Alexandra Goes Back to Work

Memories of April 20, 2013

(From P.I. Alexandra Goth's work journal)

When I returned from my honeymoon I had to go back to work immediately cause I got a call from Bernardo Gunter, the propietor of the Flying V. Coffeehouse.

It seemed like Bernardo had been exchanging love letter with Caterina Vanderburg. He was very much in love, but he wanted to know if Caterina's love for him was sincere. It meant I needed to ask other poeple what they knew about her. What a task!

 

The first opinion I asked for was Shantel Langerak's, at the Consignation store. "Oh, I love Catarina Vanderburg. She's a lovely person, a true sweetheart... although lately she is not returning my calls", Shantel informed me.

Then I questioned uncle Abdul, still there at the Consignation store. I know he knows Caterina very well. "Catarina Vanderburg and I have been friends for years, but now that you ask, I haven't heard from her in a day or two".

On exit I ran into Tanya, Davy Cho's wife, and interviewed her too. 

"Caterina Vanderburg has won the heart of so many people. Her friendship is honest and loyal. Well, at least when she was here".

  According to all my witnesses, Catarina Vanderburg was a sweetheart, but they hadn't seen her recently. No one mentioned either that she had feelings for Bernardo Gunter. There was no other choice but to inspect Catarina's mail. It's a dirty job, but someone had to do it. Sadly that someone was me.

  When I arrived to Catarina's home, her son, Sebastian, was outside. I had to wait until he left to inspect the mailbox. He was surprised to see me there so early in the morning. I told him I had come to visit his mother, Sebastian informed me she had gone on a trip for a few days. So that's why she was absent. Fortunately, the carpool arrived and Sebastiand had to leave for work.

Which I took advantage of to inspect the Vanderburg's mailbox as I wondered what could have happened for the Vanderburgs to leave their old mansion and come to live in such a small house. Rumor had it they had turned into vampires. Nothing but urban legends!

There wasn't anything interesting in their mailbox, though. Only bills and more bills. Boy, do the Vanderburgs spend money! It wasn't my business, I know. But there wasn't anything but debts here.

Finally I found something highly interesting: a handful of letter, each one addressed to a different lover, all of them signed by Catarina Vanderburg. But she wasn't in town, so - who had put those letters there? It was time to talk to some of my contacts in the Intelligence Agency to help me solve this nonsense.

I did the pertinent calls from right there. It turned out that my contact at the Agency had run into a similar case before.

The author of the letter was a know con artist and a small-time musician that worked at the theater. I headed there fast to catch him backstage.

The suspect had been a con artist since scam became an art. The same amount of time he had worked as a musician.

His scam consisted in making everybody in town fall in love with a fake name, then trick them to get presents and money. I don't know how, but I was able to convince him to desist and focus in his work.

Unfortuntaley, now I had to tell Bernardo Gunter that his alleged lover wasn't the real Catarina Vanderburg.

For a second, Bernardo's heart throbbed so hard I thought it would break. It was moving. He quickly recovered and reasigned the funds he was going to spend in the fake Catarina to pay for my fees. Case closed!

My work was overt for the day. Now, home with my beloved Cornell... Fortunately this love is for real!