July 16, 2044
Old San Francisco
I awoke in my apartment on Chandler Ave. Sweat had soaked my bed sheets. It was the middle of July and pretty much all of California was in a hot streak. The last five days were all around 45 degrees Celsius, and the heat has destroyed many of the air conditioners in the city, including mine. Thankfully at night, when most people were awake, we cooled off to a nice 35 Celsius. I got out of bed and walked over to the window. The street was nearly deserted. Rook had braved the heat to open up his store. Normally, I wouldn't want to visit Rook's unless I had some important questions to ask regarding a case, but the Pawnshop's air conditioner was actually operational. I quickly got on my trench coat and fedora and ran down to the Pawnshop.
"Good morning, Murphy. I take it you'll be spending the day here again?" Rook said his typical tone.
"Yesiree, Rook. Better crack out the old deck of cards again. I feel like playing a bit of poker."
"Alright, but if a customer comes in, go hang out in the backroom. I don't want you scaring them off."
Just then someone burst in the door to Rook's shop, panting as if they'd just run a 20k marathon.
"Are you Tex Murphy?" he said, still panting.
"Yes, I am. Why?"
"I need your help."
"Do I look like I have the time?"
"But... you are Tex Murphy, you're always out of work."
"Hmmm... go on."
"A wooden statuette of mine has been stolen."
"Is it valuable?"
"Yes It's from the 11th century, It's priceless!"
"Wood. What does it look like?"
"It's an African statuette, a nude, thin and tall warrior made of very red mahogany."
"Nudity. That's interesting, please go on."
"You see, about ten years ago my friend, Jules Franklin and I discovered this stone whilst we were on an archeological project in Egypt."
"I see," said Murphy.
"Anyway, one night we came across this statuette and it was decided that I would be responsible for the statuette as I was opening a museum when returning to San Francisco. But my colleague wasn't too happy with this decision as he had learned that this statuette had strange powers and was worth a fortune to many collectors. I convinced him once again that this statue belonged in a museum, however he wasn't happy and left the campsite area never returning. He has been missing ever since and now my statuette is missing and I desperately need it back. What do you think I should do? Can you help me?"
"Well, this sounds like a Scooby Doo kinda case to me, but since I got nothing to do, I sure can give it a try..."
So there I was... What looked like a quiet little poker game in old San Francisco turned out into another busy adventure. Heck, bet I'm not going to sleep for the next two weeks again! |
