Decker did just that. Every so often Elhiani would interrupt and ask Rina to translate. After Decker had finished, the room was silent, bathed in suds of nicotine.

Elhiani leaned back in the folding chair. “Why do you think this bomb is for Yalom and not terrorist act?”

Decker ran his hand over his face. “That’s just it. It was supposed to look like a terrorist act. The only reason we know it wasn’t random is because we know the history.”

“I’m still not so sure,” Elhiani said. “Describe to me this mad bomber.”

Rina broke in. “He came into the yeshiva wearing a long beard and an overcoat. He acted like a meshulach. He even gave me a card with the name of the yeshiva he was collecting for.”

“You have the card?”

“In my purse.”

“And where is your purse?”

“You took it,” Rina said.

“Ah,” Elhiani said. “Please. Continue.”

Rina said, “I had no reason to suspect he was anything else but a shnorrer.”

“But you changed your mind?”

Rina squirmed in her seat as she thought about a soldier’s words.

They may know the motions, they don’t have the emotions.

“It was the way he kissed the mezuzah.”

Decker looked at her. “What?”

“When he walked out of the bais midrash, he didn’t kiss the mezuzah right.”

“You told me to tackle a complete and utter stranger based on the way he kissed the mezuzah?”

“I was right, wasn’t I?”

“Please, please.” Elhiani waved his hand. “Go on, g’veret.”

“Peter, rabbis usually touch the mezuzah with the fringes of their tzitzit, then kiss the fringes. Even if they use their fingers, they touch the mezuzah with their fingertips only. This guy covered the mezuzah with his entire hand and kissed his palm. Someone had schooled him, but not quite correctly. And even though he was wearing tzitzit, he didn’t use them. Because he didn’t know what they were for.”

She threw up her hands.

“What can I say? It’s an intangible thing. And I was right.”

Decker thankfully admitted she was.

Elhiani spoke to her in Hebrew. Rina laughed.

Decker asked, “What’d he say?”

Rina said, “The moral of the story is listen to your wife.”

“I have a problem,” Elhiani announced.

They waited.

Elhiani said, “If this is not act of terrorism, if the bombing is to kill Gil Yalom, it is a stupid way to do that. What if Gil was not in bais midrash? Then the explosion does nothing to him. And as fact, he wasn’t in the bais midrash.”

Decker said, “At any given time during the day, the bais midrash holds the majority of the boys. The man was playing the odds.”

“I don’t understand playing odds?”

Rita translated.

“Ah,” Elhiani said. “They want him dead but only ninety percent.”