Penina shoots a grateful look at Gabe, and Gabe coaxes Daniel forward with the magic words, “Hey, do you want to see a cool snake?”

“Maybe he had a secret family in another town,” Hillel suggests, eyes sparkling at the idea. “He barely left the house. He wasn’t maintaining a secret family,” Gabe scoffs.

“Because he’d run off! You never know who people really are.” Hillel spreads his arms as though he’d made a salient point. Gabe just stares at him. Sometimes, it’s easy to get caught up in Hillel’s enthusiasm and see this as a grand mystery. But then he remembers that the person they’re investigating is Abba, and he falls back into grim reality.

Diamond Securities has an open office plan, half-wall cubicles and a few supervisor rooms with transparent walls and open doors. Only a third of the cubicles and offices are occupied right now — many of the employees work from home, and there are few people around to watch them curiously.

Hillel has one of those supervisor offices, but today, he’s settled down in a cubicle opposite Penina’s, scrolling pages of Google results while Gabe peers at the screen over his shoulder. Penina has brought along her son today, and Daniel entertains himself by jumping onto an office chair with enough force that it rolls across the room.

“Daniel,” Penina says reprovingly. “There are some people here who are trying to work. Not them—” She jerks a thumb at Hillel and Gabe. “But someone. Martin, maybe.” She glances at the tall, balding man who sits in one of the transparent-walled offices. She’d pointed him out earlier as her supervisor. “Not me,” she says with a sigh.

Gabe shoots a glance at her. “Are you still searching databases?”

“Scanning what I can access,” Penina offers. “Also trying to process something for work, but it’ll be a while before it’s done. You’ve got me for a little longer.” Daniel crawls under her seat, and Penina lets out a sigh of frustration.

Gabe takes pity on Penina and crouches down to catch the boy’s eye. “Hey. Daniel. How about you and I find a cubicle to hang out in while your Mommy helps us out?”

Hillel gets a phone call and leans back like he’s settling in for a long schmooze. Penina shoots a grateful look at Gabe, and Gabe coaxes Daniel forward with the magic words, “Hey, do you want to see a cool snake?” Penina purses her lips to hide a smile. Gabe grins.