Page 13 of Bad Medicine

“You’re on the camera, Robby,”Grandma yelled.

“I saw the fucking camera,” heyelled back. “But I didn’t come here.”

“Don’t you use filthy wordswith me, young man,” she said. “You know I won’t put up with that.”

“Sorry, Gram,” he muttered.

“You want something to eat,Robby?”

He sighed. “Okay, yeah. I’ll eatsomething.”

She withdrew into the kitchento make his lunch, and I wasn’t unhappy to see her go. I relaxed. No matterwhat the camera would show, I didn’t see Robby as a killer. I didn’t believehe’d pushed Tammy in through the gate, shoved her into a hole in the ground,stabbed her to death, then planted a shrub on her grave.

“Let’s go inside,” I told him.“You can eat while I examine the footage. Someone was here, and we’ll figureout who it was. Okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, okay. There’ssomething freaky going on. I must have a twin running around the city, becauseI did not plant these bushes.”

“I believe you,” I said. Itexted Joe as we walked to the house.

No danger, just a mystery.You okay?

At the back gate listening.You want me to come in?

Nah, watch the car. Ifanyone stops, honk the horn and I’ll come out.

Should I call Rick?

I hesitated. Finally, Ireplied,Not yet. Not sure what I’m looking at.

Once inside, Robby grabbed hiscell phone off the spotless countertop and brought up an app. He tapped andswiped until he found what he was looking for, then handed the phone to me.“There. Maybe I just lost my mind. I wasn’t drunk because this was in daylightand I only drink at night when I’m with my buddies.”

“You’re a good boy, Robby,”Grandma said, taking half a loaf of bread out of a blue metal bread box. “Youwant ham salad or bologna?”

“Whichever, Gram,” he said,sitting down at the kitchen table but watching me.

“We’re not all bad in thePocket,” Grandma said, as though someone had said otherwise.

I peered at the screen. Hisphone was enormous. I was used to a smaller phone that slid easily into mypockets.

I zoomed in on the image—notgreat quality but not horrible, either—of the back gate opening and Robbycoming through. He carried a shrub into the back yard, dropped it on theground, then went back out. After he carried the second one in, he grabbed awheelbarrow that looked like it might have been a hundred years old, and thenext time he returned, the wheelbarrow was loaded down with a canvas-wrappedbundle.

Tammy.

He dug a shallow grave, upendedher into it, then leaned over and pulled a long, black-handled knife from thebundle. And then, he looked up, and he grinned.

Chills chased each other downmy spine. I glanced away from the awful image and caught Robby’s stare, butthere was nothing that scared the fuck out of me in his face. The face on thecamera, however…

“Ma’am?” I asked Grandma. “Yousaw this footage?”

“Only the first few seconds,”Robby said, answering for her. “She wanted to see. She doesn’t have another wayto see it.” Then he mouthed, “It wasn’t me.”

I nodded. “I know.”

He buried his face in his handsand began to sob.

“Robby,” Grandma cried,hurrying to him. She put her arm around his shoulders and glared at me. “What’dyou say to him?”

I had to figure out what to do.If the police got their hands on the camera, Robby’s cell phone, or the imagesof him coming into the back yard, his life was over.