Some months previously
Nicole stepped out of her car and looked at the street in front of her. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen a street so… empty. There was no more than maybe a dozen people visible walking around what was apparently the town centre, and she could count the moving cars on one hand.
They told her Purgatory was a small town, but she hadn't been quite prepared for just how… spacious it would feel. She couldn't suppress a full-faced grin of excitement. This was a town she'd be able to make a difference in. A town she'd be able to forge her own place in. A town where she suddenly realised that the few people that were walking around were all staring at her.
Her grin faltered a little.
She sat back down in the driver's seat and picked up her phone. A quick refresh of the the zip code in her GPS app and she was back on the road heading towards the motel she'd be staying at until she moved into her new apartment. It took a minute and thirteen seconds to reach it.
I'm already loving this small town thing, she thought to herself as she unloaded her bags from the trunk.
Sheriff Nedley sat silently on the other side of the desk as Nicole waited patiently. His eyes rolled gently left to right over the reference letter that the chief of Nicole's previous precinct had sent ahead of her.
He laid it suddenly down on the desk, with a snap. Nicole didn't flinch - the slight smirk on Nedley's face made her think that maybe he'd been testing to see if she would.
"Alright Haught," he said, relaxing back in his seat with a mug of coffee. "We both know you know how to be a cop and you'll start learning this town's… quirks soon enough."
"And I'm looking forward to it," Nicole said with a keen nod.
"Sure," said Nedley. "Well you've had your tour of the department here. Go finish your HR forms and grab your jacket, and we'll take a ride. I'll show you some of the sites you'll be visiting the most."
Nicole beamed. This was already a better day first day by far than the one she'd had back at the city precinct. Her old colleagues had broken her locker open and hidden her cat-patterned sandwich box in the chief's office. She'd gone in there and bold-facedly retrieved it, which although set a good first impression for having balls (sort of) had landed her the nickname 'Officer Pawt'. That had set the benchmark by which all other first days were measured.
Day one in Purgatory was already ahead by a landslide. She had no idea how much better it was about to get.
"I'll be honest, when you said sites I'd visit most, I don't think this was quite was I expected." Nicole shot a smirk at Nedley, who shrugged and lifted his scotch glass to his lips.
He had brought her to Shorty's, the apparent hub of the town. It was certainly the most people she'd seen in one place since she got there. Nicole smiled and looked around. The place had an old-fashioned, rustic vibe that she instantly loved. It was a far departure from the sleek, ultra modern, personalityless, wipe-clean bars and clubs that the city had to offer. This place even had a pool table.
"Sheriff," said a portly man with a nod of greeting. He turned to Nicole with a friendly smile. "This must be that new deputy you've been waitin' on."
Nicole returned the smile and held out a hand which the man shook. "Officer Haught. Nicole."
"Folks call me Shorty," the man replied. "Welcome to Purgatory."
"Thanks. 'Shorty', as in…" Nicole gestured around the room.
"The one and the same," Nedley chimed in. "Shorty here's a good man to go to if you wanna know what people in this town are up to."
"Let me guess," Nicole grinned. "People spill their heart and secrets to the bar-keep?"
Shorty shrugged. "A little, but mostly folk just tend to talk louder than they think they do once they've had a few drinks." He shot Nicole a friendly wink.
She laughed and relaxed a little further in her seat. "I'll be sure to remember that."
"Well anyway, I'll leave you two to your police work. Good to meet you Officer Haught." Shorty and Nedley exchanged one of those 'goodbye nods' that old friends often do and Shorty made his way back over to the bar.
"So is every day like this here?" Nicole asked, taking a sip of her soda.
Nedley had said it would be ok if she had a proper drink, but she figured that drinking at work less than 24 hours after starting a new job was bad by anyone's standards.
"Let's just say most days you'll be spending a lot more time on paperwork than today, but I figured we'd celebrate your arrival a little." Nedley shrugged. "The job has a different pace than I'm sure you're used to, but you'll get used to it."
Nicole was dimly aware that Nedley was still speaking, but her attention was honestly elsewhere. She was watching the young woman stood behind the bar.
She was petite, with waist-length brown hair that was pinned back, allowing a clear and perfect view of a bright, smiley face that Nicole couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from. The woman was chatting to some of Shorty's patrons, leaning casually on the bar, her smile lighting up the whole room.
Oh. My. Goodness. Nicole fought a physical urge to bite her own lip.
Wait, how long have I been staring? Has Nedley noticed? Shit!
Nicole began frantically gazing around the rest of the room, attempting to give the impression that she'd been taking in the whole bar, rather than fixating on the girl stood behind it. She tuned back into Nedley's conversation just in time to catch his question.
"You got family back in the city?"
"Huh? Uh, no, my parents and that are across state," Nicole said hurriedly, taking a rather large gulp of her soda and returning her focus to her new boss. She shifted in her seat a little, suddenly aware of how warm it was in the room. "So uh, who else around here should I meet?"
She cringed inside. Wow. Subtle, she thought.
Nedley slouched back in his seat and surveyed the room. "Well, Purgatory's a small town, so I reckon you'll get to know everyone pretty quick anyway, but I can see a few people in tonight worth meeting. C'mon."
Nedley scooped up his scotch and gestured for Nicole to follow as he headed to chat to a gathering of people a few tables away. He proceeded to introduce her to the town's most popular barber, a couple of the volunteer firefighters, a lady that ran the laundrette, the local blacksmith, and others. Nicole was doing her best to keep track of the names and faces she was learning, but attention kept slipping and she found herself glancing back to the bar area as they worked their way around the room.
At one point they were close enough that she could hear the girl's voice.
"Come on, juss' one more," a young man at the bar was pleading with her.
"Davey, you know I know you right? Trust me I'm doing you a favour cutting you off," the girl patted him consolingly on the shoulder and shot him a charming smile. "Now get off that stool and go back to work. I don't wanna lie to your boss if he comes in here looking for you."
Davey rolled his eyes and got to his feet. "Well how about we both get outta here?" he tried to wink at her. Mostly it just looked like a twitch.
"You can cut that out right now mister," the girl said pointing a stern finger at him. "Or should I be telling your girlfriend Francine where you go each day instead of meeting her for lunch?"
Nicole stifled a snort of laughter and a grin, then tried again to pay full attention to the conversation Nedley was having with the gentleman that ran he town hardware store. The group chatted amiably for a few minutes and then Nicole glanced back towards the bar. Her smile faltered a little as the girl was no longer there.
Nicole tried to subtly to glance around the room and see if she could spot her, but it was like she'd vanished.
"Shorty, we're outta that rum again," Nicole couldn't help but turn around as she heard the girl's voice. She had emerged from a back storeroom and was heading back to the bar carrying a crate of bottles. Nicole could see her in full now in a cropped Shorty's T Shirt anddenim shorts that hugged her figure in a quite agreeable fashion. "And I don't mean the good one, it's the cheap stuff that Champ uses to clean rust off the Jeep."
"Well then Waves," Shorty replied with an endearing smile. "I guess it's time we start selling the good one."
'Waves'? Was that her name? Nicole reckoned she had a much better chance of remembering that than any other name she'd learned so far that day.
Reluctantly, Nicole pulled her attention again back to the conversation with Nedley. This was much how the rest of the afternoon went. After a short while they left Shorty's - Nicole stealing one final look back at 'Waves' - and Nedley continued his tour of the town.
The rest of the day continued much the way Nicole had expected it to, with introductions, stories about different places to keep a particular eye on, areas she was likely to patrol…
As the day wore on Nicole found it harder and harder to stop thinking about the girl from Shorty's, and the fact that Nedley still hadn't mentioned who she was.
How do I ask without sounding like a total creep?
After mulling several terribly phrased questions over in her head she gloomily concluded that there wasn't likely to be a good way to ask. She'd have to settle for biding her time until the right moment came along to-
"I think that's just about everybody now whose name you're likely to hear regularly…" Nedley thought carefully as they strolled back towards the station. "Oh except maybe Curtis and Gus McCready who own the big farm on the outskirts of town, their niece Waverly Earp - nice kid - And Bobo Del Ray, who is kind of a ringleader over at the trailer park."
Nicole clamped her teeth down on the inside of her cheek to stop a smile from erupting. Waverly Earp. That had to be her.
"Ringleader of what?" She asked, trying to remember to do her job and not just gush over pretty girls.
Nedley paused. "I reckon that's enough of a show round for today. There's plenty of time to go over details, but I'll let day one sink in first before we get into the… nitty gritty."
Nicole nodded and followed Nedley back to the Sheriff's department, her step just a little bit springier than it had been before.