“For an independent woman, Cynthia, you are full of contradictions. Why do you want to bring Daddy into this?”

“Because I don’t want to screw anything up.”

“Somewhere along the line, you’re going to have to learn to trust yourself.”

“How about if you do the interviewing and I watch and take notes?”

“Not a good idea.”

“Loo, I know this makes me look wussy. I don’t care. I want this done right.”

Decker shook his head. “Cin, I don’t work on cases out of my jurisdiction. That’s stepping on toes and I don’t know when and where I might need these guys.”

“All right.” I gave him a charitable smile. “More coffee?”

“Yes, it’s very good.”

“It’s Ethiopian.”

Dad caught my eyes. “I’m sure there’s more where that came from.”

“I’ve got a source.”

Decker chuckled. “Okay, Officer, this is what I’ll do. I’ll accompany you.”

Better than I thought he’d do.

“You’ll nudge me in the ribs if I’m doing something wrong?”

“If I nudged you in the ribs every time you did something wrong, you’d have a hole in your side.”

“Aha! I knew you were mad!”

“I’m not mad—”

“Yes, you are. Just say it so we can move on.”

Decker locked eyes with me. I felt my face go warm.

“What? What?”

“This has nothing to do with Koby. I meant it when I said he seems like a good guy.”

He gave me one of those scolding-parent looks. At twenty-eight, I don’t know why I had to deal with it, but that’s the nature of being a daughter.

“Go on.”

“You should have told me, Cynthia. That would have been common courtesy.”

“Why? I wouldn’t have made a point of telling you if he had been white.”

Decker rolled his eyes. “I think you like to see me squirm.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Well, I don’t think so.” He stood up and cleared his plate. “I wash and you dry?”

“I can handle two plates.” I brought my own plate in. Together we cleared the table. “So that’s all you want to say about it?”

He lifted a strand of hair out of my eyes. “Yes. That is all I want to say. Now get a paper and pencil. Tell me what questions you want to ask this girl and why.”

I went to fetch my notepad, not happy about the dialogue between us. But at least it was a dialogue. By the time we were done refining our inquiries, it was almost eleven. I wrapped up the cold leftovers and stuck them in the fridge. I faced my father and made eye contact. “I like him, Daddy.”

“It’s important to like the person you’re dating.”

I tapped my toe. “Well, we’ll see what happens. It’s probably premature to talk about it.”

“For what it’s worth, I liked him, too, Cin.”

“It’s worth a lot to me.”

“A definite step up from your last fling.”

I hit my father’s shoulder. “I’m ready if you are.”

“Then let’s do it.” He threw his arm around my shoulder. “You tell your mother about him yet?”