Number two: Hi, Lieutenant, it’s Gabe Whitman. Detective Bontemps left a message on your home machine and is trying to get hold of you. She says it’s important. Rina said that you should go to the station house and not worry about lunch. She’ll eat with you whenever you come back. I was elected to call you since I’m not Jewish. It’s nice to be good for something.

Although Gabe’s humor made Decker smile, the contents of his message made him sigh inwardly. He turned the car around and headed for work.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

AS SOON AS Decker walked into the station house, Wanda Bontemps got up from her desk, a stack of papers tucked under her arm. Decker gave her a wave and grabbed a cup of coffee from the communal pot. He unlocked the office door, turned on the light, and offered Wanda a seat. She wore a long-sleeved lime green shirt over black pants, and rubber-soled shoes. Gold hoops adorned her ears, and her long nails were painted medium brown, matching her skin tone.

Decker was still in his black suit and uncomfortable loafers. He had taken off the tie in the car and elected to remove his jacket and hang it over his chair.

“How was the service?” Wanda asked Decker.

“Sad. Kathy Blanc introduced me to Crystal Larabee’s mother.”

“How’d that go?”

“Sad. Her name is Pandora Hurst and she’s coming to the station house on Monday. She’s been living apart from her daughter for a while, but there’s always something new to learn.” Decker leaned back in his chair. “So what’s up?”

Wanda took the papers from under her arm and laid a colored jpeg on Decker’s desk. “Look familiar?”

Decker was staring at a yellow-gold diamond-crusted R on a gold chain; it sat around the neck of a girl with shoulder-length dark hair and brown eyes that gazed off to the side. The photograph was a torso shot and the girl was in a dark boatneck sweater against a sage green background. “High school senior picture?”

“Yes.”

“Who was she?”

Using past tense, Wanda noted. “Roxanne Holly—a twenty-six-year-old bank teller who was murdered by strangulation. Her mother gave the detectives this picture of her because it showed the necklace clearly. Roxanne wore it all the time, but it was missing when they found the body.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Three-plus years.”

“Where was the homicide?”