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hunt down the accused, return him to the system, and hopefully be reimbursed by the court. In the case of a child custody bond, the bondsman forfeits the bond to the wronged
parent.
The money is then supposed to be used to find the missing child.”
    “So if the bond isn’t enough of a deterrent to kidnapping, at least there’s money to hire a professional to search for the missing child,” I said.
    “Exactly. Problem is, unlike a criminal bond, the child custody bondsman doesn’t have the legal right to hunt down the child. The only recourse the child custody bondsman has to recoup his loss is to foreclose on property or cash collateral posted at the time the bond is written.
    “In this case, Evelyn Soder didn’t have the cash on hand for the bond. So she came to us and used her grandmother’s house as collateral for a surety bond. The hope is that when you call up the grandmother and tell her to start packing, she’ll divulge the location of the missing child.”
    “Have you already released the money to Steven Soder?”
    “The money gets released in three weeks.”
    So I had three weeks to find Annie.

 
TWO
     
     
     
     
    “That Les Sebring seemed like a nice guy,” Lula said when we were back in my CR-V. “I bet he don’t even do it with barnyard animals.”
    Lula was referring to the rumor that my cousin Vinnie had once been involved in a romantic relationship with a duck. The rumor’s never been officially confirmed or denied.
    “Now what?” Lula asked. “What’s next on the list?”
    It was a little after ten. Soder’s bar and grill, The Foxhole, should be opening for the lunch trade. “Next we visit Steven Soder,” I said. “Probably it’ll be a waste of time, but it seems like something we should do anyway.”
    “No stone unturned,” Lula said.
    Steven Soder’s bar wasn’t far from Sebring’s office. It was tucked between Carmine’s Cut-rate Appliances and a tattoo parlor. The door to The Foxhole was open. The interior was dark and uninviting at this hour. Still, two souls had found their way in and were sitting at the polished wood bar.
    “I’ve been here before,” Lula said. “It’s an okay place.The burgers aren’t bad. And if you get here early, before the grease goes rancid, the onion rings are good, too.”
    We stepped inside and paused while our eyes adjusted. Soder was behind the bar. He looked up when we entered and nodded an acknowledgment. He was just under six foot. Chunky build. Reddish blond hair. Blue eyes. Ruddy complexion. Looked like he drank a lot of his own beer.
    We bellied up to the bar, and he found his way over to us. “Stephanie Plum,” he said. “Haven’t seen you in a while. What’ll it be?”
    “Mabel is worried about Annie. I told her I’d ask around.”
    “Worried about losing that wreck of a house is more like it.”
    “She won’t lose the house. She has money to cover the bond.” Sometimes I fib just for practice. It’s my one really good bounty hunter skill.
    “Too bad,” Soder said. “I’d like to see her sitting on the curb. That whole family is a car crash.”
    “So you think Evelyn and Annie just took off?”
    “I know they did. She left me a fucking letter. I went over there to pick the kid up and there was a letter for me on the kitchen counter.”
    “What did the letter say?”
    “It said she was taking off and next time I saw the kid would be never.”
    “Guess she don’t like you, hunh?” Lula said.
    “She’s nuts,” Soder said. “A drunk and a nut. She gets up in the morning and can’t figure out how to button her sweater. I hope you find the kid fast because Evelyn isn’t capable of taking care of her.”
    “Do you have any idea where she might have gone?”
    He made a derisive grunt. “Not a clue. She didn’t have any friends, and she was dumb as a box of nails. So far as I can figure she didn’t have much money. They’re probably living out of the car somewhere in the Pine Barrens, eating from