Faye Kellerman_Decker & Lazarus 13

by The Forgotten

  “I’ve had a very busy day, Daddy. I’m tired and hungry. Cheese is not enough for a growing girl.”

  Decker smiled. “I’ll get you your snack.” He retreated into the kitchen, where he found Jacob engrossed in some kind of test study guide. The teen had finished off his junior year with straight A’s for the first time. He looked up. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” Decker answered back.

  “You look wiped.”

  “A bit,” Decker admitted. “Where’s Eema?”

  “The plane was delayed…and delayed…and delayed.”

  “Poor Sammy. You didn’t go to the airport?”

  “Eema felt the wait might be too long for Hannah.” He shrugged. “I volunteered to baby-sit. I might as well enjoy her and the comforts of home before I’m confined to a ten-by-twelve cell with nothing but a hard cot to sleep on and bread and water to eat.”

  “I don’t think the accommodations at the yeshiva are that bad.”

  “That’s what you think.” He closed his book and sat back in his chair. The boy’s face was flushed and pained. “I’ve heard a couple of the newscasts, you know.”

  “Saying?”

  “That the other Dr. Baldwin—the lady…you know. They’re saying it was suicide. What’d she do? Kill her husband and Ernesto in a fit of jealous rage, then kill herself?”

  Decker shrugged.

  “That’s how TV’s telling it.”

  “Let’s hear it for little screen journalism.” Decker sat down. “Are you freaked?”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty freaked. It’s horrible!”

  “Are you talking to your friends about it?”

  “What friends?”

  “Are you talking to anyone about it?”

  “I’m talking to you.”

  Decker was quiet.

  Jacob sat up. “A few people have called me up.”

  “Lisa Halloway?”

  Jacob nodded. “Yeah, she’s devastated!” He sighed. “It’s terrible. I got my own feelings about this, and people are calling me up, asking me questions. Like I’m a hot line to your investigation.”

  “Can I do anything for you?”

  “I don’t suppose you want to take the calls.”

  “I’m a little busy right now.”

  “Then how about if you read all this junk for me.” He held up an SAT II chemistry study guide. “You can take the test for me.”

  “Sure, I can fail it for you,” Decker answered.

  The boy cracked a smile. “Actually, I know the material pretty well. I’ll be fine.”

  “That’s good.”

  A long pause. Then Jacob said, “Ernesto never struck me as gay, by the way.”

  Decker sat down. “Why?”

  “I’m a pretty boy,” Jacob said. “The kind of looks that girls and gays love. He never came on to me.”

  “Maybe you’re not his type,” Decker said.

  The teenager smiled. “I’m everyone’s type.”

  Decker smiled back. “So you’re basing Ernesto’s sexual inclination on your universal sex appeal?”

  “In all seriousness, it’s just that he…he was comfortable with girls. Also, he never made any antigay jokes, which is a tip-off with someone trying to hide it.”

  “People have secret lives, Yonkie.”

  “Uh, yeah, I think I know something about that.” The boy looked down. “Just giving you my perception, for what it’s worth.”

  “It’s worth a lot. You knew him a lot better than I did.”

  Silence.

  Decker broke it. “What should we do for dinner? Hannah’s hungry and I’d like to give her more than snacks.”

  “There’s always takeout,” Jacob said. “Hannah will always eat pizza.”

  “We should actually cook something. I’m sure Eema and Sammy will be hungry when they come home.”

  “What can you cook?” Jacob asked.

  “Hot dogs and scrambled eggs,” Decker answered.

  Jacob got up and went to the refrigerator. “Hey, guess what? There’re a half-dozen veal chops in the freezer.”

  Decker said, “I can broil veal chops.”

  “There are also a couple of salad bags. That would really impress Eema. A fresh salad.”

  “Yes, it would.”

  “Well, there you go.” Jacob pulled out the package. “A gourmet delight.”

  “Jacob, are you okay?”

  The boy sat back down. “Not really. It’s too surreal. Eema and I were talking about it before she left for the airport. She’s convinced that I’m holding back. I’m not. I told her all I knew about Ernesto—which wasn’t much. I didn’t like him. But knowing someone who was murdered so brutally is awful. How do you face this, day after day?”

  “I swallow back personal feelings so I can do the job.”

  “You never take it to heart?”

  “It affects you.” Mental pictures of today’s victims played in Decker’s mind. “But if you want to get the job done, you push things aside.”

  “Is that what you’re telling me to do?”

  “Of course not, Yonkie. This must be absolutely shocking to you even if you didn’t know him all that well.”

  Jacob made a face. “I’m also upset about Eema finding out about the parties. Apparently, she knew about it all along.”

  “Apparently.”

  “Did you know that she knew?”

  “Not until a few hours ago. She’s also good at hiding things.”

  “She said all the right things,” Jacob said. “But deep down, I know she doesn’t trust me.”

  “Jacob, she loves you so much. She’s much more concerned about your future than your past.”

  “I know. She wants me to be happy.”

  “Yes.”

  “You want me to be happy.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m sure Ernesto Golding’s parents wanted him to be happy.”

  Decker’s eyes clouded with sadness. “Yes.”

  “Did you talk to them?”

  “Yes.”

  The boy looked down. “Was it awful?”

  “Yes.” Decker drummed his fingers on the table. “Before this happened…had you ever heard about either of the Baldwins from any of your old party friends, Jacob?”

  The boy looked up. “Of course. Everyone knows the Baldwins. It wasn’t only that group, Dad. Several kids from the yeshiva had seen them. They’ve got a real racket going.”

  Decker’s interest was piqued. “What kind of racket?”

  “I don’t mean racket.” The teen searched for the right words. “Just that he was very successful in getting kids into prestigious universities.”

  “Did he tutor kids for their entrance exams?”

  Jacob thought a moment. “His wife—the other Dr. Baldwin—did a lot of college counseling. You know, schools are supposed to have guidance counselors. But a lot of them are not very good, so parents hire out private college counselors.”

  “Private counselors…” Decker thought a moment. “At big fees, no doubt.”

  “I guess.”

  “What ever happened to kids just reading the catalogues?”

  “It’s a tough world out there, Dad. Lots of universities and lots of competition. The key is to match the right kid to the right counselor, because certain counselors have more pull with certain colleges.”

  “What do you mean by pull?”

  “Just what it sounds like.”

  “To me, it smacks of nepotism…or something illegal.”

  “Not any more illegal than the old boys’ networks that excluded blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Asians—”

  “Discrimination is illegal, Yonkie.”

  “That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. The top universities are private and can basically do whatever they want to do. You know about legacies, right? If you’re a legacy and pay full tuition, that’s better than a 4.0 for lots of private universities. It’s different in the public universities like UCLA. It’s totally based on points on
the first round.”

  “Points?”

  “Points for grades, points for the SAT, points for the SAT II. Which isn’t really fair either. A black kid from South Central, who’s been dodging bullets to make it to English class, has more baggage than a white kid from Encino. Now if you don’t get into the UC the first round, you can appeal the decision and bring in all the extraneous stuff. So when you get right down to it, nothing’s completely objective.”

  “I didn’t realize the process was so complicated.”

  “Yeah, it is. Not so hard for me because you and Eema never really cared about the Ivies. I know if it were up to her, I’d go to Yeshiva University. So I was spared all this major league anxiety. But even in the Orthodox circuit, there’s intense pressure to go to good schools. Believe me, I’ve seen the most arrogant guys reduced to tears because of poor SAT performance.”

  “So that explains services like Dr. Baldwin’s tutoring,” Decker said.

  “A kid explained it to me like this: suppose a certain guidance counselor always sends the university top students. If you sat on the admissions committee, wouldn’t you trust his or her opinions?”

  “Did the Baldwins write recommendations for the kids?”

  “I suppose. I mean you can have lots of letters of recommendation in your applications. Supposedly, the ones that mean something are the ones from the teachers—the people who know your academic skills. But I’m sure that the right character references can tip the scales. There was a kid who graduated from Torah V’Dass about two years ago who got a recommendation from some honcho politico who, in turn, had gone to school with a man on the acceptance committee of the university that he was applying to. Now the guy was smart, but c’mon. A letter like that? It clinched it.”

  “Did the Baldwins have that kind of muscle?”

  “The Baldwins had a tag for working magic. I never thought about it, because I thought I was going to YU and that was that. But then this thing from Hopkins and Ner Yisroel came up: to do my last year of high school and my first year of college together. My whole perspective changed, people telling me how lucky I was. It wasn’t luck. It was Eema who pushed and pushed and pushed for them to consider me. That’s what you need, someone pushing for you. I was lucky, even if it means I got to wear a black hat.”

  “It’ll match your hair.”

  “Great!” he said stiffly. “I’ll be color-coordinated.”

  “So having the Baldwins behind you meant something.”

  “Definitely.”

  “What about Ernesto Golding? What was he aiming for?”

  “Ernesto got into Brown—no easy feat. I don’t know if he got into Berkeley. Probably not. I’m sure he would have gone there if he could have. It’s Ruby Ranger’s old alma mater.”

  Decker paused. “That’s right. You told me that Ruby Ranger went to Berkeley.”

  “Did I?”

  “Someone did.”

  “No one ever said she was dumb. Just evil.”

  “Is she up there now?”

  “Beats me.”

  “How old is Ruby Ranger?”

  “Around twenty-two or-three.”

  A little younger than Darrell Holt—who had also gone to Berkeley. “Did she ever see Dr. Baldwin?”

  “How would I know that?”

  “You seem to know lots of things, Yonkie,” Decker said. “Did Ruby ever bring older guys to the parties?”

  “She may have, but I don’t know. I tried to stay clear of her.”

  “Have you ever heard of or met a guy named Darrell Holt?”

  Jacob thought a moment, and then he shook his head. “No. Who is he?”

  “What about Ricky Moke?”

  “Nope. Can I ask who he is?”

  “A cipher.”

  Hannah came into the kitchen, wiping her eyes. “I’m hungry.”

  “How would you like some veal chops and fresh salad?” Decker asked.

  “Eeeeeuuuuuwwww!”

  Decker was resigned to the inevitable. “How about a hot dog?”

  “Yum!” The little girl started running in circles. “Yum, yum, yum!”

  Just then they all heard a car pull into the driveway. Hannah shouted, “Shmueli’s home!”

  Jacob swept the little girl in his arms. “Let’s go see your big brother!”

  “Yea, yea, yea!” Hannah shouted.

  “Yea, yea, yea!” Jacob answered.

  Decker couldn’t tell which one was the more excited.

  21

  Rina regarded her husband as he wiped the last dish, his face a study in concentration. He was thinking about the case. Still, she tried to make small talk.

  “It’s good to have Shmueli home, no?”

  Decker grinned. “Never thought I’d say it, but I missed his mouth. I missed his pithy observations. I missed his quick wit that bordered on sarcasm, and his strong opinions on everything. It’s great to have him home.”

  “Even if it’s for a very short time.” Rina sighed. “At least they’ll be close to each other. We’ll do a weekend in New York, then a weekend in Baltimore. You know…alternate so no one feels left out.”

  Decker looked at her. “How often do you plan to visit?”

  “What does it matter?” Rina blurted out. “You’re never home anyway.”

  Decker was shocked, not by the observation that was true, but by her frankness.

  Rina stammered, “That was terrible—”

  “No, it’s true, Rina.” He nodded. “You visit whenever you want. It’s fine.”

  But the look on his face told her it wasn’t fine. “Peter, don’t shut me out. I’m very sorry. It just…slipped out.”

  “I know.” He put down the dishtowel and hugged her. “Maybe I should take a sabbatical.” A pause. “Or…being as I’m only three years away from twenty-five, maybe I should call it quits.”

  “You’d be miserable.”

  “Not as miserable as you think,” Decker said. “I know we have a mortgage. There are other things I could do. You know, I could hire myself out as an expert witness—a cop and lawyer. I’m very articulate, and extremely calm under scrutiny. You know what the top guys get? Five hundred an hour portal to portal.”

  “You’ve always called them whores.”

  “I wouldn’t say anything that I didn’t believe.”

  Rina shook her head. “They have ways of making you say things you don’t mean.”

  “Yes, I know that.”

  She kissed his lips, then pulled away, busying herself with straightening up the kitchen. “I don’t think you should do anything rash just because I made a rude remark.”

  “Okay.” Decker thought a moment. “How about this? After I get some resolution with this case, I take a week off. We’ll fly down to Florida, leave Hannah and the boys with my parents for two days. They can go to Disney World or Epcot while we bask in the sands of St. Croix.”

  “Now that sounds like a fabulous plan!”

  “A lot less impulsive than quitting?”

  “Yes, indeed.” She smiled. “You know I have lots to do, Peter. I don’t sit around and wait for you to entertain me. For instance, I’m in charge of the scholar-in-residence lunch at the shul. Someone from the Tolerance Center is going to speak about hate groups. We’re going to have a tremendous turnout because I sent out flyers to everyone in the community. I have over a hundred positives. We’re getting twenty people alone from the First Baptist Church.”

  “That’s a lot of chulent under one roof.”

  “Don’t hold me responsible for the gas levels,” Rina said. “Then the next weekend after that, I promised that I’d be on a panel on Sunday.”

  “Maybe you should hire yourself a full-time policy wonk on hate crime. Have your people call my people. Think you have time to work your husband into your busy schedule?”

  She looked at him with mischief in her eyes. “I have time now.”

  “I didn’t mean sex, but hold that thought. I mean literally work for me. I nee
d your help.”

  Rina visibly brightened. “You do?”

  “Yes, I do,” Decker said. “Since the vandalism, you’ve been buried in hate crimes.”

  “Just H.R. 1082. We’re about this close to getting the law passed.” She pinched off an inch of air between her thumb and forefinger. “It’s not only a moral law, it’s a just law. And a broader definition of hate crimes will also make your life easier.”

  “I’m sold. While you’ve been lobbying for it, I know you’ve been researching hate groups on the Net. If you could talk to Tom Webster about hate groups, it would be helpful to me.”

  “My pleasure!” Rina said. “If he wants the total picture, I’ll introduce him to some people at the Tolerance Center.” A pause. “You’re not just doing this to make me feel good, are you?”

  “No, honestly. I spoke with Tom about it today. Why should he struggle when you’ve done all the background work? It would help me tremendously.”

  “Great!” Rina felt her spirits lighten. “In the meantime, now that our family’s together, maybe we should do something.”

  “Like what?”

  “How about a movie…” She hit her head. “You’ve got to get back to work, don’t you?”

  “Yes. But don’t let that stop you all from having a good time.”

  “Sure.” Rina’s smile lost some of its brilliance.

  Decker said, “While you were at the airport, I talked to Jacob.”

  “About Ernesto’s death?”

  “Yes.”

  “And.”

  “Naturally, he’s very upset. It’s horrible. I hope I helped him, but I don’t know if I did.”

  “You must have said something right. Yonkie actually looked happy over dinner.”

  “It’s probably Sammy’s presence. He really loves his older brother. I didn’t realize how much until I saw the two together.”

  “They’re very close.”

  Decker felt his throat clog. “Thank you for providing me with such amazing children.”

  Rina threw her arms around her husband’s neck. “Let’s see if you still say that after you get the tuition bills.”

  Oliver raked fingers through black, and by now, greasy hair. He felt hot and sticky and really needed a shower. “If what Jacob says is true, that the Baldwins were using pull to get kids into college, I can suddenly see some new reasons for someone wanting them dead.”