10 minutes--and another glass of wine--later, Sarah had come up with a plan to get James out of the house for a bit so she could look around his room and get to the bottom of things.

"James, sweetie? Can you come down here please?" she said drumming her finger nails on the counter.

A minute later James came trudging down the stairs. "Yeah, mom? I was kind of busy. I have a lot of homework," he said, with minimal eye contact.

She handed him a folded piece of paper and a 100 dollar bill. "I need you to go down to the corner store for me and pick me...