A Real Headach Case

The top floor of the new office building at the corner of Alenby and Balfour streets, in Tel-Aviv old center, was dominated exclusively by the firm of 'Data international limited' - which was in fact no other than the 'Shabac's' headquarters.

There were not any interrogation cells or torture chambers in that place, and there could not have been any dungeons of course; as for arrests of individuals, the police handled it and whenever such an act was necessary, a policeman or two would join the crew of Shabac agents to enforce it.

The Shabac had a free access to the police facilities, in order to interrogate its detainees. Thus the legal problem was solved and law and order were preserved The building's ninth floor which was the top one in fact, included seven spacious office rooms, a small dinning room with a kitchen annexed to it - a briefing hall, an archive and a communication center.

At the far end of the floor stood a spacious bathroom for common use plus a restroom, which included four double beds for emergency cases; when some of the top brass had to spent several successive days in a row at the office. Of the various offices one of course served as the office of the Shabac's head, who was known to any peon in the establishment, and every journalist as well; but to mention his sacred name publicly was taboo.

Three offices served the three regional heads, north, center and south. The three offices left served the home desk, which dealt with counter intelligence directed at potential traitors, those who were suspected of treason and the like - with a special branch that took care of the ex Soviet union new comers.

There was the foreign desk, which dealt with the consular corpus in general embassies, foreign citizens, border control, passports etc.' and the territories, liberated or occupied, These territories were the Shabac's heaviest burden; and that office was no doubt the busiest - success was not a very frequent term used there.

The box office was the last one, nicknamed thus for being first of all responsible for every outward touch and relation with the 'Mosad', the Prime Minister's office, the Home office and the Police office - whenever that office was an independent one, as an outcome of government's coalitions agreements.

But its most peculiar aspect was its operational long arm. It controlled some several hundred motorbike and scooter riders who were operated as couriers all over the country's three regions; served as auxiliaries in combined and complicated surveillance operations; while its most dedicated and skilled men were sent abroad whenever needed, to bump off some senior terrorist leaders. Serving under the 'Mosad' direct orders as their chief contractors, they would blow off the marked target's head sitting behind his steering wheel in crowded junctions from a very short range, while riding wildly their motorbikes right afterward - or blow the marked target in his car or his hotel's bedroom, with the accurate amount of high explosives needed to do the job.

The word failure was not and is not used in their vocabulary; they rarely fail to finish their job right at the first blow; although there might be hitches of some sort and various delays do occur sometimes, and yet their assignments are always executed - no matter where, no matter how, no matter who...

On that certain day at about the same time that Samir must have landed somewhere in Europe, the distinguished head of these exceptional men was having his lunch break at his office/ He was eating a snack in haste, while reading an unsolved investigation file; in which he was learning the case of a violent murder, that happened just recently, and was about to be buried with some more unsolved cases in the archives - the Harpaz case.

The late professor was an old and close friend. Although they did not see each other frequently, because of the different careers that they pursued, that quite comprehensible fact did not impair their friendship; but on the other hand, it did not gain the late professor, with some exclusive measures of personal safety.

The discussion on the late professor's case, which was due to start in a quarter of an hour, would be no more than a sad epilogue to the deeds and achievements of that great man. Evidence was very scarce with no witnesses at all - nobody heard and nobody saw... The victim must have been slain by one or two men, whom he might have known or met before. That was the main assumption of the police crew of skilled experts assigned to investigate the murder.

However there were two more options though, which were added in the crew's report. The first one: the victim did not suspect the culprit, was surprised by him and being an old man could not defend himself. The slight difference in this particular assumption, with the first and basic one, was of some significance no doubt. For if the late professor knew the culprit or culprits, nothing was lost yet - there was a fair chance still to solve that riddle.

The other option in that report, described the possibility of an attack from behind, some kind of an ambush, by one assailant or more. Thus the victim was disabled on the spot, without the slightest chance of course to defend himself or to call for help. The only suspect according to the crew's report, was one Samir Abed El Rahim Mashrawy - who was as it turned out a graduate of the Hebrew university in Jerusalem, and was the late professor's best Arab student. He was a welcome guest who visited his rector's residence freely at any time he had wished to.

Anyway, the professor's pet as he was known round the Campos, had simply vanished without any traces. He was twenty two years old, some five feet ten inches tall; an extremely good looking young man, used a Hebrew name: Shaoul; and looked just like a born and bred Israeli. There were six more ex Arab students, who had had similar ties with the late professor - but all those ties existed long ago.

Nevertheless, that lead concerning each of the late professor's students was followed and checked carefully. Only two of them were located within the boundaries of the west bank. They had solid alibis; one was the mayor's adviser in his town of birth, and the other a small town's bank manager. Both of them were married men heads of households of two or more wives and fathers to several children already. Three more ex students of the late professor, who were active members of various extreme terror groups in Lebanon and Syria; none of them could have been a relevant suspect.

The last one of these young men, perished a couple of years earlier, in a car accident abroad. Thus the only suspect left was Samir, and why the police crew had to beat around the bush without being able to reach that simple conclusion, was not clear at all. Their report declaring the case lost was in fact a job half done - a get away trick, leaving the work for others. But the 'others' have reached the same conclusions.

The Shabac's head took off his reading spectacles, pushed the open file to the center of his desk, and leaning on both his elbows rubbed his weary eyes. There were too many files of unsolved cases, hard cases of violent death, abduction of young soldiers - who were surely put to death and buried in some hidden places. A rather cruel and barbaric way to hurt their kinfolk, an invention of sick and distorted brains - of retarded and uneducated ethnic groups, of drug addicts prone to crime and extortion. Of uncivilized mob, which they still are!

He yawned and had another look at his watch, S. the Jerusalem district's head whom he expected, was late. The discussion or rather the few questions he would be posing to him, had to take place some five minutes ago - and two more minutes have elapsed before he heard him knocking on his door.

'What took you so long?' He asked with just a hint of anger and disappointment.

'It's the new electronic device that has been planted at the floor's entrance, it takes time - every metal particle makes it blink and wink its reddish electronic eye.'

'Oh yes, well we'll have to take it in our considerations from now on - all right sit down let's not waste any more time.' He added pushing aside his plate and empty cup.

'I've rechecked the case just before coming down from Jerusalem. I'm sorry to note but there is nothing new yet.' Remarked S., settling his heavy set figure on the chair opposite his chief. 'And there won't be any more clues, if we'll continue plodding around in the mud the police crew has left us. We need a new direction, a new start or else bury the case!'

He did his best to persuade his chief to put an end to that particular inquiry. 'We've tried almost everything and our results so far, point on an unknown assailant - who through slaying the old man, an easy and very convenient prey, such as they always choose; has got his free ticket of admission to one of the terrorist groups. In any case it isn't someone we happen to know, as that student or the rest of them; we have questioned his mother and every one who had met or just seen him. It's absolutely not him, I can assure you.'

'So you suggest we lie low and take our time, till something comes out?'

'Well yes, just as we do with most of these sort of cases, it won't take long after all - you know them, sooner or later someone would release his tongue...'

'What do we know on that fellow of yours, Ghill what's his name?'

'Smally that's his name, yes he knew him well enough, shared a room with him some four years, mind you.'

'Question him again, shake him up hard, see if he can remember a few more things on that sleek friend of his.'

'But you must have read his report haven't you?' Asked S. surprised.

'I don't need his opinion and he wasn't asked to give one. He's an inexperienced young man who jumps to hasty conclusions you should know it - he's your man. Locate him and take his evidence from the start. I want facts and facts alone, for his roommate is our only suspect.'

'If you wish to reopen the case, all right, there's one problem though - Smally is in London studying economics.'

'So what! Get in touch with him through one of the embassy's men, he's giving them a hand in some way or another, doesn't he?'

'Yes of course, he's doing a part time job as one of the Embassy's security guards.'

'Tell him to submit a fresh report, a more detailed one, with no opinions, facts alone. This case is still open! Wait, don't you leave yet, what's that Smally like?'

S.sat down again facing his chief and took a deep breath of air. 'He was disguised as a leftist at that time, penetrated the 'It's now or never' circle on the Campos, and kept an eye on the Arab students.'

'The "Peace now" group, that's a real good one!' Remarked the chief laughing heartily. 'Whose joke is it?'

'Benny's who else could it be!' Answered S. smiling.

'By the way wasn't Smally himself at one time or another a laughing stock of some kind, got involved in some mess if I'm not wrong, didn't he?

'Not at all, he isn't particularly sharp or talented and he did a lousy job concerning the Arab students; but all in all, he's a reliable fellow and he has his way with women - that's his one asset.'

'You don't intend to use him, when he graduates though, you must have read some more of his ideas, I'd guess?'

'Yes of course, we won't use his services on a regular basis in the future - he wasn't a regular service man in any case. He's one more of those students, who are willing to give us a hand; but we might turn to him for some special jobs, now and then.'

'I see, okay then let that report be his first special job - and see to it yourself that it would be the best job he'd ever done.'