Decker didn’t answer.

Randy brought in the heavy ammunition. “Peter, you made me look especially good. I’m going to get a promotion because of you— D-three. You know how long I’ve waited for this?”

“I’m happy for you.”

“So stop sulking like a paddled schoolboy. You think Donatti used you? You used Donatti. The psycho was finally good for something other than popping wiseguys and pimping girls.”

But Decker wasn’t buying the rationalization. His expression spoke of his skepticism.

“You’re still thinking like a Homicide dick,” Randy told him. “You want Donatti, you gotta think like Vice. You need informants. You need the bad guys to get other bad guys.”

“Donatti’s a real bad guy. The bastard shot me.” Decker’s jaw became a ball of tension. “Worse than that, he humiliated me.”

“Fucking easy for him to make you dance with a gun to your head. Peter, he didn’t humiliate you; he played a crooked game. That’s being a coward. I’d like to pit the two of you together without the Beretta in his hand.”

The image made Decker smile. “I should have turned him in.”

“Pete, he ain’t worth ruining your life for.” Randy gulped down his lemonade. “Yeah, it would have been great if you could have taken him under, but the timing wasn’t right. The main thing is you’re breathing, and that gives you plenty of time to set him up. You want to get Donatti, you need to sting him. You need informants and anonymous tips and wires and videos and surveillance and someone who’ll rat him out. That kind of setup takes time… maybe years.”

Decker nodded, still consumed with thoughts of revenge. Bastard probably figured the slate was clean for what happened eight years ago. Not so, baby. Now, there was a bigger score to settle. And Randy was right. Maybe it would take years. That was okay. Decker was mature: He was a very patient man.

“Donatti will get his,” Randy repeated. “In the meantime, look around. It’s a beautiful day. Not so bad, huh?”

“No, not so bad.” Decker finished his lemonade.

Randy laughed out loud. “Just like when we were kids, Peter. I’d screw up and try to convince you why it wasn’t all that terrible.”

“You didn’t screw up this time.”

“Neither did you.”

Decker didn’t answer.

Randy switched gears. “You’re just about healed up and you still got four weeks’ disability left. What are you going to do with it?”

“Right now, I’m mellowing out. In a few days, Rina and I thought we’d take Hannah to Epcot—”

“Oh God no!”

“What’s wrong with Epcot?”

“Why don’t you leave Hannah to me and Sheryl? We’ll take her to Epcot and Disney World. She enjoys spending time with her cousins. You go with Rina to the Caribbean.”

“No thanks. Maybe another time.”

“If not now, when? Isn’t that a Jewish proverb?”

“It means the study of Torah.”

“Well, you can’t study your holy Torah unless your mind is in a spiritual place. In the meantime, the Caribbean is nice.”