Rina would counter by saying it would be for only three days and two nights. She had hired Nora, Hannah’s former baby nurse. Nora was happy to help out while she was gone. They both knew how capable Nora was. And Hannah loved her dearly. The topper was that Rina’s mother and Nora got along just great.

Peter would complain about the cost. Rina would counter by saying she’d found an extremely cheap standby coast-to-coast flight. She’d be staying with relatives in New York so lodging wouldn’t cost a penny. And Jonathan, an old friend and Peter’s newly discovered half brother, had agreed to let her borrow his car. So she had cheap transportation to travel upstate to the Leibbener village.

Peter would say it was dangerous.

Rina would introduce the argument that Jonathan had offered to come with her if she felt she needed protection.

Enlisting Jonathan’s aid could potentially make Peter angry at his younger half brother. The last thing Rina wanted to do was create friction between the two men. Their relationship was fragile as well as recent. Jonathan’s mother was Peter’s biological mother, who had given him up for adoption. Peter held no malice against the woman-she had been a teenager when Peter was born-but their relationship was strained at best. Peter did get along well with two of his half brothers.

And Rina was taking a chance by asking Jonathan for help.

But this was something she just had to do. For the sake of the children.

She put the suitcase on the bed and checked on Hannah. The baby was banging two plastic triangles together.

Rina opened up her drawers and began to pack.

Tug Davidson had turned florid. “You want the department to allocate money to go where?”

“Israel,” Decker replied calmly. “It’s a very small country in Asia-”

“I know where Israel is, Decker. Don’t wiseass me. The answer is no.”

Davidson looked down at his desk and began to busy himself in paperwork. Decker and Marge didn’t move. His eyes returned to their faces. “The ‘no’ was the signal for both of you to leave.”

“Lieutenant, we might have two dead teenaged boys on our hands if we don’t go,” Marge said.

“For all you two know, we may have two dead teenaged boys right now.”

“And for all we know, they may be alive,” Marge said.

“And for all we know, Dunn, they may have popped the parents.”

“All the more reason for us to find them,” Decker said. “If they turn out to be our prime suspects, we should have them extradited to stand trial.”

“You make perfect sense except you don’t know where the hell the kids are. Then you come to me with this half-assed theory about Shaul Gold being a hit man. If you suspected him in the first place, you should have brought him in for questioning.”

“We didn’t have any reason to do it back then,” Marge stated.

“And you don’t have any reason to do it now,” Tug answered. “Get me some concrete evidence as to the whereabouts of the boys, then we can talk.”

“The boys are in Israel,” Decker stated.

“Show me the plane tickets, Decker.”

“We haven’t been able to locate any yet-”

“Or maybe never,” Davidson said.

Decker said, “I think they went through Canada. I think that’s why we haven’t been able to trace the tickets. There’s a large Jewish community in Toronto-”

“Find me plane tickets and then we’ll talk.”

“It may be too late by then.”

“Decker, is my hearing going bad or something? Didn’t you tell me that the sister specifically told you that she didn’t know where the boys were?”

“In a way that specifically told us the boys were in Israel,” Marge said.

“So now you mind-read, Dunn?”

Decker was growing frustrated. “Look, if it’s a matter of money-”

“It’s a big matter of money,” Davidson said. “And it’s a matter of time, too. I don’t like pulling two seasoned detectives off the field.”

Marge was sure she’d heard right. He had said two seasoned detectives-two detectives-as in plural. The son of a bitch considered her seasoned. He was actually giving them a backhanded compliment. She looked at Decker to see what his reaction was. All she saw was frustration.

Decker said, “Look, Loo, I’ll pay for my own transportation-”

“What is it with you?” Davidson interrupted. “You suddenly want to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land for a holiday or something?”

Decker kept his mouth in check. “Lieutenant, Gold said he was looking for the boys. All I want to do is find them before he does. That’s it. Find the boys and bring them back to America.”

“And you’re willing to pay for it out of your own pocket?”

“Yes, I’m willing to pay for it out of my own pocket. I’ll take a no-frills fare and travel with livestock. I’ll do it because I want to find the boys. But I also expect to be reimbursed by the department if my trip solves this case.”

“With a big emphasis on the if,” Davidson said. “Meanwhile, you still haven’t figured out the problem of your time loss.”

Decker told himself to unclench his jaw before he spoke. “I’ll be working on a homicide case, Lieutenant. I won’t be sightseeing.”

“It still amounts to me losing two homicide detectives from the field.”

“I’ll stay behind,” Marge volunteered. “There’s still plenty to do here in LA.”

“Yeah, it’s called solving the case.” Davidson waved her off. “Okay, so you’re not the problem now. He is.” He stared at Decker. “So what exactly do you think you can accomplish over there, Decker? Think you can just waltz into Israeli police headquarters and start coordinating an investigation in a foreign country? By your own admission, you don’t know a rat’s crap about Israel. Do you even speak the language over there? What the hell is the language over there? It ain’t English, I bet.”

“It’s Hebrew,” Decker said.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Davidson said. “They speak Hebrew. Do you speak Hebrew, Decker?”

The room fell quiet.

“Terrific, Sergeant. You’re going to solve a major homicide case in a foreign country using sign language. Get out of here and do something useful.”

Decker felt a giant headache coming on. His old bullet wound started to throb. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them. He hated fudging, but what option did he have. “I’ve already got that worked out.”

Davidson glared at him. “What worked out?”

Decker sat back in his chair as if he had triumphed. “The contacts, Lieutenant. I’m already set up with all the major police departments in all the major cities. I’ve even got myself a top-notch interpreter-an American who moved to Israel when she was…eighteen. So I’m all set. All I need is your go-ahead.”

Tug’s glare grew icier. Decker sneaked a glance at Marge. She was trying to stifle a smile.

“You set this up already?” Davidson asked.

“Just being thorough, Loo. And thoughtful. Didn’t want to burden our department with details I could handle.”

Davidson squinted. “Who’s your contact, Decker?”

“Yaacov Cohen,” Decker said, glibly. Meanwhile, he thanked God for Jack Cohen, his ex-father-in-law. Without him, he wouldn’t have been able to think up a Jewish name on the spot.

Davidson said, “I thought you said your interpreter was a woman.”

“You asked for my contact. I thought you wanted the name of the guy at Police Headquarters. My interpreter’s name is Rina.”

Marge bit her lip to keep from laughing.

“Rina?” Davidson said to himself. He threw Decker a sarcastic smile. “Same name as your wife?”

“Yeah, same name as my wife. It’s a common name over there.”

“What a coincidence.”

“Life’s full of them.”

Davidson rubbed his forehead.

Decker said, “Just give me a week. Two at the outside.”

“How much vacation time do you have accrued?”

Decker spoke slowly and emphatically. “This shouldn’t come out of my vacation time because I’m not taking a vacation.”