Now she had it, the whole panorama. But like a jigsaw of a thousand pieces, some significant parts were still missing, making it impossible to fully comprehend the entire picture. That being the case, she honestly didn’t know what to say.

“She’ll get in trouble with the school if she doesn’t go back to him?”

“Probably. That’s why I need to look into it more closely, right away.”

There was a beat as Fruma Esther considered the entirety of the situation. “Whatever you find,” she said slowly, “don’t send her back. A young, innocent girl doesn’t make up such things out of her head.”

The exact same idea had occurred to him. But what he kept to himself was the agonizing question of whether or not his daughter was still such an innocent.

He left work early, arriving in Boro Park at five thirty. It was a short walk to Yoel Grub’s office. It being early, he decided to check out the office itself. There were two entrances, he realized. First, he used the service elevator, carefully turning the doorknob to Grub’s office. It was definitely locked. Then he went down and took the main elevator up, walking casually through the waiting room to test the door from Grub’s office on the other side. It, too, was locked. From where the office was placed inside the building, he could tell there were no windows, no way to observe what was happening inside.

Of course, you would expect privacy, the front door to a counselor’s office would be locked against unwanted intrusions. But for exactly that reason, the back door to the office of a religious counselor should have been wide open. There was no getting around it; Grub was in clear violation of religious law. Yoel Grub might be a rabbi, but he was no tzaddik.

It was a quarter to six. Yaakov sat down in the waiting room, but a certain strange impulse made him rise to his feet and once again go down and take the service elevator up to the back entrance of the office. He stood there, waiting. At five to six, the door to Grub’s office flung open. A young girl rushed out, frantic. She was younger than Shaindele. She had long blond hair and a sweet, young face that was crumpled in distress and fear. Grub walked out and reached out, gripping her shoulders roughly when he suddenly looked up and noticed Yaakov standing there. Without a word, he returned to his office, slamming the door.

Yaakov, shocked, approached the girl, who was now sobbing.

“Are you all right?” he asked gently.

She wiped her eyes, nodding, refusing to look at him.

He walked her to the elevator. “My daughter was also sent to him,” he told her quietly. “She also complained.”

She turned to him, blinking and astonished, a small glimmer of hope in her face.