McAdams took off his parka, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. “This brings back memories and none of them good. And Dad wonders why I’m not rushing to do it all again.” He turned to Decker. “Did you go to college?”

“Of course not—because as you well know all cops are cretins by law.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. Jeez!”

Decker smiled, took off his coat, and started climbing stairs to the fourth floor. “FYI, I’m a lawyer. Passed the California bar and everything. And I hated every moment of it.”

“That I can understand. The law’s an ass and so are lawyers.”

“So why are you going to law school?”

“Good question, Decker. What law school did you go to?”

“Some unaccredited job in L.A. I went at night and worked LAPD during the day.”

“So where’d you go to college . . . undergraduate?”

“I didn’t go to college. I had completed my training at the police academy and I guess that was good enough for my law school—that and full tuition.”

“You went into LAPD academy directly out of high school?”

“No, I worked Gainesville police for a while. I was born in Florida. And no, I didn’t go directly into the academy out of high school. There was this little glitch called the Vietnam War. Uncle Sam had first dibs.”

“Oh . . . right.” A pause. “Did you go overseas?”

“Of course.” Decker gave a mirthless laugh. “We weren’t given choices, Tyler.” He reached the third floor and paused. “I was drafted and went into the infantry. First time out on a mission, I saw the kid about twenty paces ahead of me step on a mine and blow himself up.” He wiped his forehead. Man, it was hot. “Welcome to the jungle.”

McAdams fell silent. “I don’t like it when people pry into my life so I guess I shouldn’t be prying into yours.”

“I don’t mind. Curiosity is a good feature for a cop.”

“So can I ask what happened?”

“I survived. That’s what happened.” He shrugged. “It was a little more than that. I’ll tell you how I survived and then we won’t have to talk about this anymore.”

“You don’t have to tell me.”