For the first time, Decker could see the point of the confession. She took him somewhere. To a location!

Erin’s words: Try any point in the hillside between Santa Barbara and Orange County. I don’t think he’s left Southern California.

A location.

Don’t rush him, don’t rush him, don’t rush him. He’ll remember better if you don’t rush him.

Jacob dropped his hand from his cheek. The palm print had darkened. Decker felt shame coursing down his spine, but he didn’t dare interrupt. He watched his stepson drum the kitchen table.

“Nothing much inside,” he said. “Just a big room with a big bed. She had a closet filled with things—costumes.” He licked his lips. “Things for her fantasies.”

Decker waited.

“She had horrible, horrible, horrible fantasies.”

“What kind of fantasies?”

“She wanted…” He buried his face in his shaking hands. “She wanted to dress me up in a costume. She said it would really turn her on and make it really great.”

The boy had turned ashen. He dropped his voice to a whisper.

“It was an SS officer’s uniform. It might have even been the real thing.” He squeezed his eyes shut. But tears leaked out anyway. “She had it all—the leather whips, the boots, the ropes—she wanted me to pretend like I was…you know…one of them. She told me to speak to her in German. For some reason, she thought I knew German. Why the hell would I know German?”

He paused.

“She…she wanted me to tie her up. She wanted me to slap her…whip her. She wanted me to…to pretend to rape her. She said that’s how she got off.”

No one spoke. And now Decker understood where Ernesto’s fantasies were coming from…that combined with his grandfather’s vague origins. What vile seeds had she planted in that poor boy’s head? What had it done to his stepson’s fragile psyche? The seconds dragged on to infinity. Decker felt his whole body shake, felt his heart coming through his chest. He covered his mouth with his hand.

“Did you do it?”

Jacob shook his head in protest. “I was drugged, but…something primal…” Tears poured down the boy’s face. “I suddenly got viscerally ill. From intense arousal to utter nausea in, like, one breath. I thought I was actually going to die. I saw the grounds of the earth opening—like Korach in the desert—and had this vision of me falling down and down and down….”

A long pause.

“And…” Decker said.