His voice had gotten very soft and he was looking past them, out the window.

“Old man Weiser said Loew of Prague loved the golem, in a way,” Garfield said in a dreamy voice. “Maybe Jacob Levy does too. But even if he doesn’t, even if it’s just a weapon to him, for as long as it’s there—for the days or weeks they let themselves keep it—they’re safe. Can you understand what that means to men like them? Like us,” he corrected himself. “Safe. No one can threaten them, no one can hurt them, no one can take them away—” He stopped, came to himself, and smiled at them. “It’s still there. So we do it, kinderlech,***** we do it now.”

“How?” Hawkins asked.

“I have . . . instructions.”

He brought paper to draw Weiser’s diagram, then he said, “We need three people, okay, but only one does the . . . killing. That’s you,” he told Hawkins. “I would, I swear to you. I don’t think I’m a coward, but young I ain’t. . . . Even that isn’t so bad, but I’ve got angina. I don’t think I’d die in the middle, but I might. The chances are I’d collapse, all right, then where are we?”

Garfield had pleaded with Tepel to do it but Tepel had shaken his head. “Everyone but you knows I’m nothing but an old rummy. I’m scared to leave my bedroom every morning and you think I can kill monsters. You’re crazy, Chaim. I’ve always said it, friend or no friend, to your face I’ve said it. You’re crazy and I’m an old yutz.”

“Nu, Roger, that means you do the killing,” Garfield said.

But Rachel knew Garfield was wrong. Hawkins was taller than she, heavier, stronger, but she still knew he wasn’t the one to do it.

“You said we need three men,” Hawkins was saying to Garfield.

Garfield nodded at Rachel. “Meet the third man.” Hawkins jumped up. “That thing’s killed eight people. . . .”

“It could kill you and me, too. But it won’t kill her.” He turned to Rachel. “Your father-­in-­law loves you, doesn’t he?”

“Of course.”

“Not ‘of course.’ Does he love you?”

“Yes,” she said softly.

“She’s protection,” Garfield told Hawkins.

“Protection!” Hawkins shouted. “I saw what they did, you didn’t. They killed five kids in fifteen minutes; you got that? One kid every three minutes; and you’re going to put her in the middle of this while you and I run around like rats until we throw up, chanting names backwards, bowing this way, then the other. . . .”