Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency Year Four:
Case File No. 33-189
AMBER LOVE 28-DEC-2020 Find out how all this began. Catch up on Year One, Year Two, and Year Three cases at the Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency. Thank you for all your financial and social support! Oliver and Gus are looking forward to bringing you more fascinating discoveries and investigations into the chipmunk mafia, the blue jay gang, the neighborhood critters, and cryptid sightings.
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Where We Left Off:
Gus was up to his aggressive ways again and caused the death (murdered) one of our best confidential informants.
The Lawnmower Man:
This case file is a two-parter since Oliver and Gus were given different assignments by the Grumpy Old Man. The teams had to split up. Gus was mostly able to be on his own and his case took more than one month.
Case #1 – Professor Oliver Winchester
The Grumpy Old Man approached me while I was chauffeuring Oliver in his carriage through the verdant grass. He asked us to keep an eye out for this silver thing that came off one of the mowers. I don’t even know what it is. I tried to reverse image search it through the bat-computer and the closest thing is a pivot pedestal. I don’t think that’s what it is though.
Ollie wanted to visit the fairies and gnomes. He liked to smell the tomato plants left from the summer too. Most important to Oliver was to connect with the birds. He wanted to have a conversation with Louie Eggs if we could find him. I didn’t know why that was important so I had to ask.
“Because the birds like shiny things that might be food. If the fairies haven’t stolen the item, the blue jays will probably know where it is.”
He had a point. I hadn’t even thought about the silver’s things shininess being appealing to any of the creatures. Ollie knows his shit. The five known members of the blue jay gang in the neighborhood had been regular visitors as long as we distributed peanuts. It was a great plan to stay on their good side.
Little Vesta is probably the most active of the fae residents in our garden. She’s the smallest and loves to explore every nook and cranny. Oliver and I arrived at the fairy garden and checked in to see how new resident Sienna Brunetti was fitting in with her new family. She isn’t much of a talker like Fiona Brightwing. The difference is: Fiona is acutely focused on her research whereas Sienna is basically fairy stoner. Our best choice was to ask Eugenia Elmore to call Vesta back from her adventure.
Though the tiny fairy was jubilant to see Ollie again, she unfortunately did not have any information for us about the missing thingamabob. That meant we definitely had to lure Louie Eggs out of the trees and into a conversation.
“Yeah sure. Ya want sum’in’ from me, it’ll cost ya. Got it?”
“Yes, we know and we have your peanuts plus extra if you need to ask anyone in your club about the thingamabob. Deal?” Oliver was a negotiating professional. The answer was peanuts ninety-nine percent of the time no matter who we were dealing with.
“Deal. Picture. Now.”
I opened the phone and held up the screen so Louie Eggs could take a look at the silver object. He swooped down towards me and I thought he was going to claw my face. He was only trying to get a better look at the image on my screen. Still, man, what the hell. Give a gal a warning next time.
“East side of Gnome Grove, toots.”
“Toots? Really?” I didn’t question it too loudly because I was grateful that we had a lead.
Oliver and I left the boulder and navigated all the way through the grass. That old man and his freaking grass. Yes, it looked great. Not a weed in sight of the main fields, but good lord, it was so lush the carriage was difficult to push through it. We went through the Narrows and around the giant maple which isn’t look so healthy this year. We got to Oliver’s wing of the residence which is closest to Gnome Grove.
“There it is!” Oliver sat up straight while I clicked on the parking brakes.
Right near his patio, I saw the chunk of silver. I picked it up to show Oliver and he confirmed that it was the missing thingie from the lawn mower. We went inside and left it on a table for the Grumpy Old Man. The next time all of us were out together, Oliver supervised more repairs.
Case Findings:
When things are lost, first check with the fairies. If that doesn’t work, check in with associates who might know people that fence.
Case Status: Closed
Case #2 – Detective Burton Guster Nabu
The mousing has been nonstop and for good reason. The little buggers are everywhere. They got into The Cook’s holiday decorations inside bins in the basement. They made nests inside the Grumpy Old Man’s toolboxes! Inside the drawers! How did they even manage that?
The worst the mobile command unit. The old man found nests under the sink and in cabinets. Poops and pee puddles on the counters. He found evidence of them in the exterior storage compartments where an operating manual was nibbled to shreds. But the worst… THE WORST WAS THE OVEN!
Oh my the expletives that day were heard for a clear mile. The Grumpy Old Man was allowed to be grumpy af that week. He put on a mask and gloves; boiled water; got disinfectant ready. I heard power tools at one point. I have no idea what he did. I let Gus go in after the initial scrubbing.
From under the chassis, Gus can keenly detect the squatters, but he hasn’t been able to successfully catch one. He tries his hardest. He reaches up into the wheel wells and anywhere he can possibly get. Without Gus having any luck, the old man sets out glue traps. Ewwwww. I’d much rather let Gus do things the natural way.
No matter how many times Gus goes through the inside and outside of the mobile command unit, he hasn’t been able to capture the squatters.
Case Findings:
The mice are getting more and more bold. They have invaded every building and sometimes vehicles! Gus tries to stop them but has only been successful inside the main residence and in the yard.
Case Status: Continuing/Open
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.