Noble thought about it. Willie sometimes worked on fire crews organized by Ranger Brock, or else manned watchtowers on a part-time casual basis during fire season. The work seemed to suit Willie, especially the casual part. Noble needed Willie for a job, but it wasn’t exactly what you would call work. “Not really,” Noble answered. “I need to see him.”

“Try the library,” said Arlo. “He said he needed to check on his fortune…you know, to see if he was gonna eat steak or Kraft Dinner tonight.” Arlo laughed at that, but Noble didn’t join him. There was nothing funny about being poor in Redstone, especially during the winter months.

“Thanks,” Noble said, leaving the office and heading for the library around the corner.

The Redstone Public Library was a fairly new building, made of brick and mortar, but faced with cut cedar logs to give it an old-style log cabin look. Noble found Willie, not at a desk in the stacks, but at a computer station, surfing the Internet.

“Willie Greene?” he said.

“Who wants to know?” Willie asked without taking his eyes off the screen. He wore a small pair of granny glasses low down on his nose that made his whole head tilt backwards when he looked at the monitor. As far as Noble could tell, Willie was checking out some sort of investments page. The name in the top right-hand corner of the screen read Willie Greene, and some of the figures on the page had as many as six digits. Maybe that’s why Arlo was laughing, Noble thought. Willie wasn’t poor at all, he just lived his life as if he were.

“I do,” said Noble. “Noble Brock.”

“One of Ranger Brock’s kids?” Willie finally turned to look at Noble, and smiled. “Oh yeah, you’re the good-looking one.”

Noble felt his face getting warm. He’d been called the “good-looking one” plenty of times before, but he’d never liked it since the people who called him that also usually referred to Harlan as “the runt” or “Dogface.”

“I need you to do something,” Noble said.

Willie glanced at Noble a moment, then began looking around the library as if he expected to find a camera hidden somewhere between the books.

“Your father send you?”

“Nope, I came on my own.”

Willie must have been intrigued, because he closed the file on the screen and turned to face Noble. “Okay, I’ll bite. What is it?”