Portland, Maine
August, 1928.
Steven Gilbert is a wealthy businessman, a leading exponent of the bourgeoisie of the roaring twenties. He sees his heritage project going up in smoke, when Timothy, his only six-year-old son, disappears.
A group of investigators will try to find his missing son. The group may include:
1) Police detectives
2) Private detective hired by Gilbert
3) Relatives or friends strongly motivated to find the missing kid
But Timothy´s disappearance is not the only gloomy burden weighing on the Gilbert family. Alyssa, Timothy's mother, committed suicide one year ago, and the reason for such an extreme action is still obscure.
OOC: A fail, but can I roll a bounus die, considering Ivy should be well-acquainted with the police archives?
OOC: No need, I can give you a 10% bonus…
Ivy opens Alyssa's suicide folder. The woman was found dead in the morning, and the body temperature test said she died during the night. The woman hanged herself from a tree in the park, at an hour when the park is deserted. There is no doubt that it was suicide, and not a simulation. The woman died hanged and there is no evidence of any violence other than loop strangulation by the body´s weight. The police investigated the woman's life, since she did not have a depressed personality. All that was found is that Alyssa had been at the Normal Ghoram School library the day before she died, to get some books. The housekeeper Kathie said she saw her saddened when she came home. The police concluded it was suicide and did not want to investigate further. Partly by Gilbert's request to keep family matters confidential, partly because more urgent cases required investigation.
Ivy sighs and slams the file shut. There was nothing here that she didn't already know, with the exception of the library books, which she mentally files away for future consideration.
"Nothing on the Gorham school? Hmm..."
She considers catching up with Mike, but decides that it might still be worth making use of the archives. She looks up at the clerk.
"Do we have anything regarding the village of Greyton? Specifically August 11th last year?"
There are copies of local newspapers of Northern Maine. The page in Alyssa's studio was actually one of these newspapers. Ivy can confirm with other journals that August 11th, 1927, a sailing schooner, called Acadia attempted a fishing trip in the Bay of Fundy. The Acadia was caught by a sudden and unexpected storm. There are also news of a few days later. It then became known that a young man disappeared at sea during the accident and is still missing. It seems that he was accompanying the fishermen. His name is Martin Thompson, and he´s son of a high school teacher of literature in Greyton.
After scribbling some notes, Ivy decides that the best course of action is to meet up with Mike and then join the others at the Normal Gorham school.
She wants to know what books Alyssa got out of the library. This will mean searching her study at the Gilbert House again, or asking the librarian at the school.
Ivy remembers well that all the books in Alyssa's study were hers and not borrowed from the library. The books Alyssa took that day were certainly returned after her death. The obvious is to look at the Gorham school records.
The campus of the Gorham Normal School is located in Gorham, at ten minutes driving distance from Portland. The urban village known as Gorham Village or simply "the Village," encompasses a number of smaller, unincorporated villages and hamlets with distinct historical identities. The principal structures of the campus is the Corthell Hall, a big three-story redbrick building in gothic-style. The Corthell Hall houses the classrooms, the library, the auditorium and the drawing rooms for musicales, receptions and exhibits. Opposite to the Corthell Hall, is an open lawn traversed by walks. Beyond it, are the dormitories and athletic facilities, a large, double-winged four-story building of a modified Italian Romanesque style with walls of light-red bricks, trimmed with limestone.
It's a sunny day. Many students and students are in the tree-lined courtyard. Some are sitting on a bench, isolated with a book. Other are gathered in small groups to chat.
The library has access to hundreds of book titles, archives, records as well as hometown newspapers and magazines. Professors are assigned oversight of the collections, as a common practice for small colleges. Books are neatly lined up, row after row, in high and low shelves, with their spines facing outward. Sections are arranged in alphabetical order. There are comfortable leather armchairs, tables for quiet study and coarse cheap carpet on the floor. Hushed atmosphere of muffled stillness reigns. Miss White, the librarian, is not in there at the moment, but her assistant, a student, stands at help desk. The assistant looks at the records and finds that Alyssa took two books about mathematics and geometry. Ivy can see they are two books commonly used in elementary school. The assistent says Miss White was a classmate and close friend of Alyssa. Ivy can find her at the dorms, if she wants more information.
OOC: Ivy finds Emma and Kathryn at the Gorham School in the dorms. They found that Elisabeth White is a former Alyssa´s classmate. Please read the last post of the thread "August 17 - 3.00 PM – Harbour and Gorham - Kathryn and Emma" and continue posting from there.
