Rina came back with black coffee for him and a milk-laced cup for herself. She sat down, tucked her legs under her denim skirt, and brushed midnight silk out of her eyes.

“Now,” she said. “What happened?”

“Everything’s okay,” he started out. “Sammy went exploring in the woods and came across a couple of human skeletons—”

“What?”

“It scared him, of course. It scared Jake, also, but they’re okay,” he said.

“What’d they do?”

“They asked a lot of good questions and I answered them. Kids do well with the honest approach.”

“Was it disgusting?”

“It was graphic.”

“What’d they ask you, Peter?”

“They acted pretty characteristically. Jake seemed more interested in the bones per se. How did they get there? Did the bad man who dumped them still live in the city? Is he going to kill us—”

“Dear God, I’d better talk to him—”

Decker held up the palm of his hand and continued.

“He watched the police procedures, and it was good for him. Gave him a sense of resolution. He’s not the one who took it to heart.”

“What’d Sammy say?”

“Sammy had a more adult concept about the whole thing. He talked about death—how the rabbis approached it. I think it was a speech he’d heard in the past. It may have brought back some painful memories.”

“Did he mention Yitzchak?”

“Not by name. He did tell me that Jews aren’t buried in airtight coffins—that their bones disintegrate into dust. Reading between the lines, you could tell what he was thinking.”

The room was silent for a moment.

“I’ll see how they’re doing,” she said quietly.

Decker nodded. She left the room and he slowly sipped his coffee.

It had been six months since he’d first stepped onto the grounds of the yeshiva, entering an alien world governed by laws codified thirteen hundred years ago. He’d been the detective assigned to a brutal rape that had occured outside the mikvah—the ritual bathhouse—and Rina had been a witness. As the investigation unfolded, it became clear that she’d been the intended victim all along. By the time the perpetrator was caught, their lives had become permanently enmeshed.

And now was the endless period of waiting. Long hours of studying that he hoped would lead to commitment. But often he wondered if this was what he really wanted. If Rina had never entered his life, he wouldn’t have changed. But she had, and he felt as if he were trapped between floors in a stuck elevator. His past seemed remote, his future uncertain. Some people found uncertainty exciting. He considered it a giant headache.

He closed his eyes, attempting to rest, and opened them only when he heard Rina reenter the room.

“They seem all right,” she said. “Jakey recounted everything in gory detail. He said the bodies had been burned.”