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asked if it would be okay if she walked Tino down the road. I said she’d never be safer.
    â€œNice hat, by the way,” she said.
    â€œThis old thing?”
    She giggled.
    â€œYou okay?” I asked.
    â€œI’m fine. Maddie says she embarrassed you.”
    Boy, those two are tight.
    I shook my head and gave her a look like I didn’t know what she was talking about.
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    We had completed our search areas by six o’clock, so Troy sent Greg and John home. Dr. Kennedy had a portable lab, complete with several tables full of recording and collection materials. Troy and I basically would be spectators for this piece of the investigation. We both hung around a bit to watch the meticulous process of recovering the skeletal remains, but at the rate they could work, this would take days. The excavation crew would work until dusk before they called it a night, so I went home to my bride and two new stepsons, Luke and Colby.

 
    Chapter 3
    T his was only our second night together as a family. The previous winter I had bought a big old 1913 fixer-upper on a double lot on the corner of Sixth Street and Morris. Because it had been subdivided into three apartments, Del Martin suggested we gut it and start from scratch. Now with five bedrooms and a third story one-bedroom nanny apartment, my place was plenty big for my new family plus Brittany Hackett, the nanny.
    Brit had all the class in that family. Her mother, Connie, was a nice person but an airhead with horrible taste in men. Brit’s no-good half brothers and their sperm-donor father, Kent Silva, were in St. Cloud serving twenty-four- month sentences for burglary. I helped put them away and was proud of it.
    Del worked on my house renovation for six months. By June it was completed, but we’d decided—actually, Shannon decided—she and the boys wouldn’t move in until after we were married. Shannon’s family finished moving her out of her house and into mine while we were in Hawaii. Several boxes were still stored in the basement ready to be unpacked as Shannon found time or needed something.
    When I pulled my Ford F-150 into the garage next to Shannon’s Honda Pilot, Bullet, my yellow lab, bounded up to greet me with a green tennis ball in his mouth. The two white toy poodles from next door were barking shrilly on the other side of the fence. Ignoring the little yappers, Bullet dropped the ball in front of me. I picked it up and pitched it down the large grassy area alongside the pool. I was annoyed to see pool toys scattered all over the pool deck. As I moved on toward the house the poodles continued barking.
    My neighbor Doug Nelson shouted, “Suzy, Ruby, quiet!” I looked up to their elevated deck where he and his wife Marie were sitting. I waved. Doug stood and leaned over the deck railing. He was a good forty pounds overweight and most of it was the belly hanging over the rail. They used to own the candy store in town. Sampled a few too many batches.
    â€œHey, Cal!”
    â€œHey, Doug.”
    â€œHeard you guys finally found the Dawson girl.”
    â€œWhere’d you hear that?”
    â€œOh, it’s all over the news, ya know.”
    â€œWell, we won’t know who we have for a while.”
    â€œYa, I s’pose. Well, have a good one.”
    â€œYou too.”
    From their deck and upper floor windows, the Nelsons could get a good view of our whole backyard, including the pool. They seemed like nice people, but we’d see how much they enjoyed young boys living next door full time.
    Bullet, panting heavily, followed me up the back steps. As I walked into the kitchen, Colby, my six-year-old stepson, yelled, “Daddy!” It was the first time he’d done so, and it touched me. I caught Shannon’s smiling eyes and we shared the moment. Soon it would soon be official; we’d filled out all the adoption paperwork before we got married.
    â€œSon,” I said, “how