And then there was that irksome suspicion, the tweak in the gut that Decker had had during his shiva call just before his literal runin with Minda.

Chaim and Jonathan are sitting on something.

Combining their secretive stance with the knowledge that Shaynda had either bolted from Donatti or disappeared, Decker concluded that the girl must have contacted Jon or Chaim somewhere between six in the morning—when Donatti last saw her—and her death roughly four hours later.

So it really wasn’t a matter of going back to square one. What he needed to do was retrace those crucial four hours. Of course, what had occurred during those four hours were probably by-products of the murder five days ago.

He decided to start with the easiest chore: to change the plane tickets.

Decker had to remain in the city, but there was no earthly reason for Rina and Hannah to stay with him. That meant he’d have to convince his wife to go on to Florida with his daughter, and without him. Dealing with Donatti was a cakewalk compared to dealing with Rina. She seemed in constant denial of danger. But while she didn’t have much regard for her own safety, she did care about Hannah. He’d use that angle—that too many deaths were traumatizing, and it was abusive to keep Hannah in such a morbid atmosphere.

He arrived at his car, but before getting in, he placed a call to the Lazaruses on his cell. As expected, no one answered. Rina wasn’t carrying a cell phone, and he had no idea where she was. Presumably, she hadn’t heard the news, because if she had, she would have called him. He had no choice but to wait to hear from her.

The second call was to Jonathan’s cell. The voice on the other end was a mixture of anger and fear. “I can’t talk right now, Akiva. As you know, things are a mess. Getting messier by the moment.”

“Fine. I’ll come out to Quinton. I’ll see you there in an hour—”

“No, don’t do that!”

“Then where—”

“Akiva, I can’t meet you right now. I have Chaim and Minda to deal with.”

“Jonathan, listen to me.” Decker spoke with purpose. “Something was going on this morning before we all heard the terrible news. You know something. Or at the very least, you thought you knew something. Now, you can either deal with me, or I’ll call in the police and you can sort it out with them. Take your pick.”

Silence over the phone.

Jonathan said, “You’re blackmailing me.”

“That’s not fair. But I’ll let it slide because you’re under duress.”

“I didn’t mean… What do you want from me?”

Now it was pure anger.

Decker said, “I’ll meet you in Quinton—at Liberty Park right outside the Community Hall.”

“Not in public.”

Decker held back his own anger. “Ashamed to be seen with me?”

“Akiva, please!”

It was a low blow. Decker apologized, but he didn’t back down. “Jon, you don’t know me all that well, so let me clue you in. You brought me out. Now I’m involved. I don’t get uninvolved just because you and your brother-in-law decide to scrap me. As a matter of fact, that kind of about-face makes me very curious.”