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”Yeah, but you double-majored in Anthropology and Journalism. I don’t have a degree, not even a GED; Jackie has a high school diploma. Neither of us were qualified for our positions, but we learned from our teachers. I want to teach you now.”

“You don’t have a high school diploma? Not even a GED?”

I shook my head, not wanting to get into that story right now. I handed him the Watcher file. “You and I will work this case from beginning to end. Go do whatever you need to, and come back in here so we can start reviewing the details.”

He nodded and stood without a word.

”Lexington?” I called before he was out of my office door.

He turned to me. “Yeah, boss?”

”Why do you need to leave early?”

He leaned against the doorway, his broad shoulders filling it. “My son is having a hard time right now. Doesn’t want to go to his aunt’s during the workday. I promised I would try and leave work early so we could spend some extra time together.”

I took a steadying breath and met his green eyes. “We’ll start later this week, then. Wrap up what you can today so you can get home to him earlier. Would you be willing to meet on Saturday to make it up? We can start our research then.”

He stared at me with wide eyes. “Y-yeah, that works great. I’m shocked you’re letting me. I didn’t think you were my biggest fan.”

“I’m not. But that doesn’t mean I’ll let it affect River,” I explained. It was true. I wasn’t exceptionally close with Lexington nor River, his son, but I had been that little kid, desperate to spend time with my parents. All the time I could.

Lexington had unknowingly found my weak spot—not that I would confess that.

I didn’t know much about River. I knew he was four. I knew he had Lexington’s matching green eyes and dimple. I knew they shared the same brown skin and dark brown hair. And that was it. But he was a kid who seemed to need his dad right now.

“Thanks, boss,” he muttered with a genuine smile and wandered out of my office, presumably toward his. I sighed and opened up the file of the case we would be diving into.

I couldn’t believe I was agreeing to shadow him. The only reason I hadn’t fired him was because he was Oliver’s brother. Which, in hindsight, was a shitty reason. But I also hadn’t been a good boss. I was the manager now, and it was my job to set Lexington up for success. It had been nearly five years, and it was time I put our… past behind us.

I flipped through the file's pages. The case of the Watcher was exclusively being talked about on smaller true crime blogs. I was surprised no mainstream media had picked it up. The only reason I had found it was that I had the city name flagged in my Google Alerts. Every time something containing the town's name was mentioned online, it would hit my inbox. The majority was boring, generic alerts about the census being completed or a stray article about their annual fall festival.

In truth, the majority was about the festival.

To say I was surprised when the blog posts hit my inbox would be an understatement. There was very little information shared about the elusive Watcher. All I did know was there were notes being shared, and the entire town knew about them, but rarely spoke about it. If ever. It was as if the entire town was under the agreement to never let the news of the notes be shared, and they were successful for nearly twenty years, if the blog posts were to be believed.

It was rare we took on a case that hadn’t been previously sensationalized. That’s what we did. We focused on finding the truth in the stories that had been twisted. More often than not, it wasn’t a satanic cult that was responsible for a murder, nor was it aliens responsible for a missing person. The mainstream media didn’t care about the truth, but we did.

While most of our stories focused on already popular cases, it wasn’t unheard of for us to uncover something new. The case shouldn’t be too difficult either, though I wasn’t sure what direction Lexington would want to go with the story. I was focused on facts; it was his job to write them into a story that people would want to read.

I reviewed the notes for our game plan, ready to present them to Lexington. Look, I wasn’t a writer, but I could dig up information. I knew how to handle research—and that was where Lexington fell incredibly short. He could spin a solid narrative, sure, but his articles never had the teeth or the backing to make them hit hard.

Working with Lexington would be painful. I would need to put my biases aside to train him properly. Our past was ancient history at this point, and I was determined to not let it affect me anymore. I didn’t have to like the man, but I could act professional and help Lexington take this job more seriously. Though, after four years, I was hesitant that I would be able to make any significant difference, but it didn’t hurt to try.

I would need him to take this story seriously. Especially if we were traveling to Cherrytree Hills… my hometown.

Lexington

Life these days felt like a skipping record. The same ten seconds repeating over and over… and over again.

Wake up, get dressed, and hope River wasn’t awake yet. Then came the gauntlet: waking him up, getting him dressed, making breakfast, and fighting the inevitable battle over his shoes. Next was negotiating the terms of him going to Aunt Theo’s while I went to work. Afterward, pick him up, feed him, feed myself, and cram in as much work as I could by the dim light of my bedroom before passing out. Just to wake up and do it all again.

It wasn't a life I would give up, but there were some mornings when I woke up and missed the partying days of my life before River. Things were easier back then. Not better—not by a long shot. But easier.

Being a parent was hard. Being a single father whose son was dropped off with only a note and no mother in sight was a whole other ballgame. I didn’t know his mother, Miley, well, but I would have never guessed she would keep my son's existence from me until she was too overwhelmed to be an active mother. He was nearly a month old when I finally saw his matching green eyes and dimple that I recognized each day when I looked into the mirror.

From the moment he came into my life, I knew he would need to be my entire world. It was just a matter of changing my entire world and actually fessing up to my family about his existence.

Telling my parents about River had been an interesting affair. I mean, how was I supposed to spring a baby on them without any prior warning? Hey Mom and Dad, here’s your grandchild I didn’t know about until today when his mother abandoned him. It wasn’t exactly an easy conversation.