The Red Tablet:
The First Recobius & Zakton Mystery
by M. E. Shivers
Chapter One: Professor Quintus Ierrius Recobius
(Click)...This is Madeline Zakton speaking, Madeline Zakton, insurance investigator for Cuts & Spades Insurance Co. Let the record show, by the way, that I did not invent the name for this company. I have been given the assignment to recount, on record, the events of a recent case...well, I guess you could call it "The Case of the Red Tablet", if you want to be theatrical, as well as the events leading up to the recruitment of...Quintus Ierrius Recobius...a Latin professor at...well, the only Latin professor at Springs High School in Springs, Maine. For the sake of common sense and avoiding eccentricity - (yes, eccentricity, Quint, don't look so shocked) - excuse me, I will use the name he is forced to use while signing documents - Professor Quint Jerry Recob. By the way, "Ierrius" is spelled with an "i" at the beginning, not a "y". I'll explain later.
As I was saying, I have been given the assignment to basically explain how Professor Quint has come to be working for this company and how he has come to be my first and, for the record, my strangest partner, honestly. We've been assigned to fill in the events in shifts, so he's sitting next to me right now. If any...um...digressions are heard on this recording, just assume we're...trying to make certain events clear. Alright (now Quint, please behave; that means don't interrupt), here's the case of the red tablet.
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It was...well, compared to what was to happen in a few hours, it seems to me to have been a normal day at first. I mean, I'm an insurance investigator, so I dare say that my life's more exciting than that of most civilians. Normal women have to spend their days getting stuff they need: food for dinner, papers to file, a chance to run for the marathon race. Me? I spend my days looking for stuff that's missing...or most likely, stolen.In my case, historical artifacts - old stuff.
Now let me set the record straight: in my career as an insurance investigator, while looking for historical artifacts I have more than once - dozens of times, actually - gotten into rather...sticky situations. Getting shot in the shoulder by an insane elderly patriarch and being almost decapitated by a butcher, to name a few examples. But, ooooh, how I would gladly have turned aside and dodged bullets, blocked a knife, or run from a bomb if I had known what was coming to me in Professor Recob!
Anyway, as I was saying, it was pretty much a routine day for me. I was stuck with enough paperwork to fill a house. Most of it involved calculating damage costs from my last case, which got pretty high considering the case ended with a...well, I'll talk about that some other time. It was a little bit after lunch time when I heard a knock! knock! on my glass office door. "Enter," I mumbled.
