Lineup (8 page)
DAVID
Meshulam made another pass through the streets near her house to be certain he hadn’t missed it. This was his fifth time around, but he didn’t see the car anywhere. It was gone. Swallowed up.
The radio promised that the autumn heat wave would break by the evening, but it was still hot and humid. He was sweating profusely, and not only from the heat. He’d dialed her number an hour ago to check if she was home, disconnecting as soon as she picked up. If she was in her apartment, where was the car? She didn’t have a husband or kids, so who could’ve taken it? Where did it go? Could his biggest fear be coming true?
He glanced at the clock on the dashboard. It was midnight. If he didn’t find the car, he’d have to wait here all night, wait until she left for work in the morning and follow her. He didn’t have that much time to waste. It might already be too late. Nevo might’ve spilled his guts to save his own neck.
He’d tried frantically to get hold of him all day Saturday. The fact that Nevo wasn’t answering his phone drove him up the wall. He knew it wasn’t the smartest move, but he had no choice but to go talk to him in person. He wasn’t home. His instincts were telling him it was bad. Maybe they caught him. He considered telling Faro but decided against it. He didn’t know how he’d react, and the last thing he wanted was to upset him. It was his job to be a man Faro could count on, not to make trouble for him.
He couldn’t believe it when he heard Nevo had been picked up on suspicion of rape. The cops must be out of their minds. He knew better than anyone what Nevo was doing on Louis Marshall Street Thursday night. It was a big relief that they were holding him for rape. Even the dumbass detectives would figure out sooner or later that they’d got the wrong man. But a day and half went by and Nevo still wasn’t out. He started to get worried. What’d they really want from him? What if the whole rape thing was just a trick to get to Faro? What if they knew?
He decided not to risk it. He managed to get a message to Meir, who was being held for assaulting that bouncer. He’d find Nevo and make sure he knew to keep his mouth shut if his life, and the life of his little kid, meant anything to him. Even a pinhead like Nevo would get the picture.
But Meir hadn’t been able to make contact with Nevo yet, and Meshulam didn’t want to take any chances. He had to get rid of the car with the explosives underneath. He knew how the cops could work a guy over, especially someone like Nevo. And if Nevo broke and told them about the bomb, he had to be certain they didn’t find anything when they came looking. All the way here he’d been thinking about what it was going to feel like driving around with a bomb under him, knowing it could go off at any second, but he didn’t have a lot of options left.
All his plans were going up in smoke. The car was gone. Vanished into thin air. Maybe Nevo had already blabbed and the cops came and towed it away. But then why was she alone in the house without police protection?
He cursed her, Nevo, and the whole fucking mess he’d gotten himself into. Why did he have to decide to play the hero? He knew the rules.
His cell phone rang. Faro’s number flashed on the screen. His whole body tensed. What if he’d already heard? He forced himself to remain calm. Faro would never say anything incriminating over the phone. The cops could be listening in.
He’d been working for Shimon Faro for thirteen years. He’d dropped out of school at the age of fifteen and gone to work in Shlomo’s corner grocery. Whenever Faro came in, he used to talk to him. He’d ask Meshulam questions about himself and the boy did his best to make a good impression. He knew very well who Faro was, and he knew he was supposed to show him respect. Once he delivered a big load of groceries to his house, and he could see Faro was surprised by how strong he was. A few days later he came into the store and offered him a job as a courier.
He’d been a total loser until Faro got hold of him and made a man out of him. He owed him his life. If Faro hadn’t taken him under his wing when he was sixteen, he probably wouldn’t be alive today, or else he would’ve turned out like a lot of the kids he grew up with—homeless, a junkie, a wino, a nobody.
Faro had saved him. All his life he’d been told he was a loser, that he had no future. He didn’t have a dad. Or a mom, for that matter. She was a hopped-up hooker who didn’t think about anyone but herself. He grew up looking out for himself like a stray cat, with no one in the world who gave a rat’s ass what happened to him.
Faro gave him a job, respect, a home. For the first time in his life, there was someone who took notice of him, someone who treated him like a human being and made him feel he mattered.
He started out as a courier and gradually rose in the ranks. Faro saw his potential, his blind loyalty. He knew Meshulam would go through fire for him. If he didn’t have such a short fuse, if he could just manage to control his temper, he knew he could rise even higher in the organization.
He’d gotten the dumbass idea to get Nevo to plant the bomb two weeks ago when he was celebrating his birthday in the Black Sabbath Club. He was thrilled when Faro showed up. He’d been hoping he’d come, but he never really believed he would. Faro is a very busy man, he kept reminding himself. When he saw him in the doorway, his heart swelled. He’d never let it show, but inside he was over the moon. Faro made him feel like part of the family. Meshulam fawned over him all night, bringing him drinks and making sure he was comfortable and was having a good time. But it didn’t improve Faro’s mood. He’d worked for the boss long enough to know when something was wrong. When the party was winding down and most of his friends had left, Meshulam went up to Faro and asked if there was any way he could help him out. “This business with Yariv is eating at me,” Faro said, sighing deeply. He was talking about Yariv Cohen, another soldier in the organization. He’d been arrested for murder. “The bitch won’t let up,” Faro went on. Meshulam could see the sadness in his eyes. The boss cared about his soldiers like they were his sons.
He hadn’t been able to get that conversation out of his head. The bitch deserved to be punished for what she did. That’s what Faro would want. It was his idea to use Nevo, the guy who chauffeured Faro around. He knew he’d been a demolition officer in the army. In fact, he figured that’s why Faro brought him into the organization in the first place, not just for his driving skills. But you could never tell with Faro. The press made him out to be a monster, but he had a big heart. He was always ready to help a guy out, give him cash when he needed it, solve problems for him. And not important people either, just ordinary guys. The kind the important people don’t see, don’t even bother to piss in their direction. Little guys, like him.
He was sure Faro would give him a pat on the back when he heard what he’d done. He’d be proud of him, pleased to see he’d understood what he wanted from him. What could go wrong?
He’d told Nevo to make it a small charge, only enough to hurt her, not kill her. Just to get the message across. He never dreamed the shit would hit the fan like this.
“WHAT’S
up?” he asked casually. He and Faro had their own code. They understood each other without having to spell things out.
“You’re not gonna believe what I just heard. The clowns picked Nevo up for rape.”
Meshulam tensed. What was Faro trying to say? What was he hinting at?
“He’s a good guy, that Nevo. He was my nephew’s commander in the army. Every now and then he does me a favor, takes me to family events.” Meshulam knew the boss wasn’t really talking to him. Everything he was saying was for the benefit of the cops who were probably listening in. He wanted to make it clear that Nevo didn’t know anything about anything.
He made his standard reply. “The cops are fucking assholes.”
“Shuki Borochov will be back in the country the day after tomorrow. I’ll send him to Nevo. He’ll be out in an hour,” Faro said.
“Yeah, he’ll show ’em.”
Faro hung up and Meshulam wiped the sweat off his brow. It was all blowing up in his face. Shuki Borochov was one of the lawyers Faro used to get the cops or the DA off his back when necessary. As soon as Nevo heard he’d been sent by Faro, he’d spill, and then Faro would know about the bomb, that it’d all been Meshulam’s idea, that he’d fucked up. In all the years he’d worked for Faro, he’d almost never fucked up before. He didn’t want to disappoint him now.
He could feel his face going red. He was in deep shit because of Nevo. He’d asked him to do one simple thing and the loser couldn’t even get that right. One thing he knew for sure—he couldn’t let Nevo meet with Borochov. His best option was to take him out while he was still in detention. But it wasn’t easy to arrange a hit in twenty-four hours, especially in Abu Kabir, where the inmates were packed in like sardines. He’d have to find some other way, some creative solution to his problem.
ELI
Nachum looked up. Adi Regev was standing at the door to his office. Something in her body language, in the way she was chewing nervously on a lock of hair, had him worried. He could sense she was upset, maybe even angry.
She’d called him last night and said she had to meet with him urgently. He’d tried to get her to tell him what it was about and why it couldn’t wait, but she’d refused to say. He’d considered putting her off but decided against it. If there was a problem, it was best to deal with it immediately, before it got any worse.
“Thank you for yesterday,” he said. Starting the conversation on his terms would give him control over the situation. “Thanks to you, a very dangerous man is going to go away for a very long time. If you hadn’t helped us nail him, he would’ve done it again. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Adi squirmed in her chair. She was still chewing on her hair. She was doing the same thing in the hospital the first time he saw her, and during yesterday’s lineup too. He could understand why she was nervous then, but why now? What was bothering her? Thankfully, Nevo’s attorney hadn’t asked her if it was the first time she’d ID’d Nevo, and she hadn’t volunteered the information. The possibility that she’d say something damaging had kept him up at night, even though her father had assured him he had nothing to worry about, that he’d spoken to her and she knew what was expected of her.
“You know,” he said, giving her a paternal smile, “I have a daughter around your age. A little younger. She lives on Horkanos Street, not far from you. You know it?”
Adi nodded.
In a minute or two she’d tell him why she was here. Until she was ready to do that, he’d draw her in as much as he could, talk about his daughter so she’d see him as a father and not just a cop. But he couldn’t help thinking how different his daughter was from Adi. She might be younger, but she was much more mature.
“As a father, I have to say I’ve been sleeping much better the past couple of days, thanks to you and your dad.”
Adi cut him off.
“I want to retract what I said at the lineup.”
He stared at her in silence. This wasn’t the first time he’d heard something like this. Witnesses were unreliable. They’d give a version of events and then retract it or give a different one. Some people did it on purpose to throw the cops off the scent. Others were just confused. And of course, sometimes they received threats. It was his job to figure out why they decided to back down, to calm their fears, and, if necessary, to rethink the case.
“I made a mistake and I want to fix it,” she insisted when he didn’t respond.
“Are you sure it was a mistake? Is it possible you’re making a mistake now?” Nachum asked quietly. He couldn’t let her see what he was feeling. He had to keep her calm and find out what was behind this.
“Stop it,” she said coldly.
“Stop what?” he asked, although he knew perfectly well what she meant.
“Stop trying to confuse me, to manipulate me into saying what you want me to say.”
He didn’t reply. Better not to intervene, to let her vent her anger and deliver the speech she must’ve prepared on her way here. After that, he’d be able to talk to her with less tension in the air.
“I . . . I wasn’t certain from the beginning,” she went on, “but my dad was so positive it was him and he wanted so much for me to say it, that I did. It was the same thing at the lineup . . . Everyone was waiting for me to point to him, like it was some test I had to pass.”
“No one’s asking you to say anything you’re not comfortable with,” Nachum said soothingly, in an effort to pacify her. “You and I share the same goal. We both want to catch the right guy, the bastard who raped you. We’re on the same side, you and me.”
She looked at him in silence. He could see that some of the tension was gone from her face. “If you thought any different, I want to apologize. That certainly wasn’t my intention,” he continued in the same tone.
“So what do you want me to do now?” she asked. “Like I told you . . . I’m not sure.”
She was like a little girl with no experience of the real world. He was a bit disappointed by her reaction.
“Whatever you feel is right,” he answered. “You know he confessed. You identified the right guy. From the start you weren’t mistaken. Not you and not your dad. Remember, he caught him loitering near your house. All he wanted to do was protect you.”
He held back for a moment to see what effect his words were having. The fact that she didn’t try to refute what he was saying encouraged him to go on. “It’s natural for you to be worried, to have doubts. It happens to a lot of rape victims. But I’ve been doing this job for a very long time, and I can assure you, you didn’t make a mistake. There’s no reason at all for you to be afraid your testimony will put the wrong man behind bars.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m so glad to hear it,” she said.
She’d gone from anger to acquiescence too fast, too abruptly. She sounded too pleased, as if she’d gotten what she wanted. It made him wary.
“So you won’t mind if I say in court that I’m not one hundred percent sure it was him, that I was never sure,” she asked with seemingly artless innocence.
He examined her closely, trying to understand what was going through her mind. What had changed since Friday? At the lineup he’d seen that she was nervous, uncomfortable, but that was only natural. And when it came down to it, she’d fingered Nevo. So what had changed? What had he missed?
“Think about it for a minute, Adi. I know it’s confusing, upsetting.”
“I know what you did,” she said quietly but firmly.
“I don’t understand.”
“My little sister, Michal. She heard our parents fighting and she told me what you asked my dad to do, how you tried to manipulate me behind my back like I was your puppet.”
Nachum took a deep breath. He couldn’t afford to lose patience with her now. She was angry. She was hurt that they hadn’t confided in her. It had nothing to do with whether she could or couldn’t identify the man who raped her. She needed to vent her anger, and he and her father were easy targets.
“Why were you afraid his attorney would ask me if it was the first time I’d seen him? Why did you need me to lie?”
“I think you’re jumping to conclusions. I never asked your dad to tell you to lie. That would be wrong. All I wanted, all your dad wanted, was to protect you. The perp’s attorney doesn’t care about you, he doesn’t see . . .”
She jumped up impatiently, her fury showing on her face. Nachum stood up.
“Why are you doing this, Adi?” he asked, looking straight at her.
“I’m sick of being used, lied to. You’re raping me again, making me do things I don’t want to do,” she shouted, her eyes filling with tears.
She seemed to be taken aback by her own outburst, surprised by the sound of the word “rape” issuing from her own mouth.
“There’s no reason for you to feel that way. You . . . ,” he started, still trying to calm her, coax her, even though he could see from her expression that he’d already lost her.
“You didn’t even have the common decency to talk to me directly!”
“We’ve got the right man,” Nachum said gently, attempting to shift the conversation. He knew he couldn’t do anything about the way she was feeling. “Your testimony will put him away. We’ll be sure that what happened to you will never happen to another woman. Think how you’ll feel if he gets off and does it again. If you told me he wasn’t the guy, it’d be a different matter. I’d tell you to withdraw your statement. But you said you’re not one hundred percent certain, and that’s something else. You’re just under stress. It’ll get better, you’ll see.”
She picked up her purse and slung it on her shoulder, indicating that their meeting was over.
“I told you to stop it, didn’t I?” she said angrily.
Nachum kept silent.
“You know why I agreed to play along? You want to know the real reason? You, my dad, everyone, you all told me that all I had to do was point to him and this whole nightmare would be over. And I believed you. I believed that if I said it was him, if I picked him out of the lineup, I’d finally be able to sleep. But you know what? It didn’t happen that way. I still can’t sleep. I still lie awake all night and see him standing right there, in front of me.”
THE
headache that had started during his meeting with Adi now felt like a sledgehammer in his head. He could hold on to it, pretend they never had this conversation. The DA would file charges, and they’d have a while, a few months at least, before the trial. There might not even be a trial. There was a good chance Nevo would plead out. And even if he didn’t, Adi would have time to calm down, to forgive her father, to realize she was just being childish. She kept saying she wasn’t sure she’d identified the right man, but he knew that wasn’t the reason for her anger. It was the sense of violation and helplessness all rape victims suffer.
He was sorely tempted to forget it, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to let it go. There were lines he couldn’t cross, and keeping this information to himself was one of them. In any case, this sort of thing always came out in the end, and the results could be catastrophic. He could already see the headline: “Police Conceal Crucial Evidence.” It’d destroy whatever credibility the police force still had and would have serious implications for other cases that were no less important.
He sat down, closing his eyes. He’d thought he’d put the case to bed. Tomorrow morning the DA was supposed to inform the court that they were planning to charge Nevo with one count of rape. He’d been hoping his success with this case would finally prove to everyone that he knew what he was doing, that he wasn’t ready to be put out to pasture. But when the brass heard about what he’d done with the lineup, they wouldn’t look the other way. They’d come gunning for him, and he’d have a lot of apologizing and explaining to do.
He picked up the phone and dialed the number. He almost hung up after three rings. Was he making the right decision? Maybe he should wait and see how things panned out. He let it ring twice more. Why rush into anything?
“Hello?” ADA Galit Lavie finally picked up.
No. There were some things he couldn’t keep to himself. Adi Regev had left him no choice. She’d forced his hand. If the victim withdrew her statement, the whole case collapsed. The cake was ruined.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Galit, it’s Eli Nachum. We have to meet. It’s urgent,” he said.
