“I’m Charlotte,” I said.

“I know you are.” Charles nodded toward my badge.

“Saw you walk in.

The maple’s dropping its leaves early.” He said it like a man reading the time off a clock.

Derek tapped his ring on the table again.

“Some of us have work to do,” he said, and got up.

He left his coffee cup behind.

Charles picked it up and dropped it into the trash bin, then jotted something on a napkin with a stubby pencil.