Michael glanced at Timmy, who was pretending to feed the nuts and raisins to Kiki before eating them. Then he nodded.

Fortunately, before Michael raced off to his day’s meetings, I managed to ingest enough food and caffeine to fuel my morning with Timmy. Transferring him from pajamas to day clothes, accompanied by a change of diaper, took over half an hour.

Rob showed up about the time I had Timmy theoretically presentable for meeting the outside world. This was early for Rob to be up and about, which probably meant that he’d slept upstairs in his sleeping bag. Well, at least he was handy.

“Here,” I said, turning Timmy over to Rob. “Amuse him for a minute. I’m going to make one more try.”

“Horsie-horsie!” Timmy said, holding up his arms in a not particularly subtle plea for Rob to pick him up and give him a ride.

“I think I can skip the gym this week,” Rob said. He settled Timmy on his back, pawed the ground a few times with one foot, neighed, and trotted away. I picked up the kitchen phone receiver and dialed Karen’s home number again.

Once again it rang unanswered. I let it go until the voice mail kicked in, then hung up. No sense leaving any more messages unless I had something to say. Something other than “Where the hell are you and when are you coming back to pick up Timmy?” I’d left enough variations of that already. Rob trotted through the kitchen again, prancing dramatically while Timmy squealed with laughter.

“No answer?” Rob asked. “What do you supposed has happened to her?”

With Timmy around, I couldn’t exactly list the host of unsettling possibilities that came to mind. I didn’t really think the running off to Bali thing was very likely, but what if she was deliberately trying to dodge me? What if something had happened to her? What if—

I hung up and dialed her cell phone. Again it rang until the call answer picked up. Rob and Timmy cruised into the kitchen again. Timmy’s enthusiasm seemed unabated, but Rob was prancing a little less energetically.

“Dammit,” I said, slamming down the receiver. “This is ridiculous.”

“Dammit!” Timmy echoed. I winced.

“I’m going over there.”

“And do what?” Rob asked, prancing in place by the counter.

“Find her, if she’s there.”

“And if she’s not?”

“I don’t know. Leave notes. Interrogate the neighbors. If I find her, I can apologize for Timmy’s deteriorating vocabulary. If I don’t, maybe I should drop by and talk to Chief Burke. Report her as missing.”

“Don’t you have to wait forty-eight hours for that?”

“I think they can waive the waiting period if there are suspicious circumstances,” I said. “Like abandoning a toddler to the care of highly unsuitable persons. Timmy, want to go for a ride in the car?”

“Dammit!” Timmy shrieked, waving his arms with such enthusiasm that he almost knocked himself off Rob’s back.

“You’re going now?” Rob swung Timmy down to the floor and rotated his no-doubt aching shoulders.