“Fine,” I said, with a shrug. “That’ll look real normal, all the lights on and no one answering the door.”

She thought about it for a moment.

“Okay, answer it, but if you try anything—remember, I’ve got the kid.”

And if you do anything to him, I’ll kill you, I thought. Even if I have to come back as a ghost to do it.

“Timmy—we should hide Timmy,” I said aloud. Sandie glanced at Timmy’s car seat and realized that I was right—Timmy was directly in the line of sight if I opened the door.

“I can just put him down here,” I suggested, opening the basement door.

“Don’t close the door all the way,” she said. She inched around until she was in a spot where she was out of sight from the front door but had a good view of the basement door.

I picked up Timmy’s car seat, pretending to find it harder than it was, and huffed as I carted it across the kitchen. Though thanks to my blacksmith work, I wasn’t really having any trouble. And my back was to Sandie, so I hoped she didn’t notice that while pretending that I could barely lift the car seat, I was actually holding it with one hand while undoing the buckles with the other.

“Sssh,” I said to Timmy. “Don’t move.” He looked a little puzzled, and I was relieved to see that he didn’t immediately leap out. I pushed the door almost closed so Sandie couldn’t see him.

The knock came again. Sandie waved with the gun. I walked over to the door and opened it.

It was Rose Noire.

“Meg, what’s going on?” she asked, stepping inside. “I just dropped your mother off from the garden party, and your dad wasn’t home, and he’s not answering his cell phone and then we called to see if he was over here and you didn’t answer, so I came over to see what was going on.”

“Relax,” I said. “I have no idea where Dad and Dr. Blake are, but Michael talked them into letting him go along, so I’m sure they’ll be fine. And the reason I didn’t answer is that after I finally got Timmy to sleep, I must have conked out myself while watching TV.” I pretended to stifle a yawn. “Thanks for waking me, though—I always get a crick in my neck when I sleep on the couch. I’m going to bed.”

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Rose Noire said. “Your aura is very strange tonight.”

“My aura’s probably tired,” I said. “I know the rest of me is. Busy day. I’ll tell you about it later, though. Hey, why don’t we meet for a burger tomorrow at the grill? You can bring Sammy.”

Since Rose Noire was a passionate vegetarian, I was hoping this suggestion would strike her as odd. And since Sammy, in addition to being one of her beaux, was also one of Chief Burke’s deputies, I was hoping maybe she’d get the message and call the cops.