“Why were you so afraid of what you recovered?” Grandfather countered—and before she could dodge out of his way, those strong brown fingers had slipped off the joystick and she yelped as he pinched her rear. “And when are you going to start being nice to me?” he continued, with a meaningful leer. “A pretty girl like you should know an old man like me needs—”

Oh, so he’s in that mood. Should have guessed that a strong dose of Respectable Elder was going to bring out the Old Reprobate as soon as I got home.

“An old man like you needs a good whack upside the head!” she countered, skittering past him before those fingers could pinch the other cheek. “Don’t you know you’re supposed to be senile by now? You’re supposed to be drooling and in diapers so I can keep you in your bed and you wouldn’t be able to get into any more trouble!”

He chuckled, and shook his head at her.

She finished her cleanup, and dropped the popcorn bits in the paper bag she kept for bird scraps. The grackles would love the popcorn. “How’s the garden doing? How many kids did you bilk out of their allowances today?”

“Their hand-eye coordination is improving,” he told her serenely, “they’re starting to tie me. When they start to beat me, I’ll start them on target shooting. I made five bows that should be cured up and ready about now.”

She straightened abruptly. “So that’s why you wanted me to get you that Nintendo!”

“Is it?” His eyes practically disappeared in a nest of wrinkles as he smiled. “The garden is doing well. The corn will be ready to pick in a day or two.”

She gave up, and collapsed into her chair.

He restarted his game, and only then said casually, “Oh, I almost forgot. Someone from Romulus Insurance called.”

She sat straight up in her chair and stared at him. He continued, as calmly as if he hadn’t “almost forgotten” a potential client—and an important one.

“The man said they want you to investigate some trouble at a construction site. I think he mentioned a mall.”

Make that a real client. And an insurance agency! Insurance agency cases often meant lots of time, and time was money. She launched herself out of the chair and sprinted down the hall to her office.

There was the pad beside the phone, with what was presumably the Romulus phone number noted on it, in Grandfather’s handwriting. And a name, Mark Sleighbow, presumably the man who’d called.

If they found someone else—if I’ve lost this one—

She wasn’t sure what she’d do. Maybe it was time to get a phone service. Grandfather occasionally “forgot”—accidentally on purpose—when he thought that a job “wasn’t right for her.”

I’d prefer to make that determination for myself. Particularly when the mortgage payment is due. And right now, with that background-check job over, she needed another piece of steady work. Anything for an insurance company was bound to be steady.…