Ichabod said, “No, my children did. It’s in trust for them. I’m just the dad.”
“Oh, I see.” Ms. Kacey nodded. “I can see Vic doing something like that. There wasn’t anyone else to leave it to, and those children were the light of his life.”
“They were.” Ichabod beamed. “I knew he adored them, but he was always a little hard to read. Kind of gruff.”
“He was a character.” Ms. Kacey smiled. The other lady kept staring at them as if she truly disapproved, but maybe that was good cop/bad cop. Maybe she wasn’t such a sour old puss, but he hated that she was making Chrissy nervous.
“And then some.” Ichabod grinned at Ms. Kacey. “But he was good to the kids, and he welcomed me into the family with mostly open arms, so I can’t complain.”
“So, are you home with the children when they’re home because you work from here?” If Mrs. Halloway’s stare bored into Ichabod any harder, he would end up with a hole right through him.
“Yes, ma’am. And if I can’t be here because I’m delivering aproject, or I have to run into town to go to the store, Ellis stays with them. He’s on-site all the time.”
“And you don’t have any other full-time cowboys on the ranch?”
Ichabod looked to him to answer that question because they had their roles, house and ranch. That was that.
“Not right now. We don’t have any day laborers either,” Ellis said. “I only have a small remuda of about eight horses and a tiny herd of cattle. It seemed more important to get the house up to speed for the kids and get their routines established first.”
“That sounds very sensible,” Ms. Kacey agreed. “Now, do you mind if we do a quick walkthrough with you, Mr. Ichabod, through the house? Chrissy could stay here and watch herBlue’s Clues.”
“How about I give you the tour, Ms. Kacey, and Mrs. Halloway can stay here and watch over Chrissy, because I can see that she’s concerned?”
Ouch. Ichabod was getting strident, and Ellis was going to have to give him a blowjob once all this was over to calm him down. Not that he would ever say that out loud, or not right now.
“Blue,” Chrissy said. “I’s time for Blue.”
“Right on, baby girl.” Ellis took Chrissy back from Ichabod. Bless her heart. She probably felt like a football being passed back and forth, but that was okay. They just had to get through this shit.
Little smarty that she was, she was also glaring at Ms. Halloway. Clearly she didn’t like being interrupted in the bath, and she knew that they were not happy with the lady too. But she sat and watched her TV show while Ichabod showed Ms. Lacey through the house.
However, when they came back with Ms. Kacey checkingthings off on her tablet, she was smiling, so that was a good sign.
“Well, I think that about does it. We would love to meet with the other children when they are at home at some point. Perhaps we could come back in a couple of days?”
“Sure, they get out of school after business hours. I would think, though.” Ichabod’s body language was starting to get painfully stiff. “My kids are kids. We’re not billionaires. We don’t have a lot of celebrity, nor do we want it. But whoever decided that they wanted to mess with us, you can tell them that, if they have a problem with me, they can come and talk to me, one-on-one. I’m a reasonable person. This is absolutely inappropriate and a waste of your time and the taxpayers’ money. I appreciate that you came and checked up on us to make sure the kids were safe, but they are.”
It was obviously time for them to go home.
Ms. Kacey agreed, he thought. She nodded. “Come on, Lindsey. I think we have all we need.”
Ms. Halloway seemed as if she might argue, but then she shrugged and stood. “I would like to talk to the other children, but we can always arrange to do that at school if you’re willing.”
“As long as I’m there to sit in, that’s fine. I will not let them be grilled without me.”
Ms. Kacey gave them another gentle smile. “I’ll call to arrange it, and I’ll do the interviews with you and the children. No worries. Possibly with the report I’m going to put in, we won’t need to do that. Lindsey? That’s enough. Let’s go.”
Ichabod didn’t relax until the women had left, and even then his whole body stayed stiff. He checked on Chrissy, who was sitting in front of the TV singing along with her animated friends and kicking her feet because Ellis had put her down to watch her show. “Kitchen?”
“You bet.” He followed Ichabod with his stiff back into the kitchen.
Ichabod turned on Ellis as soon as they got out of Chrissy’s earshot. “What the fuck? What the ever-loving fuck, Ellis? Who is calling CPS on me?”
Ellis was pretty damn furious himself, but it wasn’t his way to show it. “I think it was Rick.”
“Why would he do that? Why would he hurt the kids? I can understand coming after me because he’s pissed off at Vic, but why the kids? That is so shitty.”
“It is shitty, and he and I are going to have a long talk, Ichabod. Areallylong one.” That talk might involve blackening that bastard’s eye. Jesus, involving the kids in this petty bullshit? That was way beyond the fucking pale.
