“I’d love it.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me how I run with a prosthesis?”

“Okay. How do you run with a prosthesis? Faster than me or a whole lot faster?”

He grinned. “What were you going to say?”

“Can you break into a medicine cabinet for me?”

“Unexpected question. Why?”

I debated, but again, I told the truth. “The girls’ teachers are complaining about how tired they are at school. And Holly said her mother gave them allergy medicine before bed. Anyway, I want to be sure there are no prescriptions in the cabinet that they ought to be taking. And it’s locked.”

“You haven’t asked your sister?”

“Our conversations are about her problems, not about her daughters.”

“Do the girls miss her? They must.”

I hedged. “Noelle does. Holly’s more a daddy’s girl.”

“And speaking of Daddy?”

“Out at sea, God knows where, in his submarine keeping the world safe from nuclear weapons with nuclear weapons. But I do know how to text him. I just don’t think I want to do anything until I know more.”

“Are you worried that whatever’s in the cabinet could be the reason for the break-in?”

“I wasn’t until you just brought it up.”

“Let’s take a look.”

We climbed the stairs with Bismarck zigzagging behind like a border collie making sure we headed where we were supposed to. In the master bathroom Teo looked at the cabinet, arms folded in front of him. “This isn’t the original.”

“I know it doesn’t match.”

“Did your sister install it?”

“No telling.”

“Got nail clippers?”

There were several different sizes in the drawer beside the sink. I pulled out two and put them on the counter. Teo chose one and flipped out the nail file attachment. Then he inserted it into the cabinet lock.

He fiddled with turning the file until he seemed satisfied. Then he jiggled it slowly and gently, and finally he turned it once more. The cabinet door swung open.

He put the clippers back on the counter. “There you go.”

I whistled. “I am so impressed.”

“That’s all it took? I wish I’d known.”

He moved back so I could examine the contents. Teo watched as I pulled out prescription bottles, one after another, reading the labels silently, and finally followed with an economy-size bottle of a generic antihistamine. I stared at the collection on the sink, and I didn’t know what to say.

“Do you know what you’re looking at?” Teo’s tone said that he did.

I knew. I might have to look up some of the prescriptions online, but I was almost certain I was staring at enough tranquilizers and sleeping pills to knock out all of Seabank for a night.

Teo picked up several of the containers. Then he laid a hand on my shoulder. “She has a drug problem.”

I didn’t deny the evidence, but another answer occurred to me, and it was worse. The containers sitting on the bathroom counter were a possible clue why my nieces had been so fatigued at school, why Holly had too often fallen asleep at her desk, and why going to sleep was so difficult.