“Don’t get your hopes up. Strictly grocery store deli food.”

“Manna from heaven.” He went to the rear door of my car where Bismarck was still sitting between the two booster seats. He gave a command, and Bismarck gingerly stepped down to the floor and even more gingerly to the ground.

Teo stood back and called him. Bismarck was indeed limping. Teo scrambled to the ground and examined his old friend. The longer the examination took, the worse I felt. I hadn’t been at my parents’ house to supervise, and I shouldn’t have trusted anyone else to make sure he was okay.

“I don’t think it’s serious,” Teo said at last. He pushed away from the ground and got to his feet, gracefully enough, but with effort. “I think he pulled a muscle. I’ll give you some meds for the inflammation. Just make sure he takes it easy for the next week or so. He’s not a young dude anymore. If the limping gets worse, I’ll take him to the vet for an X-ray.”

“I was gone for the weekend, and he was at my mother’s house with the girls.”

He pulled a treat out of his pocket and held it out for Bismarck. “And somehow you still had time to slip in a visit to Seabank’s most notorious biker bar.”

I jammed my hands in my pockets. “How did you know that?”

“Bad news travels fast.” When I didn’t answer, he shook his head. “Remember Jim, the kennel tech I introduced you to? Well, he remembered you, and he happened to be there Friday night.”

I had planned to tell Teo about my escapade, a decision I’d made on my trip home. So now I did, leaving out nothing. “And don’t tell me I should have taken you with me,” I finished. “If you’d been there, no guy would have talked to me.”

“You didn’t have to invite me, Ryan. You’re a big girl. But it would have been nice to know where you were heading, in case you disappeared, like your sister.”

The fight went out of me. “We’re revisiting old issues, aren’t we?”

“No. But when you put your life in danger after you’ve already involved me, it would be nice to know where you are. You see the difference between that and me timing your trips to the grocery store, right?”

I saw his point, but I had to make sure he was able to live with what I’d learned. “I’m not telling the sheriff’s office I saw the guy who attacked me. For one thing, it’ll be my word against his. But whatever the circumstances, this guy knows Wendy. And I don’t want to draw attention to her disappearance. Can you live with that?”

“For now.”

“Well, there’s more, if you want to hear it.” I didn’t wait for an answer. I plowed into my talks with Sophie and Sebastian, ending with my grocery store coffee date.

He let me finish before he spoke. “You’re having trouble with this, and that makes sense. You’re starting from zero, and now you have to get up to speed again before you make progress.”