"There was no affair, I tell you. Why can't you get it through your thick head?"
"Then why warn you to stay away?"
Harpaz raked both hands through his hair, then leaned on the table, his back to me, head bent and shoulders hunched. He stayed that way for a full minute, muttering to himself words I failed to pick up.
Finally, he straightened and turned to face me. Red spots of anger marked his face. His hair was in disarray, and sweat glittered on his forehead.
"Baruch was being obstinate, the lousy cheapskate. You couldn't get a lira out of him. But then I heard that he'd made a large donation to Ariel Hospital. It wasn't like him at all. It didn't take long to learn why he'd done so: his daughter, Moria, worked there as a nurse. Then I learned that this was the second time Baruch had given the hospital money. He'd done it a few months before, too. I realized he had a soft spot for her. That she could make him part with his money."
That explained why Dr. Leitner hadn't fired Moria despite Dr. Shapira's complaints. Leitner was angling for a promotion, and his fundraising was key to that. Having Moria on staff made it easier for him to lobby her father for donations. That was why Leitner had telephoned Gafni to offer his condolences, and why he had prevailed upon me to not taint the pristine image of Moria he had painted for her father. He didn't care one bit about Gafni's feelings. He only wanted to keep the money spigot flowing.
"How do you know Moria was personally involved in getting these donations? Couldn't Gafni have donated simply because she worked there?" But even as I asked this question, I recalled something Gafni had told me during our first meeting. He said he and Moria had talked a couple of times on the phone and that he had been pushing for a face-to-face meeting. That was when he said he'd spent a lot of money. At the time, I didn't know what he was referring to, and later thought I'd learned the answer when Naomi Hecht told me about the expensive gifts Gafni had sent Moria. But that was small change, probably, in comparison to what he'd given the hospital, and he'd done so at his daughter's behest.
Acid churned in my stomach at the thought of how Harpaz had tried to manipulate Moria.
"So that's why you had the affair with her? To get her father to go into business with you?"
"You're not listening to me," he said, sounding peevish and surly. "I already told you, I tried getting her into bed, but no luck."
I didn't believe him, but a good interrogator lets a suspect talk. Maybe there'd be a nugget of truth in the river of lies.
"But you didn't give up on her."
"I offered her a percentage of the deal if it came through. A lot of money. More than she made in a year in her crummy job. She said no. I offered her more, but still she refused. She wasn't interested in money. Just like she wasn't interested in me."
He shrugged to share his bewilderment with me. He was puzzled as to why Moria wouldn't jump at having the two things he valued most in the world: money and himself.
"What did you do then?"
He hesitated, which made me even more curious to hear what he had to say. What could be more damaging to his prospects than what he'd already admitted to?
"I knew Moria and Baruch did not get along. That they barely spoke, hardly saw each other. Rumor was she hated his guts, wanted nothing to do with him, while he was desperate to fix that. I thought I'd take advantage of both those emotions."
"How?"
"I explained to Moria that I could arrange things so her father would lose his investment while I made it big. She could help. Help cause him serious pain."
"You were trying to involve her in a fraud scheme," I said.
His eyes flashed. "Don't look at me like I'm something that got stuck to your shoe. You think your client is a saint? You know how many backs he's stabbed, how many partners he's used and discarded? He deserves to be on the receiving end for once. And what I planned was totally legal. Dirty, maybe, but legal."
"What did Moria say?"
"She wouldn't go for it. I tried to persuade her several times, but she wouldn't budge."
"What happened that day when she screamed at you in the street?"
"That was the last time I saw her. I followed her home from the hospital, tried again to get her to help me with her father. When we got to her street, I said to her, 'Don't you want to get back at him for what he did to your mother?' That's when she exploded on me."
I could imagine the scene, this snake pouring poison in Moria's ear, dredging up her traumatic past for his own greed. It's a wonder she didn't slap him.
"You know Moria was the one who found her mother dead?" I asked.
"Yes." His tone was flat, as though he didn't see the point of my question.
"You had to know how difficult that was for her. Yet you still used it to try to get her to do your bidding."
"I thought she'd jump at it. Baruch pushed her mother to suicide, for God's sake. That's what everyone says. I was offering her a way to get some payback."
While making yourself rich in the process, I thought with disgust. Arye Harpaz didn't care about Moria, a traumatized young woman whom he'd planned on exploiting for his benefit. He didn't care how being reminded of her mother's death made her feel. Nor did he give a second's thought to what betraying her father would do to her. Arye Harpaz cared only for himself.
Harpaz guessed none of my thoughts. He was too busy blurting out more of his own. "They say he was seeing women on the side, the ugly, bald pig. Though who they were, I don't know." He looked at me with sudden interest. "Do you?"
"Do I what?"
"Know the names of the women Baruch had affairs with?"
"No, I don't."
"But you could find out, right? You're a detective. I'll pay you well."
"Why do you care who they are?" But the answer came to me before he could speak. "You think one of them will have information you can use to force Gafni to invest in your business."
He smiled. A devil's smile. Perfect white teeth. Made to fool people.
"I tried finding out myself back at the time, but couldn't. Maybe all the women were married and were keeping their mouths shut."
Or maybe he was going to prostitutes, I thought. The affairs were just a more socially palatable cover.
