Jacob nodded. “Yeah, she’s devastated!” He sighed. “It’s terrible. I got my own feelings about this, and people are calling me up, asking me questions. Like I’m a hot line to your investigation.”

“Can I do anything for you?”

“I don’t suppose you want to take the calls.”

“I’m a little busy right now.”

“Then how about if you read all this junk for me.” He held up an SAT II chemistry study guide. “You can take the test for me.”

“Sure, I can fail it for you,” Decker answered.

The boy cracked a smile. “Actually, I know the material pretty well. I’ll be fine.”

“That’s good.”

A long pause. Then Jacob said, “Ernesto never struck me as gay, by the way.”

Decker sat down. “Why?”

“I’m a pretty boy,” Jacob said. “The kind of looks that girls and gays love. He never came on to me.”

“Maybe you’re not his type,” Decker said.

The teenager smiled. “I’m everyone’s type.”

Decker smiled back. “So you’re basing Ernesto’s sexual inclination on your universal sex appeal?”

“In all seriousness, it’s just that he…he was comfortable with girls. Also, he never made any antigay jokes, which is a tip-off with someone trying to hide it.”

“People have secret lives, Yonkie.”

“Uh, yeah, I think I know something about that.” The boy looked down. “Just giving you my perception, for what it’s worth.”

“It’s worth a lot. You knew him a lot better than I did.”

Silence.

Decker broke it. “What should we do for dinner? Hannah’s hungry and I’d like to give her more than snacks.”

“There’s always takeout,” Jacob said. “Hannah will always eat pizza.”

“We should actually cook something. I’m sure Eema and Sammy will be hungry when they come home.”

“What can you cook?” Jacob asked.

“Hot dogs and scrambled eggs,” Decker answered.

Jacob got up and went to the refrigerator. “Hey, guess what? There’re a half-dozen veal chops in the freezer.”

Decker said, “I can broil veal chops.”

“There are also a couple of salad bags. That would really impress Eema. A fresh salad.”

“Yes, it would.”

“Well, there you go.” Jacob pulled out the package. “A gourmet delight.”

“Jacob, are you okay?”

The boy sat back down. “Not really. It’s too surreal. Eema and I were talking about it before she left for the airport. She’s convinced that I’m holding back. I’m not. I told her all I knew about Ernesto—which wasn’t much. I didn’t like him. But knowing someone who was murdered so brutally is awful. How do you face this, day after day?”

“I swallow back personal feelings so I can do the job.”

“You never take it to heart?”

“It affects you.” Mental pictures of today’s victims played in Decker’s mind. “But if you want to get the job done, you push things aside.”