No one spoke for a moment. From the outside, someone was twisting the doorknob.

“It’s occupied—”

“Sorry,” answered a muffled voice from behind the door.

Finally, Golding spoke. “This man that you spoke with. He’s reliable?”

“As reliable as they come, considering that he’s in the ninth decade of his life. He doesn’t know the boy’s name, and he doesn’t know who Yitzchak Golding was. But he said the photographs were pictures of Treblinka. He could make out the wire fence.” Rina looked away, and wiped her wet eyes. “It was excruciatingly hard for him to look at these pictures. But he did it to give you resolution, because he didn’t want anyone to suffer. He called the boy photographer a minor hero. If that was your father, you should feel good about it.”

“And if it isn’t?”

“As I said, it depends how far you want to take it.”

“He called my father a minor hero?”

“Yes.”

“My father was a minor hero. Your husband said that my son might have died a minor hero…trying to do the right thing. He was probably just trying to make me feel better.”

“No, that’s not Peter,” Rina said. “If he told you that your son was trying to do right, then it’s the truth.”

No one spoke.

Rina said, “You know, most people never even get close to being any kind of a hero—major or minor. You have two of them.”

“You mean, I had two of them.” Carter’s cheeks were tear-slicked. He stood up. “Thank you for everything you’ve done, Mrs. Decker. And so quickly.”

“It wasn’t anything, Carter. And please, call me Rina. We’ve both bared enough pain to be on a first-name basis.”

38

There were cops outside Ruby’s hospital room, their guns catching Jacob’s eyes. Peter told him to hold on for a moment, leaving him about three doors away from hers. He watched his stepfather talk to the uniforms and plainclothesmen assigned to the watch. It took about five minutes, then Peter stepped away and came to him, a concerned look on his face.

“She’s still a mess. Not more than five minutes, all right?”

“You’re bending a few rules?” Jacob asked.

“It’s not a problem as long as you’re quick.”

“I’ll make you look good.” Jacob tossed him a smile. But he was nervous. The first step was the hardest. After that it was just a matter of placing one foot in front of the other. He stopped at the threshold. The bed nearest the door was empty: hers was on the right side, closest to the window. She was surrounded by medical apparatus—monitors, IV lines, and machines that bleeped.