November Falls

Chapter 1

The morning of November 17, 2021, was just another workday for the family of detectives assigned to the unsolved case squad within the November Falls Police Department. It was a Wednesday and a fairly uneventful one at that. Their lieutenant was hard at work in his office, going through files of paperwork and mandatory reports while his six detectives tried to ignore the fact that they were currently between cases.

Oh, that wasn't to say that they didn't have any work to do, it was just that the only work they had was the kind of busy work even they procrastinated until the last possible minute. Friday was soon enough to start on that, assuming they didn't open a new (old) case. If they were fortunate enough to reopen a case, then the busywork would again be relegated to the to-do lists, waiting for another lull between cases for them to procrastinate it again.

Sprawled on a chair, loudly snoring, Detective Joel 'call me Joe' Casper was oblivious to the goings-on in the bullpen. Crucially, Joe was blissfully ignorant of the fact that his partner, Anika Bright, had just pilfered the last of that morning's donuts from their break room. They weren't normally the kind of detectives to proscribe to the cop show cliches; squabbling over donuts and having no lives outside of their precinct. It was just that, for them as most detectives in November Falls, donuts were a serious business. And getting the last one? That was a perk reserved for only the most deserving detective, or the most cunning.

Anika kicked back at her desk - feet up, coffee in one hand, donut in the other - quite at peace with the world. The former narcotics detective had only joined the team the year before but she had settled into their dynamics instantly, her unique brand of sass and straight talking filling a hole they hadn't realised existed.

On the other side of the - actually quite small - bullpen, Sara Marsh huffed a laugh and informed Anika that the Lieutenant would be out for donut retribution. Sara seemed about as unconcerned about that as Anika though, going back to her paperwork with a slight smile twitching the corners of her lips. Sara was the busiest of them all; finishing up on the paperwork for a case she and her partner - Theodore Edwards - had reopened earlier that month.

Ted was the most experienced detective in the squad, a few years away from mandatory retirement and still going strong. He had a gentle wisdom about him and a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the history of November Falls that proved invaluable on their cases. A father and grandfather, he was a gentleman through and through. Sara had waved away his offers of helping with the final touches for the case, and so he was perfectly content with a good book on the Jazz Clubs of the '40s and a mug of the legendarily substandard department coffee. So engrossed was he that the antics of his colleagues went straight past him, quite literally in at least the one case.

Nicholas Varela was amusing himself as only he could. Balls of waste paper sailed from behind his desk, joining a half dozen others littered on and around the sleeping form of Joe Casper. His grin was out in full force, lending a further element of boyish charm to his good looks. In testament to the relaxed nature of the day, Nick had shucked his jacket and tie, cuffs unbuttoned and loose around his wrists, arm muscles flexing with every successful toss.

Anika clearly thought Nick's idea looked fun, she too joined in lobbing balls of paper at her partner. And, truly, if anyone had reason to lob waste paper at Joe Casper, it would be his long-suffering partner. It was another of the accepted perks of the squad room.

At the desk opposite Nick's, worked his partner. Evelyn Hardy was a second generation cop. She had been born and raised in November Falls before joining the NFPD as soon as she could, just like her father and eldest brother before her. She was the quietest of the detectives, the youngest here just as she was in her own family. Her medium blonde hair was pulled back in a bun, green eyes scanning a folder of newspaper clippings found as evidence for Sara and Ted's latest case.