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Authors: Elaine Orr
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going to help him look?”
“Maybe a bit . Mostly I told him he could bunk here for a few days. He’d been sleeping at that park just outside of town.”
“Hardly a safe place . Your house must be cozy.”
I thought she might offer to have Lucas stay with her, but she didn’t . “A bit, but it’s fine.”
“Be careful for a change.” She hung up.
I debated telling Lucas that Aunt Madge would be a good resource in his search, and decided to wait a day or so. A glance at the clock told me it was time to wake him.
Although he was anxious to keep looking for Kim, I planned to get him to help me this morning . I had an ulterior motive. He could come to the vacant house and hold one end of the tape measure as I crutched around with the other end. And then I’d talk him into going to the police station with me.
It seemed like a no brainer. No one there needed to know his or Hannah’s…Kim’s former names. The police might even publicize Kim as a missing person . Ocean Alley police are good about keeping an eye out for someone. They get calls from worried parents every summer. A high school or college student whose parent is worried about them has usually just forgotten to call, or is hung over. If the police see the kids, they tell them to get in touch with whoever’s looking for them. End of story.
Scoobie had left for class at about eight, so at ten-thirty I was the one to awaken Lucas again . “Come on, lazy bones. We have stuff to do.”
He was quickly wide awake . “I thought of another place to look…”
“First you’re going to help me with an appraisal . Then we can both look.” I lifted a crutch from the floor to stress that it was hard to work alone.
Lucas’ sense of responsibility won over his worry . “Sure, I can help. But can we go fast?”
HALF-AN-HOUR later, I unlocked the door to a large ranch-style house on the edge of Ocean Alley. “Lock it for me, will you? It’s a safety thing with me.”
“Sure.”
We both took in the large living room with its huge stone fireplace at one end and a hallway leading to other rooms at the far end. The house looked like an everyday brick and frame ranch from the outside, but the interior had been thoroughly remodeled at some point.
“So what do we do here?” Lucas asked.
I dumped my purse on the fireplace hearth, took a cloth tape measure from my pocket, and handed it to him. “What Harry Steele, my boss, and I do is establish a value for the houses we appraise. Walk to the fireplace, please.” When he was in place, I continued, “If a bank is going to lend money to someone, they want to make sure the house is worth at least what they plan to lend.”
Lucas stood by the fireplace . “Now what?”
“Put one end of the tape measure on the floor . I’ll walk over there and put a crutch on it, and then you unfurl it to the other end of the room so I can take measurements.”
Some appraisers use really long metal tape measures to do this . One day when I was complaining about how the large measure had ripped the edge of my pocket, Aunt Madge had suggested sewing a couple of plastic tape measures together, the kind she uses for sewing. It was a great idea. Less weight in my purse and I could easily sling it around my neck while I wrote. Leave it to Aunt Madge.
When he saw I was going to take pictures in each room, Lucas’ face lit up . “I took a couple of photography classes in college.”
Aha. You went to college . “Great. Take a few and I’ll look at them before you take more.”
He walked into the kitchen and shot a couple, and then the dining room .
I scrolled through them . “These are really good. You picked good spots for the centers.”
“I’m an excellent photographer.” He said this in the same tone Dustin Hoffman used in the movie Rainman . We both laughed.
Given my throbbing foot, I would have taken well more than an hour to measure and photograph all the rooms. We were done in half that
“Maybe a bit . Mostly I told him he could bunk here for a few days. He’d been sleeping at that park just outside of town.”
“Hardly a safe place . Your house must be cozy.”
I thought she might offer to have Lucas stay with her, but she didn’t . “A bit, but it’s fine.”
“Be careful for a change.” She hung up.
I debated telling Lucas that Aunt Madge would be a good resource in his search, and decided to wait a day or so. A glance at the clock told me it was time to wake him.
Although he was anxious to keep looking for Kim, I planned to get him to help me this morning . I had an ulterior motive. He could come to the vacant house and hold one end of the tape measure as I crutched around with the other end. And then I’d talk him into going to the police station with me.
It seemed like a no brainer. No one there needed to know his or Hannah’s…Kim’s former names. The police might even publicize Kim as a missing person . Ocean Alley police are good about keeping an eye out for someone. They get calls from worried parents every summer. A high school or college student whose parent is worried about them has usually just forgotten to call, or is hung over. If the police see the kids, they tell them to get in touch with whoever’s looking for them. End of story.
Scoobie had left for class at about eight, so at ten-thirty I was the one to awaken Lucas again . “Come on, lazy bones. We have stuff to do.”
He was quickly wide awake . “I thought of another place to look…”
“First you’re going to help me with an appraisal . Then we can both look.” I lifted a crutch from the floor to stress that it was hard to work alone.
Lucas’ sense of responsibility won over his worry . “Sure, I can help. But can we go fast?”
HALF-AN-HOUR later, I unlocked the door to a large ranch-style house on the edge of Ocean Alley. “Lock it for me, will you? It’s a safety thing with me.”
“Sure.”
We both took in the large living room with its huge stone fireplace at one end and a hallway leading to other rooms at the far end. The house looked like an everyday brick and frame ranch from the outside, but the interior had been thoroughly remodeled at some point.
“So what do we do here?” Lucas asked.
I dumped my purse on the fireplace hearth, took a cloth tape measure from my pocket, and handed it to him. “What Harry Steele, my boss, and I do is establish a value for the houses we appraise. Walk to the fireplace, please.” When he was in place, I continued, “If a bank is going to lend money to someone, they want to make sure the house is worth at least what they plan to lend.”
Lucas stood by the fireplace . “Now what?”
“Put one end of the tape measure on the floor . I’ll walk over there and put a crutch on it, and then you unfurl it to the other end of the room so I can take measurements.”
Some appraisers use really long metal tape measures to do this . One day when I was complaining about how the large measure had ripped the edge of my pocket, Aunt Madge had suggested sewing a couple of plastic tape measures together, the kind she uses for sewing. It was a great idea. Less weight in my purse and I could easily sling it around my neck while I wrote. Leave it to Aunt Madge.
When he saw I was going to take pictures in each room, Lucas’ face lit up . “I took a couple of photography classes in college.”
Aha. You went to college . “Great. Take a few and I’ll look at them before you take more.”
He walked into the kitchen and shot a couple, and then the dining room .
I scrolled through them . “These are really good. You picked good spots for the centers.”
“I’m an excellent photographer.” He said this in the same tone Dustin Hoffman used in the movie Rainman . We both laughed.
Given my throbbing foot, I would have taken well more than an hour to measure and photograph all the rooms. We were done in half that
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