This is not set in "Daisy Duke's Hazard County" but the Hazard in Richard Marx's song.
2: The first day
Sarah Walker = The reporter
Bryce Larkin = Sarah's editor & co-reporter
Jill Roberts = Paper Copygirl & Ex Head cheerleader
Walking into the newspaper offices for the first time. Sarah was amazed about how dinky it was, looking around at an open office plan with one office tucked away in the rear corner. She noticed that the ceiling was much higher than what her previous office had. The two ceiling fans were slowly rotating to circulate the air inside. She doubted that this building had air conditioning.
She approached the only person there who was sitting at the closest desk to the front door, a long haired brunette with oversized glasses. She was wearing a cotton dress with a floral pattern to it, over that was a white woolen cardigan. She approached and introduced herself.
"Hi, I'm Sarah Walker, I start work here today!"
"Hi." The brunette with glasses replied. She stood up and offered her hand "I'm Jill Roberts and I'm the Editor's personal assistant." Sarah shook it.
She then moved away and beckoned Sarah to follow her. "This will be your workstation."
Sarah looked at the large clean desk that had a computer, large monitor and two trays for in and out correspondence. Sarah looked at the computer, it must have been at least five years old, seems like the money to keep the staff up to date isn't here. At least the desk and chair that went with it were clean.
Suddenly from the rear of the building the back door slammed closed then moments later a rather tall handsome man with long black locks appeared. He looked good in his tailored trousers and button down navy blue shirt. He looked at the two women and then turned into the Editors office. He appeared to drop something on his desk then he reappeared and approached the women. Without waiting for an introduction.
"I'm Bryce Larkin, Editor and chief of the Hazard Herald." He smiled at the two ladies.
"Bryce! This is Sarah Walker our new reporter." Jill informed him.
He gave her a quick up and down with his eyes, he appeared to like what he saw. Sarah noticed start away that he did it.
"Welcome aboard, has Jill shown you around?"
"No not yet, I've only just got here." Sarah replied honestly.
There was that ackward pause that occurs when people don't know what to say to each other.
"Well since it a nice day outside, What do you say we all take an early lunch and Jill and I will give you the load down on the town. You can walk comfortably in those shoes?"
Bryce returned to his office and immediately started making an endless round of phone calls.
The rest of the morning went quickly as Sarah settled in to her new workstation, once she had her desk organized, Jill took her for a quick tour of the building, once they passed Bryce's office they entered the printing room, there were two male employees working on one of the presses, it appeared to be receiving maintenance as she could hear tools clanking on the floor as the two spoke to one another. She was shown the papers achieves and the other amenities of the building. Around eleven thirty Bryce came out of his office and decided now was the time for the early lunch. The three of them walk out of the office into pleasant weather.
Sarah was given a guided tour around the town, starting with the major shopping strip followed by the sports fields and the parks. The trio had stopped to grab a sandwich on the way and decided to have lunch down by the river. Within sight of where they were sitting on the grass was the bridge where Sarah had received her warning.
The three of them all sat down on a grassy bank and set about eating their lunch. While the other two were busy chewing on their sandwiches Sarah decided to speak.
"Last night I was out walking on this trail and a group of kids gave me a warning from that bridge over there about some murderer?"
It was enough of a comment to cause her coworkers to stop chewing.
"Yeah, It's bit of a town legend now." Bryce casually replied. "About ten years ago a young woman's body was found down by the river bank. A teenage boy, still at school was later convicted of her murder." Bryce then took another bite of his sandwich.
"It was major news at the time, our paper ran numerous articles, first the crime and later the trial." Jill chipped in. "We're still got all the files to that case in the archive room. I can show you after we return to the office!"
"Okay, so did either of you know the victim or the perpetrator?"
"Long before my time." Bryce laughed, "It happened long before I moved into town. But Jill is a local."
Sarah turned to Jill and waited for the brunette to finish chewing on her mouthful.
"I knew both of them, sort of, the girl was a year above me but the boy was in my year. Both came from dysfunctional families. Most of the folks around here thought that they were a couple but the boy denied it. He said they were just good friends. We seem to think it was a case of love spurned and jealousy."
"We?" Sarah asked.
"Well it is the general consensus around town. The victim was a girl with loose morals. The killer was an introvert who used to hang out with her. You know what they say about the quiet ones."
There was a general nod of heads.
After the three had returned from lunch Bryce disappeared into his office and then returned with a list of things for Sarah to do. Small town reporters have to report of the mundane things that happen around town. Main sources of news came from the local government offices, the local hospital and the schools. Bryce handed Sarah a map of the town with the locations of her destinations highlighted in iridescent yellow. Good or bad her locations were all within walking distance.
Sarah spent her afternoon at the local elementary school interviewing teachers and students about their science projects. Kids love to see their picture in the local paper and Sarah took heaps of photos of students with their projects.