Decker frowned. “Because he was on his way out to visit a sick kid and didn’t know what to do with them. Because you don’t toss magazines like that in your apartment Dumpster. You hold them until you figure out how to get rid of them.”

“You know what I don’t understand,” Oliver said. “I don’t understand why Dr. Azor Moses Sparks—Mr. Austere, By the Book, Elder, Pillar of the Christian Community—would have subscribed to those kinds of magazines using his real name.”

“Arrogance,” Decker said.

“Or he wanted to get caught,” Rina said. “Maybe he was planning to come out.”

They all looked at Rina. Oliver said. “You know, Loo, she’s real bright—”

“Yes, I know that, Scott.” Decker sat up. “So…if Azor Sparks were suddenly to come out of the closet…who would that impact on the most?”

“His wife, of course,” Rina answered.

“His wife,” Decker echoed. “Say she found out about her husband’s preferences. Say she confronted him. Maybe he denied it. But maybe he admitted it, even told her he was going to leave her. Think about it, guys.”

“Here’s a woman who put in forty years with a man. Bore him six children, lived her life around him, developed her identity on the basis of being his wife. His parties were her parties. His dinners were her dinners. Through him, she had a role—as a wife, as a mother, as a leader in the church, as hostess of dinners and parties. She thought he was her soulmate, her heavenly match from God.”

“Hell hath no fury,” Oliver said.

“You’d better believe it,” Decker said. “What if he decided to leave her—sort out his feelings, wrestle with his inclinations, make his own peace with God. Maybe he took it one step further. Maybe he had someone waiting in the wings—”

“Decameron,” Marge said.

Oliver said, “No way.”

“What difference does it make?” Rina asked. “We’ll never know so let’s move on.”

Oliver was taken aback. “She’s tough.”

“Tell me about it,” Decker said. “The point is that we’re assuming Sparks was going to leave his wife for a lifestyle she considered odious and sinful. He was making a fool out of her, making a mockery out of her Fundamentalist religion, out of God. Most important, without Azor, Dolores had no role in life. If that was the case, if she had lived her life around this sinner of a man, what do you think she might have done?”

The room fell quiet.

Marge broke the silence. “It’s a big leap, Pete.”

“It’s logical,” Oliver said. “She ices the old man, then maybe ices Decameron because she thinks he’s having an affair with her husband.”

“Throwing the magazines around the bodies,” Rina said. “Like you always said, Peter. It looked like a calling card.”

“That was me,” Marge said.