Author's Note: It occurred to me that it might be better to post which characters are featured for each letter, so that this isn't some annoying guessing game. So here it is—for the first chapter, scroll to the bottom. Also, thanks so much to those who have reviewed!

A is for Aspiration (Bernard)

B is for Baseball (Connie/Mike)

C is for Crush (Connie/Lupo)

D is for Determination (Lupo and Bernard)

E is for Expectations (Jack, Connie/Mike)

F is for Frustration (Olivet)

G is for Golden (Connie)

H is for Headache (Jack)

I is for Impression (Connie/Mike)

J is for Judgment (Van Buren)

K is for Knowing (Bernard)

L is for Lunch (Rodgers, Bernard, and Lupo)

M is for Meaningful (Connie/Mike)

O is for One (Mike)

P is for Promise (Connie/Mike)

Q is for Quickly (Jack and Van Buren)

R is for Remembrance (Jack)

S is for Sick (Lupo and Bernard)

T is for Teacher (Van Buren)

U is for Understanding (Lupo and Bernard)

V is for Veterinarian (Lupo)

W is for Welcome (Mike, Connie, Lupo, and Bernard)

X is for Xenophile (Rodgers)

Y is for Yesterday (Van Buren)

Z is for Zenith (Jack)

From his boyhood, Bernard distinctly remembers the detectives who'd come to his door on a Sunday and said his father wasn't coming home. They had sat in his living room—a large aging man with stubby fingers and his partner, thin as a wire and very tall—and talked with his mother, asking questions, glancing around the small room, trying to avoid his eyes as he watched them from underneath the kitchen table, spying.

He remembers the striped wallpaper they used to have, the well-worn furniture, the couch that groaned under the weight of the two men as they shifted in their seats. He remembers his mother looking lovely in her red dress, stone-faced, answering the detectives' questions so quietly and crisply that it had scared him.

He'd wanted to cry, but it felt like his tears were stuck in the back of his throat, choking him. So he continued to watch the men until they left, shaking his mother's hand, telling her they'd do their best to catch the killer.

It was that day that he aspired to become a detective. He wanted to defend people and punish those who did wrong, and bring comfort to the mothers who would sob into their pillows and the sons who felt helpless.