“Then let’s get to it,” he said. “I have the time. Do you?”
I cleared my throat. “You do know you’re a grandfather, right?”
He smiled. “I do. I’ve already sneaked in and gotten a good look at my grandchild. He’s small but strong.”
“Melanie went into premature labor. Probably because of all the stress of the situation. The stress that you caused, Brad. You had Marjorie and the others kidnapped.”
He ignored my rant. “Thank God she and the baby are both fine. I had to be careful. Melanie never actually saw me, so I don’t know if she would recognize me, but—”
“She’d recognize you. Joe looks exactly like you.”
“I was careful. She didn’t see me. I took a quick look at the baby while she was gone to the restroom.”
“How did you— Oh, never mind.”
“I’m pretty good at sneaking around these days.”
Yeah, he was. Being “dead,” he’d have to be.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s start looking. Do you have any idea what we’re looking for?”
“No,” he said, “but I bet we find it.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket. Really? Dominic Booker again? “What is it?” I said into the phone.
“Hey, can you meet me again?” he asked.
“I’m pretty busy at the moment.”
“Who is it?” Brad asked.
“Hold on,” I said to Dominic. Then I muted the phone. “Dominic Booker. He wants to meet me.”
“Great,” he said. “Let’s do it. Now.”
Dominic met us at the cabin.
“How’s your sister?” Brad asked.
“She’ll make a full recovery,” he said. “Luckily the paramedics got to her before she lost too much blood. She’s home from the hospital and taking it easy.”
“Maybe she should be taking it easy in a prison infirmary,” I couldn’t help saying.
“Alex was acting on my orders,” Brad said. “I’ve taken care of the charges against her.”
Of course he had. I opened my mouth but then shut it quickly. Nothing I said or did would change the situation.
Dominic continued, “Alex isn’t one to take anything easy. She’s been fretting over the whole thing, saying crazy stuff.”
“Like what?” Brad asked.
Dominic shook his head. “She’s convinced it all went wrong because she didn’t have her lucky rock.”
That got my attention. Marj had mentioned that Dale’s mother had told him some people carried stones for luck—stones like the one Dale found where he’d seen the stranger lurking around the school playground.
“Lucky rock?”
“Yeah, this smooth rock she keeps with her. She lost it a couple weeks—”