“All I can do is try.” Rina stood, snapshot still in hand. “I’d better go check on Sammy.”

“The boy with the phylacteries?”

“Yes, he just got back from Israel.”

“Go check on him.” Golding stood and held out his hand. “Thank you, Mrs. Decker.”

She took his hand, securing the agreement to help him. As soon as Rina left, Golding began to pace, making tracks with mindless, nervous motion. “I need to get back to Jill…and Karl.”

“When may I look at your son’s room?”

Golding checked his watch. “My goodness, it’s early. How about in two hours? At eight or eight-thirty?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Lieutenant, when can we bury our son? I know you’re conducting an investigation, but my wife and I need some…some…”

“Closure.”

“Something tangible to weep over.” Again Golding looked away.

Decker said, “I’ll try to have him released as soon as possible. Can I help you with anything else?”

Golding shook his head. “Not unless you can raise the dead.”

Rina’s late husband’s last name was Lazarus. Decker kept his face neutral, not knowing if the name was an omen for positive outcome or irony.

23

Sipping coffee, Decker sat at the kitchen table, the paper opened in front of him, and pretended to be casual. “I have problems with your searching for the identity of Golding’s father, Rina. For all I know, it might be the reason behind the murder.”

Rina adjusted the kerchief on her head, then sliced strawberries into a bowl of cereal. “All the more reason for you to find out what’s going on.”

“I agree.” Decker looked up. “It’s exactly how you said it. All the more reason for me to find out. Me, not you.”

“And which of your detectives knows the area of post Holocaust Jews?”

“Rina—”

“Excuse me. I have to go feed your daughter.” She marched out of the kitchen, marching back in a minute later. “You had no idea what questions to ask Golding. And even if you had stumbled upon the right questions, you’d have no idea what the answers would have meant. And you’re the best of the lot.”

“Now you’re being chauvinistic.”

“Peter, I am doing the man a favor—parent to parent.”

“And I am trying to run a murder investigation.”

“Even better. I’ll tell you everything I find out.”

Decker rolled his eyes.

“Don’t give me that!” Rina scolded him. “Didn’t you ask me to take Tom Webster to the Tolerance Center?”

“To give him their information on hate groups. Not for genealogy.”

“So while he’s looking at hate groups, I’ll talk to the archivist.” She looked at him with defiant eyes. “Don’t you have to be somewhere?”

“You’re trying to get rid of me?”