Tidal Departures

By Angela White

Being engrossed with life’s greatest questions has been preparing a critical mind to take on an everyday mystery that hits close to home.

To push her into the action will take an accident-prone friend, a gorgeous heiress, and a promising local artist. The pressure piles up when a painting disappears and each person is contemplating the predicament, patiently awaiting an explanation. Hopefully fending off her fetish for frappuccinos doesn’t interfere with her faculties to decipher the mystifying offence of the missing painting.

Little does she know that this hidden mystery is maximizing her unique life experience and appealing to her fate to develop her into the eclectic detective she was born to be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Free Mind
• Release date: Feb 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781775224068

Angela White

Who is Angela White?I published my first book in elementary school--Mystery of the Missing Tabby. The school library still has it, as far as I know. That was my first real work, where writing became solace for me.In Jr. High, a teacher told our class none of us could match the classic authors we would be studying; we weren’t good enough. I took that to heart and turned in an A- paper with a rookie mistake that prevented me from getting the respect I wanted from that lady. I hated it that she was right. I still do.I also adore her for waking my brain to the possibility that someday I might be as good as one of the iconic writers who frame the world of literature. I’ll never know if she did it intentionally, but it worked for me. I’ve never wanted to do anything else.Thanks to that drive, the fire she finished waking, I live off my writing and run my own publishing company. I have twenty novels out, and thousands of fans. It's a long way to go before children study my work in schools, but I’m still just as hot for it now as I was in that musty classroom in 7th grade.So, that’s who I am. I am building, and living, the American dream.Who are you and what have you done?That’s a hard question to answer if you’re still trying to get there. I understand. Here’s some free advice: Follow your dreams, even when the world says it’s crazy. Sometimes, you’ll find a life that satisfies you more than you ever thought was possible. Chase that, starting right now, and the next time someone asks who you are, tell them you’re an immovable force, a wild dreamer, a hopeful comet shooting toward the goals that orbit your existence. And then lift your chin. There aren’t many of us left who want to be good at what we do. Everyone else just seems to want that green shit.I now write full time and live on a small ranch with my family and our clowder of barn cats. You haven’t laughed until you’ve seen newborn kittens playing in the weeds. It’s an amazing way to begin the day. Thank you to everyone who gave me a try. I wouldn’t have this life if not for all of you. Self-sufficiency is an indescribable gift, especially when you grow up poor. May someone help each of you the way you’ve helped me.Contact Angela WhiteFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/authorangelawhiteEmail:[e-mail]

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Tidal Departures

The Eclectic Detective’s First Case

By Angela White

Copyright 2019 by Sara Dasko

All Rights Reserved

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2019 by Sara Dasko

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in Canada

First Printing, 2019

ISBN 978-1-7752240-2-0

Published by Sara Dasko and Free Mind in Canada

Edited by Sara Dasko

Contact: [e-mail]

To all the writers who know in their heart of hearts

that they’re meant to write

but don’t know how to get started,

just start.

Even if it sucks.

Write it.

Acknowledgements

First off, I’m indebted to my husband who patiently fielded all of my plot questions and was my sounding board throughout my clandestine approach to writing. I’m blessed beyond measure to have him in my life, supporting me, encouraging me, and mostly just listening to me blather on and on.

Secondly, I want to thank my dad for being the first one to read my manuscript, before I even edited. It takes an incredibly loving person to trudge through that mess. I can’t wait to plot our own story together.

Thanks also to my mom for her ongoing support and eagerness to be one of the first to read the finished version. I’ve always known that my mom thinks I’m special ;)

I love you all!

Finally, thank you readers. To all of you who enjoy a good lighthearted mystery featuring an amateur detective (and author), I hope you enjoy this first literary specimen from yours truly.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Art Exhibit Meeting

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Epilogue: Denouement

Prologue

I’m not particularly good at doing nothing. Perhaps that’s why I have a hard time falling asleep. I’m not an insomniac by any means (though writing this at 1am may belie that assertion). I sleep. I just have a hard time falling asleep. To fall asleep you have to do nothing. You have to still your thoughts. Calm your body. So usually I put the television on to fall asleep. It’s not because I don’t like the silence. I love silence. I can be left in silence with only my thoughts turned on for hours. I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve worked the last eight years by myself in near solitude for eight hours a day. Thinking about myself. It’s one of my favourite hobbies; thinking of myself that is. In a deep self-awareness type way, not a self-centred way. A deep self-awareness that probes relentlessly at me: why am I here? What’s my purpose? Should I feel guilty for being born in Canada? Should I feel guilty for being born white? Do females really have it that rough?

All this being said, it’s almost impossible for me to do nothing. My husband often comments to me, You’ve zoned out. But what he really means is, You’ve homed in on something so deeply that I can feel you thinking from the other room. His Jedi abilities are a marvel.

I’m not extremely good at finishing things either, which makes me wonder what will become of this case.

Yes, this case. You see, this case, as most are, is all about the characters. And what they do at the beginning may be different than what they do at the end. The question is, do I have the follow through to track those changes? It all comes down to character.

I’ve already begun with me. Only a rough introduction I should think, so here I ought to delve deeper into what makes me tick. I’m awfully judgmental. And I’m terribly judgmental of my judgments. It’s barmy when I stop to think of it, but it’s been an impossible habit to nip. I can’t help observing (I call it) the barista at the coffee shop: incredibly smiley, can it be real? If it is real then she doesn’t have much life experience. She likes my velvet textured sunglasses? As do I. It feels pretentious to wear brightly coloured sunglasses in winter, but one must wear sunglasses in a Calgary winter. The snow is dreadfully blinding. My judgments go both ways, by the way, positive and negative. I think it all equals out in the end. Especially since I’m pretty good at self-control. Well, that may or may not be true. Depending on who you ask.

I do enjoy opining an apt characterization; but when the opinions are directed at me, I hold them for but a brief instant and then I reject them almost immediately as my primal instinct is to rebel. Not in an evil or illegal sense. Just in a you-can’t-box-me-in-sense. Or what some might call a you-don’t-know-me-sense. The painful irony is that I believe one of the sincerest longings of all humans is to be known. Seen. Known. Respected. Loved. Possibly in that order. I have many theories thought, that is merely one. And not too well-developed yet, I should say.

But knowing and seeing is something I have well-developed, which brings me to the characters of this case. In every mystery I’ve ever read or watched, I’m always itching to meet the characters, but then I spend half the time trying to distinguish them from each other. I’m sure you’re dying to know the ones of this story. Keep their names straight. Picture them in your mind. Connect with them on some universal level.

HYDA: heart; gift

So let’s start with Hyda. She’s a Danish artist. I wish I knew more about Denmark. It seems like the perfect country. If there could be one. They do incredibly humane things like give prisoners work to rebuild their confidence and other projects like building earthships to save the planet. Or maybe that’s in Mexico. Either way, Denmark seems to have very few political problems (from my limited understanding of politics), and from the eyes of those peering in from the outside, Denmark appears to have it altogether. That’s like Hyda. Maybe on the inside she doesn’t have it all together. But it sure looks that way. She doesn’t spend an exorbitant amount of time on social media, and what she does post looks surreal, but somehow real. Like, I really do believe that every morning she eats avocado toast with a poached egg boiled to soft perfection. And I do believe she’s the type of artist you trust to colour in the lines when appropriate and whenever it’s outside the lines it’s intentional and glorious.

She has the goldest golden hair that weaves naturally into a plait with those kismetic strands always pulled out just so so it looks natural but elegant. It’s almost fairy-like. Or gypsy-like. Like a gypsy-fairy. But with an engineering degree. I don’t doubt that everyone in Denmark has an engineering degree. They’re so put together.

And Hyda has the loveliest smile. Like the barista. And you know her smile is always from the heart. She’s not the kind to call you dear or sweetie. She’s too humble for that, but you can almost hear her smile voicing such affections in her charming but not inhibiting accent.

Carmione: garden; song

And then there’s Carmione. You know those people who always have something happening to them? Like their car broke down and they missed their job interview with you, but they couldn’t text you because their phone died and then by the time they got home it was too late to call and the internet was down so email was also out of the question. Yes, those type of people are a red flag for hiring. I’ve hired many a Carmione in my life only to regret it within weeks. Because here’s the ringer: they’re almost always such kind people. They apologize unremittingly until all you can do is shake your head, accept the apology, forget why you’re mad at them, and trust it won’t happen again. Because they promise it won’t. But it does. And it’s not their fault. That’s the worst of it. You have to be Job to give them a job. It’s a high calling.

And that’s Carmione. Thankfully not an employee of mine. With her chestnut brown hair falling straight down her slender back, apologies backed up by long black eyelashes that any lash-extension technician would try to model, and her model long legs that unbeknownst her have gotten her hired more than once.

She would never admit to that. Nor would she be pleased to know it’s happened. But that’s the world we live in. Not all men are pigs. But some are and not only are they not willing to accept it and help it, but other men aren’t willing to acknowledge it, call them out on it, and keep their gender in check. But Carmione would speak up. Yes, she would. She’d call it as she sees it. But that’s only assuming she sees it. And that’s unlikely.

Speaking of men. Just when you were beginning to think this was an all-female cast. Not so in this case.

Lionel: young lion

Let’s begin with Lionel. Lionel is one of those liked-by-everyone characters. He knows how to talk to everyone. He can be extroverted when the social setting calls for someone to casually break the ice. He can be introverted when there’s a showman in the room. His deportment changes like a chameleon, but not in a phoney way. His appearance was in almost every way average. Symmetrical face. Medium brown hair. Medium brown eyes. Medium height, 5’10" to be precise. Medium shoe size at 9.5. But only one thing was not average. His ears. They were just slightly smaller than average, 61.5mm tall. And they stuck out ever so slightly. Slightly enough to be cute and rather charming. Not in any way a conversation piece.

Most people upon meeting him say the same thing, What a nice young man.

That’s enough about men for now. Let’s revert back to our female line up. There’s another character we must address.

Jezebella: wicked, wealthy, beautiful

What a glorious creature, is what most people immediately thought when they saw Jezebella. Though few uttered the notion aloud, inhibited by intimidation.

The so-noted ‘glorious creature’ Jezebella floats. She doesn’t walk. Yes, yes, yes. You read that in books all the time, but she does. Her heels never click the ground, the soft padding of her feet never thump overhead as her housekeepers and butlers (terms she preferred to servants) worked in the kitchen and house below.

The floating and the multitude of help around the house didn’t give rise to an inflated ego though. Jezebella is kind and humble, and often seen as being generous to those around her. Her wealth never impeded her ability to grasp the concept of all humans struggling through the journey of life together; all doing the best they know how to with the knowledge and experience they have accumulated up to that point. In summation, she gives others the benefit of the doubt. And truly, what Jezebella emanated out into the world she generally received in return. Hence her loyal assistant.

Dario: rich, wealthy

Dario is Jezebella’s assistant. If I was limited to use one word to describe Dario it would be ‘proper.’ But I’m not limited by one word, so here are so more. Respectful. Classy. Solemn. Ever-present. Ever-ready. Reliable.

If anything is out of place, in contradiction to norms and acceptable mores, this is completely unacceptable to Dario. His disapprobation will be lightly masked and then he will call attention to what is in disarray, in his mind at least.

His black hair is always in place. His blue eyes are set at an exact 60mm pupillary distance apart, and they are always beady, never bleary.

His height of 6’1" carries his 190lbs well, and he never has to struggle to be heard or attended to. That’s assuming he ever wants to be heard or attended to. Indeed, he is usually the one hearing and attending.

It should be noted that Dario’s favourite thing to say is, Of course, and this often leads to many people echoing him, sometimes in a light jest, sometimes in full out mockery, and sometimes completely unbeknownst to the echoer. They merely want to fit in and feel as proper as Dario conveys himself to be.

Jerid: descent

Speaking of assistants, we can’t forget Jerid, Hyda’s assistant. Righthand man one might call him. Passive yet determined to impress. The type who prioritizes impressing others above being liked by others; though he views them as one and the same. And truly Hyda was usually impressed by Jerid, who she also liked, though she viewed these two sentiments to be quite unlike each other. She would say she liked Jerid more than she liked her Pumpkin Spice Frappes. Of course, Jerid beamed for hours whenever he heard her intimate that affection.

Jerid is a tall lanky fellow with an inclination to scurry rather than walk and has a propensity for prognostication. Often this is expressed in his, sometimes vexatious nature, to finish the sentences of those closest to him.

Infuriatingly frequently, his attempts at smoothing his hair back failed and rendered him at the mercy of going through most of his day with one hand, while the other was profusely sweeping back his untameable locks. Why don’t you just cut your hair, is what most people thought after spending a few hours with him, but then his hair was just another means of vying to impress others. And truth be told, seven times out of ten, it did impress.

Dalia: tree branch

Dalia liked to sing in the shower, like most people. Unlike most people, she was really talented. She often came up with new songs and melodies in the cascade and would have to leave the luxurious warmth of the pelting water, likely all sudsed up, to grab a recording device to capture her latest hook. Everywhere else she remained quite tight-lipped.

She was also the kind of woman that other women didn’t gravitate too. She wasn’t mean, but she wasn’t always approachable, except to those who didn’t read social cues very well.

Her quiet confidence really made you wonder whether she was successful or not, and at what.

Nate: gift of God

Nate had a knack for intuition, the kind of intuition that women are usually credited for. This characteristic in no way influenced his other traits to be effeminate, unless you label kindness, compassion, and consideration exclusively feminine traits.

Being around Nate left others with feeling reassured. Being around himself, with such a strong sense of intuition, kept Nate calm. Ninety-eight percent of the time. The other two percent of the time Nate had been known to erupt in frustration and sometimes a few f-bombs which no one who knew him took personally. The most frustrating things to Nate were other men’s lack of intuition and how scrolling up on Computer A’s mouse moved the screen up yet scrolling up on Computer B’s mouse moved the screen down. Or was it the other way around? He couldn’t remember. Luckily Nate surrounded himself with generally conscientious men whose consideration usually made up for their lack of intuition, and he chose to stick with Computer B.

Shirley: bright, clear, meadow

Surely Shirley is purely professional. Her mind is always drumming up new tactics for how to do business more efficiently and she is constantly reviewing task updates and progress reports, checking texts and emails, and attending and chairing meetings. The words that come out of her mouth are all professionally related and never personally related.

At the workplace, or wherever work is concerned (which is nearly everywhere according to Shirley), she enforces a no-nonsense, take charge attitude. Where there are ground rules, she is the enforcer. Where there are no ground rules, she initiates them. When people see her severe black bob and complex eyes, they can almost hear her jussive commands, No cellphone until the meeting is over! or Let’s stick to the agenda at hand. No tangents! She doesn’t raise the volume of her voice because she merely increases the intensity of her tone to maximum forcefulness.

Few people know what Shirley deals with on a day to day basis. The few who do, have difficulty comprehending her enabling actions because there is too much cognitive dissonance in hearing No agenda? No meeting! and I really care about how this makes you feel, coming from the same mouth.

Suzanne: lily

The scent and sight of Suzanne makes most people feel like they’ve just cracked open their favourite non-alcoholic beverage and served it over ice. She’s the type whose consideration is from one perspective: other people’s. Her self-awareness is low but is made up for in the fact that she’s so conscientious of others. If we were grading multiple intelligences here, she’d be high on interpersonal and low on intrapersonal. In fact, she knows how all of her friends take their coffee, but often forgets how she likes her own. It’s not that it changes or acclimates to those around her, it’s just that the memory of what she likes simply vanishes; until it comes back, with some deliberate recall that is.

She’s a falls-hard-tells-all kind of person. Unfortunately for her she also falls long, and sometimes unfortunately for her listeners she also tells long.

Mattias: gift of God

There are some people that are easily read. They carry their emotions in outstretched hands for the whole world to see. They overshare about their work tasks, their family relationships, their medical problems, and even their daily habits. They’re the kind of people who start a story to tell you about how they picked up the mail and got their new debit card, but then on the way you learn about how their sister’s roommate’s younger cousin is in town and wants to pursue engineering instead of sociology now. And the plethora of extraneous details would never really matter except that the teller for some inexplicable reason expects you to remember these details and even expects that you somehow stir up a little bit of care for them.

Thankfully Mattias is not that kind of person. He doesn’t overshare. If anything, he under-shares.

But it works for those in his circle. Those in his circle are mostly business-related, and that’s all Mattias is focusing on right now: growing his business.

There are a few other characters, but we’ll get to them in due time. For now, let’s