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take long for your true nature to show through."
    She plucked a cell phone out of a vase of flowers sitting on the coffee table only inches from where Jolene sat. "Mrs. Tarry, did you hear that clearly? Good! Yes, I have recorded it. Yes, thank you, I'll be glad to meet with Mr. Shorey any time, I'll match my schedule to his. Please have him call Mrs. Eileen Foster, Alex's child advocate attorney. Her number should be in his file if not, call me. Thank you again, of course, you may."
    Jolene's eyes were flashing with anger as Josie handed her a cell phone. "Your supervisor would like to speak to you."
    "You set me up, you bitch," Jolene snapped as she took the phone. However, as she listened, Jolene seemed to deflate. "Yes, ma'am... yes, Mrs. Tarry... your office this afternoon. I'll be there. Ma'am, I only wanted to say... yes, ma'am, this afternoon."
    Josie plucked the phone from the fingers of one of her worst childhood tormentors. "I didn't set you up, Jolene. You set yourself up by not doing your job and not protecting an eleven-year-old child. The only thing I care about is protecting Alex Carter, from you, from his mother and anyone else that might jeopardize his future. I hope your meeting with your supervisor goes well. Meanwhile, Mrs. Tarry has assigned Mr. Shorey as Alex's caseworker. I'll see you to the door."
    Josie watched at the door until Jolene Watson got into her car and left her property. A nemesis from her school days, Jolene Watson was still a nasty piece of work, and she had not improved with age. She'd been a bully, and selfish to the bone as a teenager, and it appeared she had not changed. Although Jolene had trapped herself with her own words, she did not leave gracefully. The air was tinged blue from her swearing.
    Josie leaned her forehead against the doorframe and closed her eyes.
    "Is she gone for good?"
    Josie whirled around to meet the worried face of a troubled boy. "Didn't I tell you to stay in your room?"
    "Yeah, but I knew you'd be talking about me. I've got a right to know when it's me you're talking about," Alex grumbled.
    "Well? What did you hear?" Josie asked.
    "Not much," Alex admitted. "What's going on? Why are you wearing your uniform? I thought you were taking the evening shift today because you asked Georgina to come over to stay with me tonight. Not that I need a babysitter. I'm too old for a babysitter."
    Josie gave a sigh not wanting to get into that particular argument again. "I'm wearing my uniform for the purpose of intimidation. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. As our meeting is over, and you are not going to Centreville, I might as well take you to school and get some work done myself."
    "Yeah," Alex exclaimed punching his fists into the air.
    "Yeah," Josie repeated pulling the boy into a combination headlock and hug. "You are going to do two hours of extra chores for disobeying me and eavesdropping."
    "Aw, Josie, I couldn't get close enough to hear much of anything, so it shouldn't count," Alex grumbled. "And why do I have to go school? I'll be really, really late."
    Josie grinned. "For the same reason I have to go to work, because it's where we're supposed to be right now. I'm supposed to be at my job, and you are supposed to be at school. That's how it works in the real world. When you make a commitment, you need to follow it through to the end. Don't argue and put me into an ornery mood. I'll pick you up after school. We're going to attack the wallpaper in that upstairs tower room tonight."
    "I'm going to have extra homework, on account of I've missed some classes," Alex said with a conniving look.
    "Which you will do before you start the first of your two hours of hard labor," Josie warned. "Come on, buddy, you're putting me behind schedule!"

    Jack watched as the team of four workers carried the last of the furniture out to their trucks. He had cleared out the house with the exception of a few pieces he had shifted into a room in the one usable barn. Those