Rina would counter by saying it would be for only three days and two nights. She had hired Nora, Hannah’s former baby nurse. Nora was happy to help out while she was gone. They both knew how capable Nora was. And Hannah loved her dearly. The topper was that Rina’s mother and Nora got along just great.

Peter would complain about the cost. Rina would counter by saying she’d found an extremely cheap standby coast-to-coast flight. She’d be staying with relatives in New York so lodging wouldn’t cost a penny. And Jonathan, an old friend and Peter’s newly discovered half brother, had agreed to let her borrow his car. So she had cheap transportation to travel upstate to the Leibbener village.

Peter would say it was dangerous.

Rina would introduce the argument that Jonathan had offered to come with her if she felt she needed protection.

Enlisting Jonathan’s aid could potentially make Peter angry at his younger half brother. The last thing Rina wanted to do was create friction between the two men. Their relationship was fragile as well as recent. Jonathan’s mother was Peter’s biological mother, who had given him up for adoption. Peter held no malice against the woman—she had been a teenager when Peter was born—but their relationship was strained at best. Peter did get along well with two of his half brothers.

And Rina was taking a chance by asking Jonathan for help.

But this was something she just had to do. For the sake of the children.

She put the suitcase on the bed and checked on Hannah. The baby was banging two plastic triangles together.

Rina opened up her drawers and began to pack.

Tug Davidson had turned florid. “You want the department to allocate money to go where?”

“Israel,” Decker replied calmly. “It’s a very small country in Asia—”

“I know where Israel is, Decker. Don’t wiseass me. The answer is no.”

Davidson looked down at his desk and began to busy himself in paperwork. Decker and Marge didn’t move. His eyes returned to their faces. “The ‘no’ was the signal for both of you to leave.”

“Lieutenant, we might have two dead teenaged boys on our hands if we don’t go,” Marge said.

“For all you two know, we may have two dead teenaged boys right now.”

“And for all we know, they may be alive,” Marge said.

“And for all we know, Dunn, they may have popped the parents.”

“All the more reason for us to find them,” Decker said. “If they turn out to be our prime suspects, we should have them extradited to stand trial.”

“You make perfect sense except you don’t know where the hell the kids are. Then you come to me with this half-assed theory about Shaul Gold being a hit man. If you suspected him in the first place, you should have brought him in for questioning.”