[tshiggins]

(...continued)

At one point, Aurelia emerged and the two took a quick walk to check out the back of the place. Frank became convinced that magic must be responsible, as he watched the two bouncers at the back door chat amiably (“Damn, girl! You look fine, tonight!”) with the stoner crowd purchasing ribs, burgers and fries, and fried peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches from the take-out window of the restaurant across the alley.

Inside, Doc Bascher’s life took a turn for the surreal as she watched the two nunnupi, still in their indian dresses and invisible to crowd, try out hip-hop dance moves (including twerking, by Hops About) from the top of the liquor shelves.

The remainder of the evening passed pleasantly enough, and the group decided to head for the Motel 6 after the first set ended at midnight.

Late the next morning, Beatrice, Frank and Aurelia visited the Clarence Dulake’s home and were greeted at the door by a stunning mulatto woman with a “chahmin’” New Orleans accent. Frank found himself instantly smitten, much to the annoyance of the ladies.

She introduced herself as Lilibet Blank, and told them Clarence had already left for his office. A quick perusal of Dulake’s site found several pictures of the woman, and they identified her as Elizabeth Blank. Originally from New Orleans (and, along with Dulake, part of the post-Katrina diaspora) Blank had a reasonably decent reputation as an R&B singer, and was nearly 10 years older than she appeared.

The trio made their way to Dulake’s office, and Frank elected to wait outside as Beatrice and Aurelia entered. The receptionist, a middle-aged, no-nonsense black lady stopped them firmly, and advised they needed an appointment. From beyond the inner door behind the receptionist, they heard Dulake arguing on the phone with somebody who was apparently trying to cancel a gig, and made an appointment for 2 p.m., that afternoon.

That was several hours away, so the group returned to the hotel. Frank decided to chart out the network of information they’d discovered, thus far, and Sunmi wanted to hit the library. Doc Bascher decided to return to Moab to try to keep her veterinary business from folding, and headed west on I-70.

Frank and Randy stayed outside as backup while Aurelia and Beatrice showed up for the 2 p.m. meeting, and were politely informed by Dulake that he didn’t do dog acts. They informed him that Grunt was a foo-dog and, moreover, they knew he had in common with the dog a certain “spiritual presence.” (Subtlety abandoned…).

With that, Dulake sent his receptionist, Margaret, out to get him one of those “chai-mocha-latte things” he liked from the Starbucks on the corner. After she left, he informed the ladies, in no uncertain terms, that anybody who wanted to discuss such matters with him needed to visit the Academy Club, first.

That caught Aurelia and Beatrice by surprise, and he informed him that certain things got done in certain ways. As such, he had come to understand that, in Denver, a check-in at the Academy Club was simply, “how things are done.”

With that, the ladies took their leave, and passed Margaret in the hallway as she got back with Clarence’s mocha frappuccino.

Seemingly stymied, and with the Academy Club Labor Day picnic more than a week away, the group broke up. Beatrice returned to work at the airfield in Moab, while Aurelia, Frank and Randy decided to remain in Denver. Sunmi chose to stay, as well, and ensconced herself in the Denver Public Library, where she spent all of her time in the stacks, looking up the history of Five Points and checking the archives for any additional information about the murder of Oliver McShane.

While checking into the family histories of various business leaders in the 1920s, Sunmi stumbled onto several references that indicated the Rossonian Hotel had formed the actual center of the Five Points community, and that more information about the community could be found at the Black American West Museum and the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, each located a few blocks from the Rossonian.

With that, Sunmi relocated her efforts and, with the help of the staffs at each place, discovered the Rossonian had hosted a monthly meeting of an informal group known as the Five Points Economic Council, made up of the business and community leaders in the neighborhood. The business council had acted as a patron organization, of sorts, helping Five Points residence find jobs and, in an era of nigh-absolute segregation, provided small business loans for startups.

One of the businesses that received such aid was the Five Points Contracting Company, a black-owned business that built homes and did remodeling of all sorts. Sunmi found evidence that the contractor seemed to hire as many people as it possibly could (and more than it probably needed), and got a lot of business in the area.

Intrigued, Sunmi check the business records and found a small blurb in a local paper that said the company had secured a contract for some work in the basement of the Rossonian, to repair some water damage from a plumbing leak.

Sunmi checked the date, and found it took place less than a week after the murder of Oliver McShane, and the disappearance of his library. (Crit success on her Research roll.)

She picked up her cell-phone and made some calls. (“Hey guys, I think the books are in the basement of the Rossonian Hotel!”)

(continued...)