Shadow of Mossad

Author: Adelman
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Home and I looked exactly the same when I came back last time. That was during the winter holiday six months ago. At that time, New York was in the midst of a severe winter, with ice and snow everywhere, and it was extremely cold. I had to choose to return to relatively warmer Tel Aviv for the winter and stayed there with my mother and Yossi, who was on a prisoner visitation leave, for about ten days. I opened all the windows and balcony blinds, connected the phone line in the living room to call my mother, but there was no answer. I left a few short messages. I wasn’t sure if my mother had already heard that her youngest son had escaped from prison, so I didn’t mention Yossi in the voicemail. Then I connected the lines for the answering machine, TV, and, turned on the water heater, and walked into the kitchen to plug in the refrigerator and tidy up the cabinets and drawers. I knew I had to go grocery shopping for a few days’ worth of food and household supplies. A few days? That was really a problem. Everything in the kitchen was still the same. The dishwasher was covered in dust, and four chairs were overturned on the dining table. But none of this initially caught my attention because what I saw was a young woman lying on the floor. She was wearing a white blouse with colorful floral patterns and a gray short skirt that reached her knees, paired with black flat shoes. Her face was upturned, her lifeless gaze fixed on the ceiling. A ugly bruise had swollen on her cheek, creating a stark contrast with her smooth brown skin. One hand was on her stomach, while the other dangled on the ground, as if she had tried to grab something. Nearby was a denim jacket. Just as I was about to crouch down to check her pulse, I realized she was dead. I froze, my mind blank, and could only lean against the wall to steady myself, waiting for the world to stop spinning in front of me. I wasn’t t the first person to encounter a dead body. Five years ago, I had worked as a flight security officer. During a flight to Italy, a passenger had a heart attack, and as I performed CPR on him, he died in my arms. But even that experience couldn’t prepare me for what I was seeing now: a young woman dead in my kitchen, lying between the refrigerator and the dishwasher. I struggled to control myself, waiting for the dizziness to fade and the ringing in my ears to stop. After a while, the dizziness gradually lessened, but the became stronger. Then, after a few more seconds, I suddenly heard the doorbell ringing—which pulled me back to reality. Although I didn’t call the police, my st reaction was that the police had arrived. However, standing at the door was Ron Lapidot, dressed in his usual work attire. A black suit, a white shirt with thin stripes, and a Pierre Cardin silk tie—looking like a young, ambitious lawyer. He carefully examined me.
“Are you okay?”
“No, it’s not real.”
“The 10 o’clock news reported about Yossi.”
“Don’t worry about Yossi.” I said, leading him to the kitchen. Although we had discussed dead bodies before, and Ron had told me about his time in the military where he had visited an anatomy lab to get a firsthand look, this was the first time he had ever experienced something like this. His reaction was exactly the same as mine: he rushed forward, knelt down...