“Thanks,” I said. “You’ve been a big help.”

“I should be getting back,” she said, with another disapproving glance at Kiki. “But please keep me posted on how you’re doing.”

“Will do.”

Though when I got back to the car, I wondered if taking Timmy along on my visit to Jasper was such a great idea. For that matter, if Karen had disappeared after going out to see Jasper, maybe going out there myself wasn’t such a great idea.

Maybe I needed to find out a little more about Jasper first.

I had a lot of trouble getting Timmy back to the car—I practically had to carry him down the sidewalk. Not that he was being deliberately uncooperative, but he had clearly hit the wall and was falling asleep on his feet. When I got him strapped in, I consulted his instruction manual and remembered that after lunch was supposed to be story and nap time.

I shoved in the car songs CD to substitute for the story, but with the volume turned down so it wouldn’t interfere if he decided to start his nap immediately. Then I turned the car homeward. While Timmy was napping, I’d see what I could find out about Jasper.

Eleven

About a mile from our house, the road from town ran up onto a ridge, giving motorists a sweeping view of the landscape for several miles around—including our house and the sloping part of Seth Early’s pasture that lay across the road from us. Michael always said that he loved that first sight of our house waiting for him at the end of his drive home from the college. I was usually more interested in getting a preview of who and what might be waiting for me when I arrived at the house. A couple of times, the ridge had let me spot some unloved relative’s car parked in front of the house, giving me a chance to remember that I hadn’t quite finished all my errands yet.

Today, I could see that Seth Early was skulking across the road from our house, behind the hedge and fence that separated his pasture from the road. I found that reassuring. Mr. Early reacted with great alarm to even the most harmless of breaks from routine, suspecting innocent-seeming delivery men and lost motorists of having sinister designs on his prize Lincoln sheep. Surely anyone who actually meant us harm would raise Mr. Early’s hackles and inspire him to call the Caerphilly police long before the intruder could do anything.

I thought of waving to him when I pulled up at the house, but I decided against it. He probably thought he was cleverly concealed and I didn’t want to spoil his fun.

Timmy was fast asleep in his car seat, presenting me with a dilemma. I suspected that, like sleeping dogs, sleeping toddlers should be left undisturbed. I needed Timmy’s nap at least as much as he did. But the thermometer was a blistering ninety degrees outside.