“Unbelievable,” I said, shaking my head. “It says here many of them are disappearing, and they want Karma’s help to find them.”
Carol frowned. “That’s very odd. Occasionally, a kid will steal one, or someone will throw one out, but then the second no one's looking, the gnome returns, tells his or her family, then the gnome will be moved to another garden or wooded area for safety. It’s rare one just disappears.”
“I guess we have an interesting day ahead of us.”
Beth came down the stairs and dropped into the chair in front of us. “I can’t believe I’m this tired, and the day has hardly started.”
“Something going on?” I asked, worried. Beth was the kind of person who always had an excess of energy, but now that she mentioned it, she hadn’t been that way today.
“No, it’s this morning when I saw…” She shook her head. “Nothing. It wasn’t a big deal. I’m being silly.”
“Beth?” My worry increased.
She smiled and waved my words away. “It’s an off day, but I’ll power through.”
“If you want I can help with the first job,” Carol offered with a smile. “The shop’s taken care of for a little while, and I’d love to see if the child’s actually a changeling.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Beth said as she stood. “We better head out.”
“Bring more wet cat food,” Buster mumbled from the shadows of the stairs.
Beth sighed. “Wet food it is.”
4
EMMA
We pulledup across the street from a neighborhood I’d explored as a kid, full of small houses, on small lots, and lots of parks. It was the kind of neighborhood that was perfect for trick-or-treating, and few places beat it for playing late at night. My friends and I used to bike from one park to another, playing silly games, like hide and seek in the dark. It was a place full of happy memories, even if the houses looked a tiny bit more run down than they had all those years before.
“Daisy Farms hasn’t changed one bit,” I said, noting the expansive neighborhood. “Except the trees are bigger.”
“It’s a nice place,” Carol said with a smile. “Lots of young families.”
We all climbed out of the car, and I looked from Mia Davis's house to a couple and their dog heading toward us on the street. The dog was some kind of purebred: tiny, white, and hopefully nice, or I’d be running from it in a second.
Small dogs could be mean, after all.
Beth headed toward the house, but Carol gasped behind me. I glanced at her and realized she was staring at the dog. Well, maybe not the dog, she could've been staring at the people. Studying them, there was something familiar about them, but nothing too remarkable. They were old enough to be my parents, with gray hair, lots of wrinkles, and clothes that whispered of money. Not in the way a vampire’s or mermaid’s did, more like they bought expensive clothes and wore them forever, rather than buying every pretty thing they saw.
“I can’t believe it,” my friend whispered in disbelief.
“Carol?” I asked, confused.
Her shoulders went back, and she walked toward the couple with all the grace of a queen, gliding across the sidewalk. I followed behind her without a thought, half out of curiosity, and half because she might need some backup. Which was weird. They were just an older couple with a dog, right?
Somehow, they were more than that, and I knew it.
Carol stopped right in front of them, leveling them with a cold look that made a shiver roll down my spine. “Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft.”
Bancroft? Crap, Bryan’s parents?
They both stopped short, looking startled. Even a little uneasy, but the woman answered. “Carol, how are you?”
She didn’t miss a beat. “You heard Bryan had moved back to town, correct?”
They exchanged a look. Mr. Bancroft cleared his throat. “We'd heard, ah, something about that.”
“Have you spoken to him?” Before they could answer, she lifted a hand. “Actually, I already know the answer to that, you have not. Once upon a time, you had a teenage son who was turned into a vampire. He was terrified, confused, and looking for comfort from his family. What did you do? You threw him out. Like trash.”
