Morris didn’t have a job, a fact that annoyed Clancey to no end. She worked a six-day week for a paycheck that was not as much as Ben made on his job. But she didn’t dare say anything to either her stepfather or stepbrother. She was gun-shy after the beating Morris had given her. He seemed to like the fact that she was afraid of him. He told her once, when the others weren’t listening, that she’d better hope he got off when the trial came up, or she was going to have some major problems.

It was only a few days after Morris got out on bond that her grandfather didn’t come home from work.

Ben and Morris hadn’t said much about that. They talked to the detective who worked the case, denying that they’d seen the old man after breakfast the day he disappeared. Morris had been tight-lipped about the whole thing. He didn’t even look familiar sometimes. He was jittery and had bloodshot eyes, and he talked nonstop. She wondered if there were mental problems that Morris and her father were keeping from her. Not for the first time, she was sorry that her mother had married Ben. On the other hand, if she hadn’t, there would be no Tad. And Clancey loved Tad, more than anyone on earth except her grandfather. That they couldn’t find the old man tormented her. She was certain that it had been something drastic, because you could set a watch by her grandfather’s actions. He was never late coming home or going to work. It broke her heart when weeks passed and detectives moved the file aside because they couldn’t find the old gentleman. They told Ben they suspected foul play, but they had no viable suspects. Odd, she thought, how Morris had looked when they said that. Very odd.

Ben had taken Morris’s side over the assault on Clancey. He said Morris had been having a hard time with one of his friends, and he was sure Morris hadn’t meant to do anything to his siblings. She knew better, but Ben never saw any problem with his son from a previous marriage. He loved Morris and defended him constantly.

Morris had things to say to Clancey afterward. He told her that she’d better never interfere again when he was playing video games, and that went double for Tad. Next time, he said ominously, he’d do a lot more to her. And he gave her a look that still made her uneasy years later. It was an adult look, as if he knew what was under her clothing. She’d folded her arms over her chest and left without another word. But after that, she caught Morris watching her sometimes.