“It’s in Exodus . . . in the Hebrew section called Mishpatim if that helps.”

“Hold on . . . Exodus 21 paragraph 22 through 25 . . .” He read. “It doesn’t say anything about monetary compensation.”

“It’s in the commentary from Rashi. He was a great, eleventh-century—”

“I know who Rashi is. I took Moderation and Extremism at Harvard—Twersky’s class—although he was dead by the time I took it. But people still refer to it as Twersky’s course. The point is why should I believe some guy’s commentary? Just go with the text.”

“Law is always about interpretation. Nothing is ever face value. And the background of the biblical section deals more with torts than with capital cases.”

“Aren’t you the hotshot, biblical scholar?”

“This is pretty rudimentary, Tyler, but if you’re impressed, I’m fine with that.”

McAdams was still reading text. “The sections deal with tort law as well as capital cases. It’s all mixed together.”

“Traditionalists go by rabbinic law because the sages can interpret Jewish law better than the layman.”

“You need a learned mind,” McAdams said.

“Exactly.”

The kid grinned. “Or a Learned Hand.”

Decker groaned at the pun. “You were setting me up for that one, weren’t you.”

“I was.”

“Clever, but awful!”

“It wasn’t awful!” McAdams sniffed. “It was just . . . Harvard.”

THE RURAL NORTHEAST was white and stark, giving the region an aesthetic minimalism. Urban Northeast was gray and depressing. Grime mixed with snow equaled sludge, and the old factories and crumbling brick warehouses were bereft of any kind of beauty. The only saving grace today was the bright sunshine and the clear skies, which only served to highlight the sprawl. According to the GPS, Decker was only a mile from Latham’s address. He said, “Are we near the university?”

“I take it you mean Tufts. We’re not far in distance, but worlds away socioeconomically. If Latham was doing something illegal, it wasn’t paying him big dividends.”

“Or he chose the area because petty criminal activity might go unnoticed.”

“That’s certainly possible.”

“Or Latham was a poor grad student who was strapped. Or he was just cheap.” Decker pulled up to the apartment building and killed the motor. “Hopefully, we shall find out something about the lad.” He clicked open the glove compartment and took out his gun.

McAdams said, “I don’t think you’ll need that in the daytime.”

Decker strapped it into his harness. “I’m not leaving a loaded Beretta in the car.”

“Why’d you bring a piece? I mean, do you routinely carry it in Greenbury?”

“No. Don’t need it there. But here we don’t know what we’re dealing with so I like to err on the overcautious side.” Decker opened the door. “Let’s go.”

“I’m with you, partner.”