“… natural that the girl had witnessed something, maybe escaped. Then she was tracked down and murdered.”

Focus, Decker! “Or maybe she was in on it in the beginning.”

“She set up her uncle?” Novack’s face said he wasn’t buying.

“Or maybe she was the target,” Decker tried out. “The uncle was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“He was the drug addict,” Novack said.

“He’d been sober for more than two years.” Decker finished his coffee, signaled the waitress for another cup. “The thing is we don’t know.”

“We don’t know?” Novack gave him a calculated stare. “So now you’re an honorary member of the two-eight Homicide division? I thought you was leaving. Matter of fact, I thought you already said good-bye.”

“Look, I don’t mean to step on anyone’s toes, but I figured as long as I flew out all this distance, maybe I’ll stick around for a bit.”

“How long?”

“I’ll be out by Friday.”

The two men eyed each other.

Decker said, “Honestly, Mick. By Friday, I’m gone. I have to visit my parents. As it is, they’re going to be pissed that I’ve delayed it for two days.”

“So why do it?” Novack scratched his head. “What are you after, Pete?”

“I failed. I want to go back to the beginning and start over now that I know a little bit more about the family dynamics.”

“Share the details with me, Pete,” Novack said. “That kinda thing makes a primary investigating detective very happy.”

“For what it’s worth, here it is. I know that Chaim resented his brother’s presence in the business. But maybe Chaim had a reason for being hostile.”

“First off, how do you know he was resentful?”

“When the news came down about Shayndie, I was in the middle of paying a shiva call to the old man. I was talking to the father about his son. Trying to be nice. Ephraim was dead, Micky, and Chaim still couldn’t think of anything nice to say about him. Also, Chaim was very concerned about people stealing from him.”

“How do you know that?”

“Talking to store workers at Ephraim’s funeral. They told me that Chaim had concerns about theft. Ephraim was in charge of inventory. Maybe Ephraim was stealing. Have you had a chance to look over the papers you took from Ephraim’s apartment?”

“I skimmed through around half of them. Just lists of items. Don’t mean nothin’ to me cause I have nothin’ to compare it to. I don’t know if the inventory’s being monkeyed with or not. You think Chaim hired someone to off the brother because Ephraim was stealing?”

Decker thought about the question.

It wouldn’t be the first time in Jewish history that brother had been pitted against brother. The Bible was rife with attempted fratricide: Cain and Abel. Isaac and Yishmael. Yaakov and Aesav. Joseph and his brothers. In the Book of Genesis, hatred between siblings was more the norm than the exception.

“Sure, why not?”