“Not a whisper. Maybe I should have reported my brother…let Beth’s parents know what happened. Maybe I shouldn’t have helped him wrap the body or clean up the mess. But fuck, he was my baby brother and he was in trouble and he got into trouble trying to help me out. I felt responsible, but not responsible enough to take the fall for something I didn’t do.”

Decker nodded. There was a lot about his story that rang true. Maybe Beth and Manny were arguing about the money. And it made sense that, during the argument, someone got pissed and bashed Beth over the head. Maybe it was Raymond/Belize, or maybe it was Manny. The one thing that was certain in Decker’s mind was that one of the brothers killed Beth.

It also made sense to Decker that Manny had buried Beth and didn’t tell his brother where. Why else would Holmes stick around after Decker and Marge had paid him an initial visit? They had told him that an old body had been discovered under the debris of the ruined apartment building. That meant nothing to Holmes because he had no idea where Beth had been buried. The contractor didn’t know L.A. all that well. It would have taken quite a stretch for Holmes to assume that the body they had found had been his dead sister-in-law. At the time of the interview, he had stated that he thought the discovered body was Roseanne Dresden.

That had probably been the truth.

Still, Holmes’s spiel was distinctly different from the recitation given to Decker by Holmes’s father, Martin Hernandez. The old man had stated that Belize had confessed to murdering Beth even though he didn’t mean to kill her. Hernandez also kept reiterating that Manny was dead.

Now, how would Hernandez know that Manny was dead unless he knew the person who had killed him? The old man had stopped short of implicating his older son in the death of his younger one, but by insisting that Manny was long dead, he pointed the arrow in that direction.

Decker wasn’t positive which one killed Beth, but he was pretty damn sure that Belize had killed Manny. In Decker’s mind, Belize’s formal name change to Raymond Holmes was Holmes’s odd way of honoring his dead brother, Ramon Hernandez.

Decker said, “You want to tell me about Roseanne Dresden now?”

“Oh God!” Holmes slapped his face. “I don’t know what happened to Roseanne! Before she disappeared, I hadn’t seen her in six fucking months!”

“I don’t know if I believe you, Ray.”

“Why not? I have been perfectly honest with you about everything else. I told you what happened with my brother, I told you about the money, I told you that I helped wrap the body, I told you I cleaned up the mess. I told you everything I know.” Holmes mopped up his face. “I have nothing more to say.”

“It’s too late,” Dudley told him. “He’s going to arrest you for murder now.”

Decker said, “You probably should have listened to your lawyer, Mr. Holmes.”

“Why?” Holmes started sweating again, pools of sweat shooting out from his overworked pores. “C’mon. I was honest with you. I told you everything. I even took a fucking lie-detector test about Roseanne. How can you arrest me for murder after all that?”

“I just figure I’ll serve the warrant and let the D.A. sort it out.”

“You fucking bastard! You don’t have a leg to stand on because I didn’t do it!”

“I told you not to talk, Ray,” Dudley said.

“You’re a fucking bastard, too,” Holmes shouted. “You’re fired.”

“Fine,” Dudley told him. “You go convince some rookie PD to set your bail.”

“Wait! You’re not fired!” Holmes looked desperate. “Please, Taz, I’m sorry. Don’t leave me alone!”

Dudley said, “I will represent you, but now, it’s not so simple. I’ll need a fifteen-thousand-dollar retainer, and another fifteen in two weeks. If you’re short on cash, I’ll take the deed to the house on Chase as collateral.”

“You two gentlemen can continue this conversation a little later in the quiet of a jail room. Right now Holmes has a date with Ms. Miranda.”

40

H ELLO, STRANGER.”

Rina had met Decker in the driveway of their home, greeting him with a smile and a huge terry-cloth robe cinched around her small waist, slippers on her feet. Stars blinked above, and the moon served as a spotlight. Although spring was fast becoming summer, there was a chill in the air as fog began to roll into the valley basin.

Decker spoke softly. “Don’t tell me. In my absence, Cindy’s and Koby’s house is done, Sam married Rachel, Jake has a serious girlfriend, and Hannah is in college.”

“Now, how did you know all that?” Rina looped her arm around his and they walked arm in arm into the house.

Decker pulled her into a hug. “Man, it’s great to be back. Is the princess home?”

“It’s one in the morning on a school night. Princess is home and sleeping. Where is your low-down, dirty scoundrel?”

“We’re working on the papers to bring him to Los Angeles. If all goes well, he’ll be gracing our jails in a few days.”

“How about something to eat?”

“Actually, I’m starving. But I need to shower first.”

“No problem. How about a corned-beef sandwich? Or is that too much at one in the morning?”

“My internal clock is haywire. A sandwich sounds great. Slather one with lots of mustard and mayo. Mustard for Akiva the Jew, mayo for Peter the goy.”

She laughed. “Coleslaw? Or will that put you over the top?”

“Just pile it high and deep. I’ll meet you at the dining-room table.”

A half hour later Decker was wiping his mouth, his stomach not quite sure if it wanted to be pleasantly full or gluttonous. The matter was decided when Decker found out that there was no more corned beef or rye bread.

“I saved the last bits just for you.” Rina sipped chamomile tea. “It’s not easy defending corned beef against a horde of hungry teenagers.”

“‘Hungry teenagers’ means boys.”

“Specifically Hannah’s gruesome twosome.”

“Tzvika and Michael?”

“Who else?”

“What’s up with that?” Decker asked. “The boys are best friends and they both like her?”

“But she’s not interested in either of them.”

“So why does she hang around them all the time?”

“I think she likes the attention.”

Decker rolled his eyes. “We’re going to have to watch that one. She’s swatting them away like flies.”

“It’s when she stops swatting them away that we have to worry.”

“Now that’s true.” Decker took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I think I’m going to Santa Fe again.”

“Ah…you want to break the news to Beth’s parents in person.”

“No, I already phoned them up as soon as we booked Raymond Holmes.”

“What was their reaction?”

“They were low-key.” Decker drained his water glass. “Peter thanked me. Sandra invited us out to Santa Clara Feast Day as their guests. It’s in August.”

“By then you’ll know the town pretty well.”

“I’ll know Santa Fe Correctional, if you want a tour. I’ll need to go back there and go over the old man’s testimony with him.”

“Belize’s father?”

“Yes. Martin Hernandez. He’s our main witness against Holmes and I don’t have a good feeling about him. The kind of man who’d sell his son down the river is not going to be a likable or credible witness. He’s also old. A lot of questions confuse him.”

Decker sat back and looked at the ceiling. “The murder charge depends on the old man’s testimony and he’s got a believability issue. Also, the jury is going to find out that the old man is getting early release in exchange for his testimony. That’s going to take away the last little bits of whatever integrity the man had.”

“Well, Belize is locked up and that’s a start. Just like I said, ‘What goes around comes around.’”

“It doesn’t bring Beth back.”

“We all die, Peter. If you’re religious like I am, you believe that G-d metes out true justice.” She took his hand. “You gave a definitive answer to a question that has been plaguing a family for over thirty horrible years. Furthermore, Belize will get some kind of punishment. You made sure of that. You did your part for G-d and country.”