Play@YSDC

OOC: Was Alyssa close with her classmates during and after her stay in Gorham?

OOC: Yes, she had close relationship with some people there. See below here....

When inquiring the harbor master about the landscape, Kathryn finds there´s no such landscape in Portland. The man doesn´t know the place, but remembers about seeing something similar in a Geography book about Northern Maine. He doesn´t remember details about the book, but Kathryn should be able to find it in a library. Kathryn knows the Normal Gorham School has the largest library in Portland.

OOC: if you want to ask something else to the harbor master go ahead, but this basically all that he can tell you about the landscape. I assumed Kathryn would go to Gorham together with Emma, if you have other goals just let me know and I will change the post

Kathryn heads to Gorham together with Emma, who´s going there to instigate about Alyssa´s student life and former boyfriend. 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, the Corthell Hall is 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.

The nearby Science Hall houses the departments of natural and chemical sciences. This is a four-story structure containing laboratories furnished with the equipment for natural sciences, research, special stage for scientific demonstrations. The Student Union building is an ornate three and half story red-brick and terra cotta structure designed in the manner of an Italian Renaissance palazzo. It is the social and recreational headquarters for student and faculty.
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. Emma and Kathryn begins make some questions. They find that Alyssa´s boyfriend name was Jason Carson. He was a janitor, but he's not working in Gorham any more. He's back to his hometown, Greyton, up north, close to Canada. In the school are still two people who were close to Alyssa. One is Professor Parker, the history professor. They can find him in his studio. The other is Elisabeth White, a former Alyssa´s classmate who works in the school library now. She might be there or in the dorms.

Before she goes with Emma to the school, Kathryn asks the harbormaster what he knows about the village of Greyton and the wreck of the Acadia.

He knows it is located in Northern Maine, bust below the Bay of Fundy. He has never been there, but he has heard from some fishermen, friends of his, that the city has undergone great development in recent years. It seems that the fish traders over there are doing good business. He knows nothing about Acadia, but he has heard that deep inside the Bay of Fundy is not a good place to fish. There are not many salmon nor cod, comparing with the open Atlantic. Furthermore, there is often a very thick fog. When it is bad weather sure it can be dangerous.

"Thank you," says Kathryn to the harbormaster. She rejoins Emma at the school. "Shall we speak to the professor first, and then Elisabeth White? Or do you prefer we speak to her first, or do you think we should each locate one of them?"

"Yes, that's a good idea," says Kathryn. "Let's see if she's in the library first, and if she's not there, we'll check the dorms."

Kathryn and Emma find Elizabeth White in the dorms. Her room includes a bed, a small desk and a chair. Elizabeth White is a young woman, with blond curly hair and blue eyes. She wears a simple cotton dress, thick black cotton stockings, and low heel Oxfords. Her mind is deeply concentrated in reading a book. When the investigators find her, she raises the head from the book and reveals her innocent face of sublime and natural beauty. As the investigators are about to interact with Elisabeth they see the detective Ivy arriving.

After making enquiries, Ivy finds her fellow investigators in Elizabeth White's dorm. She enters quietly, not wishing to interrupt their questioning.

When they have finished, she asks Elizabeth if she knows what books Alyssa borrowed from the library, the day before her unfortunate death. She will also ask to see them, just in case Alyssa annotated them in any way.

"Hi," says Kathryn. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but do you have a few minutes to talk? I'm Kathryn, a friend of Emma here."

The girl smiles shyly, but with curiosity.
"Yes .. of course ... what can I do to help you in? Do you need to search the library?"

"No, thank you, that's not why we're here," says Kathryn. "We'd like to ask you a few questions about your friend Alyssa, and about some of the other people at the school."

Her yes become sad. Her voice is soft, as her appearance could suggest.

"She studied here... we were friends. Then she graduated and moved to Portland. She kept coming here every now and then, to use the library. Then, suddently, I knew about her death. Are you relatives of her?"

The girl aswears, while her mind suffers when calling back such a sad story

"Jason Carson was the janitor of the campus, and he used to do a little bit of everything. He could repair almost anything. Meanwhile, she frequented the library. She wanted to enroll as a student at some point. He had come from Greyton, a small town of the northern Maine coast. Jason was a big timer, Alyssa was a flapper. They got engaged. But at some point, he told her they had to break up and he could not explain her why. Then, Alyssa met Gilbert and got married."

Elisabeth takes a picture from a drawer. It is a picture of Alyssa and Carson. The two are smiling, they are in front of a lighthouse. Alyssa is a beautiful girl, with wavy brown hair, big and lively eyes and a spontaneous and sincere smile. Carson is a handsome boy too, with blond hair being shaken by strong wind in this picture. He´s hugging her affectionately. The landscape behind them looks like the same in Timothy's drawings.

Behind, there´s something written
“Thank you for these unforgettable days, yours Jason”

"She had this picture taken seven years ago, when she went to meet Jason in Greyton, a couple of months after he went to his hometown. When Alyssa came back from Greyton, she told me they had broke up definitely. She left this picture with me, she did not want to keep it at her home. Maybe she was afraid Gilbert could find it."

Emma remembers about Alyssa being away for a week, in that period. However, she told the family she went to see a girl, a former classmate.

Elisabeth sighs with sadness

"I do feel something happened during that stay in Greyton. One year ago, Jason came here to the campus to meet Alyssa, a few days before she committed suicide, they were in the courtyard, I saw them from afar, Jason was showing her something, looked like a newspaper page, but could be something else. He was yelling at her, he seemed worried and scared about something. Alyssa took the page and ran away crying. Jason headed back to the train station, and I have not seen either of them since that day. So that´s Alyssa and Jason story... I think their love was for some reason impossible and they never menaged to forget each other. "

Ivy shifts awkardly - such love between two people is something she has neither experienced nor, for that matter, particularly wanted.

"Did you know Alyssa's son is missing? That's why we're here. We're trying to find out if his disappearance is linked to her death. I've discovered that she took some books out before she died. Could you look at the library records and tell us what these books were please?"

"Oh, and this is a long shot, Did Alyssa ever mention a boy called Martin Thompson?"

She turns to her fellow investigators. "He went missing at sea during the storm mentioned in Alyssa's newspaper clipping."

"They are common didactic books used to prepare lessons of Mathematics and Geometry. Alyssa used to come here to consult them from time to time."
He opens the door of the room and asks a student if he can go get them for her.

She closes the closing the door, and goes back to the desk.
"Alyssa did not come here for the books. She came to meet Jason. I guess he came here to tell her something. ."
She says in a firm voice.

"Martin is a friend of Jason, a guy in Greyton. Alyssa met with him when in Greyton. She said Jason and he were often together and she complained she wanted Jason to stay with her. She didn´t tell me anything else, but I had the impression there was something else.... something she herself could not figure out... I don´t know how to explain. Just a gut feeling. "

The student returns with the books. They are indeed didactic books, nothing more, nothing less. No annotations.

"Do you know Jason's address in Greyton?" asks Kathryn. "Maybe there's a letter he sent to Alyssa with a return address."

Ivy thanks Elizabeth for her time.

"All things are pointing towards this Jason fellow. Unless there's anything more to be found here, may I suggest we rejoin Detective O'Shaugnessy for a trip to Greyton?"

Miss White answers Kathryn.
"Alyssa never told me Jason's address, but she told me he was orphan. He was raised by tyhe local priest."

"Thank you," says Kathryn. "That will help. I suppose Greyton is our next logical stop. I'm ready to go, Ivy."

Once they leave the library, Emma turns to the two women. "There's something I need to tell you. Some time before her death my sister has told me about a recurring dream she had. She was lost in a cave and trying to escape, but would always wake up before succeeding. I wasn't sure whether it was of any importance, until now. I wonder if some freak accident has happened during her stay in Greyton."

"How interesting... Timothy's friend told us the boy was having the same dream. Maybe the dreams are connected to the storm of 11th August last year."

Ivy smiles a brittle smile.

"We have quite a list of things to investigate in Greyton: Jason, the boyfriend; his friend Martin (his father is a teacher at Greyton high school); the storm of last year; the scene in the painting with the lighthouse and any mysterious caves."

"The sooner we get there the better I think..."

"Yes, it must have to do with the Acadia," says Kathryn. "You're right, we need to get moving as soon as possible, though at least Jason is unlikely to harm the boy."