Page 129 of The Sister's Curse

“Hi! Is this a police dog?”

“Not really,” I admitted. I forced myself to wear a congenial mask, the one I wore as Lt. Anna Koray doing community outreach. I forced my lips to curve upward benignly and my eyebrows to lift pleasantly, even while I ground my teeth and felt thestickiness of blood under my fingernails. Gibby went up to the kid and let him pet him, tail wagging. I looked at the kid closely. He was pale, and I saw bandages on his arms and legs.

“How are you feeling, Ross?”

He lifted a shoulder. “Still got a few weeks of steroids to take. A couple days ago, I saw some kind of specialist who gave me a bunch of new antibiotics. They make my pee change colors.”

“I’m sorry.”

A heavily pregnant woman climbed out of the driver’s seat of the minivan and stared at me.

“Hi. Are you Ross’s mom?” I asked.

“Yes. And you are…?” She looked me up and down, skeptical.

“I’m Lt. Anna Koray, with the Bayern County Sheriff’s Office.” I said it automatically, even though I knew I was nothing.

“Oh. I thought Mark had finally met someone,” she said sheepishly. “I’m Yvette.”

“Nice to meet you.” I glanced at Ross. “Hey, is your dad home?”

“No. He left earlier today. He called my mom to take me to Pennsylvania with her.” Ross made a face.

“Do you know where he went?”

“Nah. He just got in the car and took off.”

Yvette looked at her son. “Why don’t you go get your stuff together, and I’ll talk to Lt. Koray?”

“Sure,” he said sullenly, and went into the house.

Yvette looked at me. “Why are the police here? Dare I ask what he did?”

“I can’t say for now. But I think you need to make plans for Ross.”

Her jaw hardened. “This is a really bad time.”

“I know. But he’s been through a lot. He needs to see a doctor about those scratches he got from when he almost drowned.”

She rested her hand on her belly. “I’ll take care of it. It’s just…it’s just gonna be hard to have a fifth mouth to feed.”

I nodded. “Ross needs you right now.”

She looked down the road. “Sounds like it.”

I’d seen this a thousand times before, with parents of both sexes. A family splits up, and they rush to mash a new one together, with his kids, her kids, and the kids they decided to have together.

“You might also consider having him stay with friends to finish high school,” I offered.

“Maybe.” She frowned. “That would look pretty shitty, though, wouldn’t it?”

“Doesn’t matter what things look like. What matters is what’s best for the kid. I would advise setting up some therapy for him regardless.”

“Mark really screwed the pooch this time, didn’t he?”

“Yeah. Yeah, he did.” He just wouldn’t know how much, not until I got his neck under my thumbs.

Ross returned from the house with a duffel bag and a backpack. He locked the front door, like a responsible kid.