Rina regarded her husband’s hurt face. Sighing, she pulled up a chair and sat next to him. He put down the paper, took a final drink of coffee, and shrugged her off. “I’ll go now.”

“Stop.” A pause. “I’m sorry.”

“Why do we have these stupid conflicts?” Decker growled. “You shouldn’t be involved in my business.”

“You had no qualms about asking me to take Tom Webster—”

“So now I changed my mind. Tom can figure it out himself.”

It was Rina’s turn to be offended. “Fine. Solve your own cases.”

“Thank you very much, I will.”

No one spoke.

“What is it, Peter?” Rina blurted out. “An ego thing?”

“C’mon!”

Silence.

Rina checked her watch. “Are you taking Hannah to school?”

“I will if you want me to.”

“She likes it. She enjoys time with her father.”

She got up. Decker held her arm. She looked at him with downcast eyes.

“I hate this!” he said. “You’re giving me heart palpitations.”

“That’s caffeine. Or old age. Don’t blame your palpitations on me!”

“Old age? That’s mean, Rina! True…but mean.”

It was mean. Rina sat down. “Sorry.”

“I’m worried,” Decker said.

“Peter, no one is going to come after me for trying to find Isaac Golding’s true identity.”

“I’m sure you’re right.”

Rina was touched by his admission. His fear came from caring. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Peter, this is your case. I have enough obligations without adding conflict with you. Okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“You’re brushing me off.”

“I’m in a terrible bind. I want information that you can help me with, but I feel like I’m betraying some protective husband code by getting you involved.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge?” Rina hesitated. “What do you really need from me?”

A good question. He said, “Tom is perfectly capable of getting information from the Tolerance Center. But since you’ve been setting up this hate prevention council, I figured you’ve done lots of the research work on local hate groups…. You could give him some background, so he’ll know how to ask the right questions.”

“That’s certainly true.”

“And by your being there, you can help him ask the right questions if he gets stuck.”

“Fine.”

“Also, by being with someone he knows…even tangentially…he’ll feel less like a fish out of water.”

“I have no problem going to the Center with him, Peter.”

Decker gave her a weak smile. “I really do appreciate your help.”

She smiled back. “I know.” A pause. “Anything else?”

“No, that’s it.”

“All right,” Rina said. “But now I have a problem. You have to figure out a way to help Carter Golding so I don’t appear to be going back on my word.”

A quandary. Decker said, “Exactly how does one go about finding an anonymous concentration-camp victim?”