Serpent's Tooth (20 page)

“No.”

“Any hot leads that might pan out?”

“Nothing.”

“So I’m not creating any problems by telling you to keep away from him until we work out a plan with the lawyers.”

“No, actually that’s okay. At least for right now.” Decker stood. “Can I go? I’d like to make it home for my Sabbath.”

Strapp eyed his lieutenant. “You’ve got something up your sleeve, haven’t you?”

“Come again, sir?”

“Don’t play dumb, because you’re not. I’m talking about Jeanine Garrison. If you’re trying to get to her in a round-about fashion, you’d better fill me in.”

Decker told him about Sean Amos.

Strapp started pacing. “Quash the plan. I don’t like it. You see the paper today?”

“Sports section, yes.”

“So you see what we’re up against. Besides, what’s your reasoning for going after this Sean Amos—other than the fact that he’s Jeanine’s tennis partner.”

“That is the reason, sir.”

“You’ve got to come up with something better than that.”

“Sir, right now we’re assuming that Harlan worked with an accomplice. I’m trying to find a candidate. Look, sir, I’m not going to question Sean Amos about his relationship with Jeanine Garrison. I’m going to question him about
Harlan Manz
. Simple point-of-information interview because Amos was a member of the club when Harlan taught.”

“So you’re questioning this boy about Harlan only?”

“Yes. No one’s going to mention Jeanine.” Decker
waited a beat. “Of course, if he brought her up, we weren’t going to prevent him from talking.”

Strapp didn’t speak for a while. Finally, he said, “Okay. This is what we’ll do.
I’ll
order the interview. Take the heat off you.”

Decker was stunned. “Thank you.”

“But if
I’m
ordering the interview, you do it my way. If we question Sean Amos, we’re going to have to question at least half a dozen other boys and girls his age who played tennis at the club when Harlan taught.”

Decker grinned. “What a great idea. If Sean Amos is having an affair with Jeanine, he won’t talk about it to us. But he might have bragged about it to one of his teenage friends. One of them might let it slip out to us.”

“Okay, so Sean Amos is taken care of.”

Strapp paused.

“Now here’s the bad news. Jeanine is doing more than making noises. Our guys want to talk to you. I’ve set up a meeting at nine Monday morning.”

“A Fact Sheet?”

“Yeah.”

Decker nodded. Normally, when a complaint was filed, the presiding lieutenant took down the detective’s story. Since he was a lieutenant, he’d probably be questioned by Myerhoff—the patrol lieutenant. Or by the Internal Affairs Department if Jeanine actually decided to file a 181 personal complaint. “Is Myerhoff doing the questioning?”

“IAD.”

“Terrific.” Decker rolled his eyes. “Why?”

Strapp shrugged. “Maybe Jeanine had her monkeys call them as well.”

“Who’s Jeanine’s lawyer?”

“Guy by the name of Silverberg. Know him?”

“No.”

“Neither do I. I’ll have PPL look into him.”

Decker asked, “Police Protection League going to send me someone good…as in competent?”

“You’ll have a defense rep, of course.”

“I repeat…a
competent
one?”

“We won’t know until Monday. You want to think about hiring a private lawyer, that’s up to you.”

“Let’s see how far it goes.” Decker exhaled angrily. “This is a shitty deal.”

“It’s standard procedure, Peter.”

“I don’t have to like it.”

“Do you have any other complaints against you on your record?”

“One. About ten years ago. A hype claimed I roughed him up.”

“How’d the complaint resolve?”

“Unfounded.”

“Good.”

“That one was easy. He was a hype, lying was his native tongue. Jeanine isn’t going to go down as easily.”

“No chinks in her story?”

“Believe me, I’ve been racking my brains. So far, it’s her word against mine. At this point, best I can hope for is an Unsustained. Unless we show her involvment in the murders at Estelle’s.”

“Wouldn’t that be wonderful.” Strapp paused. “You tell your wife?”

“First thing.”

“How’s she reacting?”

“Rina’s been great. More than I deserve considering how testy I’ve been lately.”

“So you’ve been completely honest with her about this?”

“Fortunately, there’s nothing to be dishonest about. I didn’t do anything.”

“You told me you found Jeanine attractive, Decker. What if they offer you a polygraph?”

“I’ll say go ahead.”

“Then they hook you up to a machine, ask you lots of questions. Personal ones. About you and women. About your sex life. Ask you about Jeanine, if you found her sexy, if you wanted to fuck her. How are you going to answer that?”

“I’ll tell the truth.”

“What if this goes to a grand jury? They might ask the same questions. Your wife’s going to hear things.”

“It’s not a problem.”

“So you told Rina you found Jeanine a turn-on?”

Decker bristled. “Not in so many words, but yes, the gist came out that way.”

Strapp raised his eyebrows. “And?”

“I’m not concerned.” Decker sat back in his chair, pounding his fist to his forehead. “God, how can you find a woman so attractive one moment, then absolutely despise everything about her the next?”

“Don’t let that attitude leave the office. It sounds vengeful.”

“I know. Got to be stoic.”

Strapp was quiet for a moment. “If you think Rina can handle it, it might be a good idea if she was with you at your questioning.”

Decker was taken aback. “You’re kidding.”

“No, I’m not. She can’t help you legally. But she can’t hurt you, either. Because a wife can’t testify against her husband.”

“So why should I drag her into it?”

Strapp said, “I’ll be blunt. Your wife is beautiful, Peter. And she’s
young
. Quite a bit younger than you—”

“Twelve years.”

“This kind of charge is a subjective thing. Like you said, it’s Jeanine’s word against yours. I know these jokers from IAD. Jeanine’s a looker. They’ll have no problem believing that you came on to her. You need to counteract that notion. Show them
your
side—your sterling record
and
your beautiful, charming wife who
isn’t
at all concerned. It’s going to influence the way IAD thinks. It isn’t supposed to work that way. But it does. Think Rina could handle personal questions about your thoughts on Jeanine? Personal questions about your sex life?”

Again, Decker rubbed his face. “I’m not saying she’ll view it as a cakewalk, but Rina’s tough. She can handle it.”

“She’s got to play it right, Pete. Casual. No tears, of
course. But she can’t present a defensive posture, either.”

“Okay.”

“No snit fits or hysteria.”

Decker smiled wryly. “No, sir, that’s my department.”

No doubt Rina
noticed how antsy he was. But she chose not to mention it. Instead, they ate and waxed festive, the kids monopolizing the dinner conversation. Which was as it should be. Dinner topics were the machinations of the school’s student council and Sammy’s rules of the road. As a week-old driver, the boy was now an expert. During the lectures, Rina served up a “modest” Shabbos meal—puree of carrot soup followed by chicken breasts stuffed with wild rice and broccoli Dijonnaise on the side. Dessert was a fresh apple cobbler. When Decker questioned her definition of the word “modest,” she replied that she hadn’t served a salad.

Decker sipped coffee. “The meal was wonderful.”

“Top-notch,” Sammy added.

Rina said, “Anything would taste wonderful after eating cafeteria food for a week.”

“It’s a compliment, Mom.”

“I’m glad you liked it.”

Jacob said, “Are we walking over to the yeshiva tomorrow?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Are we walking back?”

“I’m sure I could wangle you a lunch invitation at Rav Schulman’s if you don’t feel like walking back.”

The boy was quiet. He pushed black hair from piercing
blue eyes, looked at his parents. “We should move,” he announced.

Rina and Decker exchanged glances.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Jake said. “It’s an hour’s walk to the yeshiva and an hour and a half walk to visit anyone from our school. You know, Hannah’s four. Eventually she’s going to want to go to shul. We can’t leave her with a baby-sitter forever. Either we should live closer to the yeshiva or move into the West Valley community.”

No one spoke.

Decker closed his eyes and opened them. “You’re right.”

Jake grinned. “Really?”

“Really.” Decker put down his coffee mug. “I’m sure it hasn’t been easy for you being so isolated these past six years.”

“It hasn’t been bad.” Sam took another piece of cobbler. “Actually, it’s been okay. After Abba died, I didn’t feel like being social on Shabbos. All those pitying looks. And then it was good to have some time alone with…you know…with Dad.”

Decker felt his throat constrict. “Thank you. I felt the same way. But now it’s different.”

“What would you do with the horses?” Rina asked.

“We hardly ride at all anymore,” Jake said. “Just sell them.”

Rina said, “Slowly, Yonkie. It’s not that easy.”

Decker said, “Give your mother and me a few days to mull it over. We’ll come up with something.”

Jake tapped the table. “You know, we can fit into a smaller house. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Whatever’s convenient.”

Decker smiled. “It would be very convenient if you two would clear the table and watch your sister for a bit. I need to talk to your mom.”

Sammy said, “I’m still eating.”

Everyone stopped talking, watched Sam eat. He pushed
the plate away and got up. “Talk about being center stage. I know when I’m not wanted.”

“Hannah, help us clear.” Jake gave his little sister an empty soda can. “Bring it into the kitchen.”

The girl broke into a smile, ran into the kitchen holding the can. The boys gathered up the dirty dishes.

Decker turned to his wife. “How’s tricks?”

“Nothing too much other than going blind from looking at numbers.”

“Oh, yeah.” Decker sat up. “The yeshiva’s books. What’s going on?”

“The yeshiva looks to be richer than I originally thought. Lots of paper profit. The yeshiva owns a ton of stock.”

“Who’s been investing for them?”

“No one. Most of the stock has been given to them. From what I can figure out, it seems that the donors probably bought the stock years ago.”

“At cheap prices.”

“Exactly.” Rina handed Hannah another empty soda can. Again the little girl took flight into the kitchen.

Decker said, “Buying ten thou worth of stock and it’s now worth twenty thou—”

“More like a hundred thou.”

“What’s worth a hundred thou?” Sammy asked.

Rina said, “Take the baby to her room, boys. I’ll get the rest.”

“Trying to get rid of us?”

“In a word, yes.” Rina smiled brightly. “Good-bye.”

Jacob scooped his sister into his arms. “What do you want to do, Han?”

Hannah said, “Well…how ’bout playing dinosaurs.”

“Okay.”

“And play Barney, too.”

“Okay.”

“Then read books!” Hannah kicked until Jacob lowered her to the ground. She took Jake’s hand in her right and Sam’s hand in her left. “Swing me.”

The teenagers complied. Decker laughed. “Who really runs the house?”

“That’s not even debatable.”

“Unlike the yeshiva’s books.” Decker smiled. “Actually, donating stock is quite a common ploy in estate planning. You buy a stock, hold on to it. The shares increase in value. Then you donate the stock to a charity. Not only do you avoid capital gains tax, but also you get the deduction for the shares’ increased value.”

“The amounts are startling. Lots of blue-chip certificates just sitting in a drawer in Rabbi Schulman’s office. They’ve been there for years.”

“Does Rav Schulman know what he has?”

“I don’t think he has a clue. I can’t understand why he never put all these assets with a money manager.” Rina shrugged. “Although maybe it’s better. Somebody might have sold the stocks a long time ago. Instead, the shares have been splitting and growing and splitting and growing.”

“Just going up and up…” Abruptly, Decker appeared pensive. “Has Jake ever mentioned moving before?”

Rina sighed. “He’s hinted. He’s a very social kid. You know how it is, especially in the teenage years. He really is away from the action on Shabbos.”

Decker wrapped his hands around his coffee mug. “He’s been a good sport.”

Rina bit her nail. “How much do you think we can get for this place?”

“Not too much,” Decker said. “I built it on spit and a promise. It’s up to code, but it’s sadly lacking in anything but basics. We’ll take what we can get and buy what we can afford. Obviously, Jake doesn’t care about luxuries.”

Rina stroked her arms. “You know, I have money.”

Decker felt his jaw tighten. “I don’t need my wife’s money to pay for my family’s house.”

“It’s not
your
family, it’s
our
family. You’re being old-fashioned. What good is the money if we don’t use it for things like this?”

Decker didn’t say the obvious. Yes, he had life insurance, but it wasn’t nearly enough to sustain a family and put three kids through college. Rina’s trust from her parents
was
emergency
money—in case something happened to him. And having been shot twice, he wasn’t doing theoretical estate planning. He said, “We have savings. I make a good living. We’ll work it out.”

Rina looked away. “Why do you take everything on your shoulders, Peter? Why don’t you let me help?”

“You do help. You run the house, take care of the family. You do
all
the finances. I haven’t paid a bill since we married. You could be parking all of our money in a Swiss bank account, getting ready to leave me high and dry. And I wouldn’t know the difference.”

“That’s an odd thing to say.” She stared at him, placed her hand on his. “What’s going on with you? It’s that stupid harassment suit, isn’t it? Is she charging you?”

Decker pulled his hand away, buried his head in his palms, then looked at his wife. “Strapp got a call from IAD. I’ve got to go through what they call a Fact Sheet on Monday.”

“Which means?”

“IAD asks questions about the alleged incident.”

“And?”

“They compare your answers with the charges brought against you…come up with a decision. Not right away…all this takes time. There are three decisions they can come up with. First, the charges are sustained. Which means they believe the charges against you are true. For that to happen, you have to have dates and witnesses—”

“Motel receipts.”

“Even less than that. Just witnesses who confirm that they saw you two together outside the bounds of work. Like in a restaurant or at a movie. Corroborating evidence. I’m not worried about a Sustained verdict. It’s the second conclusion they could reach. An Unsustained. Which is like a no-contest. There’s not enough evidence to sustain
or
refute the charges. Third verdict is Unfounded, which says the charges are false. That would happen if we caught her lying, found a chink in her story.”

“Such as?”

“Such as if she said…oh, I don’t know. If she said I
had drinks with her at four o’clock and I have proof and witnesses that say I was in my office at four o’clock. Something like that.”

“And that’s not likely to happen, either.”

Decker averted his gaze. “Correct. That is not likely to happen, either.”

Rina said, “So the best you can hope for is an Unsustained?”

Decker’s fists were clenched. “Unless I can prove what I already know. That Jeanine had some involvment in Estelle’s. You know, I don’t even
care
about these ridiculous charges. I care about thirteen deaths and thirty-two wounded. I care about the trauma and mayhem that an evil, evil woman inflicted upon innocent people. I’m going to nail her, Rina. I swear, if it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to
bury
that bitch where the sun don’t shine.”

The room turned silent. Quietly, Rina said, “I admire your passion, Peter. Your unquestionable drive to do the right thing. But…but if you show emotion when you’re questioned…it’s going to look very bad.”

He bit his lip. “You’re very perceptive. Strapp said the same thing.” He looked her in the eye. “He wants you there for the questioning.”

“Me?”

“As an ornament. The charming, beautiful wife. To show IAD that I had absolutely no reason for wanting to stray.”

“The fact that you have an attractive wife would make a difference?”

“Strapp thinks so. I do too.”

“To have your unblemished twenty-five-year reputation hang on what I look like…” She shook her head. “That’s
nuts
!”

“Whole thing is nuts. But despite themselves, people are influenced by what they see. They see someone young and gorgeous and brilliant…Rina, they see you, they don’t see a logical reason for me to cheat.”

“As if men were logical. You must know countless men
who have strayed with women much homelier than their wives.”

“Not countless—”

“Scott Oliver is a perfect example. You used to say his girlfriends were dogs. And his wife was very attractive.”

“Yes, she was.”

“Why did he do it then? Explain it to me, please.”

“Mid-life crisis, maybe.”

“Except he’d been doing it for a while.”

“I don’t know, Rina. Some people have a hard time growing up.” Decker unclenched his fists, laid his hands on the table. “I’m sorry to drag you into this.”

“If you want me to be there, I’ll be there.”

“I think it’s a good idea.” He smiled weakly. “Besides, it’d be nice to see a friendly face.”

Rina’s eyes started watering. She took his hand and kissed it. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Decker swallowed hard. “They’re going to ask lots of personal stuff. Maybe…it would be a good idea if I wrote down some of the possible questions. So we’re both prepared. So I won’t be embarrassed answering them in front of you.”

She held back tears. “This is really a violation, isn’t it?”

Decker smiled softly. “Hey, like your mother says, as long as you got your health…”

Rina said, “Let’s go over the questions together. Then tell me what you want me to wear, tell me how I should act, tell me what I should say.”

“Just be yourself.” He threw his head back, sighed. “Ah well, instead of feeling sorry for myself, I should learn a little. Put my mind into something cosmic. Maybe I could even pick up a pointer or two from the holy books. Surely they must have something to say about a man being hunted down by an evil woman.”

Rina thought for a moment. “Sort of like Elijah the prophet. Hiding out in the desert in a cave, depending on ravens for sustenance.”

“Who was he hiding from?”

“
Izevel
…Jezebel.”

“What happened?”

“To Elijah?” Rina said. “He went out with a bang. Taken to heaven alive in a chariot of fire—”

“Ah, yes…Sunday school’s rearing its head. Elijah was a fanatic, wasn’t he?”

Sammy entered the kitchen. “All the prophets were fanatics.”

“Where’s Hannah?” Rina asked.

“Fell asleep—”

“Shmuel—”

“Don’t freak, Mom. I put her in a diaper and her pajamas.”

Rina was shocked. “You actually had the foresight to dress her for bed?”

“No, he didn’t,” Jacob said. “But I did. Are we interrupting anything?”

Sammy said, “Just talking about fanatical prophets.”

“They weren’t fanatical,” Rina countered. “They just said things that people didn’t want to hear.”

Decker squinted, trying to bring back ancient memories. “I remember Elijah. I don’t remember reading about Jezebel…other than the fact that she’s been immortalized as an evil temptress.”

Rina said. “She was married to—” She stopped, looked at her sons. “Who was she married to?”

Sammy said, “It’s ‘know your prophets’ time.”

Jacob sang, “A-hab the A-rab—”

“He wasn’t an Arab, he was a Jewish king,” Rina clarified. “King of Israel to be specific. And who was the king of Judeah?”

Jacob and Sammy shrugged.

Rina looked disapprovingly. “You boys don’t learn
Navi
—Prophets—in school?”

Sammy said, “
Navi
’s for wimps. Real men learn
gemora
—”

“Just answer the question.”

“Students shouldn’t show off in front of their teachers. You can answer the question, Eema.”

Rina smiled. “Yehosophat was the king of Judeah.”

“I don’t know
what
you’re talking about,” Decker said.

Jacob said, “The Kingdom of Israel split into two after Solomon died. Rehovam was the King of Judeah, the legitimate king. The tribes of Levi, Judah, and one half the tribe of Benjamin remained loyal to him. The other ten tribes went with Jerovam—the king of Israel. Judeah was more righteous than Israel. Hence the other ten tribes were eventually lost in the Diaspora.” He glared at his mother. “
Happy
, Eema?”