But Rafael didn’t twist the knife. He sat on Priya’s desk and regarded the ceiling as though some secret of the universe was written there. “You value that friendship. It’s nothing to apologize for.”
“Now who’s the reformed misanthrope?”
Rafael rubbed his thumb over the spine of his dad’s journal. “I appreciate what you said earlier about me being irreplaceable. Ever since that meeting, I’ve felt like the odd man out when this fight is my birthright and the others are all just recent arrivals to it. Then when I found out about you and Levi going to the Queen? It felt like this end-run because I wasn’t necessary anymore.”
“I’m sorry if we made you feel you didn’t matter. If I made you feel that way,” I said. “Because only you’ve got the magic touch.” I gave an exaggerated frown. “Too soon?”
“You’re incorrigible.” Rafael may have sounded unimpressed, but the corners of his lips quirked up. He tucked the journal under his arm. “If there is nothing more pressing to work on, I’d like to continue cracking the codename.”
“Go nuts.” I tossed the take-out cup. “And if you want a nice brew while you do so, go to Moon Café two blocks over in the red brick building on the corner. You’ll appreciate the selection.”
“I might at that. What will you be working on?”
I logged out of my email. “If Arkady doesn’t find Adam in Mexico, we’ll be back to the entire world as a possibility for finding the missing scroll. None of the Ten have it or the pillar would be dark, so it’s reasonable to assume it’s either still in Dad’s possession, or he was the one who hid it somewhere.”
“Sounds plausible.”
“I’ve checked in the past and was never able to find a safe deposit box if Dad had one. He wouldn’t have hidden the scroll in our old house because by the time I had the accident, Talia had already listed it for sale.” The loss of my home had been one more factor in taking that life-changing joyride. “I’m totally stymied as to how else to search for it.”
Confronted with a problem, I generated a dozen ideas to deal with it. Granted, half of them were shit, but they gave me a place to start. With this scroll, I felt like I was wandering around in a labyrinth, and every time I turned around I hit a dead end. Forget finding the exit, I couldn’t even get to the center to take a breath.
Rafael stood up. “This isn’t all on you, Ashira. You have a team to help you.” He paused and smiled. “You have friends.”
I chickened out of going home in case Priya was back from her yoga class, instead driving over to the west side of town.
I rapped on the familiar front door, pasting on a bright smile when it opened. “Hiya, Rebbe. Got any leftover wedding cake?”
Ivan “Rebbe” Dershowitz had been part of a recent case of attempted murder that I’d solved, involving a fake Angel of Death and the dungeons of Hedon. Good times. A fleshy man in his fifties, he took a bite of the shrimp sandwich in his hand, mayo dripping on to his sweater. “You’d think those people had been living off war rations the way they fell on the food. Not a crumb left.”
He turned around and shuffled into the house. I took the open door as an invitation to follow.
“Can I bring the dog?” I called out.
He grunted affirmatively. “Come to the kitchen.”
I hurried through the house, eyes downcast so I wouldn’t have a PTSD flashback from all the creepy bird decorations in this place. Luckily, the kitchen was a bird-free zone.
“You like shrimp?” he said.
“What bad Jew doesn’t like shrimp?” I sat down at one of the barstools pushed up to the island while the pug nosed around the room, sniffing at corners.
Ivan laughed and pulled sandwich fixings out of the fridge. “Rachel won’t touch them. Bottom feeders. She pretends not to know what I’m eating when she’s not around.”
“Is she away?” I didn’t see any extra dishes or a sweater of hers draped over a chair, and the house seemed quieter. Lonelier than I remembered.
He used an ice cream scoop to get the shrimp salad out of the Tupperware. “Rehab.”
“Really?”
Ivan spread it on one slice, topping it with a dash of salt and pepper. “There was an incident at the wedding. The Queen requested that Rachel seek treatment.”
“Her requests are hard to refuse. I take it Rachel agreed.”
“She was mortified.” He sighed, eyes closed for a long moment, his wedding band winking in the afternoon sun. He cut up some avocado into delicate strips, laying them on the sandwich. “You didn’t meet her at her best, but she’s a good person.”
“Then I’m glad she’s getting help.”
“Me too. Straight across or diagonal?” He indicated with the knife that he meant how did I want my sandwich cut?
“Diagonal,” I said.
“Because you get a wider soft part to bite into.”
“Exactly.”
He presented the plate. “Ta da.”
I took a bite. “Dayum. This is good.”
“It’s the avocado.”
“How’s the happy couple?” I licked a gloop of mayonnaise off my lip.
Ivan rinsed off the ice cream scoop and placed it in the sink. “Beats me. You think when a person pays for a honeymoon they could get one phone call. Apparently they don’t have reception in the French Riviera.” He clapped his hands together. “So, we have sandwiches, small talk, and a very cute puppy. What do you want from me?”
“Information.”
“What would I get out of this deal?”
“Depends on how useful you are,” I said around a mouthful of shrimp salad. “I’ll compensate you financially for your time at the very least.”
“How about a question for a
