The store was warm enough, but I was chilled to my bone marrow. “Adult doses must be very different than doses for children.”

“Different doses and different drugs. Drugs for adults aren’t always tested for children.” He handed back the bag. “Are you really going to send these to her?”

“No, I’m going to flush them all down the nearest toilet. I’m not taking chances they could be intercepted. She’ll just have to go to a local doctor and get a new prescription if she needs something.”

I thanked him and left. How much Benadryl had my sister been giving her children for their allergies, which so far, from my own observations, seemed to be nonexistent? Had Wendy been drugging her girls with anything else?

I wondered if I was being paranoid. Maybe Wendy hadn’t connected the problems the girls were having on school mornings with a drug given at night. Maybe she’d been busy adjusting dosages, trying, like any good mom, to find the perfect solution to whatever problem she’d been addressing.

Or maybe not.

I put the possibilities out of my mind for the moment. Wendy wasn’t here to tell me, and right now her absence was the larger problem.

My head hurt.

I made the rest of the drive and parked in front of the kennel office, stripping off the jacket that covered my tank top. As we jogged, Teo and I would warm quickly.

Somebody buzzed Bismarck and me inside, and dogs in the nearest kennels barked and howled in greeting. Janice, who was coming down the hallway, smiled stiffly and told me where to find Teo, then stopped to talk to Bismarck, who appeared to think she was pretty swell. She rose a notch in my estimation. Bismarck is a great judge of character.

Teo was out on one of the lawns tossing Frisbees to two beautiful silvery dogs with bobbed tails. When he saw me, he let himself out and fastened the gate behind him. Bismarck got most of his attention, but he did smile at me first.

“Gorgeous dogs,” I said, trying to focus on the dogs instead of the man.

“Australian shepherds. Blue merles. Their owner thinks they need more training, but what they really need is exercise.”

When he finished roughhousing a little with his best canine friend, he stood and gave my outfit the once-over. I was wearing one of Wendy’s gifts, lavender-and-black-patterned running shorts and a lavender tank with mesh inserts. Very little of me was left to the imagination, although Teo might harbor enough memories to make up the gap.

“Nice duds.”

“It’s going to warm up. Still want to go?”

“Sure. I figure you need to run the other way on the road and see what’s at the very end.”

“Your local taxidermist?”

“My house.”

“I assumed you lived here.”

“No, Janice’s family lives in the ranch house at the edge of the property. They keep an eye on things when I’m not on-site.”

“So, you’re ready?”