I imagined Nadine was a real stickler about a lot of things. Escaping the Nadines of the world was one of the main reasons I’d chosen blacksmithing over more secure but confining jobs.

“Maybe that’s what she’s doing,” I said. “She dropped by my house about eight in the morning yesterday.”

“You’ve seen her a lot more recently than I have, then,” Sandie said. “She left Friday afternoon, just like usual, and that’s the last I saw of her.”

Her face was solemn, and the words sounded a little rehearsed, as if she had already practiced saying them for CNN, should the occasion arise.

“Do you know her husband?”

“Jasper? Not that well. Of course, his parents were from around here.”

Clearly she didn’t like him, or she’d have said Jasper himself was “from around here.” Still, he was a native, even though an unlikable one. And so was Sandie, from her words—though come to think of it, I could have guessed that from her voice, with its subtle hint of an accent.

“He didn’t stick around much after his parents died,” Sandie went on. “They sold the farm and all. So I think everyone was surprised when he moved back here again. Got a decent job at the college, in the data support center. Though he didn’t hang onto it for long. That’s how he met Karen, you know. They were putting in this big, automated bookkeeping system and Karen was the one from our department who worked on the conversion.”

“Do you have any idea why he was fired?” I asked.

Sandie shook her head.

“Whatever it was, Karen was real upset about it,” she said. “But she never did say much. It was about that time they broke up, though—and good riddance to bad rubbish. I’ll say one thing for Jasper—he makes my ex look good, and that takes some doing.”

The newly returned Jasper Walker was starting to sound more and more suspicious.

“Kiki got a boo-boo,” Timmy announced. I dug into my purse and handed him a Band-Aid. Not for the first time—in my opinion, Kiki was a hypochondriac.

“You said Jasper was living at his uncle Hiram’s house,” I said aloud. “Do you know where it is?”

“Out in the woods somewhere near the Clay County line. Hiram Bass—Jasper’s mother’s sister married one of the Clayville Basses.”

To someone “from around here,” that snippet of genealogy probably told volumes about Jasper and his family, but all it told me was that my quest to find Karen was probably going to lead Timmy and me to the county property records office, to locate Hiram Bass, and then out into the more rural end of the county.

I noticed that Sandie was looking at Kiki and frowning. Well, yes, Kiki wasn’t exactly in pristine condition. If Karen didn’t show up by bedtime tonight, I was going to try stealing Kiki after Timmy had dropped off to sleep and putting her through the washer and dryer. Or maybe Sandie was expressing disapproval of the number of Band-Aids festooning Timmy’s hands and Kiki’s paws. Well, yes, I suppose I had made a mistake, letting Timmy find out that I routinely carried Band-Aids in my purse.