“If you help us out, Lieutenant, I’m sure we could work something out with Everett,” Carter said. “If he sees that you have Ernesto’s interest at heart, I don’t see how he could object to your speaking with our son.”

Jill added, “In the end, it is our decision…whether or not we permit you to talk to Ernesto.”

“So we’re swapping favors, is that it?”

She blushed. “I’m just saying it is our decision. Surely you can see that Ernesto’s not a criminal.”

Decker couldn’t see anything of the sort. But he had a half hour for lunch to spare. Rina had packed him a pastrami sandwich topped with mustard, mayo, sauerkraut, and spicy pickles. He figured he might as well get indigestion from something other than food.

12

Crimes more pressing than vandalism still plagued the city, leaving Decker to contemplate the wisdom of using valuable time to interview a couple of shrinks even if it meant a second chance with Ernesto. Still, he might as well try to understand someone else’s kid, because his own stepson left him abashed.

Wanda had found quite a bit of material about Mervin Baldwin and his psychologist wife, Dee, on the Internet. They had been interviewed by the top news-lite magazines, and had had a cover article about them as a power couple in Psychology Now. There were also several “in-depth” profiles on them in in-house papers for local psychology organizations, both city and state. They had written about a dozen pieces for journals, most of them having to do with “Oppositional Behavior in Teenagers.” From reading the abstracts, Decker gleaned that Merv Baldwin’s specialty was working with troubled teens.

There were essays devoted to his own unique treatment entitled Nature Therapy. It espoused being at one with the earth and land, using a combination of intense group programs out in the wild as well as individual therapy. The articles contained lots of psychological jargon that Decker didn’t understand, so he took notes. He wasn’t sure what it meant to be “at one with the land,” but to him it sounded a lot like camping.

The Baldwins had several satellite offices, but the main digs were in Beverly Hills; the exact address was given to Decker by the Goldings before he left. Wanda had downloaded several pictures of the psychologists, but they hadn’t reproduced that well. From the photos, Merv was bald but dressed expensively. Dee was meticulously groomed, as stiff as her coiffed hairdo. He looked to be in his fifties, about ten years older than his wife.