Session 1 - The Gig - July 3, 2021

Mr. Anatoli Boukreev, Esq. an attorney representing Mr. Salvador Castilla, approaches Maddie Cakes on the matter of recovering a valuable Medieval manuscript stolen from his residence in Manhattan. He offers $200 on the return of the book. Audrey, Maddie's receptionist and girl Friday, sets up a meeting at the Castilla household with Ms. Mapes, the housekeeper.

Meanwhile, Farmer Anna is on her way from Hamilton with a truckload of hooch.

Session 2 - Central Park East Apartments - July 17, 2021

Farmer Anna has arrived in town and made her delivery of upstate hooch, and she and Maddie Cakes meet up at their favorite watering hole, The Green Light. They enjoy a round of 'cold tea,' while catching up and discussing the latest fashion and Farmer Anna's latest purchases.

They then head to Mr. Castilla's home on the 7th and 8th floors of a swanky building overlooking Central Park.

They are greeted by a reticent and grumpy Ms. Mapes who shows them directly to the scene of the book's theft, a magnificent library.

After peppering the uncooperative Ms. Mapes with questions to which she responded with unsatisfactory answers, Mr. Castilla arrived in the library and welcomed the investigators. In his excitement to have them there, he neglected his manners and failed to offer them refreshments.

He regaled them with how meaningful the stolen diary of his six times great grandmother was to him and his family. Written over her lifetime, she recorded all manner of goings on and according to his account was a gifted artist who illustrated the pages with all sorts of sketches.

The investigators discover that Ms. Mapes failed to make her 4AM rounds on the day in question, to her shame, meaning the book was not discovered missing until 9AM. They also learn that none of the windows or French doors have external locks, so no one could have unlocked them from the outside. The only other entrance is from the main door on the 7th floor. Mr. Castilla's quarters and other guest rooms are on the 8th floor. The staff lives in, and Ms. Mapes has promised to provide a list of who was present in the apartments that night.

Mr. Castilla eventually reveals that multiple historians have asked to look at the book in the past, but he has never allowed it, citing the book's personal value and its lack of real historical significance as the reasons. He did mention, however, that he had recently received a request to see the book from a Dr. Athena Thomas from the Department of Classics and Antiquities at Columbia University via letter. He showed the letter to the investigators providing them with the means to get in touch with her.

Having concluded their preliminary questioning, the investigators take their leave of the effusive Mr. Castilla, and plot their next move. They decide to pay Dr. Thomas a visit as soon as possible while gazing out over Central Park, where a woman is feeding the pigeons from a bench. Traffic is light as pedestrians enjoy the cool autumn air, the ladies shading themselves from the late afternoon light with stylish parasols. They can hear the crunch of bicycle tires cruising along the fine gravel of the park paths and the cooing of the feeding pigeons.