Dolly's Detectives

1) Do You Know Dolly's Detectives?

It was like any typical Saturday night in the Queens Bay Country Club in Brentwood, Tennessee. Valet's running up and down the winding street as they parked and fetched vehicles for yet another party. Music echoing throughout the neighborhood from a live band cranking out a mix of hits from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Dolly sat on her front porch watching it all unfold as she gently rocked in the rocker that once belonged to her grandmother. It creaked just slightly with each forward movement, a sound she used to her advantage to stay in beat with each song from two doors down.

A smile spread across her face as the unmistakable beginning of 9 to 5 kicked up. She leaned a little further back and hollered through the screen door, "Carl, come here."

Carl stepped out, half-in the doorway still. Before he could ask what she needed Dolly said, "9 to 5 is an ironic choice given they all just started partying at 9p.m. and we know they ain't gonna stop until 5a.m.!"

He chuckled and said, "you're probably right. All the more reason to tuck in early before your big day tomorrow." He stepped out and took the few steps across the porch to stand by her side, bending down to give her a quick kiss before telling her goodnight. He knew the nervous energy for tomorrow would keep her up for a while longer and could already hear her humming what would undoubtedly be a song she would soon write.

Dolly took a few more minutes to enjoy the music before heading inside. Like the rest of the neighbors on her street she'd been invited to tonight's party but had elected to only make a brief appearance at the start before making a slick goodbye and sneak back home. Tomorrow was the official grand opening of Dolly's Detectives. A project that had been near to her heart for a while and was finally becoming a reality.

Earlier in the year a story made its way to Dolly about a 26 year-old woman named Ruth Rose that went missing from her home in Chattanooga. There was no evidence of foul play and all signs pointed to her choosing to leave, so the police dropped the case but her family was insistent that there was more to it. They couldn't afford the cost of private investigators and turned to the public to help fundraise and organically share her story.

Weeks went by and they found nothing but bogus leads and investigators that claimed they wanted to help pro bono but only stuck around long enough to get publicity then ghosted them. Almost three months to the day after she disappeared her body was found in Guntersville Lake. The police found her killer not long after, but when it was revealed he had only just killed her days before and in fact had been holding her hostage for all that time Dolly was angered and heartbroken. She'd been involved in so many philanthropic efforts over the course of her career and never shied away from a cause in need. This moment showed her a glaring need, a resource that could help people investigate to find a missing loved one or look deeper into cases that had long gone cold.

She reached out to her team and went through the process to formally create a nonprofit, Dolly's Detectives Inc. a 501(c)3, and find a building in Brentwood to serve as a home base for their operations. Dolly then brought in experts to help her identify the best people possible to hire for her team, former detectives, private investigators, forensics experts, and attorneys. Initially she was only going to hire 4-5 people, however, as word got out about what she was doing the client requests began flooding in and she ended up bringing on ten staff while she, at least for the interim, would act as Executive Director.

The most important aspect of Dolly's Detectives, all services are at no cost to the client. Those that are able can make a donation to the nonprofit to help with expenses but they are under no obligation to give. Dolly didn't want finances to be the hindrance for anyone that was in need and it's a fact she stressed with each hire before making them an offer. They had to be committed to the cause of helping those that felt the most helpless, and to help every person with the same full effort and vigor regardless of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other identifier that could breed discrimination.

They set-up a vetting process to help evaluate incoming case requests and a system to escalate time sensitive cases to the front of the pile. Dolly's goddaughter Miley was the office gatekeeper and handled the intake process. There was a detective duo that was solely there to work on cold cases that were more than a year old and had already been moved to cold case divisions at their respective police departments. The three remaining detectives would be dedicated to cases less than a year old.

As cases came in Miley would flag any that needed immediate follow-up and those would be vetted out in the morning staff meeting. Any long term cold cases were forwarded to the detectives handling them and they prioritized them by order received. All the remaining cases went into the equivalent of a slush pile, except it was a metaphorical slush pile that was reviewed every week. There was a triage grading scale used for each to help the remaining detectives take the most urgent and high risk cases first.

The Dolly's Detectives crew had been working together for about three weeks and had a few successes under their belt already. Accomplishments that made the never ending roadblocks and cold leads more tolerable. They were actively working on 15 cases and had well over 100 already vetted and currently in a holding pattern until they could add them in. No case was turned away but they could only actively work on so many at a time without taking away from the investigative efforts of each.

Dolly hoped that the press conference planned for tomorrow would be the catapult needed to get them in front of a larger audience and bring in even more funds to add on more detectives. She herself had already begun discussions with her financial manager to flush more money in but as it was she knew the organization needed to stand on its own merit, and she felt confident that it would. For as long as she was able Dolly would make sure there was never another Ruth Rose lost unnecessarily.

"If I don't go on and get to bed soon it's gonna take a lot more effort to look this cheap in the morning," Dolly said to herself.

She turned to make her way back inside but just as her hand grabbed the screen door handle a scream shrilled across the neighborhood. It was enough to stop the band mid-song making the moment after eerily quiet. Dolly walked to the edge of her porch and looked down the street where partygoers were streaming out and making their way to the house next door. A woman was being consoled by a few of the valet runners on the grass just beyond the open front door. It was only a matter of minutes before police and fired department sirens were heard in the distance.

Dolly's curiosity was getting the best of her but she knew she would be a distraction if she went over there right now. The growing crowd of spectators was more than capable of handling whatever was going on, and she knew she'd be able to squeeze out the details from the reporters at her press conference regarding the death two doors down.