Jonathan nodded. “Of course.”

Decker ran his hand over his face. “I would have sworn it was the truth, Jonathan, because I saw her. We arranged a meeting place, and he brought her to me… to show me that she was okay. Terrified but unharmed.”

“I imagine she was terrified, being with him.”

“She wasn’t afraid of him, Jon; she was afraid of me! She was in dread that I was going to take her back with me-back to her parents. She was pleading with him not to send her back to her family, begged him to send me away. All she wanted to do was get back to where he had her stashed. She wouldn’t let go of him. She was clinging to him like ivy suckers on a brick wall. When he wanted to talk with me privately, he had to peel her off him so we could talk alone.”

“It could have been an act.”

“No, it wasn’t an act. When I asked her questions, she could barely answer me; she was shaking so hard with fright. She whispered her answers in his ear and he told me what she said.”

“What did you ask her about?”

“The murder, of course. What she saw.”

“And?”

“She said that Chasids took him-Ephraim.”

“Good God, what’s this world coming-”

“Or-” Decker broke in. “Or people dressed up as Chasids. Because they didn’t resemble any Chasidic sect that I’m aware of. They wore shtreimels. Would you know anything about that? A sect that wears shtreimels on weekdays?”

“No.” Jonathan shook his head. “But there may be one.”

“Or it could be that someone was playing masquerade but didn’t have it down perfectly. Like certain Israeli Mafia drug dealers who are wanted in Florida for ecstasy dealing, but rabbited before the Miami Police could make the arrests. Just maybe they’re hiding in Quinton.”

“What on earth would they want with Ephraim?”

“He might have known something, especially if Chaim was importing.”

“Akiva, Quinton knows every single member of its community. Fugitives couldn’t hide there, much less integrate.”

“Unless they have prior connections in the community,” Decker retorted. “Maybe someone is hiding them. Like I said before, if Chaim was involved in ecstasy importing-”

“Akiva, you have absolutely no reason to connect Chaim to such activities!” Jonathan was shouting. “Where is any evidence for such outlandish accusations?”

Decker buried his head in his hands. “No evidence.”

Jonathan covered his mouth, then dropped his voice to a whisper. “Even if Chaim was doing something illegal… I can’t believe he’d set up his own brother! I refuse to believe that!”

“Maybe it wasn’t meant to be murder, Jon. Maybe he was trying to scare Ephraim off. Maybe it just got away from him. Maybe I’m totally full of shit! I’m doing the best I can. Obviously, that’s not enough. Otherwise, Shayndie would have been alive today.”

Jonathan put his hand on Decker’s shoulder. “Are you certain that Donatti didn’t kill her?”

“No, I’m not certain of anything. But it doesn’t make sense for him to do it. He knew that if something were to happen to her, I’d be all over his ass. Which was exactly what happened. He seemed genuinely shocked when I told him about the murder.”

“Could that have been an act?”

“Sure, he could have been snowing me blind, except she did seem so dependent on him. He even said that he’d return her to me intact when things cooled down. I guess I just decided to believe him because it was my only option.”

“What do you mean ‘intact’?”

“He screws the kids he pimps. I think he does the boys as well as the girls. He said he wouldn’t do it with her.” Decker waved him away. “I don’t know… I should have made a grab for her when I had the chance.”

“He would have killed both of you.”

“Probably. You don’t want him on your bad side. Although I’ve certainly pissed him off and he’s never done anything to my family or me. I don’t know. Psychos like him… they’re like these half wolf/half dogs that people adopt for pets. They’re okay for a while. Then they just turn on you when the mood hits. Maybe that’s what happened. Maybe he just turned. Maybe he considered it biblical revenge against me-eye for an eye, a girl for a girl. He thinks I screwed up his relationship with this girl. This could have been his big revenge.”

“What girl was that?”

“That’s irrelevant. It was one of my cases, about eight years ago. When Donatti lived in L.A.”

“He lived in L.A.?”

“For about a year.”

Jonathan sat back in his seat. “That’s not what the Bible means when it states ‘eye for an eye.’ ”

Once a rabbi... Decker said, “I know. Rina explained it to me. It means monetary compensation. Can you dispense with the nit-picking right now? And let’s get off the expressway. It wouldn’t be good to make two women widows in one day.”

Jonathan started up the motor and carefully merged into speeding traffic. “You’re angry at me.”

“I’m angry at myself. I screwed up royally. I keep thinking to myself… what should I have done? Should I have gotten a gun and shot him? Should I have bribed him? Should I have gone to the police? All this Monday-morning quarterbacking. But at the time, I thought I was handling it pretty well.”

“You did the best you could.”

“So did you,” Decker answered back. “Make you feel any better?”

“No. I feel that God was punishing me for breaking my word. Ridiculous, of course, but tell that to my conscience. Also, I can’t help but feel that I set her up somehow. I should have gone to the police. Like you said, at the very least, they could have traced the call to a source. They might have sent out troops to look for her.”

They rode without speaking for several minutes.

Jonathan said, “You honestly don’t think that Donatti killed her?”

“Honestly, no. Because why would he do it?”

“What did he say after you told him that Shayndie had been murdered?”

“First I went into a rage. Then he went into a rage.” Decker pointed to his eye.

“Aha.” Jonathan nodded. “That makes much more sense than the ridiculous excuse you gave me. Go on. What happened after he punched you?”

“He calmed down. We talked. He claimed that he last saw her around six that morning. She was just like she had been that night-clingy. He was hell-bent on revenge, Jon. I managed to convince him to hold off until I did all that I could do. Last thing I wanted was a professional mob cleaner sweeping around, especially if Chaim’s not looking so clean.”

“Akiva, you have no proof!”

“I know I have no proof. But if Chaim’s involved, it’s better that I get to him before Donatti does, agreed?”

Having no comeback, Jonathan maintained silence.

Decker said, “So this is the deal, bro. You poke around Quinton and find out if there are any new and secretive people being hosted in the community. I go to the Quinton Police and try to find out if Shayndie was hanging out with the wrong crowd. Remember, Randy told me that there were some local Quinton boys arrested for ecstasy possession down in Miami. If they bought it down South, they most certainly bought it in their hometown. Maybe I can get the name of the distributor. Also, I might go back to Tattlers, find out if any of the girls were ever asked to be couriers.”

“And they’d admit it to you? Just like that?”

“Well, no, of course not. That’s why it takes a professional lieutenant detective with a genuine gold shield!” He smiled sadly, thinking of a sheltered fifteen-year-old who never stood a chance.

“Stop it, Akiva,” Jonathan chastised. “You’re a good man and I respect you immensely. I hope you feel the same way about me.”

“Of course I do.”

“So let’s both stop the flagellation.”

“Deal.”

Jonathan said, “Am I correct in assuming that you want me to help you?”

“Yes.”

“What you are asking me to do is to go behind my relatives’ backs and play spy for you. Even if it means setting up my wife’s remaining brother.”