Full Circle (12 page)

"Josie doesn't need some old man hanging around mooching off her," Alex snarled.

"Alex!" Josie exclaimed as she came back into the kitchen with the phone and returned it to its base.

"That's okay," Jack said, holding up a hand to stop her from reprimanding the boy. "He's concerned and that shows good protective instincts. I swear to you, Alex, I do not intend to mooch off Josie, nor do I intend to hurt her in any way."

The boy considered his words. "Okay, but I'm watching you."

"Good," Jack agreed. "I'm watching you, too. I don't want you giving her any lip either. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it," Alex mumbled. He grabbed another piece of pizza, slid off the barstool and headed up the stairs.

"Sorry about that," Josie said. "He's been through a lot and gets surly sometimes."

"He's looking out for you, and that's a good thing," Jack said, dragging her around to the high side of the kitchen island. He slid one hand up and under her sweatshirt and the other down the front of her sweatpants.

"Jack, we can't," Josie moaned.

"We can, if you stop making so much noise," Jack said, teasing her mouth with his tongue as his hands continued their game of search and plunder. He carried her into the laundry room, locked the door and set her on top of a folding counter. It was quiet, desperate and fast, and left them both wanting and needing more. However, it was not going to happen since they heard Alex calling Josie's name from the kitchen. While Josie went to attend the boy and lead him out of the kitchen, Jack left through the back door.

Jack was considering his options as he drove out to his place. After two months of being away, all he wanted was to lie in Josie's arms and make love to her time after time. He'd lucked out his first day back, but now it was catch, as catch can, again. Either she was busy on the job or with Alex. Not that he begrudged her a busy life, but he wanted to be a higher priority in it. Since his first day back, he had not managed to have a decent conversation with her. He would admit that was mostly his fault because anytime he did manage to get near her, he was too busy trying to get her out of her clothes as fast as possible. That scenario did not lend itself to serious conversation.

Today Josie was on duty with the new Sheriff for a half day. Afterwards, she had to take Alex to the YMCA for a swimming lesson before delivering him to a friend's house to spend the night. Alex had certainly lucked out when he chose to hide in Josie's shed.

Jack rolled into the driveway of his old family house and slowly got out of his Jeep. There was yellow
Condemned
and
Do Not Enter - Danger
tape stretched across the front porch, as well as every door and window opening. The roof was falling in, and it looked like the house was leaning to one side. The old place was falling in on itself.

He ignored the tape and stepped lightly through the front door opening—minus the door now. The stairway railing was gone along with the solid black-onyx hearth. Someone had moved the bricks from the fallen chimney, and a built-in cabinet was missing two side-panel stained glass windows. Those things had all still been in the house the day he left.

Apprehension rippled through him as he felt the house shimmy. He quickly stepped back out the open door and into the yard. He watched as another chimney collapsed. He felt the ground shake from the impact and heard the old house groan from the strain, but it held together. This time, Jack thought. The old Rawlings house was an accident or disaster waiting to happen. He punched in the phone number for Jimmy Richards and talked to him about getting the house bulldozed before someone went in and got hurt.

"Did you take the plywood down off the windows and doors?" Jimmy Richards demanded as soon as he got out of his truck.

"When I moved in," Jack said.

"I'm not talking about then; I'm talking about now. Josie and I boarded it back up after she was finished stripping the place. It's against county code to leave a condemned residential building wide open like this," Jimmy complained.

Jack swung around and looked over at the two barns clearly in as bad a shape, if not worse than the house.

"The law doesn't cover out buildings," Jimmy explained. "I don't know why except maybe the lawmakers didn't think someone would set up living in an old barn or shed like they would a house."

"That's sheer stupidity on their part," Jack commented. "That's why I called you though, this house is a death trap. The second chimney collapsed while I was standing here. The whole place needs to come down. While you're at it, take down those two barns. Can you do it?"

"Yeah, I'll have to bring in a small crane,
excavators
, or a couple of
bulldozers
, for a job this size. Are you planning on rebuilding on this site," Jimmy asked. "Would you want me to fill in the basement and clear off the ground?"

"I haven't decided that yet," Jack admitted. "Will you take care of the permits and all that stuff?"

"It's all part of the job," Jimmy agreed. "You might think on taking all that stuff you and Josie put in that big shed and move it into the storage units in town. If anybody gets the idea that there are antiques or anything of value in there, someone will figure out how to break into it."

"There's nothing in the shed except salvage pieces taken off the house," Jack said. "And someone has tried to break into it. There are marks on the lock and the door. That's some heavy duty steel though, because they didn't get through it."

"I'm not surprised. People will steal anything. I'll send a crew out to board up those windows and doors again until we can get out here to take the house down. Although, if you get that shed removed, I might be able to talk the Fire Chief into setting it on fire as a controlled burn. We burn down old places like this for training exercises. I didn't know the place was in this bad of a condition or I wouldn't have let Josie finish the salvage by herself."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "I thought you said you helped her."

"Only for the boarding up," Jimmy said. "She got everything else done before she called me. Oh, if you're still seeing her, try to talk her out of building a windmill on her place. Someone showed her some old pictures of the original Raintree place, and she's determined to restore it better than it was before. She's done a real fine job on the house, but it doesn't make sense to me to build a windmill with no practical purpose to it unless she wants to put in a wind turbine. You know women, though, when they get stubborn about something."

"Yeah, I do" Jack agreed his voice tight. "I'll go talk to the people at the storage place about getting the stuff moved out. Can you handle the rest?"

"I'll call you when I find out one way or the other how we're going to bring her down," Jimmy promised. "The Winstead brothers own the storage units, Daniel and Eddie."

"Thanks and keep me posted,"

Jack went to see the Winsteads and arranged to rent a large storage unit, as well as hire a large truck and some muscle. Since the brothers were not busy, they headed out straight away to get the job done. It took a good portion of the day and several loads, but eventually they emptied the large shed and moved the salvaged materials into one of the Winsteads larger storage units. Jack also had them clear out the furniture from the tack room in the barn and put it into a smaller, temperature-controlled unit. The old Rawlings house was empty and gutted. On the last load, they put the pieces Josie had claimed for her house projects at the very end of the truck. Jack had the brothers stop at Josie's house first and unload the library shelving units, stained-glass windows and other items she had tagged. Jack hadn't got a key to Josie's house yet, but he did have the code for the garage door, so they put everything inside the garage. He and the Winstead brothers finished unloading the truck into the storage unit. Everything was now safely in storage. He called Jimmy Richards to have him send out a crew to disassemble the empty steel shed and store it in the barn.

When Josie got home, she was tired. Her half-day with Sheriff Malone had gone well although he still did not seem to grasp the idea of how much paperwork was involved with a state inspection. She thought he was trying to slide that nasty project back into her lap, but she was not going to let that happen. She was only going to babysit him a couple more weeks and she was going to turn him loose. She would be around and available if he needed advice, but she didn't want to be his crutch. She had taken over the job with no warning and no experience as a sheriff. Charles Malone's resume listed eleven years experience as a sheriff in a small town in New Mexico. It was time he handled things.

Josie was looking forward to a long, relaxing bath and maybe even some private time with Jack this evening. Alex was away at a sleepover with several boys from his baseball team. They were camping out and sleeping in a tent, so she had bought him a sleeping bag. He thought he was roughing it, but he was camping overnight in a well-lit backyard surrounded by a seven-foot privacy fence and was being guarded by the family Rottweiler. The mother hosting the event assured Josie the boys would be safe and that the Rottweiler, who looked and sounded mean and dangerous, was actually very gentle and safe unless someone threatened her children.

Josie was thankful that a new ruling recently passed by the state assembly gave foster parents more day-to-day authority over the children in their care. Before the new bill, even a sleepover required the parent's approval and if denied, there was no recourse. At least now, the law recognized that foster parents should be making day-to-day decisions, not a parent separated from the child by social services for serious reasons.

She drove by the town's motel, but when she didn't see Jack's Jeep, she headed back. Home brought a smile to her face as Jack's Jeep was there. The garage was open and looked to be full of library units. She walked in and stood in awe at the library shelving. Each unit was a beautiful masterpiece from century old master carpenters. The units would be beautiful in her library, and she ran her hands lovingly over the fine mahogany finish.

"I thought I heard someone."

Josie whirled around, and her face lit up to see Jack standing in the door of the breezeway separating the old carriage house, now the garage, from the back porch of the house.

"You left the inside door unlocked and the alarm off," Jack said gruffly. "You should know better."

"Good afternoon to you too," Josie said sharply. "Thanks for bringing these pieces over. What do I owe you for them?"

Jack's face changed from stern, but friendly, to dangerous in a flat second. He abruptly turned and went back inside the house.

Josie followed him through her house and into what would be a library again once she started working on it seriously. He was packing old books that had fallen from broken shelving into boxes.

"Is something wrong, Jack?" Josie asked.

"Yeah, something's wrong," he said angrily. "First off, you're not paying for the stuff you wanted from the house."

"Okay, but—"

"Second, when's the last time you were out there?" Jack demanded.

Josie's forehead furrowed. "I don't know. I drive by occasionally when I'm out in that direction. Jimmy and I boarded up the doors and windows on the house about five or six weeks ago."

"After you'd been working in the place—by yourself—removing windows, doors and stair railings," Jack said, making sure he was getting confirmation.

"The job wasn't finished, and the house was stable," Josie objected.

"Was that before or after the goddamn roof collapsed?" Jack snapped.

"The roof didn't cave in until after I got everything out," Josie yelled back.

"Damn it, Josie. I told you to lock up and stay out of there. I told you I didn't want you working in there," Jack yelled.

"We weren't finished!" Josie yelled back. "And you took off without so much as a see you babe!"

"I had to leave! First for the funeral and then I was under orders. I told you not to go back in there. You didn't have to go back in there!"

"Yes, I did," Josie hotly retorted. "Those doors, stained-glass windows, and staircase railings are irreplaceable."

Jack grabbed her by the upper arms and gave her a shake. "I don't give a flying fuck about windows and doors. It's one thing to work in a place when it is stable, but it wasn't! That chimney coming down was proof that the structure was shifting. I told you about the warnings the structural inspector gave me. You are irreplaceable, Josie. You could have been hurt or killed!"