Decker pondered his words. “Man, that would require a pretty cool head.”

“We’ve got a murder and a kidnapping with no leads,” Hollander said. “We’re working with a cool-headed person. I got a spare afternoon. Nothing pressing other than forms to fill out. Want me to watch her?”

“Marge is tailing her now, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind a break.”

“I’ll give her a call—”

“Wait a minute, she’s not using one of our cars.” Decker gave him the cellular phone number “She traded cars with her latest social interest.”

“What’s she driving?”

“A Beemer. Don’t say anything important over the phone. Cellular transmission isn’t limited access like our tactical lines. Did Lily Booker’s dental X rays come in yet?”

“Nope. Want me to call her parents again?”

“No, they’ll cooperate, sooner or later. It’s the denial. Let’s give them another day.”

“Ain’t it the shits being a parent?” Hollander paused. “Oops. Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about,” Decker said. “It’s tough.”

“Where are you off to, Rabbi?”

“To visit Lita Bellson. I’m not even sure what I expect to accomplish. At the present time, Marie’s our only link to the missing baby. For all I know, they both might be dead.”

“And this Roberts lady?”

“She’s a link to Marie,” Decker said. “Speaking of links to Marie, did you get hold of Paula Delfern?”

“Yep. She hasn’t heard from Marie, either. She gave me her work number and told me to call her as soon as I had any information. I checked out the number, and it was her work number—some doctor’s office. The night of the kidnapping, she was moonlighting at St. Joe’s just like she said. Her nursing license seems kosher, her yellow sheet’s clean. But if she’s a link, I can keep on her.”

“You mean a tail? No, I don’t have any reason to justify that yet. Just check in on her from time to time. Tandy’s the one with some hanky-panky in her life. I’ve got to find out about this license thing. And what—if anything—it has to do with Marie.”

“You’re investigating Tandy just because she was a friend of Marie’s?”

“Initially, yes. But she’s turned out to be a nutcase. I don’t have anything specific on her, but she’s worth watching at this point.” Decker ran his hand through his hair. “How’s the search going? How much manpower’s still out there?”

“About fifty percent of what we had. But that’s still a lot of feet.”

“But for how long?”

“You know the situation, Rabbi.”

And Decker did. He swore to himself. The case was taking on a chill. “I’ve got another call on the line, Mike. I’ll check in later.”

“Maybe I’ll have better news,” Hollander said.