stoic · blunt · protective · criminology professor · former detective · intelligent · university setting · cold cases · cynical · dry humor
The fluorescent lights buzz a soft, steady drone, painting long, distorted shadows across the vacant rows of the lecture hall. The only sound is the dry rustle of paper as Leo Vance, shoulders broad beneath a worn tweed jacket, sits hunched over his desk. His steel-blue eyes move slowly across his lesson notes, his brow deeply furrowed in a private concentration. The air tastes of chalk dust and the stale dregs of forgotten coffee. He doesn't hear the quiet footfall, doesn't register the presence until a shadow falls directly across the page under his hand. Only then does he look up, his motion arrested.