North American Vampire Council & Past Calling (Hypernaturals 12 & 13)

PO Box

Cherlynn's office has had the most interesting things in it so far.

"You all get to everything in here?" Morgan asked.

"We were just getting started. I found this letter and the medical information in the top center drawer of the desk and then looked to see what her mother's information might be in the computer." Jessica said.

"I looked through that bookcase. Also found digital photos on the computer. All family things so far. Birthdays and school concerts and like that." Angel reported. "We were just talking about the implications of the medical information when Adrian came in." Angel said.

"Cherlynn paid all the bills. She felt like our labor split, since I worked, was to be the one that dealt with all the trivia of the family. Medical appointments, dentist appointments, managing the various services, all of that. We set up three accounts. Hers, mine, and ours. My paycheck went automatically between mine and ours. Hers was money from when she had a job and the odd thing here and there she picked up. I think people call it 'mad money' sometimes, but we felt like it was important for her to have her own money. All her paycheck from before we had Danielle went into that as well: Even as an executive assistant she did not make half what I did." Ken explained.

"Then this room is probably the mother-load." Morgan said. She took charge. "Let us set aside all things of interest out on the kitchen table and lay them out and try to create a picture."

No one questioned Morgan on that. Angel and I may be full partners in the firm, but we know without it ever being discussed who is really in charge.

"I'll put these out there." Jessica agreed.

"Cherlynn keeps office supplies like empty file folders in the closet." Ken pointed at the door to what would have been the clothes closet if this were still a bedroom.

Jessica opened it and looked in. "Nice. Organized. Winter clothes over here, cabinets for stuff here. Cherlynn must be a killer executive assistant."

"Her boss was not happy to lose her." Ken agreed. "She could have that job back at any time."

Jessica extracted an empty folder and went to the kitchen. Morgan sat at the desk and pulled open a file drawer. Inside were hanging files, neatly labeled. Since Angel was sitting opposite her still, she pulled out a hanging folder, and handed it to her, and then took the next one and handed it to me. The next went to Denise. As I was standing I took it over to the window and used the window ledge as a work surface. Denise followed suit on that: There was plenty of room for two: it is a double window. Morgan took the next one. When Vera peeked in to see what was going on, Morgan extracted the next folder and told her "Here: Find a place to spread out and have a look. Anything that stands out to you."

The only one that did not get a folder was Ken. Morgan did not explain why, and Ken did not ask. I assumed Morgan is thinking Ken is too close to it and may not see the unusual. Would make assumptions she did not want.

We turned in our first sets of folders and got fresh.

On her third folder, Denise went 'Hmm" thoughtfully and flipped back and forth. I was looking at receipts for appliances. Hers sounded more interesting.

"Ken? What do you all rent up in Huntsville?" Denise asked.

"Nothing. We don't rent anything but a safe deposit box at the bank. We own this house and everything in it." Ken said.

Denise pulled out a computer and started looking up things. I came over to see what the items that caught Denise's attention are. Receipts for rent at an address in Huntsville. A small monthly amount. The receipt documented an address and a unit number.

"A storage room?" I asked out loud.

Denise looked at a bill and considered. "Must be a large storage room. Not enough for a house or apartment."

Vera, having overheard all of that said "I have a set of power bills here. Huntsville. They were mailed to a Post Office box."

Ken was deeply perplexed. "Maybe her mom? Something Cherlynn is doing for her?"

"What's the PO Box?" Denise asked.

Vera read it off, and Denise entered it into her computer.

"The address in Huntsville is in a trailer park. That PO box is at the local post office near here." Denise announced.

I was sorting through the rent for the address in Huntsville and came across one in an envelope. "One of the rental bills was sent to the same PO Box." I announced.

"Perhaps all of them were. None of the rest is in envelopes." Morgan pointed out.

"I don't understand." Ken said.

Before long we had Water and Sewer bills for that address. Next, we turned up a bill for trash collection.

Ken was visibly shaken by this secret location.

Morgan looked through an account ledger on the computer and pointed out that the amounts on all the different payments lined up with ledger entries from Cherlynn's private account.

"Why would Cherlynn do this?" Ken asked and slumped down into the desk chair when Morgan stood up. He stared at the computer screen showing the ledger entries. There were no notes as to what any of it might be.

"Did Cherlynn go to Sam Houston State?" Morgan asked Ken. That is a state university in Huntsville.

"No. The University of Houston. Same as me." Ken said.

Denise held up her computer. On it was a picture of a trailer park, as viewed from space.

"Not a huge place. Twenty trailers. A fair amount of brush and trees nearby. Edge of the city. People never want trailer parks near the city center." Denise commented on her find.

Morgan studied the picture with interest. Denise tapped one of the roofs near the center of the park, and with an open drive area in front of it. "This is that address."

"OK. Let us organize for a quick canvas, but it looks like we have a place to go look. It is a fair way to the north so let us knock out the canvas while we are here." Morgan said. "Ken. You stay here. Try to call her mother again." Morgan 'suggested' but from Morgan, such a suggestion has the force of law, at least for Ken.

"OK." He said, sounding deeply depressed.

That is the downside of being a PI. Just because we say we can find someone is not the same thing as saying one will be happy with the results when we do. We have done more than one 'cheating spouse' type of case only to find the results were not exactly what the suspicious spouse thought it might be. Anything from an entire second family to a same-sex lover to hidden addictions. One man was going to strip clubs. He was not cheating on his wife with a dancer: the couple had no sex life, and the woman suspected a lover on the side because she knew her husband wanted more. His solution was to watch naked women dance. I personally thought that was a dumb solution, since putting himself in a sexually stimulating environment that he would do nothing about seemed to me to only be more frustrating.

Denise thought that a more honest solution would have been to go to a sexual professional, but tell his wife he was. For what he was spending at the strip club, he could then have actual sex. Denise as a former sexual professional would think that, and I did not completely disagree except that I also understood the man's desire to remain true to his wife.

I never followed up on that case to see how it worked out because it seemed like there were no good answers.