Elena favored me with an approving smile. "I would have enjoyed having you in my classroom, Adam. That's a very good question. The answer is yes, I would have said it was him. Alon Davidson is not a man who's easy to mistake for another. There is also the matter of location—by the docks. Davidson is a fisherman. I suppose he moors his boat there."

"What do you mean it's not easy to mistake him for another man?"

"Are you planning on talking to him?"

"Yes."

"Then you'll understand when you see him."

She poured herself another glass of lemonade and took a tiny sip. She seemed not entirely happy with the fact that she'd told me what she did.

"The thing is that once I saw her kissing him, my opinion of her changed drastically. I don't approve of any woman who goes around with a married man, but with the husband of a close friend? Reprehensible. I quite disliked her after that." She sighed. "And then she was killed. Murdered. Along with her son. I felt guilty for thinking ill of her."

"Did you tell anyone about this? The police?"

"Yes, but it wasn't until three weeks after the murders. A week before the murders occurred, my daughter gave birth. She lived in Nahariya. I stayed with her for a month to help her with the new baby. It's only when I came back that I learned what happened."

"And then you went to the police?"

"Yes. I talked to a detective. Rivlin—that was his name. I remember him wrinkling his nose when I told him I wasn't positive it was Alon Davidson that I saw. He said that Davidson had an ironclad alibi."

"He did," I said. According to the police report, Davidson had been at sea on his fishing boat the night of the murders. Another fisherman, who was with him that night, had sworn to it. But why had Rivlin omitted his conversation with Elena from his report? Even if he had been certain that Alon Davidson could not have been the killer, there was another person who now had a possible motive and no alibi: Natalie Davidson, the betrayed wife and close friend. If Esther and Alon Davidson had indeed had an affair, and Natalie Davidson had known about it, she would have a pretty good reason to hate Esther. People have killed over less. Yet nowhere in his investigation report had Rivlin listed her as a suspect. Why?

Maybe he had simply not thought Elena's information was worth pursuing, considering her less-than-certain identification of Alon Davidson. Or maybe the alcohol had begun affecting his work and judgment.

Or he might have had another reason. During our conversation, Rivlin had always referred to the killer as a "he" or as a "guy." He believed that the killer was a man. He never considered the possibility that Natalie Davidson could have done it, not even when a possible motive fell in his lap. I was embarrassed to admit that I had fallen prey to the same preconception, that up to this point I had also assumed the killer was male. No longer. Natalie Davidson was now a suspect. A person whom the police had overlooked ten years ago. Just the sort of person I was hoping to find.