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“I’m a private dick,” Gran explained. “But I work with our local boys and girls in blue from time to time. When they’re completely stuck, that’s when they come knocking on my door.”

“Oh,” said the woman, looking a little confused. “Well, come in. One of your colleagues was here yesterday, and told me to wait another twenty-four hours before, um…”

“Yes, I’m very sorry about that,” said Chase. “But it now appears that your son’s disappearance is part of a bigger story. Several people have gone missing now.”

“And a ton of cats,” said Gran, “but we’re not worried about that, cats being cats.”

“Exactly,” said Chase, giving Gran a critical glance. Even though the cop was now accustomed to Odelia accompanying him on his investigations, the addition of her grandmother was a more recent development he still needed to wrap his head around.

They followed Mrs. Pope into the living room and took a seat at the table.

“So can you tell me what happened, Mrs. Pope?” asked Odelia, taking out her trusty little notebook just as Chase took out his.

Gran, meanwhile, seeing her two colleagues armed with pen and paper, seemed annoyed that she wasn’t as well-equipped as they were, so she took out a puzzle book from her purse, a chewed-up pencil, and started scribbling in the margins.

“Well, as I told your colleague yesterday, Elon recently won the lottery, and he hasn’t stopped partying since, buying all of his friends, the old ones and the new ones, drinks at his favorite club, clubbing every night. So I told him the night before last that he couldn’t take the car—I wasn’t going to allow him—since he only got this license last month and he practically totaled one of his cars by driving it into a lamppost last week. Of course he wouldn’t listen, and it was only when his sister Marcie turned it into a bet about the environment that he took his bike…”

She sniffed audibly, and dragged a couple of paper napkins from a dispenser and pressed them to her nose and eyes. A tall man with a distinct stoop had walked in from the kitchen and took a seat next to Mrs. Pope. Judging from the picture frames on the mantel he was the missing boy’s father, and now placed his arm around his wife’s shoulder. He looked pale as a ghost, dark rings under his eyes. “Do you have any news about our boy?” he asked.

“No news, I’m afraid,” said Odelia kindly. “But we’re doing everything we can to find him.”

“So he took his bike, and where did he go?” asked Chase.

“Not far,” said Mr. Pope, clearing his throat. “Just into town. He was going to the Caf? Baron, for a party in his honor. He’s been partying non-stop since he won the lottery.”

“How much did he win?” asked Gran.

“Um, three hundred and twenty million.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of money.”

“At the rate he’s been spending it, I’m afraid it will be gone soon,” said Mrs. Pope.

“He’s already bought himself a Lamborghini and a Maserati and one of them electric cars,” said Mr. Pope. “A Tesla. And a new house for us, a house for his sister, one for his grandmother, a house for his aunt and uncle, one for his niece, one for his best friend…”

“That’s a lot of houses,” said Chase with a smile.

“He’s obviously trying to spread the wealth around,” Odelia added.

“He’s a good boy,” his mother agreed, taking another tissue from the box and pressing it to her nose. “Other kids would probably buy themselves a fancy condo and go and live with some supermodel celebrity influencer they met at a party but not my Elon.”

“Only problem is, he’s too nice—too kind,” said his father.

“Elon has a good heart—that’s how we raised him.”

“So he’s been buying gifts for all of his friends, and suddenly he’s found so many new friends it’s hard to keep up. The money’s been flowing like water, and I think that must be what happened. One of his new friends must have decided to take advantage of our boy’s generosity and must have wanted more than Elon was willing to give. So they must have gotten into a fight and…”

“Don’t say that, Mike,” said the boy’s mother. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“You should talk to those boys,” said Mike. “They’ll be able to tell you what happened.”

“What do you think happened, Mrs. Pope?” asked Odelia.

“I think Elon had one too many, and rode his bike into a ditch and that’s where he still is.”

“Even if that were true, he would have woken up by now,” said her husband.

“Not if he hit his head. You need to send out a search party, Detective Kingsley.”

“We already tried that, though, didn’t we, Marcia?” said the husband.

“Tried what?” asked Odelia.

“We called all of his friends, and according to everyone we spoke to the last place Elon was seen was the Caf? Baron. So we walked the distance from the club back to the house… checking all the ditches… and…” She sniffed.

“And nothing,” said Mike. “Not a trace of him anywhere along that stretch of road.”

Odelia nodded as she jotted down a note.

“Please find my boy,” said Marcia. “He’s a good boy, with a big heart. If he’s in a ditch somewhere, we need to find him before… before…” She broke down in tears.