Kat Moore

Welcome to Coolsville, the best little small town in Ohio.

…except for right now, but that’s not really KATHERYN “KAT” MOORE’S (KAYLEE BRYANT) fault, is it? Known as the GOOD GIRL around town, SHE is just your friendly neighborhood CLERK AT SHERIFF'S STATION. Sure they can be PRUDISH and TIMID, but they can also be LOYAL and ENDEARING just like any other 24 year old. That doesn’t mean they have anything to do with our string of recent chilling events, though… right?

!! FULL BIO BELOW !!

+

Nodding along as the girl answered the question she had tossed out, Darcy mentally noted Kat’s mention of the Sheriff’s Station. 

Useful…

They clearly hadn’t made great progress, given that a group of concerned citizens was gathering to collectively figure out what had happened two weeks after a girl had gone missing (when the first 48 hours were the most critical), but any hint was one step closer to solved.

“Not quite the same way, but with essentially the same level of distance,” Darcy answered in return. “I’m friends with her brother. And I work for the family company. But we’ve only spent about 2 hours in each other’s presence, and we weren’t talking for a majority of it.”

Darcy had probably spent more time in Kat’s presence since she’d arrived in town, actually, noses buried in books, strolling through the stacks at the library. They had reached a comfortable acquaintanceship. Darcy didn’t even have enough time to establish that with Dani.

But it didn’t make her want to find her any less.

“But the Sheriff’s Station… have you heard anything interesting?”

x.

It would seem that everyone knew Danny, the wrong Dan, or not the wrong one, but the one that wasn’t missing. The right one then. The fact that not a single one of them seemed to trust the Sheriff’s department enough now, after waiting for two week, they were taking matters into their own hands, a rag tag crew but maybe that was what they needed.

“Oh? And how are things there, how are they all doing with this?” Despite Kat frequently being around others that gossip, she wasn’t much of one to do it herself, it wasn’t seen as a very nice thing to do.

“Well they haven’t given up hope that she is alive.” She wasn’t about to mention that they were currently interested in Cam, there was no use in pointing fingers amongst the group of them gathered here. “But they are running out of ideas.” Kat felt a little guilty for saying it, but the officers of Coolsville had been under a lot of pressure under the last two weeks.

“That’s why we’re here right? Fresh eyes and ideas?”

“Because who doesn’t want to play a small town farming simulation game.”

Out of all the people in this room, Kat was probably the one he knew best at the moment. Sure, he hadn’t really caught up with her since their roadtrip back to Coolsville, but he figured the girl could probably use a break from his pestering. Plus, he’d kind of been busy either trying to look for Dani, or dealing with his dads nagging, so Kat had fallen by the wayside. Kind of. 

“Kat.” Tommy approached, “Kat. Tell me that you brought snacks. There’s only like, granola, or protein bars, I dunno who brought those..” She might believe his lie, “I haven’t stopped thinking about those little cut up sandwiches you made. Please tell me you brought them.” 

​

x.

Despite all his efforts to get her to parties, Kat still looked like a deer in headlights in the community centre. Like any loud noise might send her running for the door. “Tommy!” Pulling her hands from her sleeves that she had nearly worried a hole through she gestured to the table now crowded with baked goods and other snacks that the others put there. “Fresh lemon squares and warm brownies.” Looking at the snacks so very obviously put there by him she pretended to play dumb, shaking her head with a gentle eye roll.  “Oh yes what a mystery, I wonder who those belong to.”  

Digging around in her bag, passing all the crumpled sheets of paper she pulled out a small container, “Special order.” Handing him the box of sandwiches she couldn’t help the genuine smile on her face. “Don’t eat them all at once, I don’t have any more.”

location: coolsville community center status: open

Sun beating down on the side walk, humidity clinging to the summer air only seems to attract flies desperately swarming anything that seems to remain still for just long enough. The streets seem quiet these days, ever since the disappearance. Chatter remained in hushed tones, kids parents ushered them indoors before anything dared happen to them. Apparently a missing girl was enough to do that, after all this was Coolsville. White picket fences, dried lawns begging for water in the heat, paint chipping at the edges of long ago built houses of those perfect family homes. Nothing ever happened here. 

Despite being already late, Chuck still wait outside the community centre with a cigarette between her fingers. Waiting just that little while longer before gracing them all with her presence, but someone approaching indicated she wasn’t alone out here. “Did I miss the meeting yet?”

x.

The suffocating heat was something she had not missed being away at college near the coast. Despite coming back again and again, whenever beckoned by her parents or anything really, this town as a whole still felt suffocating. She was much less herself here, like a weaker version, watered down and suddenly back to being that child doing as she was told. Always.

Hushed reassurances into the phone pressed to her ear to reassure her Mother that she was being careful. While she wasn’t overly fond of the constant check ups, this was the most her Mother had paid attention to her in years. And that brought along a certain guilt with it because she wanted that more, just not the missing girl part. She was surely going to hell for thinking such things. As if to summon the devil herself she heard Chucks usually antagonistic voice, “No, but I’m surprised you’re here.” Kat had half expected Chuck to bail completely. She’d only seen her from a distance since coming back, helping with the search parties. But despite it having been a few years with sporadic trips home, Chuck still looked like the same old trouble.

~

“I don’t really see it as sneaking,” Cameron says, shrugging lightly. Though, it wasn’t exactly like she was making her presence known, either. If she could blend in, she would. At least, that’s how Cameron felt about the whole thing. There were people she would rather not interact with here, and Kat was bordering on joining that list with her position at the Sheriff’s Station. But, she could give her the benefit of the doubt at the very least. It wasn’t like Cameron had any evidence against her innocence beyond being a troublemaker in the past. And, even that was not enough to tie her to a kidnapping. 

But, that didn’t mean she expected anything but suspicion from anyone in town, either. It didn’t make it hurt any less, but what was she if not a good actor? It was better to not let people know that it got under her skin to be accused of kidnapping and murdering her best friend’s little sister. Like she could be capable of such an act in any regard. But, that was neither here nor there. Danny trusted her enough to be involved in this, and that should be good enough proof to everyone not to listen to their ranting Mother’s on Facebook, and trust that she was innocent in all of this. 

“I mean, maybe you see it as sneaking, but I was just trying to get in here without having to make too much small talk. If I have to talk about the weather or the weight of a missing persons case for too long, I’ll drive myself up a wall.” She gives Kat a look, “I’m impressed. Vigilante justice doesn’t seem like something you’d want to be involved in.” Kat was nothing if not a goody two shoes.

x.

The hum of the old fluorescent white lights was enough to set anyone on edge, but instead, as always Kat just smiled, leaving what she wanted to say unsaid and instead opting for the safe answer, predictable to a fault. Of course you wouldn’t see it as sneaking. “I suppose i’ve just been on edge since this whole thing.” Gesturing loosely to the room, the reason they were here, Dani was missing. Still. Was she perhaps jumpier than normal because she’d heard Cameron’s name mentioned around the Sheriffs station, yes. But did she actually think there was anything there, no. The files that she definitely should be looking at were on her desk for filing and she had just so happened to sneak a look. All they had was circumstantial at best. They were grasping at straws and getting desperate.

“I promise I won’t ask you about the weather.” She couldn’t exactly promise the latter as that was why they were all here. The rough sound of canvas against the hard plastic chairs sounded far too loud inside the almost empty room as she pulled her bag off the chair beside her, clutching at it like a mother with her pearls. “Firstly, this is not vigilante justice, this is just a group of concerned citizens of Coolsville banding together to search for a missing person...” She started off so confidently, but by the end of it sounded less sure, almost asking it as a question. “And secondly, why wouldn’t I help? I’m very helpful! Besides I could ask you the same question anyways, I didn’t think crowds were your thing.”

One week into her break the town descended into chaos as one of their own had disappeared. For a brief moment it seemed she had her parents attention, were they perhaps worried for her? But that attention quickly shifted to the search parties, vigils and fliers. She felt incredibly guilty for wishing their attention was hers instead, so she doubled down on being that high achieving, well behaved daughter. Passing the collection plate in church, taking freshly baked goods to the Logan’s, handing out fliers. Anything she was asked, she did. So when she was asked to meet at the community centre she didn’t hesitate.

Sitting on one of the chairs crisscross applesauce, a well worn notebook in her lap, Kat was scribbling down notes that she hadn’t yet had a chance to add from the end of her shift at the Sheriffs office. She’d overheard two of the officers talking about someone they needed to ask some questions to, but hadn’t managed to get a name, they weren’t a suspect, just someone they wanted to talk to. Her little notebook was filled with chicken scratch notes about parts of the case she had overheard, wild theories people had thrown back and forth over the isles in the grocery store and even one or two speculative of her own. She was so engrossed in the task at hand that she hadn’t noticed someone else come in until they were right there beside her, “Jesus, you’ll give someone a heart attack sneaking around like that!” She had half a mind to wallop them with her book. “Uh, why were you sneaking around anyways?”

Darcy had been in town for a little over a month, but every day since her arrival had served as a reminder that time was a myth - that it moved differently for each person.

For example, many might have made a few friends after having lived somewhere new for so many weeks. They might have a social life. They might at least be able to name the nine other people in a room with them.

Time had moved slowly for Darcy, however. So slowly that, standing in the private room that had been rented out at the Coolsville Community Center that afternoon, it felt like no time had passed at all.

Dani Logan had disappeared three weeks into Darcy’s debut onto the Coolsville social scene and Darcy had promptly tossed any attempt at assimilation out the window.

She had met most of the people that were gathered for their first small act of vigilantism before, but her eidetic memory could only get her so far. She could still barely get faces attached to names for some and knew little about most. But as soon as Danny had asked her to attend, she’d understood that a shift was in order.

She had to try to get to know people.

Therefore, Darcy had been the one to tote in a carafe of coffee (food was the most traditional bait), planting herself at what she’d decided was the snack table and waiting for the first person to approach.

It took a little longer than expected.

Mostly milk and sugar coffee in hand, she had already drained half of her cup when the sound of footsteps nearby alerted her to someone’s approach. By then she’d adopted an air of nonchalance and was mostly facing the posters on the wall behind the table, pretending to study them.

30 seconds more and she put her mentally rehearsed casual glance over into action.

“Oh, hey,” she began, a quick half-smile and head nod hopefully combining to actually lock the other person into conversation. “So… how do you know Dani? Dani with an I. Or the Y, I suppose.”

x.

It had only been a week after Kat had come back home that Dani had gone missing, and now here they were two weeks later and still nothing. It was unsettling how little had actually been discovered. She remembered the phone in the Sheriffs office in the first few days after it was publicly announced, it was a madness in its own right.

Kat had fully intended to be the first one there, at least that way she could stand quietly to the side, not drawing any undue attention. But after collecting the last few copies of some of the officers reports and shoving them into her bag before the next shift rolled in, she was running behind schedule, slightly.

Reaching for the coffee she changed her mind and decided tea was best, no one needed an already anxious Kat, highly caffeinated. Stirring in some milk she moved to the other side of Darcy so as not to block the table for anyone else.

“Oh, I didn’t really know her. I knew of her in the same way that I know of half the people in town. You just hear about them. Although most of the stuff lately has been at the Sheriffs Station… how did you know her?” She’d have to keep mental note of things said, it was doubtful that people would take too kindly to her scribbling notes in her notebook.

~ CONNECTIONS ~