“Good that you’re here. You can take her home with you.”

“What?” Leah jumped up.

“Rav Halpern just told me to have Shaindele sent home immediately.”

“Don’t you dare!” Leah shouted at her, striding past the startled woman and slamming open the door to the principal’s office. “I’m here to talk to you, Rabbi Halpern. Don’t look so surprised! Did you think throwing my daughter to the wolves was going to be easy? How dare you! Who do you think you are?”

He hardly moved, looking her up and down contemptuously. “Tell Hyman the mashgiach to get here immediately,” he called through the open door.

The secretary poked her agitated head in, pulling her wig down over her forehead as if it was about to slide off. “Should I call Shomrim, too?”

At the mention of this private haredi police force that patrolled the neighborhood, ostensibly to protect its citizens from unwarranted anti-Semitic and criminal attacks, Leah momentarily froze.

“Just Hyman. For now,” he added ominously.

“Why are you doing this? Did Yoel Grub call you? Well, you should know that he is a sex pervert and abused Shaindele in his office. And she’s not the only one. We have proof—names and addresses,” she bluffed. “And unlike you, the police won’t be impressed by Grub’s Boro Park credentials. But you can bet they’ll be extremely interested in him—and in you—for sending young girls to him. How many exactly have you sent?”

With surprising agility and speed, he suddenly went to the door, poking his head out. “Wait with the girl,” he told his secretary.

“So you don’t want I should send a note to the teacher?”

“Wait!” he shouted, slamming the door behind him. He sat down heavily behind his desk, facing her. “Sit down,” he ordered.

Leah sat down.

“First of all, it wasn’t Grub that called me. It was the Bobelger Rebbe’s nephew. He called to tell me that the Bobelger Rebbe himself told him Shaindel Lehman is a danger to the other girls.”

“Based on what? They’ve never even met her! Just because Grub told him? Did you, or the Rebbe, or the Rebbe’s nephew ever visit Grub’s office? The ‘counseling’ comes with a big bed in a tiny room with no windows and two locked doors decorated by pictures of practically naked women.”

His mouth fell open slightly. Then he gathered himself together, pressing his lips closed. “I understand you’re a baalas teshuva? From California? And how long have you lived here with us?”

“Close to three years. But what does that—?”

“Rav Yoel Grub has lived here all his life, as did his father. He has been a respected counselor in Boro Park for twenty-five years and a close friend of the Bobelger Rebbe. But you wouldn’t know that, being who you are.”