“Well.” Liam tried a smile. “Not everything, I hope.”

The chief did not smile back. “There are three Old Believer villages. They’re pretty self-sufficient. They almost never call in. But there are an awful lot of people living out in the boonies who could use a little attention.”

“I am aware,” Liam said again.

“You’ll need a four-wheeler.”

“I’m told I’ll have one, and a pickup with four-wheel drive.”

The chief nodded. “A plane?”

“I don’t fly.”

“You’ll need a pilot on call then.” He jerked his head toward the view of the other side of the Bay, visible outside the window they were sitting next to. “Those folks generally keep themselves to themselves but they do need help on occasion.”

Please god not too often, Liam thought.

“We should exchange phone numbers,” the chief said. They did, and the chief picked up his hat.

Liam stood up with him. “Any ongoing cases of which I should be aware?”

The chief pulled on his cap. “Nothing to speak of.”

Liam had followed him outside and watched him drive away.

Very odd, he thought now, tapping the steering wheel. He’d spent the morning looking at detachment dispatches, the files Barton had left him on a Google Drive file password-protected to the level of Defcon 5, and a map he could zoom into of the lower Kenai Peninsula. There were plenty of hot spots. If it had been him, he would have welcomed the help instead of actively distancing himself from it. “Was it something I said?” he said out loud.

Someone tapped at his window in time with his own fingers tapping on the steering wheel. He jumped, and turned his head.

Standing on the other side of the driver’s door was the tiniest, oldest woman he’d ever seen in his life.

She was also naked.

She smiled at him, looking as if she might sprout wings at any moment (and certainly there was nothing in the way to preclude that) and said something he couldn’t hear. He rolled down the window. “I beg your pardon, ma’am?” he said, because it was the first thing that leaped to mind.

She smiled even more seraphically. “I knew just by looking at you that you would have good manners.” She sniffed. “Or any manners at all. I wonder, could you give me a ride to Barney’s? I’m going to be late for my first set, and Elmer gets so upset when that happens.”

“Sure thing, ma’am.” He groped for the jacket on the seat next to him.

He managed to talk her into his jacket, which reached her shins, and from there into the office. To oblige him she agreed to enthrone herself on one of the armchairs and made him promise again to find her a ride to Barney’s in time for her set.

He turned and surprised Ms. Petroff with an almost human expression on her face. “Do you know her?” he said.