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Murder at Vertigos Tower- The Gold Envelopes
Calavera Café: The small casino where the bourgeois could fritter away their cash and drink fine liquor with solid gold flakes. Well, they used to.
The owner, Manny Calavera, had abandoned the place a month ago. Nobody was sure why, but nobody really cared either. People disappeared in Rubacava every day and why wasn’t important. What was important was who was going to be the next owner of the small casino.
Because of the amount of interest, the property was to be auctioned off in three days time. One of those most eager to buy it was Olivia Ofrenda.
Olivia wasn’t exactly going to buy the casino; she easily had enough cash to but why spend your own money when you could have your boyfriend buy it for you? All Olivia had to do was drop a hint, that she wanted the casino, neatly into conversation and Calavera Café would be hers. Her boyfriend Max would make sure of that.
Yes, there were definite upsides to having the richest and most powerful man in Rubacava as your boyfriend. Although there were down sides, like having to spend time with him, it was definitely worth it to have your every whim served to you on a silver platter.
“The Black Box? Too much alliteration. The Green Bottle? Ugh…no,” Olivia thought aloud, while perched on a table alone in the Blue Casket.
Olivia paused for a moment in time to hear the slither of letters come through the door. Olivia didn’t generally do mundane things like browsing the post – tasks like that were below her. But, without any further inspiration for club names, she decided to have a quick look through to see if there was anything worth her attention.
One gold envelope caught her eye. Slitting it neatly open, she unfolded a silver sheet of paper:
Miss Offrenda,
You are invited to have dinner with Gratianio Bechini. At 8:00 Wednesday evening in Vertigos Tower.
Yours faithfully
Gratianio Bechini
Gratianio Bechini? She had never heard his name before. Intriguing… Maybe he was a newcomer to Rubacava…a rich newcomer. Whoever he was Olivia was going to find out.
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“The problem with the old system was that everyone kept losing their card – but not anymore! I’ve made a chart to write the guests name, compartment and what items they’ve left with me and get this! It’s on laminated paper! So when the guest leaves I just wipe off their details and it’s …wait are you even listening to me?”
The shop was fairly empty at this time in the morning, not that there were ever that many people to be found in “Dan’s drinks”. With a name like that it wasn’t really surprising why they didn’t get any customers.
But the coffee was good and cheap, two things that didn’t really come together in Rubacava, so Lola and Lupe often met there before starting a day’s work.
“What? Oh, yes,” Lupe gave her a suspicious look as Lola took her eyes quickly away from the coffee shop’s window
So you’re sure it’s okay then?” Lola asked.
“Yes, Lola, you can come and take photos of Vertigos Tower this Wednesday evening,” Lupe replied in slight frustration.
“Are you sure that…”
“Yes, the head waiter, Antonio, said it was fine,” they’d been over this so many times…
“So, which rooms do you think I should start with?” Lola asked taking a sip of her coffee.
“Hmmm…I don’t know. I haven’t been working there that long, only since Manny left,” Lupe paused for a moment before ploughing on “I mean, really, you would have thought he would have given us some warning before taking off like that. He never did care about all the work I put into organising his coats.”
“I’m sure he had a good reason for leaving,” Lola was certain Manny wouldn’t have just abandoned them without one.
---
“Don’t you think this is just a slight waste of money?”
“Nick, nothing is a waste of money when it comes to Olivia,” Maximino told his lawyer.
And the gift of the Calavera Café was surely going to impress her. In fact, anything that involved expensive gifts made Olivia happy. And anything that involved Olivia seemed to make Nick irritable.
“Yes, but you are not just buying it. You are going to have to outbid Rodrigo Solerio from El Marrow, Hector Lemans, even that buffoon Celso Flores, and…”
“That’s enough Nick, if I want your opinion on gifts for my girlfriend I’ll ask for it.”
Nick had crossed the line. Anyone who crossed the line of their authority in front of Maximino had either to quickly dive back across it or suffer the consequences. Hence Nick stopped talking.
“Hmmmm… Flores… Isn’t he outta town looking for his wife?” Maximino asked, composing himself again.
“He’s come back, apparently she run off with a casino owner from Puerto Zapato.”
“Well, anyway, that’s not the reason I wanted to speak with you,” Max started to explain when there was a knock on the door and Raoul stepped into the office.
“Is this important?” Max asked now starting to lose his temper.
“Aitor has caught Chowchilla Charlie trying to sneak into the High Roller’s lounge. Should we have him removed?” Raoul enquired with a slight French accent.
“Chowchilla Charlie? Shouldn’t he be in prison?” Max asked.
“Maybe Bogen let him out early this time,” Nick suggested. Although it was unlikely that Bogen would let anyone out early, especially Chowchilla Charlie, unless he was given considerable compensation.
“Oh, you have a letter from Monsieur Bogen and this,” remembered Raoul, placing Bogen’s letter and a gold envelope on Max’s desk.
“Have Charlie thrown out and make sure Aitor lets him know not to come up here again,” Max told Raoul. The demon Aitor was good for letting people know they weren’t welcome anymore. In fact a little too good at it…
Raoul left the office and Max’s attention was caught by the gold envelope. “An invitation to Vertigos Tower from Gratianio Bechini,” Nick said as Maximino ripped the envelope open and scanned the silver sheet of paper.
“Yes, how did you know?” Max asked. Being able to know the contents of unopened letters was good even for Nick.
“I have one too,” Nick replied, “but I haven’t heard of a Gratianio Bechini before.”
“Probably new in town. Well, I don’t think there’s any harm in showing him who’s on top in Rubacava,” Max chuckled for a moment before realising: “Didn’t Raoul give me two letters?”
“I thought he only gave you one,” Nick replied.
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“Mr Lemans, everything is under control. The escaped woman has been taken care of and it’s only a matter of time before we have Calavera in our hands,” Domino said with complete confidence in his words.
“Well done, Domino. I have only one more question for you before you can return to your island.”
Return to his island? Domino didn’t want to return to his island. What use was he baby sitting a load of do–gooders?
“Yes?” Domino replied. Hector was planning to buy a casino in Rubacava to keep a better eye on the situation over there. Why didn’t Hector post him in Rubacava instead of some idiot who was probably a spy for the LSA?
“Have you ever heard of the name Gratianio Bechini?” Hector asked. Domino feigned an inquisitive look.
“No, can’t say I have,” he replied. In fact Lemans wasn’t running the show too well at all. He was struggling to close Double N ticket sales and LSA spies were all over the place.
“Hmmm…no one seems to know he is,” Hector said pausing for a moment to think. Domino stayed silent too – interrupting Hector LeMans while he was thinking was not a good idea.
“He sounds rich though. Rich enough to need a Double N ticket,” Hector said finally and then paused for another moment.
He, Domino, could do a much better job of running the operation. Like he always thought; if there was more of Dom to go around the world would be a much better place.
“Would you like to come with me to Vertigos Tower on Wednesday to try and sell this Mister Bechini a Double N ticket?” Hector asked. Domino knew that this was not a question, but a command.
“I’d love to,” Domino replied.
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A/N Well the scene is set. In the next chapter the fun will begin! (Writer laughs insanely with a few flashes of lightning in the background)
And yes I know Lola shouldn’t be in existence at this point in the story but let’s just go with it!
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