Sacred and Profane

She turned off the light switch and picked up a plaster replica of Earl’s skull. “Alas, poor Pode. I didn’t know him, Pete. Nor did I want to.”

The detective smiled.

“Got time for some coffee?” she asked.

“Thanks, but I’ve got to get these back to Bachman before he closes up shop.”

She nodded.

“How’s it going with your lady?” She made a face. “I don’t mean to be nosy-”

“It’s okay. I’d say it’s going…” He searched for the right word. “Well, let’s just say we have an understanding-a very nice understanding. She’s moving away to New York.”

“For good?” He

“For the time being.”

“What are you going to do in the meantime?”

“I don’t know. We’ve left it open. But some chains are permanent even if they are invisible.”

He shrugged, and she broke into a warm, wide smile. “You’ve got my number. A beer with a pal doesn’t seem like a bad way to spend an evening. Give us a call sometimes.”

“I will,” said Decker.

He

They shook hands. Hers was firm and confident.

“Peter!” the boys cried simultaneously.

He hugged them both, smiled at Rina’s parents, and looked around.

“Where’s your eema?” he asked.

“Buying some books and junk at the gift shop,” Jake answered.

The airport wasn’t busy, but their flight was going to be crowded. The area around the departure gate was full. The adjacent plane was going to Madison, Wisconsin, and the passengers were mostly blonde and blue-eyed. The travelers to New York were a salad of ethnicities-a little black, a little Italian, a little Puerto Rican, some Irish or German, several Jews including some wearing knitted yarmulkes and dressed in ordinary street clothes and others with side curls, wearing long black coats and black hats and speaking Yiddish. Decker sat down and the boys took seats on either side.

“You know any of those men?” Decker asked pointing to the black-garbed Jews.

Jacob shook his head.

“They’re Chasidim,” Sammy said. “Fanatics!”

Decker laughed, but stopped quickly when he realized the boy was serious.

“I’ve got something for you guys,” he said, reaching into a paper bag.

“What?” Jake asked.

“A couple of Go-Bots. I didn’t have time to wrap them. One’s a bad guy, the other’s a good one. You boys decide who wants who.”

“We can switch off,” Jacob said, tearing the plastic bubble over the toy. He started pulling on the die-cast metal pieces, changing the figure from a bulldozer into a pocket-sized robot.

“Excited about going?” Decker asked.

“Yeah!” Sammy exclaimed, holding his unopened toy in his hand. “I love my bubbe and zaydah.”

Decker glanced at Rina’s parents. They pretended not to hear, but the wounded look shone in their eyes.

“You have lots of relatives in New York, don’t you?” Decker said quietly.

“Tons!” said Sammy. “My abba’s two sisters live there. Tante Esther has five kids; the oldest one just turned eighteen and got her driver’s license! Tante Shayna has four kids, and my cousin Reuven and I are only two days apart.”

“And Shimon and I are only two months apart,” Jake said.

“I look exactly like Reuven,” Sammy continued. “People used to always mistake us for twins ’cause I look like my abba and he looks like Tante Shayna, and my abba and she looked alike. And you know what else?”

“What?”

“I have great-grandparents there! They are so old-like seventy-three or four.”

“That’s great,” said Decker.

“And they’re not even senile or anything.”

Decker laughed. His own parents were close to that age. “You should have a good time.”

“Eema said we’re going to go to a big school,” Jake said. “And there’ll be lots of people, so we won’t have to worry about bad guys dumping bodies and Eema being alone.”

The younger boy quieted suddenly and leaned his head on Decker’s shoulder.

“I’ll miss you, Peter. I’ll miss the horses. I don’t think they have horses in Borough Park.”

The thought of horses roaming the wilds of Brooklyn made Decker smile.

“I’ll miss you, too,” said Sammy in a small voice.

“I’ll miss you guys like anything. More than you could know. But I’m also very happy ’cause I know you’ll be having lots of fun being with your abba’s family.”

Decker hugged them and gave them each a big kiss.

“Take care of yourselves.”

They hugged and kissed him back.

“Aren’t you go

“I’ll meet her at the newsstand.” Decker got up and nodded to Rina’s parents.

“It was nice that you came down,” Mr. Elias said.

“Couldn’t let the kids leave without saying goodbye.”

Her mother looked at him, then turned away.

“Good-bye, Mrs. Elias.”

“Good-bye,” she said formally.

Decker trousled the boys’ hair and headed toward the gift shop, saddened. He knew he’d miss the boys tremendously, but at least they seemed excited about the move. It was some consolation.

He found Rina paging through a paperback with a lurid cover. She was wearing a muted pink cable-knit sweater, a full, pleated gray wool skirt, and gray suede boots. Her hair was tucked into a knitted angora tam. Her face was soft and serene even under the harsh fluorescent lighting.

He walked over to her and took the book out of her hand. She jumped.

“Peter! What are you doing here? I told you not to come!”

“I wanted to see the boys off.” He looked at the cover of the paperback. “The Jackknife Slasher-The True Account of a Woman’s Plunge into Terror. Sure you want to read this?”

She began to cry uncontrollably. Decker put the book back, escorted her out of the airport gift shop and into an isolated corner. He hugged her fiercely.

“I knew…this…would happen,” she said between sobs.

He rocked her, kissed a delicate earlobe jeweled with a single diamond stud.

“Don’t go,” he whispered.

She didn’t answer. He knew she would leave. It was best for both of them. But every condemned man can still pray for an eleventh-hour reprieve.

“I love you,” he said. “We’ll work it out if you stay.”

She still said nothing. Her tear-streaked face leaned against his shirt, looking as lost and forlorn as a wet puppy.

He sighed and gave up. “I’m a phone call away, honey,” he said. “You ring, I take the next flight out.”

She nodded and brought his mouth down to hers.

A sweet kiss.

A flight number was a

“That’s my flight,” she said, wiping tears off her face. “Oh my God, Peter. What am I going to do without you?”

He smiled. “You’ll do real well without me.”

Too well, he thought.

“I don’t think so,” she said, breaking away. She took a deep breath. “Walk me to the gate?”

Decker hesitated. “I’ve already said bye to the boys. I don’t think your parents are too anxious to see me again.”

“I’ll miss you terribly,” she said.

“I’ll miss you terribly, too,” he said. “You write, you hear? Or better yet, call…collect.”

“That won’t be necessary, Peter,” she answered. “I have a feeling we’re going to rack up enormous phone bills.”

“I’ll pay for them all.”

“We’ll split them down the middle,” she said.

“Liberated woman.”

“Hardly.” Her lip began to tremble.

“You know, Rina,” he said. “If I’m going to keep studying with Rabbi Schulman, I figured I should take on a Jewish name. What do you think?”

“I think it’s a great idea,” she said, breaking into a dazzling smile.

“Schulman suggested Pinchas. I guess that was as close an approximation to Peter that he could find. Then I discovered that Pinchas is Phineas in English-as in Phineas Fogg. I vetoed that one.”

“It doesn’t suit you, either,” she said. “Pinchas was a religious zealot.”

“No, that’s not me,” he said. “I like Akiva. What do you think?”