Sanctuary

Marge said, “We checked.”

“You did?” Orit was shocked.

“Drug dealers keep their goods in the water tank,” Decker explained. “We also checked the freezer-another common spot. Nothing. Any other suggestions?”

Orit stared at them, then shook her head no.

Marge looked around. “If I were diamonds, where would I be?”

Decker tapped his foot. Again his eyes went back to the mezuzah. Being new to the Jewish religion, Decker realized, was why it had taken him so long to see what was wrong. Outside-door mezuzahs were supposed to be posted on the outside of the doorframe. This one was on the inside. Maybe because it was so fancy, they didn’t want it sullied.

But then again.

Decker slipped on a latex glove. “Detective Du

“You got it, Sarge.”

“What you’re going to do?” Orit asked.

“You stick around,” Decker answered. “I want a family witness here in case we find the mother lode.”

“What do you mean-mother lode?”

“Cash, money…possibly diamonds.” Decker pointed to the mezuzah. “There.”

“What?” Orit said. “You’re crazy. That’s a religious article.”

“I know what a mezuzah is, Ms. Bar Lulu. I also know where they are supposed to be posted. Beytecha oovesha’arecha-your houses and gates-on the outside.”

Orit stared at him. “You speak Hebrew?”

“No, but I know the Sh’ma.”

“I knew I liked you.”

Marge came back in and handed Decker the screwdriver. Carefully, he unwound the top and bottom screws that affixed the scroll holder to the wall. They came out more easily than he had expected. He peered inside the hollow rut of the silver casing.

Empty-where was the parchment that contained the holy prayer?

Was there ever a parchment?

He showed the empty holder to Orit. “Can I bag this for evidence?”

“Evidence of what?” Orit asked.

“I want to have this dusted for prints.”

“You think Arik kept money there?”

Marge asked, “What do you think, Ms. Bar Lulu?”

“I think it’s fu

“So why put up a mezuzah period?”

“Maybe for the boys.” Orit waved her hand. “Yes, take it for evidence. As long as it comes back.”

“Ms. Bar Lulu,” Decker said, “does your sister-in-law have a maid?”

“Not now. Dalia had wonderful help for six years. Amelia went back to El Salvador a month ago. Dalia is still looking. She is very particular who is in her house.”

“So who’s been cleaning the house?” Marge asked.

“My lady, Bonita, helps Dalia once a week. Not much to do except laundry. The boys do their own rooms. Bonita was going to come tomorrow. What do I tell her?”

Marge said, “Tell her to hold off until we find out where the family is.”

“That’s what I think, too.”

Decker said, “Do you know anything about the porcelain dogs in the front entry hall?”

“Dogs? What dogs?”

Guess that answered that, Decker thought.

“You want to take dogs, too?”

Decker shook his head. “Just the mezuzah. I’ll need you to sign something that states we have your permission to take it,” Decker said. “Make sure that everyone’s satisfied that we did this by the book.”

“By the book?” Orit asked.

“That we acted kosher,” Decker said.

“Ah, that I understand.”

5

Sitting at the conference-sized dining table, Decker felt like a movie mogul. The tabletop was a slab of pink marble swirled with white and blue-no doubt some custom job out of an exotic quarry. Orit Bar Lulu was at his right; Marge sat across the rose-colored sea. Orit seemed scared. Their prolonged presence had justified her suspicions and that was not good news. Decker placed his notebook on the stone, wondering if he could write without scratching the surface. He gave Marge the go-ahead.

“I’d like to ask you a few questions, Ms. Bar Lulu,” Marge said.

“Of course. Why else am I here?”

Marge cleared her throat. “When was the last time you saw or heard from your brother?”

“Two days ago.” Orit sighed. “We had lunch together-Arik came to the office-the real estate office where Dalia and I work.”

“The name?”

“Manor One Realty.”

Marge wrote it down. “Anything special happen at lunch?”

“Not a thing. Everything was regular.”

“They didn’t seem nervous? Excited maybe?”

“I saw nothing. Of course, I wasn’t looking for something wrong, you know?”

Marge nodded. “Then what happened?”

“What happened?” Orit shrugged. “Nothing happened. We ate lunch, talked about the kids. Then Arik and Dalia left.”

“Together?”

“Yes. It was close to quitting time so she left with him. The next day Dalia didn’t come to work. I didn’t think anything about it. Real estate agents work from their homes all the time. So maybe she took the morning off. I called her in the afternoon to ask her to pick up Sharoni. No answer. I called two, three times maybe. No machine, nothing. I thought that was strange so I called my brother at work. His partner told me he didn’t show up today-no explanation, nothing. Shaul was mad, I could tell. I didn’t want to get Arik in trouble, so I made excuses.”

“What kind of excuses,” Marge said.

“Oh, the usual. Something came up…ehhhh, he must have something important to do. Shaul didn’t like my excuses. He’s very hard on Arik, but that’s not new.”

“What do you mean, ‘Shaul’s hard on Arik’?” Decker asked as he wrote.

“They’re partners. But they are very different-fire and water.”

Marge caught Decker’s eye. They’d go over that one later.

Orit didn’t seem to notice. “But just like life needs fire and water, they needed each other. So what if they don’t get along?”

“They fought publicly?” Marge asked casually. “Or was it more like a cold war.”

“Both.”

“What’s the problem?”

Orit appeared to be thinking. “Shaul’s…slow, not slow, but…”

“Deliberate?” Decker tried.

“Exactly. Shaul’s deliberate. Arik has creativity-all the ideas. Some work, some don’t. The boys are a perfect mix for business, but they get on each other’s nerves. Shaul’s always mad at Arik for being careless. Arik’s always mad at Shaul for slowing him down. But they don’t give up on each other. They’re too smart for that.”

Decker didn’t know if it was a language problem, but Orit’s choice of words seemed telling. “What do you mean by Arik being careless?”

Orit said, “What do I mean?”

Marge picked up on Decker’s drift. “Is Arik careless with Shaul’s money?”

Orit shook her head. “I don’t mean careless. It’s a difference in personality. Arik wants to go, go, go. Shaul says, ‘Now, wait a minute.’”

“Does Shaul have a last name?” Decker asked.

“Gold. Shaul Gold.”

“He didn’t know where Arik was?”

“No,” Orit said. “He was angry that Arik didn’t come to work.”

Marge looked up from her pad. “Shaul was mad at Arik?”

“Very mad,” Orit said. “And that made me worried. Why didn’t Arik show up? Despite what Shaul says, Arik is very responsible. I called the police. They send two men who looked at me like I’m crazy.”

Marge said, “The policy is to wait twenty-four hours before reporting an adult missing.”

“This is not just an adult, this is a whole family.” Orit started to bite her nail, then stopped herself. “When Sharoni-that’s my daughter-she tells me the boys weren’t in school, I start to get real nervous. That’s when I called the police again and asked for someone else. You think there’s something wrong, too, no?”

Decker said, “It’s unusual for a family to leave without notifying someone.”

Marge said, “You haven’t heard from your brother or sister-in-law in two days?”

“Or my nephews.” She shuddered. “God only knows where they are.”

“What do you mean?” Decker asked.

Orit bit her lip. “I mean if something happened to Arik, why take it out on the boys?”