“It’s actually not a bad idea, Pete. It’ll be a lot easier to guard one house than two. And it’ll be easier to rotate people because we’ll have more manpower.”

“So it’s settled,” Rina said. “Tyler will move in, Mike will put a guard on the house, and Peter is still on the case.”

Radar said, “I don’t want you going at this alone.”

Decker said, “If I could team up with an old colleague from L.A., I’d agree with you. But it takes a long time to get a trust and a rhythm between two people. I’m better going solo.”

“No, no, no, no,” Rina said. “You are not doing this alone.”

“Last night, if I hadn’t been so worried about Rina or Tyler, I could have chased down the perp. I’m not training someone new.”

“Speaking of which, Marge called.”

“When?”

“Last night. I forgot to tell you.”

“Great.”

“I can’t think of everything!”

Decker said, “Sorry.”

“Who’s Marge?” Radar asked.

“An old colleague from L.A.”

Radar made a face. “So now you’re outsourcing?”

Decker felt sheepish. “We worked together for years. We keep in touch.”

“Decker, if she called you back, you must have asked her to do something.”

“He’s got you there,” Rina said.

“Whose side are you on?”

“Flexible.”

Radar said, “What did you ask her to do?”

“Look up Chase Goddard and see if he’s done anything arrest worthy in his past. Her police department has bigger databases than ours.”

“Well, as long as the cat’s out of the bag, she told me to tell you that she didn’t find anything on him. She’s going to try to see if the LAPD database might have something.”

“Chase Goddard,” Radar said. “The gallery man you visited yesterday afternoon when you saw the silver van.”

“Yep.”

“I’ll see what I can find out about him from Boston,” Radar said.

“Thank you.” No one talked for a moment. Then Decker said, “So it’s settled?”

“You are not working solo, Peter,” Rina said. “I’m in your corner but you have to be reasonable.”

“I agree,” Radar said. “You’re a target. You can’t handle this alone.”

“I’m not going to involve anyone on the force, Mike. Not with this bull’s-eye on my head.”

“For God’s sake, Decker, we’re all cops! We know what we signed up for. I am the captain of Greenbury PD and I’m calling up Ben Roiters. You cannot work alone.”

“Then I’d rather you pull me off the case than involve Ben,” Decker said.

“Peter, why don’t you call Scott?” Rina said.

“Am I senile or wasn’t he just shot a year ago.”

“Who’s Scott?” Radar asked.

“Peter, every time you talk to him, he complains how bored he is with retirement.”