I fumbled for my phone. “’Lo?”

“Daise?”

It was Jen, and she sounded scared. I dragged myself upright against no fewer than five very soft down pillows. “Yeah, I’m here. What’s up? Is it your sister?”

“No, it’s Brandon.”

“Your brother?” I was still half-asleep.

“Mom and Dad had a fight. He took off in the middle of the night. I only just realized it.”

“Hang on.” I downed at a single gulp half the glass of water Lurine had left for me. “Okay, so Brandon’s missing. Did you report it?”

“Of course I did!” Now Jen sounded impatient. “Officer Mallick said boys will be boys. He told me to call back if Brandon wasn’t home by lunchtime.”

I pressed the cool glass of water to my temples. “Do you know where he went?”

Although I couldn’t see it, I knew that on the other end of the phone, Jen gave a helpless shrug. “Where does he always go?”

I knew the answer to that question.

In times of trouble, of which there were many in the Cassopolis household, Jen’s brother, Brandon, fled into the woods and marshes behind their house, where he could hunker down and hide. It was exactly the kind of stupid, dangerous place that appealed to an eleven-year-old kid, but he’d never stayed away for long.

Overnight was a record. Overnight meant he ran a serious risk of encountering something very unpleasant.

“Okay, okay! Don’t panic.” I scrambled out of bed. “I’m going to call Cody.”

“He’s not on duty,” Jen said. “I asked.”

I squirmed into my denim skirt. “I’m going to call him anyway. We need a tracker.”

There was a little silence. “Do you think he’ll do it?”

“I don’t know.” I switched the phone to my other ear so I could squeeze my right arm into my sleeveless top, then switched back to do the other, yanking it over my head. “But I’m sure as hell going to ask. I’ll call you back.”

Cody picked up on the second ring, sounding surprisingly alert for a guy who’d worked patrol on the night shift.

I explained the situation to him. “I thought maybe you could shift and track him for us. See . . .” I winced. “Jen knows.”

There was a silence, and it wasn’t little. If it weren’t for the slow, steady sound of his breathing, I would have thought he hung up.

“I’m sorry!” I said. “It’s just . . . Oh, crap, I’ll explain later. But she won’t tell anyone. And the thing is, it’s dangerous out there. If Brandon hasn’t come home yet, it probably means he’s in trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” Cody asked curtly.

“The green, slimy, and pointy-toothed kind,” I said. “There’s a mucklebones in the marsh.”

“A what?”