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you. I love you so much,
sweetie, and I’m so very, very happy to see you again! I hope you
brought your appetite with you because you get to pick which
restaurant we’re gonna eat at before we go home.”
    “Ice cream?” Charissa asked with
hesitation.
    Monica grinned. “If that’s what you
want!”
    “Ice cream for dinner?” Tess shook her head.
“Don’t you want some real food first?”
    Charissa looked at her aunt as though the
woman had asked if there had been any shaved monkeys wearing fezzes
and dancing the Watusi on her train seat. “I want ice cream.”
    “Then that’s exactly what you’ll have!” Eliot
stooped to pat Charissa on the shoulder.
    “Can I get one thing before we go?” Monica’s
voice softened. “I’ve really missed getting hugs from you.”
    Charissa gazed at her mother for a few
seconds, and then reached out for an embrace. The two hugged each
other while Monica indulged in another gentle chuckle. She kissed
Charissa on the side of the forehead before they released each
other.
    “Let’s go get that ice cream.” Monica was
radiant.
    “Yay!” Charissa nodded, her attitude the most
childlike Shad had seen since meeting her.
    Eliot helped his sister get to her feet while
Tess offered to help Charissa carry the day pack. Shad quickly
wrapped up some details about what they should expect over the next
few days and managed to thrust Charissa’s suitcase into Eliot’s
grasp. As Eliot and Tess bid their farewells and started to leave
with Charissa, the girl suddenly stopped and turned back toward
Shad.
    “Goodbye, Mr. Delaney.” Her expression was
oddly somber again.
    “So long, Charissa.” Shad smiled. “Have an
extra bowl of ice cream for me.”
    What Monica did next caught Shad off guard,
and he had to choke back his initial revulsion. She suddenly
wrapped her arms around his shoulders. As Monica’s head pressed
against his neck, Shad managed to stand completely still instead of
recoiling from her embrace. There were only a select few persons he
could tolerate such displays of emotion from. Yet Shad knew he’d
better return some kind of gesture, so he reached out with the hand
that wasn’t resting on his laptop case and patted Monica on the
back.
    “I’m so glad Vic told me about you.” Monica
murmured just before she released him. “He said you were the kind
of bulldog lawyer I would need that wouldn’t bleed me dry.”
    Vic Phillips was Tess’s brother. He worked at
a hospital, and when Monica started bemoaning she couldn’t find a
lawyer who would work with her at a price she could afford, Vic
asked his coworkers if they could recommend somebody. One of them
lived in the Linn area and had become one of Shad’s clients shortly
after he moved his practice to that town. Shad definitely
remembered the case, which involved the man’s wayward ex-wife
trying to move the kids with her to the state of California.
    Shad stammered a little. “I’m glad to
help.”
    “We’ll see you next week.” Monica smiled
warmly at him as she turned to leave with the rest of her
family.
    Shad’s attention centered on Charissa as the
little group strolled away. What was he missing? On one hand the
girl seemed eager to get rid of him. On the other hand Charissa
seemed to display a rather quick attachment to him, which could be
another expression of her abused background. Once she officially
“fired” Shad back in St. Louis, Charissa had seemed more at ease
with him. Monica’s allusion that Shad was not relieved of duty
caused Charissa renewed concern.
    Hello again, gut feeling. Why couldn’t he put
his finger on what was causing it?
    The crowd was thinning as people dispersed
and the train began pulling away from the station. Shad turned away
from Charissa’s departing family, released an exhale of relief to
be finished with this specific responsibility, and took a couple of
steps toward the brick depot. Shad halted when he spied Dulsie.
    She was standing at the corner of the