

A few months later she ran into him at a party in Tel Aviv. She didn’t expect him to remember her, but he did. He came over to talk to her. He was even more handsome out of uniform. Uncharacteristically, at the end of the night she found herself in his bed.

Their relationship moved fast. They spent every free moment together. He wooed her, pampered her, pleasured her. Merav was ecstatic. Very soon, he was part of the family. He’d been on his own since the death of his parents, and her family embraced him warmly. He responded in kind.

“What do you want?” she said icily.

It was because of their history that she was so angry with him. She’d loved him with all her heart and trusted him implicitly.

“I have to talk to you,” he pressed.

“I have nothing to say to you,” she snapped back. Time had taken the edge off her anger, but she still couldn’t forgive him. The situation was becoming awkward. She didn’t know how to back down from the embattled stance she’d adopted.

“Please, Merav, I’m begging you. It’s important,” he said gently, putting his hand on her arm. She’d gotten thinner. She’d lost at least ten pounds since the last time he saw her. And she looked tired, and worse—harried.

“Okay, so talk,” she said stiffly.

“Not here,” he said, nodding toward the bench outside.

She looked at her watch. If she left the line now, she wouldn’t have time to come back. She’d have to skip lunch, which meant she’d be hungry and out of sorts when she picked up Gili. Nevertheless, and despite her lawyer’s explicit instructions never to talk to her ex-husband without recording the conversation, she decided to follow him outside. The urgency in his voice convinced her she ought to hear what he had to say.

Merav gazed at Ziv in silence. She could barely see any resemblance between the man sitting beside her and the strong young officer who had swept her off her feet. He seemed tense and kept scanning the street as if he were looking for someone. An alarming thought flashed through her mind. Maybe they didn’t release him, maybe he escaped.

“You’ve got to get Gili and disappear for a few days,” Ziv said.

“What are you talking about?” He wasn’t making any sense.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes, Merav. Not only with you.” She was losing patience with him. She stood up. Ziv planted himself in front of her. With a somber expression on his face, he looked her straight in the eye.

“Gili may be in danger because of something I did. There are people who may try to hurt him, bad people . . . criminals.”

“What?” She didn’t understand. Criminals? But he was charged with rape.

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking down.

Merav felt the blood draining from her face. Her heart was pounding wildly. “What do you mean ‘hurt him’?” Barely able to get the words out, she collapsed back onto the bench.

“I thought maybe you can take him to your friend Orit in the south. It’s just for a few days, until I sort things out,” Ziv said softly, ignoring her question.

“That’s crazy,” she said angrily, getting to her feet again. “Why should I do that? I’m going to the cops.”

She started walking off rapidly, trying to get away from him, from what he had told her.

Ziv ran after her and grabbed her arm. “Merav . . . I’m begging you . . . It’s not a matter for the cops. I’d go to them myself if I thought it would help . . . These people, they don’t have any scruples. They won’t stop at anything.”

She looked at him in desperation. There was no doubt in her mind that Ziv loved Gili with all his heart, that his son meant the world to him and he’d never do anything to hurt him.

“What did you do, Ziv?” she asked. She heard the tremor in her voice.

He looked down at the ground.

“What did you do? Does it have to do with the rape charge?” Her voice was steadier now, louder. “How the hell did you dare put your son in danger? How could you?”

“You’re right . . . I messed up,” he said, raising his eyes. “I wish I could change what I did. I’m trying to fix it, but I need time. Meanwhile, Gili’s in danger. The only way to protect him is for the two of you to go away for a few days.”

She wanted to scream at him, but she held back. She could see the terror in his eyes. The danger to Gili was real.

“Promise me you’ll take him somewhere.”

Merav didn’t reply. Finally she broke the silence. “I have to go,” she said.

Ziv spun around and started walking away. Instinctively, she called after him. He turned to look back at her.

“Be careful,” she said.