"That's all right. Tell me, on nights he was with you, when would he arrive and when would he leave?"

"He'd be at my door anywhere between ten to midnight and leave around four or five in the morning. Does that help?"

According to the police report, the murders took place between 23:00 and 04:00. Would Davidson have been able to commit the murders and still make it to Shulamit's apartment at the usual time? I did some rapid calculations and decided that he would. Davidson could have killed Esther and Willie at eleven p.m. and arrived at Shulamit's apartment by midnight or slightly later. He wouldn't even need to have run from Lunz Street to Ussishkin Street—a brisk walk would have sufficed. It was unlikely that Shulamit would have remembered it if he'd been fifteen or even thirty minutes late. Not after ten years.

Of course, it was possible that Davidson had not seen Shulamit that night at all. He could have killed Esther and Willie and spent the rest of the night elsewhere. But if Dr. Hendleman was working that night, if Shulamit was home alone, she could have provided Davidson with a backup alibi, in case his first one fell apart under scrutiny. Which was exactly what had happened last night at Greta's.

But Davidson's affair with Shulamit raised another question.

"In the time you had the affair," I said, "could Davidson have been involved with another woman?"

Shulamit mulled it over. "If you had asked me this question then, I would have said no, but now? Yes, I suppose it's possible."

"But you saw no sign of it?"

"No. Nothing. Why do you ask?"

I didn't answer her. My mind was churning, swirling with questions.

Davidson could have denied having an affair with Esther, because he figured it would cast him as a suspect. But why had he insisted on it even after I told him a colleague of Esther had confirmed the affair? At that point, Davidson believed his initial alibi was strong, that he was beyond suspicion. He should have felt safe enough to come clean about the affair. It was only later that I revealed to him what I knew about Saul Mercer and got him to admit he had not been on his boat the night of the murders.

What Davidson had said about the night he forced a kiss on Esther by the docks could explain what Elena Warshavski had claimed she saw. What it couldn't explain was what Leah Goldin had told me. She'd said that Esther had told her she was having an affair with Alon Davidson. So either Esther had lied to Leah at the time, or Davidson had lied to me yesterday, or…I rubbed my face. Someone was lying, and I desperately needed to find out who.