“It would help a great deal if you had that piece of paper with the Polish writing. It could be a work permit, it could be a visa, it could be transport papers…it would tell us a lot.”

Rina sighed. “I’m sure if Mr. Golding had had it at the tip of his fingers, he would have given it to us.”

“And he’s not sure if the language is Polish?”

“That’s correct.”

“It makes a difference. Because there were lots of Jews who came through the Warsaw Ghetto, especially at the end—before the city was bombed out of existence. There were Czechs, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Danes, Swedes…” She held up her hands. “The Nazis were liquidating them as quickly as they could find them. It would really help to have more information.”

“I bet Mr. Golding wishes he had more as well. When I spoke with him this morning, he was in a terrible state. I’m sure he doesn’t remember hardly any of the conversation.” Rina sighed. “Poor, poor man.”

“Why is he bothering with this now? Doesn’t he have more important things to think about?”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to think, Georgia. Besides, men deal with pain by being proactive. Females talk.”

“I see you’ve been reading those pop psychology books, eh?”

“No, not at all. I just observe my husband. Whenever he’s nervous, he starts fiddling around the house. Which is really good because Peter is very talented with his hands. All the drippy faucets get fixed when he’s anxious.”

Georgia smiled. “And you’re not even sure if this Yitzchak Golding is alive or dead?”

“No, I’m not,” Rina said. “Ernesto Golding, the murdered boy, had claimed that he had found some information about a Yitzchak Golding who died in Treblinka. All his relatives died there as well. But there could be another Yitzchak Golding and that could have been Mr. Golding’s father. I don’t know, Georgia. That’s why I’m here.”

“From what source did he find that piece of data about Golding dying in Treblinka?”

“I don’t know.”

“Could he have been making it up?”

“Sure.”

“Do you know the year Yitzchak Golding died?”

“No.”

“I’ll start with the Records of American Gathering. If that doesn’t pan out, we’ll go to the Red Cross, the registry at Yad V’shem, the Central Archives, the HIAS…the list is long. Except most of them deal with those who survived to ’45 or beyond. As you well know, Treblinka was liquidated way before that.” Georgia hesitated, then looked down. “Hmmmm.”

“What does that ‘Hmmmm’ mean?”