Julia was waiting at the airport when his flight landed and as soon as he emerged from customs she walked up to him and gave him a warm embrace. She said "It looks as if the gods wanted you to spend some more time with me. The circumstances for your speedy return are less than joyful but the result certainly is. I have started to look into the bizarre deaths of Sam and Ruby and have enlisted my informants in the BND and the Berlin police force. I have managed to get permission for the two of us to visit the crime scene so that's where we are heading straight from here."
David turned on his charm, allaying his suspicions of her involvement in the crime, and said "I am very glad to see you personally and admire your efficiency organizing the visit to the scene. I understand that you reported the murder to Mossad even before the German official announcement to the Israeli embassy about the slaying of the two citizens."
Julia led the way to her car that was double parked at the terminal among the taxis. A heavyset policeman with a pockmarked face was standing by the car and looking up the registration when they approached. Julia flashed her brightest smile and in perfect German said that she had diplomatic immunity and was there on urgent official business. The German policeman knew that tangling with Israeli diplomats could be very messy and sensitive due to the history of Germany's treatment of the Jews some 70–80 years previously. So he chose to say that they shouldn't do this again and this time he would let it go.
As soon as they were inside the car and on their way to crime scene Julia looked at David and said "It never fails. I am yet to get a ticket for a traffic violation."
David queried "What about automatic speed traps or cameras that take a photo of your car crossing a red light?"
Julia smiled and replied "You know the quote attributed to Stalin "no man, no problem" with me a traffic police it's the opposite "no (police) man, big problem"".
David laughed "I need to correct you. The whole sentence is "Death solves all problems — no man, no problem". I wonder if this is the reason for the double murder of Ruby and Sam?"
Julia turned serious saying "We really need to find out who did the crime. I think the standard forensic approach of finding the means, motive and opportunity is a good starting point for our investigation".
David nodded and didn't reply as they had reached the apartment building on Gruntaler Strasse and were trying to find a parking spot. Eventually one of the police cars pulled out and Julia quickly parked her car there. A policeman motioned for her to move her car but she flashed her diplomatic ID accompanied with a smile and he let her remain parked in that spot.
The Berlin police forensic investigation technicians carried out their work methodically and professionally and had already left the scene. A lone police sergeant stood at the door to the apartment and allowed them to enter after Julia once again flashed her ID and captivating smile. The forensic team had taken many photos of the victims and of the crime scene, collected fingerprints and had placed yellow plastic signs where the empty cartridges were found. The two bodies were still left where they lay — Ruby on the carpet with a couple of 9 mm bullet holes in her chest and Sam in a reclining chair with a bullet hole straight through his heart. The gun itself, a semi-automatic 9 mm Jericho 941 pistol, was still in his hand. David looked at the scene and his immediate thought was that it looked like a textbook murder and suicide — too good to be true.
Ignoring the sergeant and speaking in Hebrew David told Julia that everything looked too neat and tidy. Julia shrugged and said "I am surprised that Sam needed to shoot Ruby twice. With his experience and expertise one shot should have been sufficient. I agree, this looks more like a double execution staged to appear as a murder and suicide. But who could surprise these two experienced field operatives and kill them both?"
David said "Let's get back to the three classic fundamentals of criminology: means — quite obviously this Jericho pistol is not commonly used by criminals but has been deployed by police forces and intelligence services as well as by the military in several countries. I would like to verify that both victims were shot with the same gun before speculating further on the means. Motive — that's the big question. The proximity of the time of their murder to the planned visit to Israel where they were expected to disclose all details about their involvement with the elimination of the Iranian scientists could point either at Segan trying to silence them or at the Iranians who were taking their revenge. As far as the opportunity is concerned — they were alone in their apartment and they would not hesitate to let in someone they knew well like Segan. On the other hand, a trained Iranian assassin or a contract killer could get them to open the door under false pretenses and then shoot them and arrange the bodies to look like a murder and suicide."
Julia thought about this for a moment and said "Well, David, this doesn't really get us any closer to solving this problem. We know that Segan and the Iranians were the obvious suspects. How should we proceed?"
David asked the police sergeant if the apartment had been searched by the forensics team and the sergeant called the headquarters before saying that nothing had been touched, awaiting the Israeli embassy representatives, pointing at Julia. David nodded and said that they were ready to start searching for clues. Julia took two pairs of powder free disposable nitrile gloves out of her bag and handed one pair to David.
They started by taking a close look at the bodies. David bent down to closely examine the two bullet holes in Ruby's chest. It was evident that both pierced her heart. There was only one way to know if they were fired at the same time — and that is by a meticulous autopsy and certainly not by their cursory inspection. They scrutinized Sam's body and David focused on the pistol in his right hand. It was held at an awkward angle but that could have occurred after he shot himself, if indeed he had. Julia stood behind David as he bent over Sam's body. David said "I never thought that Sam was the type who would commit suicide, and certainly could find no reason for killing Ruby. They became really close together after the mission in Boston and their expulsion from Mossad. There were rumors that they were a couple even before that but I doubt if that was true although they did pose as Mrs. and Mr. Smith for that mission."
Julia agreed "I didn't see much of them in Berlin, as I had told you they were considered as persona non grata at the embassy. But sharing the same fate after their ejection from Mossad, carrying out jobs together for Segan's firm and being kind of outcasts among the official Israeli community would certainly bring them together".
David had an epiphany "What if someone entered the apartment, shot Sam through the heart and then shot Ruby the first time. He then placed the pistol in Sam's hand and shot Ruby again so that traces of gunshot residue would remain on Sam's hand as if he did the shooting. He then staged the two bodies in the textbook murder and suicide posture". David was thinking about a famous incident that happened in Jerusalem some years earlier when a high-society hair dresser shot his super-model girlfriend and committed suicide. His brother who was the first on the scene removed the pistol from his dead hand and placed it in the girl's hand as if she was the one that committed the murder and then shot herself.
Julia thought about this for a moment before saying "This is an interesting theory. How can we obtain proof to confirm or contradict it?"
David said "I read about a new forensic test that can help. It is based on taking an imprint of the palm to determine if there are traces of iron that fit the metallic parts of the gun grip. The special point is that the imprints are left when the perspiration present on the palm interacts with the iron containing parts of the gun grip. If the weapon is fired by someone who places it in the palm of a dead person then there will be no iron traces, or only very weak traces, on the palm imprint, although the classic forensics would show that the gun was fired from the same hand".