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Once they were outside again, Gran said,“Poor woman. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have your son suddenly go missing like that.”

“Your son has suddenly gone missing,” Chase pointed out.

“No, he hasn’t. Alec is probably off somewhere on a toot. Or maybe he met that Tracy Sting he likes so much and they’re off to the Adirondacks again, just like the last time.”

“He wouldn’t do that without letting us know,” said Odelia.

“Like hell he wouldn’t. You don’t know Alec.”

“Actually, we do,” Chase pointed out.

“That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it,” said Gran stubbornly.

“So has the officer who was here yesterday retraced Elon’s steps?” asked Odelia.

“Yeah, she did this morning, but found no trace of him, just like Mike and Marcia said.”

“So weird,” said Odelia, “for a bunch of people all to go missing around the same time.”

“You know what this is, right?” said Gran as they filed back into Chase’s pickup.

“No, I don’t,” said Chase. “But I’m sure you will enlighten us.” He was not a big fan of Gran’s crazy theories.

“Aliens,” said Gran as she buckled up. “Aliens must have come down and landed in that terrible storm we had the other night, and we all know what those aliens are like.”

“Um, no, we don’t,” said Chase tentatively.

“They kidnap people! That’s what they do. Abduct them in their big spaceships so they can do all kinds of weird experiments. And they must have decided one wasn’t enough, so they kidnapped the August kid, too. Mark my words. It’s those nasty aliens.”

As interesting as Gran’s theory might be, though, Odelia thought something else was going on here, and she was convinced her uncle Alec had been taken, too.

And not by aliens. Or by Tracy Sting.

Chapter 24

“I don’t care what you say, I’m not sleeping next to that woman again,” said Tex.

“You don’t have to sleep with her,” said Marge as she peeled another potato. “If you make peace with her she can go back to her room, and Odelia can have her house back.”

“Make peace with her! Easier said than done. How do you suggest I pull off a miracle like that?”

“You need to figure out some kind of compromise, Tex.”

They were in the kitchen, and Marge was glad that Odelia and Chase had decided to take her mother along for their investigation so she and Tex could have this little chat.

“Look, you have to dig a little deeper. Try to figure out what’s really going on here.”

“What’s going on is that your mother hates her job. She wants to stay home and watch TV instead of being cooped up in that office handling my patients all day long.”

“No, that’s where you’re wrong. Vesta loves to socialize, and she loves being a doctor’s assistant. It gives her prestige, and she enjoys being in the thick of things.”

“But she wants to watch her shows. Says sitting at that desk is killing her. Too boring. Unless Scarlett Canyon drops by, of course,” he added with a grin, “to spice things up.”

“Why don’t we buy her a tablet computer? That way she can watch all the shows she wants, and surf the web, or play computer games, and it won’t set us back two thousand bucks.”

Tex tapped the table.“She seems to have her mind set on this foldable phone.”

“I think that’s just her opening bid. Pretty sure she’ll settle for a brand-new iPad.”

“How about a second-hand iPad?”

“Tex,” said Marge warningly.

“Look, what she should be doing is work,” he said, as he sniffed at a sausage he’d taken from the fridge. “She should be greeting my patients and answering the phone. What will people think when my receptionist is watchingDays of Our Lives andGeneral Hospitalall day long? Word will spread and soon people will stop coming.”

“They won’t stop coming because you’re the only decent doctor in town.”

“There are other towns, honey, and there’s the clinic. People don’t have to come to me, you know. They can take their hernias and their ingrowing toenails to Denby Jennsen over in Happy Bays, or Cary Horsfield in Hampton Keys. And once I’ve lost all my patients, then what? We’ll have to sell the house and move to a town where nobody knows me or my lousy reputation and start all over again. Or take over an existing practice in Utah or Colorado or Alaska or work for another doctor as his apprentice. I’m too old to be an apprentice, Marge—or to start all over again from scratch.”

“Oh, don’t be such a drama queen,” said Marge as she put the pot with the potatoes on the stove. It was a Berghoff pot, one of a set she was very fond of.

“I’m not being a drama queen! Remember what she did today? Got into a fight with Scarlett over a sausage! A stupid sausage!”

Marge cast a quick glance at the sausage her husband was waving.“Oh, there’s that Duffer. I knew we had one left.”

“Yeah, I keep them at the back of the fridge where Vesta won’t find them. She’s like a rabid dog when she sees them. Attacks without provocation. Just like her crazy friend.”