“This isn’t about blame, Rina; I’m just trying to understand you, for heaven’s sake!”

Silence over the phone. Then Rina said, “I didn’t want to upset you. You were nervous enough about Sammy being in Israel.”

Decker said, “Did you ever talk to Jacob about his drug…his former drug use?”

“It is former?”

“Best of my knowledge, it’s former.”

“No, I didn’t. Because frankly I didn’t know how to handle it without getting hysterical. And the last thing that Yonkie needed was an hysterical mother. I figured he just had to mature. That was probably pretty stupid of me, but sometimes, Peter, I just get tired of parenting.”

“I hear you loud and clear, darlin’.”

“I did talk to Shmueli about it. I knew if Jacob confided in anyone, it would be his brother. He told me to let it ride, that Yonkie was feeling bad enough for the both of us.”

“So I’m not the only one who was keeping secrets.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Rina said. “We can talk about that later. Right now, Yonkie’s the issue here. Peter, he’s very scared.”

“About what?” Decker sat up. “Does he know something?”

“I don’t know.”

Decker’s duty was clear. “Is Jacob home now?”

“Yes. He was going to come with me to the airport to pick up Shmueli. But if you’re coming home, I’ll tell him to stay and wait for you.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“Was he good friends with this Golding boy? He claims he wasn’t, but I think he might be lying to protect me.”

“I think he’s being honest. Yonkie had told me that he hadn’t seen the boy in months. It’s probably the murder itself. You know kids. They think they’re immortal. Then reality smacks them in the face…. Don’t worry.”

“Just when he was doing so well with the therapy and his grades. I don’t want him to start Johns Hopkins an emotional wreck!”

“It’s the start of the summer, Rina. He’ll be okay by the fall.”

“Except he’s taking his Calculus and Physics SAT II next week. I know he’s a good test taker but—”

Again, Decker sat up straight. “What did you say?”

“I don’t know,” Rina said. “What did I say?”

“You said that Yonkie is taking the SAT II in Calculus and Physics,” Decker answered.

“Right. He’s trying to exempt out of freshman Calc—”

“S2 is SAT II, S is SAT, PS is PSAT…” Decker replied. “Of course. That’s it. That’s what their specialty was…getting kids into top universities.”

“What’s it?”