I frowned. “Who?” Then held up my hand. “Never mind. I’m looking for a friend.” I didn’t give her more than that because I really didn’t trust the spider. Tricksy Jinx indeed.

“You touch him recently?”

I nodded. “Yes, you mean you can pull his smell off me?”

Her body shivered and she turned and walked around the corner onto Factors Row. Sure, we were an easy quarter mile from Crash’s, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t notice me peeking around the corner.

I waited. “Jinx?”

A snuffle cut through the air and then out bobbled a bear. Not just any bear. A great big black bear that smelled of musk and a darkly wooded forest.

I couldn’t help my feet from taking me backward. “Holy crap on toast! A bear? Really?”

“Best nose.” She rubbed her face against the inside of her leg. “Too good. You smell like a lot of creatures. You get around, huh?”

I frowned, wanting to point out that her words could be taken two ways, but maybe that was what she’d intended. “The bigfoot.”

She started out straight away, heading down the length of Factors Row. “Can we take a different direction?” I asked.

“Scent is here.”

Oh no.

This was not good.

If Eric’s smell was here, then . . .

Crash really was the bad guy. He’d been the one to take Eric. There went my thoughts of finding my way back into his bed. Damn it, I really did a have a thing for the assholes. Here I’d thought he was different, and not just because he’d been kind to me.

I blew out a breath. “Lead on.”

21

Jinx, in bear form, trundled down the path to Crash’s shop, her big paws padding along silently with only the occasional scratch of her claws on the cobblestone path. The heat was stifling, weighing down on me as much as the worry of what we’d find. She paused there, pushed on the boarded-up door with her snout, took a deep breath, and then continued on down the path. I walked behind her with my bike. No point in riding it, but I wasn’t leaving it behind either.

“He was here?” I asked. “Eric was here? You’re sure?” What the hell? Wouldn’t Feish and I have noticed if someone had dragged him past us from Gran’s house?

Had Crash gone and found Eric when I’d been sleeping and taken him back to Factors Row? I frowned, just not seeing it. When would Crash have had time to get Eric? The timeline didn’t fit.

“Yes, bigfoot was here. Gone now. Just dead fish.”

Her words hit me hard and a rush of air slid out of me. “What?”

“Smells like dead fish. And the other one. I can’t say what he is, not allowed. But he was here too, and angry.” Her ears bobbled.