They both got out of the car and went into the house, Decker flicking on the hallway light. He hung up his jacket and Rina’s jacket as well. He took off his boots, his scarf, and his mittens and turned on a living room lamp. Inside it was warm and cozy. Greenbury was beginning to feel like home. Rina had put on a kettle. “Tea?”

“Love some.” He sat down on the couch and threw his head back.

Rina sat down and put her hand on his knee. “Tell me where you are in the case.”

Decker explained what he knew so far. “Now that we have the connection between Angeline and the panels, I can at least go forward. If she and Latham were fencing stolen material, they’d need a middleman. Since Latham lived up north, I’ll try hunting around the Boston area.”

“You can do that without stepping on Summer Village’s toes?”

“That’s why I want to see them personally. We can compare notes and since they’re busier than I am, maybe they wouldn’t mind a little help.”

Rina nodded, and then she went into the kitchen to fetch the tea. They sipped a while in silence, watching the snow fall from the living room picture window. There was a light outside the house emphasizing the delicate white flakes: a live screen saver. She said, “Are you taking Tyler with you?”

“It always helps to have another point of view.” A pause. “Before we left for New York, Tyler was in the middle of searching for valuables that could be stolen from a library: things like old reference material with original prints or vintage maps or collectors’ books that could be sold on the black market. If they were stealing from graveyards, I wouldn’t put it past them to steal from libraries.”

“Makes total sense.”

“The problem is none of that material is worth killing over. Even if their fence was caught, the most he’d get is a slap on the wrist. So far I have nothing that says that Angeline was anything more than a two-bit hustler. I have nothing on Latham. I’m going to exhaust all my leads very soon. I’m missing something.” The room fell silent. “It’s times like this when I really miss Marge.”

“You do own a phone.”

“I don’t want to bother her.”

“While Ventura is a bigger city than Greenbury, it isn’t LAPD. I’m sure she’s going through ‘homicide withdrawal’ as well. And I know she loves hearing from you. It’s not late on the West Coast and you know she’s not working on Sunday. Call her up.”

Decker checked his watch as if to verify the time. “Why not? At the very least, it’ll be nice to talk to someone who doesn’t call me Old Man.”