Fletcher Wildman

Fletcher Wildman is a reporter at the *Pennycross Gazette*, and he's a main character in only the first book.

## Appearance

Fletcher is around Georgia's age. He has black hair and dark eyes. Georgia thinks he's cute with and without his scowl. Georgia says he's more than presentable from the front and an excellent rear view.

## Personality

Initially seeming to be a good match for Georgia and rather respectful, he later reveals that he's so dedicated to his journalism job that he prioritizes it over everything. He even shows willingness to expose Charles' squatting habit. Showing his true colors, or Georgia just being blind to his faults?

## Sequential History

### A Skeleton In The Family

Georgia moves the books on her desk into the hall, irking Fletcher, who storms in for Georgia to see for the first time. Georgia introduces herself and offers a storage compromise to try and soothe his anger, and this works. He introduces himself and says he's a part-time adjunct on the side of his full-time reporter job. Fletcher asks Georgia for tips on the adjunct life since it's his first adjunct job, and she agrees. Fletcher quickly finds a way to handle his storage issue that didn't involve Georgia's space. She sees Fletcher at Mangachusetts; he's there to do a story on the event, and chats with Georgia about her knowledge of the event. They get to personal chatting as well, where he says that when he had his own beat, he was a whiz at IPOs, zoning legislation, and retail strategy. He ended up at the *Gazette* because newspapers aren't exactly a growth market, and when he got laid off, he had to decide if he wanted to try TV, learn to blog, or go for a smaller paper. He thought he'd prefer the newspaper, and he's unsure if he's meant to be a general reporter. He's soon to cover a kids' soccer tournament. Georgia suggests he uses his students to help him out, which he does successfully. He also expresses interest in a story about adjuncts, and asks Georgia for information about that as well. He asks Georgia out for another date. Madison sees him just as he leaves and approves of his looks. Fletcher doesn't return to the second day of Mangachusetts. When Georgia is searching the Mangachusetts photos for a photo of Jocasta Kirkland, Fletcher shows up and allows Georgia to look over the photos he took at Mangachusetts. She successfully finds a photo of Jocasta Kirkland. He invites her to dinner and a movie and Georgia agrees. Georgia tells Sid about Fletcher. Fletcher goes on a date with Georgia after an interrogation from Madison, who approves of him. Fletcher's reaction to Georgia telling him about Reggie was "His loss". Fletcher tells Georgia how he'd go about investigating a murder at her request. Fletcher critiques the movie they see because of the reporter character. Fletcher later looms over Georgia's shoulder as she researches information on Jocasta Kirkland's murder. Fletcher and Georgia enjoy their third date at Jasper's. Fletcher is not in the room when Sara outs Georgia for having a skeleton, meaning Georgia was without a close ally. He does, of course, call her about it later, and Georgia denies Fletcher's request to interview her about the skeleton. Deborah and Georgia later discuss Georgia's developing relationship with Fletcher. Fletcher goes on another date with Georgia, but the necking they desired afterward was interrupted by Charles calling to tell Georgia that he'd been attacked and injured. Fletcher accompanies Georgia to tend to Charles. He suggests telling the guard they passed about Charles, and Georgia declines it. Fletcher administers first aid to Charles. Fletcher finds out that Charles is a squatter; he agrees to keep Charles' secret because he's not hurting anyone. Charles asks Fletcher for a ride to Georgia's place and he agrees, perhaps because he wanted to have physical time for Georgia, or because he was worried about blood in his car. Fletcher helps Charles out of the car and into bed at Georgia's place. Madison later teases Georgia about going out with Fletcher and coming home with Fletcher, which Georgia quickly corrects. Fletcher and Georgia meet so Fletcher can show Georgia his article about adjuncts that includes a part about the squatter, and Georgia is appalled because it could expose Charles regardless of his name not being used. Georgia begins to see Fletcher as fishy for his interest in getting a photo of Sid for the article he expressed interest in to Georgia earlier in the novel. Fletcher and Georgia hit a rough patch and don't call to attempt any more dates. He later approaches Georgia to tell her he took the stuff about Charles out of his adjunct article. He says that he sometimes gets carried about, focused on the story rather than the people, and he appreciates Georgia for reminding him about that. Georgia invites Fletcher over for an at-home dinner, but he cancels due to a story breaking about the Pennycross burglars being caught. While this means putting the story over the people, he tells Georgia that he thought she should know that the break-ins are over for her and Madison's peace of mind (of course, he could've told her that at the dinner date). Georgia suggests Deborah call Fletcher for an interview about her locksmith business and how the burglars were a few bad apples, and not representative of all locksmiths. Georgia is upset with him for canceling the dinner, hoping the ice cream he was supposed to bring would melt over his car, but her heart softens a bit when she sees Fletcher left a note saying he'd come by with the ice cream, but when they weren't home, he took the ice cream to his sister for her kids. Fletcher indeed runs a story about Deborah and locksmiths, which Deborah enjoys. Fletcher apologizes to Georgia over cell for canceling last minute for the story and promises make-up chocolate and ice cream. He gives the chocolate part to Georgia in a skeleton-decorated candy tin and tells her he made lunch reservations for them. At that lunch, Georgia asks Fletcher how to find info about a JTU student who went missing in 1980, and he tells her. Fletcher offers to call his friend at the *North Ashfield Times* to see if he could dig up any information for Georgia; he does, and the friend indeed has info for Georgia. Fletcher asks Georgia out again and she declines, although she later wishes she'd taken him up on it. When Georgia calls Edward Vinton as Grace Taylor, she uses Fletcher as part of her alias story, saying she's in his class and was assigned to cover an old news story as if it had just happened, and she was assigned Allen Reece. Fletcher is noted to not have been at the Thackery house since the alarm system was installed, so he couldn't know the security code. At the end of the book, it is noted that Georgia and Fletcher had broken up. He stuck around long enough for the interview she promised, and because she was clearly leaving stuff out, he got upset. Georgia said she would've understood if it was personal pain about Georgia's lack of trust, but it was just because he wanted more of a scoop. He was particularly annoyed that Georgia hadn't let him take photos of Sid for his funky-things-in-people's-attics feature. He pouted about it to Georgia, and after a last look at his butt, she sent him on his way for good. Deborah thinks Georgia is nuts for letting Fletcher get away.

### The Skeleton Takes A Bow

Georgia says that if her relationship with Fletcher, unnamed, ended better, she would've called him with a tip about the murder Sid overheard. She later notices that the *Pennycross Gazette* piece about the city council meeting is written by Fletcher, again unnamed. She only felt a slight twinge. He was pretty cute. Again not naming him, Georgia tosses him a bone, so to speak, and gave him an exclusive interview about the story of Patty Craft and Robert Irwin and the murder.