The Goddess Problem: Olympia Investigations, #2

By Sherry D. Ramsey

Acacia Sheridan is a private detective with a special gift for communicating with the supernatural. When a heartbroken Greek goddess comes asking for her help, Acacia's investigation takes her from an isolated cavern on Earth to the Olympian heights...but can a mortal sleuth wring the truth from a phalanx of dysfunctional deities?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sherry D. Ramsey
• Release date: Feb 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9780993897351

Sherry D. Ramsey

Sherry D. Ramsey is a speculative fiction writer, editor, publisher, creativity addict and self-confessed internet geek. When she's not writing, she makes jewelry, gardens, hones her creative procrastination skills on social media, and consumes far more coffee and chocolate than is likely good for her.Her debut novel, One's Aspect to the Sun, was published by Tyche Books in late 2013 and was awarded the Book Publishers of Alberta "Book of the Year" Award for Speculative Fiction. The sequel, Dark Beneath the Moon, is due out from Tyche in 2015. Her other books include To Unimagined Shores—Collected Stories. With her partners at Third Person Press (http://www.thirdpersonpress.com), she has co-edited five anthologies of regional short fiction to date. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies in North America and beyond. Every November she disappears into the strange realm of National Novel Writing Month and emerges gasping at the end, clutching something resembling a novel.A member of the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia Writer’s Council, Sherry is also a past Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer of SF Canada, Canada's national association for Speculative Fiction Professionals.You can visit Sherry online www.sherrydramsey.com, find her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter @sdramsey.

Book preview

The Goddess Problem

An Olympia Investigations Novelette

by

Sherry D. Ramsey

Copyright © Sherry D. Ramsey 2016

Cover Artwork © Sherry D. Ramsey 2023 (created in Midjourney by Sherry D. Ramsey; Rune brush by Obsidian Dawn)

All rights reserved. The author retains all copyright in the content of this ebook.

No part of this book may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission from the author.

This book contains works of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, entities or settings is entirely coincidental or due to flaws in the space-time continuum.

Sherry D. Ramsey

Email: [e-mail]

Web: www.sherrydramsey.com

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

The Goddess Problem: An Olympia Investigations Novelette

ISBN: 978-0-9938973-5-1

This ebook is licensed for your personal reading enjoyment only--please do not share, duplicate, or re-sell it. Thanks for respecting the hard work of the author.

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The moment she walked into my office, limned in a faint silver sheen, with that grinning, lupine dog at her heel, I knew she was no ordinary client. She didn't proffer a hand, just sat down in the blue leather chair opposite my desk, and said, Hello, Ms. Sheridan. My name is Selene. Do you find missing persons? Her eyes were very serious, very blue, and very fixed on mine. They shimmered a little with unshed tears.

She'd made it past the reception desk and Oliver, my often-annoying assistant and cousin, so he must think I should hear her story. Despite our frequent personality clashes, Oliver had developed a keen proficiency at weeding out the cases I'd absolutely hate. I gave Selene my most professional and sympathetic smile, and met those unnerving, if lovely, blue eyes. They were hard as sapphires; old as the sky.

I do my best for every client, but I won't make any promises beyond that, I told her. I've had some success with missing persons cases in the past.

The dog, rangy and shaggy as a wolf—maybe it was a wolf?—settled on its haunches beside her and panted lightly, tongue lolling. Selene stroked the creature's head with gentle fingers, never breaking our eye contact. This will be a difficult case, Ms. Sheridan, and I may prove to be a difficult client. I will tell you some things that you may find challenging to accept.

I leaned back in my chair, which protested with a squeak. I was suddenly intensely aware of the dust in the corners of the room, the scratched and scabbed surface of my desk, the faint layer of windswept grime on the window behind me, and the lingering scent of tuna sandwich from my lunch. Oliver had been pestering me to repaint the place and freshen it up, but I'd resisted. Maybe he had a point.

I'll try to keep an open mind, I said. Challenging clients are a bit of a specialty here at Olympia Investigations, which is probably why you chose me.

She smiled a little, and didn't deny it. I'm the person to see when a non-human client needs help, and I rely on a lot of supernatural word-of-mouth.

So, will you be explaining why your skin seems to glow? And I don't mean the kind of glow they promise in tv commercials.

She lowered her head in a slow nod. I will. What you make of that explanation will be up to you.

I was intrigued, and business had been—let’s face it, boring—the past two weeks. Too many mundane insurance investigations and spousal surveillances, and I start to wonder why I wanted to be a private investigator in the first place. A faintly glowing woman with a half-wolf for a pet promised to be, at the very least, not boring.

Fair enough, I told her. Two hundred a day plus expenses, I report to you at least twice a week, stop when you're satisfied with the results or don't want to pursue it any further. If that's agreeable?

She shrugged elegantly, nodded, and held out a hand. I shook it, her skin pale and cool and luminescent against mine.

And that's how I first met Selene, Greek goddess of the moon.

~*~

The missing person in question, she told me, was her...hmmm. Not husband, because they'd never married, although according to legend he had fathered some fifty daughters for her. Consort, perhaps? I put him down on my information sheet as significant other. Endymion, the man who, either at Selene's request or his own (reports varied), and by the acquiescence of Zeus himself,