The Gloaming Girls

EPISODE TWO (Part 1/5)

There are some facts about casually agreeing to re-open a detective agency with my roommate that come as a surprise.

There's the fact that Emory seems to be dead set on squeezing a crash course on every case she's ever solved in between the onslaught of first-week homework. There's the fact that I have a brand new and staggeringly loyal friend in Marlee Dunn. There's the fact that nearly all of the initial chilliness between Emory and me has dissipated.

But the most unexpected fact is that nothing really happens at all.

Maybe I should have expected this. But it's still strange to have been so excited about something and then be confronted instead with heaps of biology homework.

I'd been hoping for an sudden onslaught of potential cases now that we've sort of decided to do this—decided is a strong word, considering that our interactions about it have been limited to 'yeah we were good at this the one time'—but we're a far cry from onslaught.

There are zero prospective cases. None at all. The most infuriating part of this is that Emory doesn't seem at all bothered by it.

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" she asks, the one time I bring it up. "I'd rather not be needed."

"Aren't you bored?" I ask her, because I am hopelessly bored, even though my dayplanner is full of due dates and labelled red for URGENT.

Emory does not dignify this question with a response. Instead, she turns back to her tablet and touches her earpiece lightly. She's listening to a lecture, I know, even while we're having this conversation. It's starting to drive me batty that apparently Emory has the sort of brain that can keep track of both things at once. She murmurs, "I've got things to do," and then she doesn't say anything more for the rest of the evening.

So there's nothing for days and days, until all of a sudden, there's something.

The something in question comes in the form of a knock on the door. It's the opposite of Marlee's knock: assertive, sharp, determined.

Emory looks up from her desk at me, eyebrows raised.

I shrug, then catch myself and tell her, "I'm not expecting anyone."

"I'm not either," she says.

"I'll see who it is." I close my computer, glad for an excuse to look away from a lab report that's been calling my name for the last few hours.

A tall dark-skinned woman stands on the other side of the door, and when she sees me, her eyebrows shoot straight up. "You must be Olyss."

Behind me, I hear Emory's laptop snap shut. "Ness?"

"Yeah, it's me," the woman says. "Sorry to bother you, but—can I talk to you about something?"

I step out of the way as Emory comes up behind me and Ness steps into the room.

"What's up?" Emory asks.

"Look," Ness says, running a hand over her hair, which is buzzed short and dyed lavender. "I know you don't really do this anymore, and that's fine, it doesn't have to be official, or anything, but... I need to borrow your brain."

Emory's expression of pleasant surprise fades to concern. "What's wrong?"

"Someone broke into my dorm."

Her concern shifts towards confusion. "Well—that's not good. But... wouldn't you be able to figure that one on your own?"

"No, that's just it." Ness starts pacing. She shakes her wrists, and her bangles click together. "I can't get a read on the room at all. Whoever was in there left nothing behind."