Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency Year Four:
Case File No. 49-205
AMBER LOVE 12-APR -2021 Find out how all this began. Catch up on Year One, Year Two, Year Three, and Year Four cases at the Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency.
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Where We Left Off:
Our miniature Junkyard Henge where critters gathered for sacred rituals was pummeled and left in ruins.
The Adventure of the Empty House:
I had heard of the Paris Catacombs, but I had no idea that people were actually allowed to go through them until I interviewed author Brad Abraham. Knowing what kind of looting happens in other parts of the world like Egypt during the infamous King Tut’s tomb digs and the much more recent ISIS destruction of Syria’s historic town of Palmyra, I am frankly surprised humans are allowed anywhere near historical artifacts. Burton Guster Nabu — being a far distant off-spring of Wakanda who then traveled to the U.K. then to Jamaica then to this land of New Jersey — has a particular interest in artifacts and archaeology (a word I still can’t spell on the first try).
Gus and Ollie were back on their spring routine of wanting to explore more of the property and check on the critters coming out of hibernation. Ollie went back early since he usually only spends 30-40 minutes on patrol. Gus and I went all the way up to the next house. Besides the melancholy I feel looking at the adorable cottage being actively neglected by those with power of attorney, I try to enjoy visits there since the view is quite nice and the sounds of traffic aren’t as loud as our place at the bottom of the hill. They also have a gorgeous pink magnolia tree, like everything else is neglected and overgrown with wild vines trying to strangle it.
The wraparound porch is in dire need of repair, but it’s one of my favorite features. Gus loves it too. At the moment, the railings are not up to modern construction code. They may have been built in 1920, but who knows? Records online are not always the most accurate. I happen to love the railings. Our house had ones like it before renovations. They were wide at the top and low enough to sit on. Gus loves walking on those railings because he can get a view of two sides of the estate and see when shit is going down. One time there was a flock of wild turkeys who were not keen on our presence.
On this particular spring day, Gus was allowed to snoop around untethered from his leash. I found him in an area that could be both creepy as fuck if it were dark or mysteriously inviting as it was then during the day. On previous explorations, we have found small artifacts on the outskirts of this stony cave passage. Gus was having far too much fun like Evelyn in The Mummy. He didn’t have any interest in coming out and going home. I didn’t enter the area. I was busy trying not to fall of the narrow bit of level ground which is overgrown with prickly long branches. I’ve been caught up in it before and it’s not fun.
This was solely an exploratory mission now. We had no intention of raiding or looting anything. Not that we would. What we do is recovery artifacts and try to mend them if possible and then relocate them to places where they can be appreciated. It’s sort of like museum acquisitions only we aren’t paying for the broken pottery or bones we find.
Two hours was a long time for us to be exploring and even though I took ample time to rest on the veranda, I wanted to go home, peel out of my outside clothes, and sprawl in bed to upload photos to Instagram. While I did that, Gus convened with Oliver and discussed all the data he gathered from his Super Smeller.
Case Findings:
If the cave structure was used as a den by any creatures, it was empty and seemed to be abandoned for a while. The veranda had many fecal specimens left over the winter which we previously noted in reports. There was little activity of above ground creatures — only some birds. We left snacks at the fairy tree and did not retrieve any artifacts.
Case Status: Closed
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.