He was on his second cup when his cellular rang. Rina was on the other end of the line. “How’s your face?”
“It’s still there.”
“Peter-”
“Swelling has gone down considerably. I feel a lot better.”
“That’s the Darvocet talking.”
“Thank God for pharmaceuticals.” Decker put down the paper. “You sound rested.”
In fact, Rina hadn’t slept more than three hours in the last thirty. By the time she had made it into Orlando, it had been close to nine. Then it took another hour by car to get to the Deckers’, who lived outside of Gainesville. “I’m very happy to be here. I wish you were with me.”
“Soon, darlin’. How’s everybody treating you?”
“Wonderful. Hannah has already baked two batches of cookies.”
“Can I talk to her now?”
“She and your mother are out picking beets in the garden. Your mom is going to teach her how to pickle and can. Then they’re moving on to pie baking. Later on, Hannah and I may take a bike ride.”
“Weather must be a pleasure after New York.”
“It’s in the fifties right now, supposed to get up to the sixties. Full sun. Should be beautiful. Am I tempting you?”
“You jezebel.”
Rina stifled a yawn. “I really should see what they’re doing.” I really need to go to sleep. “Randy has been standing over my shoulder. He’s not pleased about your being there, either. He wants to talk to you.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Just a few salient details about the situation that you conveniently left out.”
“You’re making my life difficult.”
“That’s the idea. It’ll motivate you to get the heck out of there.”
“Put my brother on.”
She gave the receiver to Randy and mouthed that she was going to bed.
Randy nodded. Into the phone, he said. “How’s your face?”
His voice was serious-all cop. Decker said, “I’m fine. I’m sure Rina exaggerated.”
“I’m sure she didn’t. We’ve been talking, bro. I should get out the mustard cause someone’s been hotdoggin’.”
“I’m sitting at a table, reading the New York Times, drinking coffee. Does that sound like any Sam Spade you’re aware of?”
“We need to talk, Peter. Are you on a land phone?”
“I’ll call you back in two.” And he did. “I’m here. Are you calling just to blast me, or do you have actual information?”
“You can dish it out, but you can’t take it.”
Randy was talking from concern, so Decker held his tongue. “What do you have for me?”
“Okay, here we go,” Randy said. “Okay. I ran Lieber through the channels in Miami-Dade County, and nothing pulled up. Nothing on Chaim Lieber, nothing on Ephraim Lieber, nothing on the old man. I keyworded Lieber on extended counties. Again zero. Ran them through NCIC. Zilch. There are other databases, but it’ll take time. Since you’re supposedly done with the case on Friday, I say why bother.”
“You’re right. Don’t bother.”
Randy hesitated. “So you really are coming Friday?”
“Yes, I really am coming Friday. I promised Rina. I promised Hannah. And now I’m promising you.”
“Good. In that case, I’ll tell you what I did find. I keyworded Quinton into our local system, expecting to find nothing. Instead, I found out that some of the people from there own places on the Gold Coast-Miami/Dade, Boca, and Fort Lauderdale. I also pulled up information on some of the Chasidic Jews from Quinton, mostly having to do with them embezzling funds for the religious-school systems. Do you know about this?”
“A little. Fill me in.”
“Several members of the Jewish community who were on the school board were indicted for commingling public-school funds with the bank accounts of their religious schools. There were also some allegations of inflated enrollments to get more money from the school district. Finally, something about welfare fraud and food stamps. You’re working with some real fine fellows up there.”
“Not most of them.”
“Enough of them to make it look bad.”
“You said several members. What are you talking about? Two, maybe three people? I’d say that’s less than par for the course in city politics.”
“Don’t get defensive.” A long pause. “You’re probably right, Pete. It’s just that they’re visible and hold themselves up to something better. Makes you fair game for getting shot.”
Decker conceded the point. “What can you do? People are people.”
“It feeds into the stereotype. If I didn’t know Rina, I would think you are absolutely out of your friggin’ mind to be associated with them. Even with Rina, I sometimes think you’ve gone overboard.”
“That’s Mom talking.”
“No, Mom thinks you’ve gone overboard for different reasons. She’s worried you’re going to go to hell.”
“Tell her I’m used to warm climates. You know, Jews don’t hold a monopoly on dishonesty. Some of the most religious Baptists have not been paragons of virtue, either.”
“That’s true, but right now you’re not involved with sleazy Baptists. But you may be involved with sleazy Jews.”
“You just said that the Liebers didn’t produce hits.”
“That doesn’t mean they’re clean. It could mean they haven’t been caught. Anyway, let me finish, all right?”
“There’s more?”
“Yes, there’s more. Quinton produced a couple of hits in my district. For what it’s worth, several teens who were vacationing in Miami with their parents were arrested during a rave raid. The kids were popping ecstasy. I believe they were originally slapped with drug possession, but the charges were knocked down to the lesser misdemeanor of disorderly conduct. Negotiations obviously. Someone got paid off.”
Decker’s brain took off. The lone pill in Ephraim’s hotel room.
“Bro, are you with me?” Randy said into the receiver.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here. Ecstasy, huh?”
“Yeah, ecstasy. That’s usually the drug of choice at the raves.”
“What happened to them?”
“They were juveniles. The records are sealed.”
“When was this?”
“Recent. Six months ago.”
Around the time Shayndie was hanging out at the mall.
“Sealed, huh?” Decker questioned.
“Like a drum. I have no idea who they are. However, if Ryan Anderson and Philip Caldwell turn up as problem children in Quinton, well, no one would be surprised. Helpful?”
“Very. Thank you, Randal.”
“You can thank me by keeping your promise.”
“I swear-”
“Yeah, yeah. By the way, you must know that ecstasy is a vice of your brethren.”
“What are you talking about?” Decker asked.
“Israeli Mafia. The Oded Tuito case up in New York? You do know about that, don’t you?”
Decker didn’t. Even as a lieutenant in charge of the detectives’ squad, he had little if nothing to do with either Vice or Narcotics. They were in separate divisions. Plus, he had lived almost all his police life three thousand miles away from the East Coast. “Tell me about it.”
Randy said, “Oded Tuito was a drug courier, finally arrested in Spain after outrunning authorities in New York for about nine months. He used erotic dancers to smuggle in ecstasy from Europe into the U.S.-”
“What?”
“What’s ‘what’?”
“Did you say he used erotic dancers?”
“Did I punch something meaningful?”
“Maybe.”
“You want to clue me in?”
“Finish up about Oded Tuto-”
“Tuito.”
“Spell it for me.”
Randy did. “Where was I?”
“Oded Tuito was arrested in Spain.”
“Yeah, him and the other one… I forgot his name. Hold on, it’ll come to me cause it’s relevant.” Mentally, Randy thumbed through his notes. “Anyway, the second dude also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute-this was about a year ago. Both of them used erotic dancers, and both have ties to the Israeli Mafia-Orgad… Jacob Orgad. That’s the other guy. Anyway, before the dancers, guess who the dealers used for couriers?”