and straightened, staring down at her.
She held her hand up at her forehead like a visor. “Still.”
“Still what? You wanted the roof fixed.”
“You are...you are unorthodox and I don’t like it.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know that I’ve ever been called unorthodox before.”
“That surprises me.”
“Not because I’m not,” he said. “Just because I often associate with people who don’t have as expansive of a vocabulary. I’ve been called other things. Along the same theme.”
“I’m sure,” she bit out.
“You know,” he said. “Since you mentioned it. I could really use a beer.”
“I did not...mention that.”
“Oh, didn’t you?”
She narrowed her eyes, then stepped into the house, and he heard the front door slam. For some reason, he was sure that she would reappear with a beer, and be mad about it.
She was the strangest woman he had ever met. Constantly irritated at him for one slight or another and yet... She wasn’t avoiding him. Not really. And she wasn’t mean to him. And in fact, just as he had expected, she returned not long later with a beer in her hand. She stood down below, holding it aloft. “I’m not climbing up there with a beer in my hand. And, if you get drunk and fall off my roof I will not be held responsible.”
“A beer is not going to get me drunk,” he called down.
“I don’t know how many you had prior to this one.”
He chuckled, then put his hammer down and made his way down the ladder. He walked over to where she was standing, her dark eyes gone round and somewhat glazed.
“Is there a problem?” he asked.
“Why do you keep asking me that?”
“Maybe because you always look at me like I’m a problem.”
Her breath hitched, like whatever she’d been about to say had gotten caught in her throat. She opened her mouth. Closed it. Then opened it again. “Then quit being one.”
He snatched the beer—which she had already opened—out of her hand.
He took a swig of the beer, then considered Pansy for a moment. “How serious is a police department liable to take a missing persons report for a fifteen-year-old boy?”
She blinked. “What?”
“Just curious.”
She cleared her throat. “I guess it depends on the circumstances.”
“Great. So, probably not at all.”
“What’s going on?”
“My half brother is missing. My mom’s kid. I mean, she doesn’t think he’s missing, that’s the thing. He’s fifteen, and he hasn’t been home for weeks, and I found out today that she never reported it.”
“Oh,” Pansy said.
“I reported it,” he said. “I called the department out in Linn County. But I have no idea if they’re going to take me seriously, or if they’re just going to assume that he’s a troubled kid who went walkabout.”
“I can’t say,” she said. “I would take it seriously. I take it very seriously when someone from the community goes missing. Whether they have a pattern of being a runaway or not. But...not every police officer is like that. We’re just people. Some are better than others. Some are better at evaluating situations without prejudice. And some...some just care more.”
“So what you’re telling me is there’s no way of knowing what they’ll do.”
“Well, if he’s not presumed endangered...”
“No. I don’t suppose he is.”
“Does he not have a good relationship with your mom?”
“I don’t really know. He’s got...the relationship that you can have with her. She’s not...maternal. Not really. And that’s fine. I mean, I turned out all right. I figured it out. Life’s tough, but I stumbled my way through it. Made some mistakes. But if I could keep Emmett from having some of the same issues I did, I would. As soon as I divorced Monica I would have taken him in, but you know, then I was in prison. And when I got out... Mom was real cagey about his whereabouts. And then she finally admitted to me she didn’t know where he was. She said he came home occasionally for food. Lately he hasn’t been home at all.”
“And Child Services never intervened?”
“They never did for me either. Like you said. The problem with everything is that it’s run by people. And that means if you get the wrong person you fall through the cracks real easy. Emmett and I...we fell through cracks. That’s just the way of it.”
“Well, give me all the information about your brother. I know... Look, there’s not a lot I can do here. Linn County’s a few hours away. But if I hear any chatter, if anyone shows up matching his description and I see