“He’s lying,” Decker said calmly. “They all love you very much.” It had been about twenty minutes. If he ever got the sucker’s hands tied, he’d call for backup.

Hersh said, “He’s lying, Nick-O.” He broke into laughter. “Guy’s not a cop. Look at ’im, Nick-O. He don’t even have handcuffs! This dude’s probably a bounty hunter. He’s getting bread to break our balls—”

Decker jerked Hersh’s arm up again.

“Goddamn sheygetz Nazi!” Hersh grunted out.

Decker pushed Hersh’s face into the dirt.

Noam blurted out, “Don’t do that!” He was shaking hard now. The man on top of Hersh was definitely a cop. He knew that because Mrs. Lazarus had married a sheygetz cop from Los Angeles. Everybody knew it. Noam knew that this man was going to take them both to jail. Forever. That was what cops did. And this cop was acting like a Nazi. “You’re hurting him. Stop hurting him.”

“He’s not hurt,” Decker explained patiently. “If I wanted to hurt him badly, I could. But I don’t want to do that. I’m not going to do that. Noam, put the gun down. Please! Think of your family who love you—”

“Bullshit!” laughed Hersh. “They think you’re a piece of shit! You told me that!”

“He’s lying, Noam,” Decker persisted. “They love you. They haven’t slept a moment since you’ve been gone. They’re so worried about—”

“My bubbe must have called you,” Noam interrupted.

“Your bubbe loves you very much.”

“The call must have been traced,” Noam said. “How else would you know I was here?”

“The call wasn’t traced—”

“She lied to me,” Noam said, tears streaming down from his eyes. “She swore on the Chumash that the call wasn’t traced. But how else would you know I was here?”

“Because I’m a cop, Noam. I know these things.”

At last, Decker had felt his belt come loose. One final yank and it was free. Then he saw his hand radio go flying into the air and crash-land ten feet away. He’d forgotten it was hooked on to his belt loop.

Swell.

He wondered if it was on, if the talk button was depressed. He yelled out to Rina to call for backup and hoped for the best. Then he began to wrap the belt around Hersh’s wrists.

“Stop it,” Noam screamed to Decker. He was pointing the gun and sobbing. “Stop it, stop it, stop it! Leave him alone!”

Decker stopped tying Hersh’s hands. Goddamn psycho broke into a grin and Decker knew what he was thinking. Noam was going to be his savior. Well, fuck that noise.

“Noam, put away the gun. Every second you hold on to it, you’re taking the chance of putting yourself in deep trouble. Put it down before something terrible happens.”

“I’m not going to jail,” Noam said.