Decker’s immediate reaction was to punch back figuratively, but he stopped himself. Jon was right. He clasped his hands to prevent them from hitting or shaking. His heart was beating so rapidly, he felt choked off from oxygen.
Steady, steady!
“Okay…” He caught his breath. “Okay, here’s the deal. If we’re going to sort this out, we’ve got to lay it all out in the open. But nothing-and I mean nothing-goes beyond the van!”
No one spoke. Cars continued to speed by, front bumpers perilously close to the van’s rear end. Decker grumbled, “We should get off the shoulder before we get hit.”
“In a minute.” Jonathan raked his beard with his fingernails, breathing hard. “Okay. It stays between the two of us. Who was Shayndie staying with?”
It took a few moments for Decker to get the name out. “Christopher Donatti.”
Jonathan’s expression was stunned. “Christopher Dona-”
“Ever hear of him?”
“Of course, I’ve heard of him. His father’s trial was front-page news for six months! What the hell was she doing with him? What the hell were you doing with him?”
“I’ll answer your second question first. When Ephraim’s murder scene was examined, one of the cops mentioned that the hit looked like Donatti’s work, but probably wasn’t-too low level and too sloppy. But having nothing else to go on, I went to see him.”
“You went to see Christopher Donatti?”
“Yes, I went to see him.”
“Just like that?”
“If you let me explain-”
“You went to see a hit man!” Jonathan was agitated. “Not just any hit man. You went to call on one of the most notorious criminals in mob history whose father ran the New York Family for over fifteen years? And for what reason?”
“Could you get the sarcasm out of your voice. It’s pissing me off.”
Jonathan looked away. “I’m just… speechless.”
Silence.
“I apologize for my rudeness,” Jonathan whispered.
Decker said, “S’right. I deserve it.”
“No, you don’t. I assume you were trying your best…” Jonathan blew out air, then wiped his smudged glasses with his handkerchief. “Why did you go to see Donatti if you suspected him of killing Ephraim?”
“I didn’t suspect Donatti because the cops didn’t suspect him.” Decker became morose. “I went for help, Jonathan. Donatti and I had a past history together. I thought he might be a good source of information…” Decker hit the dashboard. “It was asinine! I’m a stupid schmuck, okay?”
“You’re not a schmuck, and you certainly aren’t stupid.” Jonathan sighed. “Who knows what drives our actions? We think we do, but we don’t. God is behind everything and He may have had His reasons.”
“That’s kind of you to say.”
“I’m certainly in no position to judge, am I?”
No one spoke as cars continued to speed by.
Decker continued. “I saw Donatti a few times. He told me he had her.”
“What does that mean?”
“Donatti collects runaway kids-strays. Young girls and gay boys with nowhere else to go. He uses them… pimps them-”
“Oh my God! Did he-”
“No, no. He didn’t pimp her. She hadn’t been with him long enough. He had picked up Shayndie over the weekend… before I got to him. But he didn’t tell me right away. We had to play this little cat-and-mouse game first. That’s how it’s always been between us-head games. Later on, he told me he had her. He said he told me as a favor so I wouldn’t worry about her and I could concentrate on Ephraim’s murder. At the time, I thought he was being truthful, but you can’t tell with psychos. The man is a stone-cold killer and a pathological liar. You work with whatever you can get.”
Jonathan nodded. “Of course.”
Decker ran his hand over his face. “I would have sworn it was the truth, Jonathan, because I saw her. We arranged a meeting place, and he brought her to me… to show me that she was okay. Terrified but unharmed.”
“I imagine she was terrified, being with him.”
“She wasn’t afraid of him, Jon; she was afraid of me! She was in dread that I was going to take her back with me-back to her parents. She was pleading with him not to send her back to her family, begged him to send me away. All she wanted to do was get back to where he had her stashed. She wouldn’t let go of him. She was clinging to him like ivy suckers on a brick wall. When he wanted to talk with me privately, he had to peel her off him so we could talk alone.”
“It could have been an act.”
“No, it wasn’t an act. When I asked her questions, she could barely answer me; she was shaking so hard with fright. She whispered her answers in his ear and he told me what she said.”
“What did you ask her about?”
“The murder, of course. What she saw.”
“And?”
“She said that Chasids took him-Ephraim.”
“Good God, what’s this world coming-”
“Or-” Decker broke in. “Or people dressed up as Chasids. Because they didn’t resemble any Chasidic sect that I’m aware of. They wore shtreimels. Would you know anything about that? A sect that wears shtreimels on weekdays?”
“No.” Jonathan shook his head. “But there may be one.”
“Or it could be that someone was playing masquerade but didn’t have it down perfectly. Like certain Israeli Mafia drug dealers who are wanted in Florida for ecstasy dealing, but rabbited before the Miami Police could make the arrests. Just maybe they’re hiding in Quinton.”
“What on earth would they want with Ephraim?”
“He might have known something, especially if Chaim was importing.”
“Akiva, Quinton knows every single member of its community. Fugitives couldn’t hide there, much less integrate.”
“Unless they have prior connections in the community,” Decker retorted. “Maybe someone is hiding them. Like I said before, if Chaim was involved in ecstasy importing-”
“Akiva, you have absolutely no reason to connect Chaim to such activities!” Jonathan was shouting. “Where is any evidence for such outlandish accusations?”
Decker buried his head in his hands. “No evidence.”
Jonathan covered his mouth, then dropped his voice to a whisper. “Even if Chaim was doing something illegal… I can’t believe he’d set up his own brother! I refuse to believe that!”
“Maybe it wasn’t meant to be murder, Jon. Maybe he was trying to scare Ephraim off. Maybe it just got away from him. Maybe I’m totally full of shit! I’m doing the best I can. Obviously, that’s not enough. Otherwise, Shayndie would have been alive today.”
Jonathan put his hand on Decker’s shoulder. “Are you certain that Donatti didn’t kill her?”
“No, I’m not certain of anything. But it doesn’t make sense for him to do it. He knew that if something were to happen to her, I’d be all over his ass. Which was exactly what happened. He seemed genuinely shocked when I told him about the murder.”
“Could that have been an act?”
“Sure, he could have been snowing me blind, except she did seem so dependent on him. He even said that he’d return her to me intact when things cooled down. I guess I just decided to believe him because it was my only option.”
“What do you mean ‘intact’?”
“He screws the kids he pimps. I think he does the boys as well as the girls. He said he wouldn’t do it with her.” Decker waved him away. “I don’t know… I should have made a grab for her when I had the chance.”
“He would have killed both of you.”