CHAPTER 206: Murder Most Foul

 

"Hey, how's it hanging?  Marina, congratulations on the promotion" said Action as he sauntered into the 13th Precinct squad room.

"Thank you for noticing the new stripes on my tunic but where the heck have you been?  The shift started 30 minutes ago" she replied.

"Wrapping up some loose ends, you know how it is"

"Yeah, and what was the name of this 'loose end'?"

"Action don't kiss and tell.  Anyways, I'm here now and ready to handle whatever you have got for me." he said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together in anticipation.

"Those old case files" she said, nodding to a big cardboard box filled with folders.

"Ah..." he said, his face changing from enthusiastic to that of a man who's been pointed in the direction of a mountain of potatoes and told to peel the lot.

He sat down at his desk and started to fill in the arrest forms from the previous week.  At around 10:30am Sergeant Kitchen approached him.

"Sarge, you'll be pleased to know I've sorted out a pickpocketing, two stolen vehicles and a flasher..."

"Can it, Action.  We've got a bigger situation to deal with:  A homicide down in Oasis Springs.  Can you handle it?  You're the senior detective here."

"Give me what details you have and I'll be there" said Action, wasting no time in getting up and checking that his .38 service revolver was ready to go.

"Here are the details..." said Kitchen, handing Action a case file.  "Officer Gunn is there and securing the crime scene.  You and forensics are to head out now."

Action quickly headed towards the parking lot to get his car but at the front desk he spied a familiar but not welcome face:  Daphne Blake.  "Oh no, she's probably got one of her cockamamie ideas about some spooky goings on which is probably just a cat stuck up a tree" he said to himself.

"...and then it turned out it wasn't a ghost, just someone dressed as one and when we pulled off the mask we discovered it was old Mr Wickles, the county museum curator!" she was saying to the confused looking officer at the desk.

Geez, I could have told you that!  Hello, he's the only person you had contact with down at the museum...it was obviously him! Action thought as he headed to his car.

Heading out of Willow Creek he drove south, over the bridge that divided the lush bayou area from the more parched and scrubland of Oasis Springs.  Locals often commented that in Summer the heat from the Springs hit you in the face as you crossed the river and already Action had his car air conditioning turned up as he drove along.

The crime scene was in a suburb known as Parched Prospect.  It was the kind of place people lived in when they were on the rise and they had money to spend on these new mod styled houses that came with every modern labour saving device yet developed.  The actual house where the body was found was shared by 4 young professionals who had pooled their resources together to buy and live in a house that would have been beyond their pay packets had they'd purchased it individually.  The main name on the deeds was a Mr Jameson Huntingdon III; a name that Action knew...he was a young socialite and member of the Kitten Club who he'd spied at their meetings, using his charm to get his way with the ladies.  Mention of the Kitten Club invariably meant Alan Cuffe being involved as well and Cuffe was already a "person of interest" to Action.  Could this homicide be linked to Cuffe or the trouble he had been in?

Action parked his car right outside the front, showed his badge to the officer on duty and crossed the hazard line that had been erected around the property to keep bystanders out.  Inside the coroner's team had just finished their cursory examination of the victim and were taking photos.  Action spoke to the other officers present and got a better picture of who this guy was and what had happened here.

Name: Unknown.  No ID on the victim.  Age, approximately 35-40 years of age.  Sex: Male.  Race: Caucasian.  Pale blue eyes, a round, pale face and close cropped fair hair; probably a military style crew cut.  Height:  5'8".  Victim was wearing a red and yellow Hawaiian shirt, tan slacks and brown leather shoes.  No hat.  No obvious marks or wounds on his body, no traces of poison but that could only be ruled out once they had got him to the morgue.  

"So we have no idea who this guy is...and we don't know what his connection to this place is.  He's not listed as one of the residents" Action said, reading the duty officer's notebook.  Once the outline of the body had been taped onto the floor and it had been transferred to the coroner's wagon he took some crime scene photos himself.

There were a couple of witnesses, none of them residents of this house but there were present when the man had died.  After he had finished taking the photos he looked across the living room and recognised one of them:  Tasha Michel.  She was a model, one of the most well known in Sim City and also Miss Ginger, one of the Lothario Kittens of the Month.  Now she was sitting at a dining table looking frightened.  Her sad expression changed to surprise mixed with relief when she saw Action.

"Action!  Thank goodness you're here!  Listen, I didn't have anything to do with this guy!  I don't even know who he is!  He just stumbled in..." her words came out as a torrent awash with panic.

"Cool it, Tash...how about we slow down and let me take a statement, OK?" said Action, raising his hands in a calming manner.  She nodded and he sat down, taking out his notebook and pen to get her statement.

"OK, so let's back this up a little.  Where's Jameson?" asked Action.

"He...left.  Ran out.  He got spooked by this guy showing up here and dropping dead and all that" she replied.

"And that's what happened is it?  This guy dropped dead right inside J's house?"

"Pretty much.  Well it was like this; J, Don and myself were all hanging out here and there's the doorbell rings.  Don offered to answer it to see who it was and it was that guy...he staggered in here, trying to say something but couldn't get the words out.  Then he collapses right there.  J's panicking and Don goes over to check on the guy and says he's dead.  I then call 9/11 and that's when J says he can't be seen here with a dead body in his house and with the cops on the scene so he high tails it out of here."

"And you said you don't know who this guy is?" 

"No.  Never seen him before."

"Are you sure?  Maybe he's a client at the Kitten Club or attended one of Cuffe's parties?"

"Well...maybe.  I don't recall meeting him though."

Action scribbled down all this information and was thinking that Tasha was telling the truth about not knowing who this guy was but Huntingdon's behaviour was highly suspicious.  Maybe he knew who this guy was?  Action thanked Tasha for her information and he turned to the other witness who was present:  The man Tasha referred to as 'Don'.

"OK, and what's your full name?" asked Action.

"Don Lothario"

"You're kidding me..."

"No, it really is that.  Here's my driver's licence.  See?  Donald Lothario of Sultry Springside, Skyward Palms, Oasis Springs."

"OK, I believe you" said Action, waving him away.  "So you tell me what happened here"

"I was visiting J and Tasha was with us and, you know, we're just hanging out and having a little fun..."

"What do you mean by having a little fun?" asked Action.

"Does that have anything to do with the stiff?" said Don, defensively.

"Well, maybe this guy wanted in on the fun?  Maybe he was here to stop it?" 

"Well...it's like this...we were...uhm...goofing around" said Don, awkwardly.

"Action...we found this in the living room" said one of the other policemen.  He was holding two tabs that were half the size of a postage stamp but twice as thick.  Action took one look at them and knew what they were.

"Acid...I'm guessing there was a third of these but J took it" said Action, giving Don a hard stare.

"OK, so we were taking some LSD and you're right, J took one before we did and just freaked out when that guy crashed into the house." 

"Action...we're not...well, regular users." said Tasha, apologetically.

"I'm more interested in this 'stiff' as you call him.  Now both of you are certain you've never seen this guy before?"

"Positive"

"Never"

"OK, Tony...take down the rest of their statements and let's finish up with forensics before heading home" said Action, closing his notebook.

The rest of the shift was taken up with getting the forensic evidence down to the lab, filling in some forms and trying to find out who this guy was.  The coroner hadn't worked that one out so it was a lot of ground pounding by detectives and uniform to I.D. him.  By the end of Action's shift, no one was the wiser.

He went home but wasn't feeling hungry at all.  He found a message on his answerphone from Suzy Humphries saying that she wanted to see him soon as she'd had an idea about an old case of his.  Returning her call he found that she wasn't at home that evening, but had gone down to the Movers and Shakers gym.

He made his way down there and saw what he thought might be her, running on a treadmill but that she looked very different to normal as she wasn't wearing make up and had her hair tied back. 

"Suzy?" he asked as he approached her.  "You look very different from how I usually see you" he said, impressed by her rhinestone studded pink exercise outfit.  "That's a very Las Vegas look you've got going there."

"A leftover from my failed attempt at becoming a ballerina...I take it you got my message then?"

 "I did...so have you got time to talk?"

"Yes." she said and she pushed a button on the treadmill to get it to stop.  She grabbed a small hand towel and patted her face gently with it before stepping off the machine.

"I've found some things out and I have a bit of an idea I want to run past you" she said.  Action was intrigued.

"I'm always one for a good idea" he replied.

"I'll let you be the judge of how good it is" 

"OK, I'll head on next door to the Blue Velvet and you can tell me more there" said Action.

"Give me 5 minutes to get changed and I'll be over" replied Suzy.

The 45 minutes that elapsed between that conversation and Suzy's eventual arrival wasn't a waste for Action as he caught up with friends, colleagues and bar regulars.  When she arrived Action noticed how well poised she always was; not a hair out of place, make up immaculate and she had a swagger that turned men's heads when she walked in the room.  She didn't just walk, she glided.

He had claimed a small table over by the fireplace for their conversation and, after getting the drinks in, they settled to have their conversation.

"You look serious, Action"

"It's a serious business I'm in" he said.  "I'm currently working on a homicide case.  John Doe just shows up on the doorstep of some swanky pad in Oasis Springs and just dies and no one knows who he is or why he was there.  BUT, and there's always a but, the house is owned by one of Cuffe's Kitten Club members and he had one of the Lothario Kittens in the pad so there might be a connection.  Trouble is, the house owner's gone on a drug fuelled run somewhere.  On top of that, Leanne McGregor's shown up again..."

"Oh her?  Are you any closer to catching her?"

"Nope.  And get this...she's changed her appearance.  I mean, like radically.  Apparently she's knocked 10 years off her age, lost 6 inches in height and is now some perky waif like redhead.  Or maybe it's just someone in the same line of work with the same name and working towards the same ends.  Some days this job throws up more questions than it ever answers."

"If it's any help I've found some things out about the Landgraabs; mostly background detail so far but their wealth was obtained through highly dubious means...always was, for nearly 200 years.  It's Nancy who's the real boss, Geoffrey's a figurehead."

"None of that is surprising" said Action, flatly.  "I've long since suspected that but do you have proof?  With proof I can move against them."

"Well, not quite yet but I've got plenty of leads..." said Suzy, wishing she could give Action that little extra so he could make an arrest or two.

"Have a look into Malcolm a little more..." she continued.  "I think he's the one who tried to shoot Madelyn Buchanan.  The two of them used to peddle drugs but their working relationship went south and he was left in the lurch.  Malcolm's a nasty, vengeful character so my idea is that he wanted to get back at her.  Lily Feng was never the target."

Action nodded.  It mostly made sense except that he knew the weapon used against Madelyn was some kind of laser.  Where would Malcolm get hold of one of those?

Their chat was interrupted by friend and neighbour Travis Scott.  He was dancing away and spotted his friends having a conversation so he waved and danced his way over to them.

"Action, Suzy...two people I haven't seen for a while!" said Travis, cheerily.

"Travis, nice to see you; how's the wedding planning going?" asked Suzy.

"Sheesh, is that all you chicks can talk about?  Yeah, it's going OK.  Summer's organising most of it, I've just been measured for a suit.  I think Sum's got some things to ask you about the whole deal so just warning you before she calls."

"I look forward to it.  Tell her she can call on my anytime to talk about it." Suzy replied, the excitement of wedding planning broke her train of thought about the Landgraab investigation.

All Action wanted to know at this point was when was the date for the wedding and was he invited?  He pondered for one brief moment whether he would one day get married but almost instantly brushed that idea out of his mind.

"Suzy...I'll look into that matter with Malcolm and let you know how it's getting on.  In the meantime, can I ask you a favour?  Look into the dealings of a Mr J. Huntington III.  He's a socialite and from old money so he'll have cropped up in your style magazines I'll bet.  I know he's a member of the Kitten Club and hangs with Cuffe but see if there's any connection between him and the Landgraabs."

"OK...J. Huntington III.  We'll trade information again, soon" she replied.

CHAPTER 140: This ISN'T A Date

 

John Action was spending his morning before work hanging out at the gym and chewing the fat with fellow fitness enthusiasts Brant Hecking and Don Lothario.  Brant was talking about a recent vacation he'd had with a buddy that he recommended and Don was bragging about how his housemates, 3 women, were keeping him busy.  It was good to hang out with the guys and put all the recent work and personal issues to one side for just a brief moment.

As he towelled himself off after the run, he noticed Jeremy Saint had arrived and so Action walked over to him to say hello.  Jeremy had a strange expression on his face when he saw Action:  One of annoyance.

"Yo, Jez...how's it hanging?" said Action.

"It's Jeremy, not 'Jez'" replied Jeremy, coldly.

Action was taken aback by Jeremy's frosty response.  "No worries, guy, I'm just being friendly"

"Yeah, whatever" replied Jeremy, still in a tone that bordered on hostile.  Action, however, was someone who never backed down from a challenge and something was clearly up with his neighbour:  Something that needed challenging.

"You gotta problem with me, Jeremy?" said Action, bluntly.

"Maybe I just don't like all this fake machismo you project" replied Jeremy.

"Fake?  Who are you calling a fake?" said, Action, standing right up to Jeremy.

"Look at you:  You still wear your dog tags and you're not even in the army anymore" said Jeremy.

"I was in the Marines" said Action, bristling.

"Whatever; same difference" said Jeremy, turning his back on Action.

"Hey, don't you turn your back on me!" said Action, his voice raised and his hand poised to grab Jeremy's shoulder.  At that moment Brant Hecking stepped in to calm things down.

"Gentlemen...there's no need to go bouncing off the walls here!" said Brant.  "This is a gym and you're creating a disturbance for everyone.  Now Jeremy, I happen to be wearing dog tags.  They're not mine; they're my brother's...he was killed in Vietnam at the start of the year so I wear them to remember him by.  Now Action's proud of his service to his country and you have no right to have a go at him about that here. Have a little respect, hey?  Now, Action, don't start something here you'll regret."

Jeremy's head dropped and he mumbled an apology.  Action had calmed down by now and he nodded his appreciation to Brant for stopping what could have been a fight.  He went over to the weight lifting machine to work off his anger at Jeremy.  Jeremy, for his part, stood in front of a mirror, looking at his reflection and wondering what had just occurred.  It was like he lashed out, instinctively, but why he couldn't figure out.  John...Action...is my...enemy popped into his head but something seemed off.  As he thought, he suddenly got a sharp headache and he pressed his fingertips to his temples in response.

His impulse was to approach Action again but this time in a non-hostile way however, with each step he took towards him, a sense of revulsion started rising.  But why?  Action and he had always got along in the past, why is he feeling antipathy now?

"Action....I just wanted to say....s-s-s-sorry for earlier" he said, stammering over the word, sorry.

"All is forgiven...tell me to shut my yap for prying but are you OK?" said Action.

"I guess the new job is intense.  So much to learn, to adapt to."

"I hear you"

"Fortunately Geoffrey and Mother are helping me to adjust"

"Your Mom?" 

"Did I say 'Mom'?  I meant Nancy" 

"Well, I gotta get to work soon but you stay cool, man" said Action, suspicious of Jeremy's mixing up his mom with Nancy Landgraab.

Action arrived at the 13th Precinct house with barely any time to think about Jeremy's strange behaviour.  For once, his case load was in the clear and he started his shift with no ongoing investigations.

The first person he met at the station was his favourite co-worker, Bibi Stahler.  She was the deputy head of forensics at 13th Precinct, on loan from the Munich police department.  What Action liked about her was that she was cool, logical, very good at her job and on top of all that she was a hot red headed Teutonic beauty.  They weren't an item, but he sure liked having beautiful women around him.

"Bibi, got anything interesting for me today?" he said.

"Case wise, I do.  A burglary over at Oasis Springs." she replied, handing him a case file.  Action flicked through the incident report just making some surface notes in his head.

"And anything on our little ongoing investigation?" he asked, hoping that Bibi had any new information on the strange McGregor/Landgraab case.  

"Oh some very interesting things.  For example, all those samples you brought back were of commonly found fish and plants except for one thing." she said with an enigmatic upturn to her voice at the end.

"Which is?" asked Action.

"The cellular walls were much weaker than you would normally find." she said, matter of factly.

"OK, and that's surprising how?"

"It's surprising in that when subject to handling the various flora and fish become....how do you say it in English?  Der matsch or schleim?"

"Sounds like slime...all pulped up and messy?"

"Ja, that is it.  Now what causes weak cell walls?  I do not know at this stage"

"That's something to be getting on with" said Action.

"Ahem...you have this case here to be getting on with first" she said, pointing to the file he was holding.  

"Awww, and we were working so well together as well.  There's always this barrier between us and I don't mean this flimsy tape thing here" he said, indicating the queueing barrier in the lobby of the station house.

Action made his way down to Oasis Springs, to a wealthier, middle class part of the neighbourhood.  It was rich enough to be full of nice places to live, but not so rich that those houses would have decent alarms or security systems.  In short, a juicy place for burglars to target.  The crime scene was familiar as well...his first case after being assigned to 13th Precinct happened here as well.  A large, single floor house inhabited by four young professionals, one of whom he had met briefly:   J. Huntington III, member of the Lothario Club.

Action approached the senior uniform cop present, Senior Patrolman Tony Gunn.  "What's the score, Tony?"

"Looks like a break-in and theft job, Detective.  The perps made off with TVs, a fridge and an expensive stereo system.  State of the art record and cassette player and all."

"A combined record AND cassette player?  Impressive.  That'll fetch a hefty price on the black market" replied Action.

"Forensics are on their way" said Gunn.

"OK, I'll take some photos and have a look around.  You round up any witnesses" said Action.

"Graffiti...why do they always leave graffiti?" he muttered to himself as he got to work.  Judging by the size of the stereo...which apparently had a built in radio with both AM and FM bands as well...and fridge Action reckoned there had to be more than one person involved and that they would have needed a van or truck to make away with the loot.

There were three witnesses and they were all marshalled to a room at the back of the house.  When Action entered the room he saw one of them browsing through the bookshelf.

"Cut that out!  You don't live here" said Action, swatting the book out of the man's hand.  "Now, one at a time, what did you see?"

"I saw this dirty white van pull up outside and this lady stepped out and walked over to the house" said a young, Hispanic man who was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Your name?"

"Rez Valdes, Detective.  I saw this dirty white van..."

"Did you get the licence plate number?" asked Action.

"No.  I didn't see it.  Anyway the van pulls up to the front of the house and then I see this lady step out..."

"Are you sure it was a woman?  What did she look like?"

"Yeah, pretty sure it was a woman...she had, well, you know, a woman's figure" Rez said with a little knowing laugh.

"What was she wearing?" asked Action.

"Shorts, a blouse and she had a baseball cap pulled low over her head so I couldn't see her face.  I thought it was odd that a woman in a fancy blouse would be driving a dirty old van"

"Did any of you two see this woman?" Action asked the other witnesses.

"Oh yes, Detective.  Yeah, she was wearing a fancy blouse and cap" said one.

"I saw the van and I got the first 3 numbers of the licence plate: 335" said the other.

"Very good, guys" said Action, jotting this all down on his notepad.  Turning to Gunn he said "you finish things off here, I'll head back to HQ to look through the files and see if we can get some suspects"

"OK, Action"

Back at 13th Precinct Headquarters Action was able to use the latest electronic document reader to look through a list of potential suspects...files kept on microfiche.  The reader also had a photostat printer so that files could be printed out to A4 size.  

Gunn had returned with the last of the evidence and witness reports bagged up and was joking around in the squad room how this should be an open and shut case.

"Ain't no such thing until we get a name and we're not there yet!" said Action, warning Gunn not to get too ahead of himself.  He admired the young officer's zeal but that could lead to sloppiness.  Better whip him into shape before they botch this case, thought Action.

"OK, the stolen items are all electronic goods so the thieves will want to offload them quickly.  Let's look into the local markets, shops who we know handle stolen goods and black market regulars." said Action.  "Bibi, do you have anything from the lab?" he said to her as she entered the room.

"No fingerprints, but we're looking at a hair sample" she replied.  "Also, we're running checks on that partial licence plate"

Action was impressed at how his team were working together and the rest of the shift saw people being brought in for questioning, ruling out suspects and narrowing down the list of potential ones.  An arrest was definitely in the cards for the next couple of days.

As he ended his shift and was preparing to go home, he saw Bibi once again.

"Good work today...say, I was going to grab a bite to eat; want to tag along?" he asked.

"You're not asking me on a date, Action, are you?" asked Bibi, sceptically.

"Oh no...nothing like that.  An end of shift bit of socialising, getting some decent chow and catching up on things, that's all.  What say you?"

"As long as it is not a date, that is fine" she replied.  "Where shall we go?"

"I was thinking something simple and low key such as The Sunny Side Up?"

"I have not been there.  Do I have to look smart?"

"You can go as smart or as casual as you want"

"Good.  I will go home and get changed and will meet you at this Sunny Side Up place but it will NOT be a date."

Both of them headed home and changed into more casual clothing before meeting up again outside of the diner.

"Bibi, you look amazing as usual" said Action.

"You look very smart.  That is some jacket you're wearing" she replied.

"An original Pierre Cardin.  A friend recommended it to me and I trust her fashion judgement" he replied.

"A Pierre Cardin jacket on a Detective's salary?  You must tell me your financial secrets, Action" she said, with a smirk.

They took their seats in the diner, Bibi looked around with interest.

"This is how I have always imagined what American restaurants to be like...a good idea of yours, Action, to come here:  I hate cooking" she said.

"And there I was thinking you might make a mean strudel" he replied.

"I do not" she said, curtly.

 The waiter came and took their order.  Action had a burger, Bibi a quiche.  

"And what would you like to drink?" asked Action.

"I would like....hmmm....as this ISN'T a date..."

"It's not" said Action.

"...then I will have this" she said, jabbing her finger at some kind of cocktail listed on the menu.

Action was happy to socialise but Bibi wanted to cut straight to business.  

"So, to business." she said.

"I was afraid you'd say that" said Action.

"These samples, they turned out to be unstable.  Did you obtain them from a laboratory?" she asked.

"No, in the field" he replied.

"Then was this place, remote, normally inaccessible?" 

"You could say that"

"Then that explains it.  An environment normally restricted and, if handled incorrectly, the flora and fauna lose their cellular cohesion"

"I think I know what you mean.  But why?  Is it some kind of freaky experiment?"

"Possibly scientific research into some new agricultural methods" she replied with a shrug.

"Yeah, but this 'research' as you call it could be the reason behind all the cloak n' dagger jazz we've got going on with this case!"

"I don't understand...'cloak n' dagger jazz'" she replied.

"I mean spies, Bibi."

"Ah, ja.  That I do understand.  Yes, that is a possibility.  This food is surprisingly good"

"Talk about a change of subject." Action said, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"Yes.  This is a much nicer place and the food is of a higher quality than I expected.  Almost as if this were the kind of place you'd take a date.  Which this is not"

"If you say so" he said, taking another sip of beer.

"I thought you were seeing someone, Action?"

"That's on hold for now"

"Oh, sorry to hear that.  I will not pry"

"What about yourself?  Are you seeing an American guy or is there someone special back in Germany?"

"There is no one.  I am happy with things that way:  It was easier for me to come to America if I was not involved with a man back home, and getting involved with one here will lead to problems once I go home so this way I do not get hurt, and no one gets hurt by me."  She made it all sound matter of fact.

"So let's keep this professional then" said Action, raising his glass to her.

"Yes.  Professional...although you make it difficult sometimes" she said, smiling suggestively at him.

After dinner he escorted her home but didn't stay for a night cap.  Instead, he went home and crashed out.  The next morning he awoke, showered, got dressed for another shift and was eating breakfast when the lights and radio suddenly cut out.

"Dang...what now?" he muttered.  He went to the light switch and flicked it up and down a few times.  Nothing.  Then he checked out the fridge.  It had stopped working.  Every electrical device in his house stopped working.  Was there a power cut?  He went outside and noticed the lights on at Jeremy's house so whatever the problem was, it seemed to be affecting him.  He noticed a letter sticking out of his mail box so he went over to see what it was:  It was an electrical bill from the providers; the Landgraab Energy Company.  He looked at it; it said he hadn't paid his last bill so they were shutting off the power until he did.  

"But I did pay the last bill!  Last Monday...this is a crock of...heck, I'm going to have to sort this out but I have to get to work!  Damn electrical company, stupid admin people!  Damn the Landgrab Corporation!  Damn them!  LANDGRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB!"

CHAPTER 26: The Conference

 

Suzy came away from her complimentary free session at Movers & Shakers feeling aching, stiff and in need of a stiff drink. It made a distraction from a pretty boring work day, where the editor was more interested in what flavours of ice cream were in for '66 than in Suzy's ongoing work into the skullduggery of Sim City.

As she limped home she was stopped near her house by a well built, tanned man who was out for a fitness run.

"Hey, I know you!" he said, pointing to her.

"Erm....you have me at a disadvantage" Suzy replied.

"I saw you sing and play guitar down at The Blue Velvet....yeah, you were mighty fine!" he said, smiling. "By the way, I'm Don Lothario"

"Do you live up to your name?" said Suzy, who thought this guy was a little too full of himself to be healthy.

"I've never been known to disappoint" he said with a smile, which soon turned to horror. "Is that the time, must go! See you around!" he said, running off. Suzy had no idea what made him change his tune so quickly...there was no one about except for a middle aged red headed woman coming down the road in one direction and a golden haired one jogging in the other. Suzy shrugged and made her way home for a much needed meal.

She'd finished making a Caesar Salad that she got from a recipe book when the door rang. Looking to see who it was, it turned out to be her best friend, Summer Holiday.

"Summer, what a nice surprise, come on in" said Suzy, enthusiastically.

"Hey, how's it going? It seems like ages since we last met" said Summer.

"Oh I've been very busy with work" said Suzy, sitting down to finish her dinner. "I've been doing a lot of research into an article I really want to write...you wouldn't believe the stuff I've uncovered"

"I thought you wrote fashion articles" said Summer, intrigued.

"I do....normally....but this one's different. I can't say too much now, but in time".

There was another knock on the door and Suzy got up to answer it. It was Jeremy from next door.

"Oh hi, Suzy" he said, a little nervously. "I met a friend of yours last night...his name is Burr"

"Oh him, come inside, Jeremy and stop looking like a mannequin on my doorstep" said Suzy, ushering in Jeremy who was holding a large envelope in his hands.

"Hi Jeremy" waved Summer. Her presence made Jeremy seem more nervous.

"Anyway" he said, sitting down. "Burr gave me this to give to you...he said it contains information you might find useful for your next article?"

Suzy eagerly took it from his hands and opened it. Just peering at the top page made interesting reading. LANDGRAAB CORPORATION PLANS FOR WILLOW CREEK AND OASIS SPRINGS DEVELOPMENT. It was a photocopy of an apparently real plan to demolish most of Willow Creek to build something else...something unspecified.

Summer and Jeremy looked eagerly at Suzy to see what the document was. Suzy slid the package across the table to her. "This affects both of you"

Summer and Jeremy gave it a brief look. "They want to smash this place up!" exclaimed Summer.

"The Landgraabs are pretty powerful" warned Jeremy. "Hang on...what's this here...there's a mark on this map of our street...right here. It's marked 'portal'...what does that mean?"

"That's right near the fishing spot past John Action's house" said Summer. "Why is that spot marked with a red circle and why 'portal'? There's no doors or gates there...just some wild flowers, a few old logs and that huge tree"

"I don't know..." said Suzy "but it's important to the Landgraabs"