Davidson turned his head this way and that until finally his eyes came to rest on my face. A sneer curled his lips, his eyes burned hot, and his body drew tense like a loaded spring. For a second I thought he was going to lunge across the table at me, bloodied as he was. Then Michael laid a hand on his shoulder, surprisingly gentle, and said softly, "I think Adam has some questions for you. You'd better answer them." Then he stepped back to lean against the wall, got out a cigarette, and put it in his mouth.

Davidson didn't answer for a moment. He just stared at Michael with fear on his face. Alongside the fear was wonder, as if he were asking himself, just like I had a minute ago, how this much smaller man had bested him. He turned back to face me.

"You're lucky this guy got me from behind," Davidson said. There was a swagger in his voice, but his body was no longer tense.

"Otherwise?" I prompted, resisting the urge to remind him how he had ambushed me. Stay focused on getting the information you want, I told myself.

"Otherwise I'd have given you a well-deserved beating."

"Deserved? For what?"

"For telling my wife lies. I come home after a long night on my boat, my wife sees me walk in the door, and she starts bawling. Accuses me of having an affair with a friend of hers, Esther Kantor. I ask her who put such lies in her head and she gives me your name. Took me all day to find you."

"Find me to do what?"

"To teach you a lesson you weren't about to forget anytime soon."

"But not for lying about you. Because I wasn't lying, was I, Alon?"

"Yeah, you were. I never had an affair with Esther."

"Now you're the one who's lying, Alon. Esther told a friend of hers about you, about the affair."

His eyes bulged. "What? She's lying. Tell me who this bitch is. Why, I'll—" He bit off the rest of his sentence.

"You'll what? Punch her in the face?"

Davidson shook his head. "I don't hit women."

"This friend isn't the only person who saw you and Esther together. A neighbor saw the two of you kissing."

"More lies."

"By the docks. A few days before the murders. Ring any bells?"

By the way his eyes darted this way and that, I could tell that it did. He shifted in his seat, looked from me to Greta to Michael and back to me.

"You want to ask me questions, she and him have to be around to hear me answer them?"

"Yes. You brought this on yourself by attacking me. Now answer the goddamn question."

He let out a theatrical sigh. "Fine. I did kiss Esther by the docks, all right? Happy? I admit it. But I didn't have an affair with her."

"What, then?"