give this kid a record he doesn’t need. I feel like we can do better than that here.”
“That isn’t your job,” Barbara said. “Your job is to enforce the law.”
That ate at Pansy, because in many ways she agreed. But she also felt like there were gray areas and places for leniency, and when it came to fifteen-year-old kids who were wild like the animals that roamed the mountains, and in bad need of support, and needed the adults around them to be the adults and step up and fill in the gaps left behind by parents that hadn’t been there for them, then she felt they should do that. That was the point of community, after all.
Community wasn’t about fair. Not about everything being divided up into equal spaces, or seeing the people around them in a black-and-white fashion. It was about bearing each other’s burdens when you needed to. Having a neighbor you could lean on if you ever found yourself unsteady.
That was how her father had done his job for the town. He had done right.
Right in a deep and real way, not right on paper. And when their parents had died, that was what the community had done for them.
She was committed to doing the same.
“Barbara,” Pansy said, trying to keep her voice measured. “I want you to think about what you’re advocating for here.”
“I’m through with this discussion,” Barbara said, “I want to press charges.”
She stormed away from her desk, and went right back toward Chief Doering’s office.
Pansy pinched the bridge of her nose.
“This is fine,” she muttered.
“What’s the issue?” West asked. “Because I’ll write her a check for the difference. Hell, I’ll write her a check for the whole $500. She can make money on this deal.”
“The issue is that she’s decided to make it one,” Pansy said. “Because that’s who she is.”
Pansy got up and stormed after her. Because she would be damned if she was going to sit back and let this woman intimidate her or run roughshod over her.
Barbara was ranting over Chief Doering’s desk when Pansy walked in. “Everything that she was missing is being returned,” Pansy said. “West Caldwell is acting as the boy’s temporary guardian, and he has offered to pay the difference in the missing money. He can add more for pain and suffering.”
“I’m going to tell you right now,” Chief Doering said. “This is a case that isn’t going to go anywhere and it’s going to cost the city a lot of money. If the kid gets anything it’s going to be a fine, that might cover the cost of taking this to trial, but that’s it. Especially given that Carl Jacobson is not going to press charges. You just don’t have a whole lot here. I’d let it go.”
“So this is how you run the department now? We’re supposed to feel safe?” Barbara was verging on hysteria now, which shouldn’t really surprise Pansy. Not given that she was the sort of person who seemed to revel in her own hysteria.
“Yes,” he said, keeping his tone solemn. “Because you should know that if your son was ever in this position I would behave the same, and I assume Pansy would too.”
She blinked, and then she went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “The quality of people who have been moving in to town is a problem. That school out at the Dalton ranch, and the brother of those Daltons is connected to the hoodlum who stole my wallet. It’s not a coincidence.”
“Barbara...”
“You will not have my support for position as police chief,” Barbara said. “I will voice dissent on the committee.”
“Go ahead and do that,” Pansy said. “And when it comes time for you to run for City Council again I will make sure that the entire town knows that you advocated for throwing the book at a fifteen-year-old boy who stole something that you got back. A homeless boy who has no one in his life to care for him. That’s who you are. Don’t you threaten me. I’m proud of who I am and what I’ve done, and I’ll stand by it. If you think that you would be able to do the same, and if you think that the citizens of this town would like to hear my take on your actions, then go right ahead.”
“You can’t make me vote in favor of you.”
“I can’t,” Pansy said. “I wouldn’t ask you to. Frankly, I don’t want a vote of confidence from someone like