Read Online Nail Biter by Sarah Graves - Free Book Online Page B

away, you know that. Wanda might be trying to give her mother a scare, so when she does come back Marge will agree to take her home.”
    “Yeah?” Bob said, interested. “So you think the witch stuff is fake, do you?”
    I blew out a skeptical breath. “Bob, if they were real witches, why not just cast a spell to bring Wanda back? Anyway,” I added, “tell Marge the answer's no. They paid for rent, not human bloodhounds, which Ellie and I are out of the business of being, anyway.”
    Saying this, I waited for Ellie to jump in and back me up. But she didn't; instead she gazed thoughtfully down at the baby and as she contemplated her offspring I could practically hear her thinking:
What if it were Lee?
    “Girl's a diabetic,” Bob said suddenly.
    I hadn't known that. “Not the shots kind,” he added. “Pills. Kinda holds off the diabetes from settling in, from what I could gather. She's okay as long as she takes 'em. But if she doesn't, she could get real sick, real fast.”
    He looked straight at me. “Marge says Wanda's got the idea she can
think
the diabetes away, by the force of her mind or some such foolishness. If she can just get off those pills long enough to try, that is. Course Marge wouldn't allow it,” Bob added.
    “But the pills are still at the house?” I asked.
    Bob nodded. “Little orange bottle. None missing.”
    Which could either mean that Wanda didn't want the pills, or that someone else didn't know that the girl needed them. Or just didn't care. . . .
    Stop that,
I instructed myself sternly. “Bob, I really don't want to get involved in this. And you'll be looking for her anyway, so why—?”
    “No I won't,” he interrupted. “State guy in charge of the investigation, he made that real clear right from the get-go. I'm to keep right out of the whole situation, Wanda included. His turf, y'know.”
    I raised an eyebrow.
    “Yeah, yeah, I know. It isn't like that kind of thing's ever stopped me before, is it?” he replied.
    “But I got this guy,” he explained, “young fellow here in town with two little kids, the state's trying to decide whether or not to take those children away from him. Which,” he added, “I know they absolutely should not. Take them away, that is.”
    “Where's their mother?” Ellie asked, embracing Lee.
    “Ran off,” he answered, “with some other guy, she thought he was a better bet. Now she's in the women's prison, check forging and assault with a deadly.”
    Weapon, he meant. “Which is how your state guy found out about the whole situation?” I guessed. “He was involved in
her
arrest?”
    Bob nodded unhappy agreement. “Yeah, and he's already busting my shoes about it. Knows the story, and he's the kind of guy if he's got something he can use on you, then right away he's got to use it. He can't just wait and see how you're going to behave.”
    Bob made a face, commenting on what he thought of that kind of tactic. “Anyway, I screw up and my detective pal starts taking an interest, communicating with social services and so on, bottom line is that right or wrong my boy is gonna lose those kids. Which're doing just fine where they are, besides bein' all that's keeping him on the straight an' narrow himself.”
    He took a deep breath. “So I'm out. I don't want to be, but from now on I'm local support as requested and not a thing more. Only if you could just ask around,” he added persuasively, “maybe see if Sam's friends have heard anything, it'd mean a whole lot to Marge Cathcart.”
    And to him, he didn't add. But he had two young kids of his own and I knew the tough family cases always bothered him most.
    Still I said nothing, staring at the thick, dark mat of leaf mold that had accumulated under the front porch over the decades.
    “It won't take long for the news about all this to spread,” he added warningly. By then the silence had lengthened enough for him to know I wasn't just going to cave right in on this, despite his feelings.
    On the