OWNER OF THE DESK
Dewey Fairchild
Eleven in Book 1. Curious, methodical, entrepreneurial, hungry. Excellent at solving other people's problems. Considerably less efficient when the problem belongs to him.
OPEN DEWEY'S FILE →CLARA'S PEOPLE DRAWER • OPEN CAREFULLY
Everybody has a file.
Friends. Family. Clients. Assistants. Dogs. People who went to the dentist for surveillance and accidentally had a tooth pulled. Clara has been taking notes.
THE OFFICE
People who are supposed to be here.
ASSISTANT • POSSIBLY IN CHARGE
Clara Cottonwood
Wise, practical, quick-witted, experimental baker. Drives surveillance from a Buick station wagon while sitting on four pillows. Has opinions about boundaries.
OPEN CLARA'S FILE →CANINE DIVISION
Wolfgang von Fluff Bucket
Wolfie. Black-and-white Havanese. Eighteen pounds. Can carry recording equipment. Fetch procedure remains unresolved.
OPEN WOLFIE'S FILE →FIELD TEAM
Friends who should probably ask more questions before agreeing.
FIRST CLIENT • ROCK DEPARTMENT
Seraphina Johnson
Her parent problem helps launch the business. Later she goes undercover at a dental office, improvises when the plan collapses, and somehow still has time to organize rocks by geology, size, texture, or color.
SERAPHINA'S MISADVENTURES →BEST FRIEND • NARWHAL DEPARTMENT
Colin Decker
Funny, loyal, narwhal-obsessed, and willing to use an overdue dental appointment as undercover cover. Unfortunately, the dentist finds an actual tooth problem.
COLIN'S MISADVENTURES →THE FAIRCHILD HOUSE
The family is not merely background scenery.
Dewey's whole business is built around other people's family problems. Then his own family becomes evidence.
FATHER • MATH FILE
Don Fairchild
Dentist, would-be business owner, and former kid whose real dream was teaching math. The Alaska problem turns into something much bigger.
DON'S FILE →MOTHER • SAFETY FILE
Karen Fairchild
Protective, practical, family-focused, and understandably skeptical of Dewey's plan to compare burning flammable liquids for science.
KAREN'S FILE →OLDER SISTER
Stephanie Fairchild
Academically successful older sister. One side of the sibling sandwich Dewey lives inside before he ever opens a sibling-problem division.
STEPHANIE'S FILE →YOUNGER SISTER • POOH BEAR
Emma Fairchild
The youngest Fairchild. Known as Pooh Bear. An excellent reason not to assume a secret family investigation will remain uninterrupted.
EMMA'S FILE →AUNT • FAMILY ARCHIVE
Aunt Susie
Dewey asks about Don's childhood under cover of a school project. Susie supplies the clue—and the diary—that changes the case.
SUSIE'S FILE →SELECTED MISADVENTURES • BOOK 1
This is why Clara keeps folders.
CASE: DEWEY
The problem solver becomes the client.
Clara makes Dewey complete his own intake form when he cannot stop treating the possible Alaska move as somebody else's case.
CASE: COLIN
Undercover dentistry becomes dentistry.
Colin volunteers an overdue dental checkup as cover for surveillance. Dr. Bernard discovers that a tooth actually needs extraction.
CASE: CLARA
Surveillance by Buick.
Clara drives while perched on four pillows, toy frogs across the dashboard, as the office investigates a public nose-picking and belching case.
CASE: SERAPHINA
Career Day is doing a lot of work here.
Seraphina enters Don's dental office claiming to conduct a school career interview and then improvises when the original plan falls apart.
CASE: DON
The childhood diary resurfaces.
Dewey learns that his father graded his childhood days with letter grades and once dreamed of becoming a math teacher.
CASE: SCIENCE
Dewey would like to retain his eyebrows.
A flammable-liquid school experiment gives Karen an entirely reasonable new parent problem to worry about.
THE DRAWER WILL GROW
Book 1 is only the first layer.
The current deep character map is sourced primarily from the completed Book 1 world-facts file. As Books 2 and 3 receive the same structured pass, this directory can grow into teacher cases, sibling cases, school figures, clients, recurring locations, relationships, and cross-book misadventures without inventing anything.