Still battling mystery, partly due to serious case of crud. I can’t think of anything non-fictiony to write, sorry, so here is a bit from A Fatal Stain:
Mind you, I didn’t leave the door unlocked on purpose – not as such. But it wasn’t a big deal, because this wasn’t a bad area of Goldport. Oh, okay, so my friend Ben thought that downtown Goldport near the college was a slum and that gangs fought in the street in front of my house every day. But Goldport was never a big town, though it had achieved a somewhat large and definitely rowdy population during the gold boom. That had left its echo in places named Goldpan Alley and Three shots street, and the Leather and Lace hotel up the street which was a bed and breakfast on the site of a famous brothel.
The gold bust had left the town deserted, its fine Victorian buildings falling to pieces, until UC Goldport had moved to town, and brought with it a boom in tech and other white collar jobs.
Goldport was so white bread it was a wonder no one had ever tried to spread butter an inch thick all over it. Even downtown Goldport was as safe as suburbs in larger cities. If gangs fought on the street in front of my house it would be The Paperclips versus The Calculators. They’d be hauling some serious numbers and glaring daggers at each other. They could do serious damage with the edges of their sharpened, gold mastercards.
But of course Cas thought otherwise and there was no point arguing. After all he saw whatever crime there was in town – and for him even a single crime would be too much. If murders didn’t happen, he’d upgrade graffitti to serious crime status.
“I’m sorry.” I gave him something approaching a contrite smile – at least if my acting abilities were up to snuff – while I looked at the table.
According To Hoyt 