“So you’ve discovered.”

“It actually takes some practice.”

“Does this mean you appreciate me more?”

“I’ve always admired your manual skills. You just don’t work fast enough.”

“But I do a good job. And the cost is cheap. You get what you pay for.”

Rina nodded, then smiled at the women. But the expression was a taut one.

Bernadette caught the tension. “Well, nice meeting you…Lieutenant.”

“Peter is fine,” Decker said.

“Peter then.” Again, Bernadette shook his hand, then nodded to Letitia. The two of them went back to their artwork. Rina used the moment to take Peter aside. She said, “Yonkie called me—”

“I can’t talk about it,” Decker said. “The party is a minor.”

“The party is a kid named Ernesto Golding,” Rina whispered. “You didn’t tell me, Yonkie did.”

“Do you know this kid?” Decker asked Rina.

“Never heard of him until Yonkie told me. There must be someone else involved. This isn’t the work of just one person.”

Decker shrugged.

“C’mon. Yes or no? Is there someone else?”

“No comment.”

“Now you’re sounding like a politician.”

“If you’re trying to get me angry, I’ve had worse insults.”

Rina grew impatient. “Peter, this is your shul, too.”

“I’m painfully aware of that, Rina.” Then he said, “Please tell me that you haven’t mentioned Golding’s name to anyone else.”

“Do I look like an idiot?”

Now she was glaring at him. He said, “Don’t we have enough on our minds without fighting?”

“This isn’t a fight,” Rina announced.

“It isn’t?”

“No. It isn’t. This is…both of us glaring at each other because we’re both under a lot of stress.”

“I’m glaring at you?” Decker asked.

“Yes, you’re glaring at me.”

“You’re glaring at me!”

“I know,” Rina said. “That’s why I said we were glaring at each other!”

Decker paused, then started laughing. It broke the strain, allowing Rina to laugh with him. She reached out and took his hand and squeezed it. “I’d hug you except I’d get paint all over your suit.”

“Hug me anyway.” Decker took her into his arms.

They hugged—a long and romantic one. And she did get paint on his suit. He didn’t care. That’s why God invented dry cleaning.

10

It was past eight and the Goldings still hadn’t made it home. Decker would try them in the morning. Still, he wasn’t ready to call it a working day. Six months ago, Ernesto Golding had a girlfriend named Lisa Halloway. Golding had mentioned her, and so had Yonkie. His stepson had stated that she had been devastated by the breakup. Decker wondered if she had picked up any telltale signs of Ernesto’s antisocial behavior before the actual vandalism.

The problem was getting past the parents. But that turned out to be the easy part: the parents weren’t home.