I had the most interesting evening the other night. Tori was doing some things with her old coven, so I decided to check out a new watering hole in town by the name of Ralph's. Who should I run into but my old friend Count Victor Andreas. Haven't seen him in years, but we did do some very intense magic together once upon a time ( Read more... )

Unbelievable! The goons that had been following me were working for some rival looking for the same family heirlooms as I am, only for a different party, of course. Bloody hell, this was supposed to be a simple matter of tracking them down, not a race. I should get my regular rate just for finding out who has them, and then the matter will be ( Read more... )

I didn't find out much of any use at the air force base, except that the last known forwarding address for Michael Chapel was, of all places, in Sunnydale, California. He received his pension checks there until the early 1970's. Lovely. I try to take a simple job tracking down a simple family heirloom, and it ends up sending me back to the ( Read more... )

It's been a surprisingly relaxing few days, for LA. Apparently the gem that Tori received from the Elenis back in Italy was the final piece needed to take down that Sahjahn fellow who has been making everyone miserable. Once she passed it off to Angel's group, she's had some time to play. Nothing magical, I assure you (well, except in the poetic ( Read more... )

At last, I believe I have worked out the entire Chapel family tree. The confusing thing is that Eleanor's parents ended up moving back to England in the 1980's--he was working for some multinational corporation. However what I had not realized is that Eliza Mallory's sister also married and ended up in the States. I was able to find information on ( Read more... )

These bloody small towns and their incomplete records. It seems several years of birth records were destroyed by a fire at the hospital where several of the Chapel children were born. So I have been told that the most complete records in the country are kept by the Mormons in Salt Lake City. Good heavens, an entire major city run by a strange ( Read more... )

Such a joy trying to trace the path of an American Military family. After the war, Michael Chapel apparently remained in the air force for another decade, getting transferred all over the States. He's been leading me a merry chase for the last week and a half, from Macon, Georgia to Wichita, Kansas to San Antonio, Texas. I made a stop in each place ( Read more... )

I found a bit of information on line about Miss Chapel's grandmother and her family. It seems right after WWII her sister married and American officer who had been stationed in London. She borrowed the jewelry for her wedding and seems to have forgotten to return it. So off she goes to New York with the heirlooms and sets up housekeeping in ( Read more... )

Well, this last week has been a total waste of time. I have driven all over the English countryside scouring county registries and church records trying to fill in the blanks on the Chapel family tree. I made rather good progress on it, only to find out that the branch of the family in question emigrated to the States more than 50 years ago! I had ( Read more... )

My most recent client approached me to track down an old family heirloom--a ruby brooch and matching ring. Apparently they changed hands among several family members a generation or two ago. A rift in the family occurred--but Miss Chapel was supposed to have inherited the item in her grandmother's will. All I have to go on is a somewhat incomplete ( Read more... )