Meanwhile, Maryam made a weak stab at distancing herself, pretending to either be reading or doing her own paperwork. Her cell phone was ringing so much that Marge had asked her to turn it off. Every so often, Oliver stole a glance at the psychologist’s face. She was nervous and taut, not an ounce of slack anywhere on her face. She spoke up frequently, especially when she felt her bosses were being unfairly attacked. Oliver had dropped hints about the length of the investigation, inviting her to go home. But she clearly had a mission: to protect the Baldwins’ previously unblemished reputation.

Both Oliver and Marge had tried to stay clear of her. The loo, on the other hand, seemed impervious to her brittleness.

“Your bosses weren’t very organized,” he had complained.

She had glared at him with wet eyes. “I’d pass on the message except I doubt that it would do any good!”

Decker stared at the blinking computer icon. The files were mundane—business spreadsheets and patient notes. Marge was right about one thing: Moke did seem to be Dee’s responsibility. He had yet to find anything on Merv’s file as to what Moke was being paid for.

He looked up from the monitor. “The checks started three years ago. Holt came on with PEI about four years ago. So they took about a year to develop whatever racket they had going.”

Maryam couldn’t contain herself. “You’re wrong!” She had colored with indignation. “You are so way off—”

“Nah, not way off,” Decker answered. “Darrell Holt/Ricky Moke was either blackmailing Dee or doing some kind of illegal service for her or both. And if Holt was blackmailing, it implies that the Baldwins had done something bad. And you already know what my guess is, so I won’t bother repeating myself.”

“For the fiftieth time,” Maryam said, “you can’t hack into the Educational Testing Services to get advance copies of the SATs or any other test. They have their own nerve center that is not connected to anything on-line!”

Decker said, “And for the fiftieth time, I’m saying that there was probably an ETS insider who’s downloading from the nerve center onto either the Baldwins’ computer system or maybe Holt’s computer system—”

“You’ve gone through the files—”

“Not all the files.” Marge sighed.

Decker said, “Besides, we’re not a professional hacker.” He blew out air. “Maybe we should just take all this equipment back to the station house—”

“There are patient files in those computers!” Maryam protested. “Your search warrants allow you to search, not to steal. This is an incredible invasion of privacy—”

“Doctor—”

“Why would the Baldwins do that?” the psychologist cried out. “Risk everything that they had worked for? You know the Baldwins’ success record started way before three years ago! They’ve maintained a lead in the field of test preparation for at least ten years!”