He opened his front door, then went into the kitchen. Jacob looked up from the kitchen table. He was in his pajama bottoms, eating a sandwich, and reading Beowulf, yellow highlight marker in his hand. “Hi. What are you doing home? I thought you were going to the shul to help out?”

“I decided to come home first…see if you need anything.”

“I’m fine. Hannah’s asleep.”

“Any problems?”

“Nah, she’s a great kid.”

“Yes, she is.”

“You look tired,” Jacob said. “Like you just had a very bad conversation with a hysterical seventeen-year-old girl.”

Decker sat down at the table. “I’m loath to get you involved. But I need help. As a cop, the more information the better.” He stared at Jacob’s food. “What are you eating?”

“Tuna. There’s more in the fridge. I’ll make you dinner.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Sit.” Jacob got up. “Kibud Av. Honoring your dad gives you brownie points upstairs. I could use extra.” He fixed Decker a tuna on rye, complete with lettuce and tomato. Decker ritually washed his hands, then said the blessing over the breaking of bread. With two bites, half the sandwich was gone.

“You are hungry.”

“I’m always hungry.” Decker patted his stomach. Still firm but a bit wider. “Can we talk about Lisa?”

“If you want.”

“Actually, I’m more interested in a woman named Ruby Ranger. Lisa told me you knew her, also that you disliked her.”

“That is a gross understatement. Ruby Ranger is psycho!”

“Lisa said that Ruby tried to bait you once. You took offense and got pretty aggressive.”

“What really happened was I told her if she ever got in my face again, I’d blast her face to smithereens.”

Decker didn’t answer, too stunned to talk.

Jacob said, “I not only threatened to kill her, I told her how I’d do it. Then I told her how I’d cover it up. Then I told her I knew all about homicide investigations and how to trip them up because I was your son, and I’d seen you conduct enough of them to know the pitfalls.” He looked at his lap. “Actually, I think she believed me.”

Decker bit his lip, trying to figure out how to respond. He couldn’t get any words out.

“She never talked to me again,” Jacob said. “Course, I never saw her again. I stopped going to the parties. So I guess I’ll never know what she really thought.”

“Did people hear you threaten her?”

“Yeah, we attracted quite a crowd. For a while, I was worried that someone was going to report me to the authorities—the real authorities, not you. Which would have been the correct thing to do. But no one did. All of them…the convictions of a turnip.”

Silence.