Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris Page B

stay together. It had all been for nothing.
    â€œDid your parents have some reason to be prejudiced against Jews?”
    â€œWhat?” Where had that come from?
    â€œSome Christians don’t like Jews,” Brittany Young said, as if that would be news to me. But she was making a huge effort to keep her voice neutral. She didn’t want to scare me off from offering her my true opinion, just in case I was a closet anti-Semite.
    â€œI’m aware of that,” I said, as mildly as I could. “But I really don’t care what people are.” Then everything clicked. “So the Morgensterns are Jewish?” I said, genuinely surprised. I just hadn’t thought about it, but now I recalled seeing one of those special candleholders in their home in Nashville. I might have missed a lot more symbols and signs. I don’t know much about Judaism. The few Jewish kids I’d known in high school hadn’t been interested in parading their differences in a Bible-belt area.
    Detective Young gave me a look that was full of so much skepticism it almost stood and walked by itself.
    â€œYes,” she said, as if I was funning with her. “As you know, the Morgensterns are Jewish.”
    â€œI guess I was too busy wondering where their child was to think about their religion,” I said. “Probably I had my values backward.”
    Okay, maybe I’d overdone the sarcasm, or I was coming off as self-righteous. Detective Young eyed me with scorn. Or, that was the pose she was adopting, to see if it got a rise out of me.
    I glanced around for Tolliver, and found that Detective Lacey had maneuvered him over to the other side of the room.
    â€œHey, Tolliver,” I said. “Detective Young says the Morgensterns are Jewish! Did you know that?”
    â€œI figured they were,” he said, drifting over to us. “One of the men I met at their house in Nashville—I’m not sure you met him, you were talking to Joel—I think his name was Feldman…anyway, Feldman introduced himself as the Morgensterns’ rabbi. So I knew they must be Jewish.”
    â€œI don’t remember him.” I really didn’t. I still didn’t get the relevance of the Morgensterns’ faith. Then the lightbulb in my brain clicked on. “Oh,” I said, “does that make it worse? That she was buried in a Christian cemetery? The St. Margaret’s cemetery was Catholic or Episcopal, right?” All I knew about Jewish burial customs was that Jews were supposed to be buried quicker than Christians traditionally were interred. I didn’t know why.
    Both the officers looked startled, as if their original baseline for questioning had been completely misinterpreted.
    â€œI would think,” Tolliver said, “that the fact that it really was Tabitha would kind of overwhelm the religious consideration, but maybe not.” He shrugged. “That’s more important to some people than others. Are the Morgensterns really religious? Because I’ve got to say, they’ve never mentioned anything about Judaism to us. Have they, Harper? Said anything to you?”
    â€œNo. All they said to me was, ‘Please find my child.’ They never said, ‘Please find my Jewish child.’”
    Tolliver sat by me on the love seat, and we presented a united front to Young and Lacey.
    â€œOur lawyer is right next door,” I remarked. “Do you think we should call Art in here, Tolliver?”
    â€œDo you feel you need protection?” Detective Lacey asked quickly. “Have you received any unusual messages or phone calls? Do you feel threatened?”
    I raised my eyebrows, looked at my brother. “You scared, Tolliver?”
    â€œI don’t think I am,” he said, as if he were surprised bythe discovery. “Seriously,” he said to Detective Young, as if we’d just been playing up till then, “Has there been any kind of anti-Semitic