Suddenly, she took his arm and pulled him aside, out of earshot of the waiting students. She whispered, “Surely a police lieutenant has better things to do with himself than to hassle young minds in the throes of experimentation for freedom.”
“Surely.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
It was Decker’s turn to narrow his eyes. It seemed to unnerve her. “If we can’t be buddies, maybe we can try civility?”
“I know your type. Don’t even think about asking me out!”
He stared at her, then laughed. What’s on your mind, honey? He said, “My wife would have a few choice words to say to me if I did.”
Her eyes went to his hand.
Decker said, “Not all married men wear wedding rings.”
“Only the ones who don’t want women to know they’re married.”
“Dr. Dahl, I’ve got a wife, four kids, three stifling private-school tuitions, a choking home mortgage, and car payments on a Volvo station wagon that’s already out of alignment. I’ve got the whole nine yards of suburbia. And I’m still smiling because deep down inside, despite my cynical view of this entire planet that we call Earth, I am a very happy man. Can we move on, please? I have a schedule and I bet you do as well.”
She regarded his face but said nothing. Decker took the silence as an invitation to finish up. He was up to the senior class, and had gone halfway through its roster without finding anything incriminating. He was discouraged by his failure, but encouraged by it as well. Maybe the school was really the best and the brightest.
He was almost done, finishing the last row of lockers. One of them belonged to a good-looking boy of seventeen—around six feet tall and muscular. He wore his brown hair in a buzz cut and had storm-colored eyes—electric and very dark blue. His locker was free of contraband and very neat. No pictures, nothing chemical, nothing out of place. Yet there was something on the kid’s face, a smirk that spoke of privilege. Decker met the kid’s eyes, held them for a moment.
“Let me see your backpack—”
“What?” The boy blinked, then recovered.
“This isn’t the procedure,” Jaime stated.
“I know,” Decker said. He turned to the boy. “Do you object?”
“Yes, I do.” The muscular boy tapped his foot several times. “I object on principle. It’s an invasion of my civil rights.”
Again, Decker met the kid’s eyes. “What’s your name?”
“Do I have to answer that?” the boy asked.
Decker smiled, turned to Jaime Dahl. “What’s his name?”
Putting her in a bind. It was beginning to look like the stud was hiding something. If she didn’t at least minimally cooperate, she’d look like she was hiding something as well. Reluctantly, she said, “Answer the question.”
The boy’s name was Ernesto Golding.
Decker said, “Let me make a deal with you, Ernesto. I’m not interested in drugs, pills, weapons … well, maybe weapons. You have a stash in there, and tell me it’s fish food, I’ll believe you.”
“Then why do you want to look in his backpack?” Jaime asked.
“I have my reasons.” He smiled. “What do you say?”
The boy was silent. Jaime looked at him. “Ernie, it’s up to you.”
“This is clearly police abuse.”
Decker shrugged. “If she won’t make you do it, I don’t have any choice. But you’ll hear from me again, son. Next time I may not be so generous.”
Ernesto stood on his tiptoes, attempting a pugilistic stance. “Are you threatening me?”
“Nah, I never threaten—”
“Sounds like a threat to me.”
“Shall we move on, Dr. Dahl?”
But Jaime didn’t move on. Instead, she said, “Ernie, give him your backpack.”
“What?”
“Do it!”
The boy’s face turned an intense red. He dropped the pack at his feet, the storm in his eyes shooting lightning. Decker picked the knapsack up and immediately gave it to Jaime. “You look through it. I don’t want to be accused of planting anything. Tell me if you see anything unusual.”
“What am I looking for?”
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
What Decker expected to find were obscene photographs of concentration-camp victims. What Jaime Dahl pulled out was a silver kiddush cup.
It stood out, a surface of metal against books and papers. Decker brought his eyes over to the young man’s face. Ernesto Golding was dressed in khakis and a white shirt. Ernesto Golding had intense eyes on a good-looking face, a broad forehead, and weightlifter’s arms. Ernesto Golding didn’t look like a thug. He looked like a macho teen with better things on his mind than killing Jews. Decker took a handkerchief from his pocket and held up the kiddush cup. “Where’d you get this?”
Ernesto folded his arms across his chest, pushing out his bulging biceps with his fists. “It’s a family heirloom.”
“And why are you bringing a family heirloom to school?”
The boy’s face was an odd combination of fear and defiance. “Show-and-tell, sir.”
I’ll bet you’ve been doing lots of show-and-tell, Decker thought. Jaime spoke up. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Decker answered. But his eyes remained on his prey. “The cup has some Hebrew writing on it. See here?” He showed it to Golding. “It’s easy Hebrew. Read it for me.”
“I don’t read Hebrew—”
“I thought you said it was a family heirloom.”
“My family’s origins are Jewish. But that doesn’t mean that I know Hebrew. It’s like assuming every Italian knows Latin.”
Decker was taken aback. “Your family’s Jewish?”
“No, my family is not Jewish. We’re humanists with ancestry in the Jewish race.”
The Jewish race—a Nazi buzz phrase.
“I don’t want to repeat myself,” Jaime stated bluntly, “but what is going on?”
Decker said, “Did you listen to the news this morning, Dr. Dahl?”
“Of course.”
“Then you must know that a local synagogue was broken into and vandalized. I was down there. Most of the damage was ugly, but it can be repaired. The one thing that was reported stolen was a silver benediction cup.”
Jaime looked at Ernesto, then at Decker, who held up the cup. “This family heirloom is inscribed with the words ‘Beit Yosef.’ That’s the name of the vandalized synagogue.”
“It’s a family heirloom,” Ernesto insisted. “We’re doing a family history. A family tree for honors civics. Dr. Dahl is aware of this assignment. Back me up on this one, Doctor.”
“There is a family-tree assignment in honors civics—Dr. Ramparts.”
“Yeah.