A Score & A Decade

Chapter 1

"I have nothing to do, nothing at all," said Zoe. "For almost a month now, I've had no interesting case to solve. The most interesting case in the past month was the case of that missing kitten in Redwood Avenue."

"Where did the kitten turn up finally?" asked her friend, Hank, taking a long sip of his coffee.

"Up a tree," answered Zoe, dully, stirring some more sugar into her now almost cold coffee.

Hank snorted, "How cliche. Are you sure there isn't some case file that you misplaced?"

"Of course not! Besides, I checked. There aren't any." Zoe replied. She took a sip of her coffee and winced. Too sweet.

Zoe Simmons was a Private Investigator who was very dedicated to her job. Too dedicated perhaps. She had run out of every case file she had ever had in her office and was now sitting idle, with no case on her hands.

"Tell you what, ZoZo - "

"Don't call me that!"

"Alright, fine. Zoe, then... How about you drop by the precinct later on and I might be able to flick you some old cases that we haven't opened in, like forever." Hank suggested, already knowing what her answer was going to be.

"Yes, I will! Thank you so much, Hank! You are a lifesaver!" Zoe exclaimed, genuinely thankful for her policeman friend.

"Yes, alright. Anyway, I would spend a bit more time with you and your overly sweetened coffee, but I just got a text from the captain - seems like there's a perp in holdup that can give me a lead on my newest case. Bye Zoe!" Hank hurried off, without waiting for her response.

"Bye Hank" she sighed and sipped her coffee once again and gagged. It really was too sweet. 

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A few hours later, she was at the precinct, watching as Hank dug around some boxes in the Records Room, looking for case files. After a few more minutes of rummaging, he presented to her a pile of them.

"All of these are unsolved of course. But they could also be from super long ago, so maybe you could just leave those be." Hank said, handing her the pile.

"Thanks, Hank, I really do appreciate it." She said earnestly.

"Don't mention it."

Back at her office, she opened the first file. It was a case about a missing four-year-old girl named Roselle Rodney who had gone missing 30 years ago. Unfortunately, the girl had never been found and the case was declared a cold case.

Zoe felt sorry for the poor girl, though it was very likely that she was dead now. However, she felt even worse for the poor parents of the child. To have lost a child so young...to never be at peace of how their daughter had died. No, Roselle wasn't dead, there was no evidence to prove that she was dead. 

She then made a quick and probably hasty decision. She would have to solve all the case files eventually anyway. Why not start with this one? With that thought, she pulled back her chair and began reading.

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