I make sure Josh puts on his hat and gloves, and Shane does the same. I walk them to the door, and I watch them step into the small wooded area next to the farmhouse. At one point, Josh slips on a patch of ice, but Shane reaches out and steadies him.

It will be fine. Shane is Josh’s father. He won’t let anything happen to him.

I go back into the farmhouse, closing the door behind me. It is getting cold out there, definitely below freezing. I bet that after ten minutes, Josh will start complaining and want to go back inside. Although he isn’t as bothered by the cold as I am. I always have had to struggle to get him to put his coat on for school, as if there’s any chance I would let him go to school in just a sweatshirt when it’s twenty degrees out. I wonder if Shane was the same way when he was a kid.

My back aches slightly from all the cleaning, so I take a minute to sit on one of the chairs we cleaned off. I dig my phone out of my coat pocket—it’s just barely getting a signal. One bar for the cell service, but I guess that’s enough. I bring up the Internet browser and hesitate for a moment before typing: Timothy Reese.

I don’t know why I keep looking him up. Nothing changes day to day, now that it’s been two months since his arrest. Right after, his name was plastered in every single newspaper. It was a big story—a mild-mannered assistant principal who killed a former girlfriend and might have been responsible for multiple murders years earlier.

Tim has had the gall to plead innocent—I almost feel like he’s doing it to torture me. A woman’s body was found in his basement. Does he really think there’s any chance he is walking out of prison after something like that? I’ve already been told that I will be testifying at his trial. I’m dreading it, but that’s what I have to do. It’s my fault he didn’t go to prison ten years earlier. He had me completely fooled.

I’m not going to waste any more time thinking about him. I delete his name from my search engine.

Instead, I bring up the local news site on my phone. I’ll browse a few stories while I’m waiting for Shane and Josh to build their snowman or for Josh to get cold and want to come back, whichever comes first. It takes forever for the news site to load up. The text pops up first, with the pictures still loading on the screen. This is probably going to drain my battery. While I’m waiting, I look at the first story:

Local Prison Guard Found Murdered