Behind God's Back

13

“Max murdered. I can’t believe it,” Eli said. He went so white I was afraid he would faint. He stared at me with a mixture of incredulity and fear. “I talked with him just a few hours ago,” he said, hammering at his forehead as if trying to wake himself up from a dream.

We were at Eli’s. He was alone; his wife was at the theatre and would be going out for dinner afterwards.

The living room was as big as a basketball court and had a view of the water. I was sitting on an expensive-looking leather armchair with a hardwood frame. I knew that the chair cost more than three months of my net salary.

“What did you talk about?”

“It had to be a hit,” Eli insisted, not hearing my question. He was lost somewhere inside his head. “We’ve owned that company together for over fifteen years. Most people thought Max was annoying, but he wasn’t actually as big an asshole as he seemed. I know you didn’t like him.”

Eli was right, but speaking ill of the dead wasn’t the thing to do, so I kept my mouth shut.

“You said you talked just a few hours ago. I’d like to know what about.”

“Have you already told Ruth?” Eli asked.

“Yes.”

I was glad Eli didn’t ask how Ruth had taken her husband’s death, because she hadn’t taken it at all well. Who would? She had sat there for a moment in silence, and then started wailing at the top of her lungs. It wasn’t pleasant to watch or listen to. I called her sister, who lived nearby, and stayed with Ruth until she showed up. The sister promised to call Max’s children and have them come and be with their mother. Neither of them lived at home any more.

“What did you talk about?” I asked for the third time. Eli managed to shake himself out of his stupor.

“It was pretty strange, actually. Max called and asked if he could come by. He did, and he asked me to prepare the Jacobson loan papers, because Roni wanted to carry out his father’s wishes: pay off the company’s loan and take out a new one from a Finnish bank. I found that odd, because that had always been Max’s job, and because he had assured me he had been able to get Roni to simmer down. Max said that he had to go out of town on business for a few days and wouldn’t have time to take care of it.”

“That was it?”

“What else should there be?”

“Dad’s pistol.”

“What about it?” Eli asked, avoiding my gaze.

“Did you give it to Max?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

“It was found in Max’s car.”

“That’s just great,” Eli snorted. “Are you going to tell whose weapon it is? It’s not like it’s on the books. I doubt anyone’s interested in it; it’s not the murder weapon, is it?”

“Luckily not. Both of us would be screwed if it were. Why the hell didn’t you tell me about the gun?”

Eli was right in that the weapon was of no significance to the investigation proper. But the thought of concealing the gun’s origins felt distasteful. I started fuming, at myself as well as Eli, and decided I’d tell Simolin and Huovinen about the weapon.

“There wasn’t a good moment.”

“There wasn’t? It doesn’t matter; I still have to tell my boss about it.”

“Why? It won’t look good if a well-known detective is found in possession of an illegal firearm,” Eli said.

“Actually, the gun was in the possession of a well-known lawyer.”

“It was both of theirs; a family heirloom.”

“Why did Max need a gun?”

“He said he had received some threatening phone calls. Didn’t give me any more details. I could tell he was really scared, so I gave him the gun. I shouldn’t have, I know. But what’s forcing you to be such a goody-two-shoes and tell about the pistol?”

Eli took a glass from the cocktail cart and poured in some expensive vintage whisky far beyond the reach of men like me. He offered me some too, but I declined.

“Goody-Two-Shoes,” Eli repeated, taking a long swig.

“What time did you meet Max?”

“About six o’clock.”

“Why then? Had he received another call?”

“Apparently.”

That made sense, and would explain why Max had changed his mind and wanted to talk to me. He was afraid, and he figured that talking would be to his advantage. What I didn’t understand was why he had asked Eli to prepare the loan papers for Jacobson’s company. Maybe the papers were nothing more than a ruse to see Eli and ask for the gun.

“I saw you two on the street after the funeral. What were you discussing?”

“I asked Max if everything was all right. He seemed strange, subdued… I thought maybe he had taken something…” Eli realized he had said too much, and backpedalled. “He said he was just tired because he wasn’t sleeping and was working too hard.”

“We want more information on Jacobson’s loan. You don’t have a problem with that, I take it?”

“Who does? You do?” Eli stared at me coolly. “You’re the one leading the investigation.”

“Joint decision.”

“You know full well I can’t just give out that information. Corporate loans are confidential. Wouldn’t it be easier to ask Roni?”

“Maybe I will. Have you ever met Benjamin Hararin, the owner of Baltic Invest?”

“Do we have to talk about this right now?”

“Yes. The more time passes, the harder it will be to solve the case.”

“I don’t get how this information is going to help you with that. OK, we met once. When Max and I were in Tel Aviv.”

“By chance, or was it a business meeting?”

Eli had already emptied his glass, and poured himself more whisky. “This is starting to smell like an interrogation,” he said morosely.

“It would be better for your sake if we talk now, not when it’s too late.”

“What do you mean, for my sake?”

“Leave the questioning to me. It’s what I get paid for.”

“Everything is off the record, then,” Eli said petulantly. “It was a vacation, but when Hararin heard we were in town, he wanted to meet us.”

“What was your impression of him?”

“Smart guy.”

“What about Amos Jakov?”

“I haven’t met him.”

“But what do you think about him?”

“There’s no smoke without fire. He’s never denied the criminal contacts from his youth, but guys like that are a dime a dozen in Israel. That place has more mafiosi than Sicily.”

“Do you believe Hararin takes orders from Jakov?”

“So it would seem. Seem, mind you, nothing more.”

“Could Jacobson have borrowed money from Baltic Invest without your knowledge?”

“Maybe, but then it would’ve had to have happened somewhere besides Finland. Finland is our territory.”

“But Baltic Invest doesn’t use extreme collection methods?”

“We use the same collection agencies as everyone else, but I can definitely say that there were no payment problems with Jacobson that would have gone that far. Like I said, we came to an agreement about the late payments. That’s why I don’t understand why he wanted to switch to another lender.”

“What else happened in Tel Aviv when you and Max were there?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you do anything there you regret, you and Max?”

Eli looked at me, mouth hanging slightly. Suddenly his defences crumbled. He looked like someone who had been caught in a trap. It wasn’t pleasant seeing my brother that way. Now I knew that my childhood friend Dan, who had worked for the Mossad, had told the truth about Eli and Max’s escapades in Tel Aviv. Their sexual shenanigans had been videotaped, and someone had them in a headlock. The question was whether they had already been blackmailed.

“Actually there’s no point in me asking, because I know you did. Have the videos already been used?”

“What videos?”

“The ones you don’t want your wives to see. Have you and Max been blackmailed with them already?”

“Come on, leave it —”

“Maybe Max was being blackmailed into helping out with Jacobson’s murder somehow, and when he refused, he was killed.”

Eli didn’t take my theory seriously. “Let’s assume that Max screwed around and there was proof, say a video. So what? He’s not going to help someone murder his friend just because he doesn’t want his wife to watch the tape. I know what Ruth’s like. Max knew how to twist her around his little finger.”

“Maybe someone threatened to send the tapes to the leaders of the congregation?”

“That would have been a tougher spot for Max, but that’s still no reason to become an accomplice to murder.”

“Can you think of anything so major that it could have been used to blackmail Max?”

“No,” Eli pouted.

“You told me that Max acquired the Baltic Invest representation through his connections. I heard from Lea that her husband arranged it because he wanted to help out his father-in-law.”

“Max knew Lea’s husband, Joel Kazan. It’s almost the same thing.”

“So it was Kazan who lured you into the honey trap?”

“Honey trap,” Eli snorted. “He’s the one who took us out in Tel Aviv, but I’m not sure about the after-party. There was so much going on, and so many people around. We were at Hararin’s place at that point… there were a lot of people and a lot of women, really nice Jewish girls. Have you ever seen a blonde Jewish girl? There were a bunch of them there that night. They wanted to stay over… These things happen…”

“When did you find out that your antics had been secretly videotaped?”

Eli decided to reveal his hand. “About a month ago. Max found out — I don’t know how — and told me. He promised to handle it one way or another. Of course I understood that the tapes were part of the picture, but he wouldn’t tell me how. I thought everything was over, especially when Max said he had taken care of the problem. Evidently he hadn’t.”

“And you didn’t ask how he had taken care of the problem?”

“Of course I did. He said that it was better if I didn’t know. He wouldn’t tell me. And I wanted to stay out of it, because no one had blackmailed me.”

“Can you guess what it was about?”

“I think Max gave the killer some information that he used against Jacobson, and Max didn’t realize until Jacobson’s death that he had helped the murderer. It’s dangerous to know who the murderer is, and it’s even more dangerous to know who paid the murderer.”

“Are you sure that you’re not making the case and the motive too complicated? What if the murder was about money? What if Max embezzled funds from Baltic Invest and got caught? They didn’t want to kill a golden goose — just Jacobson, who was causing problems anyway. As a warning.”

Eli was clearly offended on behalf of his former partner. “You think you can treat me like some goddamn fungus: keep me in the dark and feed me shit? Max had enough money for the life he led. He had an inheritance, and it’s not like Ruth comes from a poor family. Max didn’t have any reason to embezzle anything from anyone.”

“Maybe he had expensive hobbies: gambling, drugs, women?”

“He wasn’t a saint, but I would have known if he had gambled and… a woman now and then wouldn’t have sent him to the poorhouse.”

I guessed the reason for Eli’s evasion. “Did Max use drugs?”

“I had my suspicions. I think he used cocaine on occasion. Lots of people do in these circles.”

It had been a long day, and I was getting tired. I was having a hard time keeping my thoughts collected.

“I think that’s enough for tonight. We want the Jacobson loan papers, so if you’ll set them aside…”

“Didn’t Ruth have any ideas as to why…?”

“I couldn’t ask her, not yet.”

“Max’s will is in the safe at the office, like mine. We agreed that the one who lived longer would handle the other’s affairs.”

“Does the will contain any surprises?”

“No, it’s completely normal. Ruth and the kids get everything.”

“For your sake, it would be best to let us know immediately if you remember anything that could help us. It might be something totally trivial. You haven’t been very helpful up to this point.”

I was pulling on my coat when Eli asked: “Are you buying a car?”

“No, why?”

“You didn’t talk to Max about buying a car?”

“Nope. I haven’t even seen him in months, except today at the funeral.”

Eli stroked his jaw. “That’s weird. I remembered something. When Max left, he asked me to say hello to you and tell you not to buy the same kind of Benz he has, because it guzzles thirteen litres per hundred kilometres, and you have to fill it up all the time.”