Page 69 of Bad Medicine

I smiled. “Would you have onefor me?” And deep inside, my wolf growled. “Please?”

“I’ll see,” he grumbled. “ForGod’s sake.”

“What’s wrong?” Joe murmured,once he left the room.

“I’m feeling something hinky.”I got up and walked the room, my chest tight. “This place has a bad vibe.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Well, itwould, wouldn’t it?”

Keith hurried back into theroom with a small school photo of Henry, and after he handed it to me, he satback down. Joe came to look over my shoulder at the picture. Henry was aserious boy with large blue eyes and short dark blonde hair. There was a smallred cut across his forehead and maybe the photographer had encouraged him tosmile, because the poor kid was trying his best.

“What happened to his head?” Iasked. I slid the photo into my pocket without asking.

“Oh,” he said. “You know howboys are. That one is always getting into trouble.”

“Trouble?” I lifted an eyebrow.“What kind of trouble.”

He waved a hand. “Trouble. Youknow, with his mom. He wouldn’t behave. Never did learn.”

“Did you punish him for misbehaving?”I asked. “Or was his mother the only disciplinarian?”

“He takes after his dad,” Keithsaid. “His dad and his grandpa on that side. They were both crazy, you knowwhat I mean?” He tapped his head. “Crazy.”

He didn’t answer my question,and I didn’t repeat it. “Mr. Sims,” I said, sitting down across from him andtrying out my earnest, harmless, sincere look, “do you know of any place yourdaughter might have taken Henry? Maybe she wanted to leave him somewhere whileshe ran her errands in peace.” I glanced around the room, missing the days whena spirit would pop up and tell me what I needed to know—not that I wantedHenry’s spirit to walk suddenly into the room, because that would have meant hewas dead. And that was just not acceptable.

I hadn’t seen as many of thespirits lately, and I couldn’t help but wonder if ignoring them for too longwas making my abilities fade. Or maybe I just hadn’t been paying as muchattention.

“I have no idea about any ofthis,” Keith said, and cleared his throat as he stood. “I need to get somesleep. I have a lot to do in the morning. My daughter’s just died, you know.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Itold him, and got to my feet. I wanted to ask if I could check out Henry’sroom, but I knew that was pushing it. Sims was on the edge of a breakdown, andI had a feeling my request would have shoved him right on over.

“Here’s our card,” Joe said,pulling a tiny white card from his pocket. “If you think of anything else, callus.”

I waited until we were outsideto ask. “He thinks I’m a cop. You gave him the housecleaning business card?”

He grinned. “Max had some newones made up for you. They don’t say what you are, so they’ll work in anyscenario. Just your name and number, then my name and number and Max’s emailbeneath yours.” He shrugged. “Max didn’t want anyone actually calling him, buthe’s okay with email.”

“I’m going to need some ofthose.”

“There’s a box of them in theback of your car.”

“Hello? Pardon me?”

Joe and I stopped walking at thevoice, and when one of the neighbors approached us, I glanced back and sawKeith Sims at his window, peering out at us. He let the curtain fall when hesaw me looking at him, and a couple of seconds later, his porch light went off.There was something distinctly creepy about Henry’s grandpa.

The neighbor was a small,frail-looking older lady with a small black dog cradled in her arms, and theyboth smelled vaguely of apple pie. My stomach rumbled, causing me to smile. Iwas definitely getting back to normal.

“Hi,” I said. “Can we helpyou?”

“Are you the police? You’rehere about Carrie and Henry? Poor boy, I heard about what happened. Have youfound him?”

“Not yet,” I said. “Is thereanything you can tell us?”

She squeezed her dog and lookedup at Joe. “You sure are a big one. I bet there aren’t many criminals who messwith you. You remind me of my son—he’s dead—because of how big you are. And thebald head. He was bald too. Cancer, though.”

“Um,” Joe said.

“I’m sorry about your son,” Isaid. “I’m Kait, and this is Joe. You know the Sims?”