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Where We Left Off:
We had a new connection to a villain and to a hero group that we hadn’t encountered before.
The Door:
With Spring, our regular outdoor activities returned. Oliver was often the first one to be ready for patrols. He was also the easiest to get ready with only needing to leap into his carriage. I require a change of clothes, donning boots and gaiters, filling the critter snack cans, strapping my adventure bag and camera bag over my shoulders, and picking out a hat. Gus needs his harness with a leash and collar. Ollie is patient while he waits, I’ll give him that. He can be loud and demanding plenty of other times.
March 18, 2026 was an unusual day, for sure. We found evidence everywhere! Recent storms blew much of it around. Also, the melting snow and eroding soil unveiled other items that we needed to investigate.
Gus led us to one of his favorite burrow holes near Gnome Grove. This area is difficult for Ollie’s carriage which does not have adequate suspension. Roots from the big old pine tree and Japanese maple snake up and down through the dirt. It’s what I call bumpity.
“Auntie, look over there!” Ollie said. “That doesn’t look like a leaf.”
The Evidence
I saw something white and figured that it must be garbage since there was so much trash displaced by the wind already. I had to make sure the buggy wouldn’t wobble as I left Oliver to fetch the paper. Gus was already up ahead staring into the hole in the ground as he likes to do.
I could tell the paper was a note written in marker which faded from rain, perhaps even buried under the snow at some point. I crouched next to Ollie and we examined it together. One side of the note had perfectly clear markings of stationery from the massive corporation that owns many of the hospitals and ambulance services in New Jersey. The marker was more visible on that side although backwards. The back of the paper had the text in the correct orientation, but it was harder to see. The ink had either been green or blue and definitely came from a marker.
The note read: Don’t move Door. It’s Broken.
“This seems like something that could have come from our kitchen,” I told Ollie. “Can you smell any traces of your humans on it?”
“No, I don’t, but we better get the Super Smeller on the case.” Ollie looked sideways towards his cousin who was still waiting to see if a chipmunk would appear.
I pushed the buggy up, over, and around the roots in squiggly path to make our way over to Gus. He didn’t appreciate his silent stakeout being disturbed and began to walk away. Ollie and I followed closely enough that we could talk. I convinced Gus to stop and examine the note.
“It’s definitely not from our house or our people,” Gus confirmed.
The Mystery of the Handwriting
We waited until we were back home to proceed with the case. The handwritten was rather generic, but had some a couple of distinguishing characteristics. The words don’t, door, it’s, and broken began with capital letters. It wasn’t in cursive which is not odd these days since it’s no longer being taught in schools. The bubbliness of the letters gave them a rounded appearance which is normal for “m” and “n,” but in this case, even the “k” had a soft round lower, second stroke.
“I suspect this note was written by a woman because of the bubbly quality,” Gus said and I absolutely agreed. It wasn’t the bubble letters of puffy stickers from the 1980’s, but it was on the softer side of the spectrum. In other words, it wasn’t written with aggression or rage and probably by someone feminine.
Printed, not script style, used to be considered regressive because it’s what children are first taught. The exceptions being people in mechanical fields like engineering and architecture where there’s a standard to use print letters as if a machine typeface was Sans Serif. It’s interesting how in tattoos, it’s the opposite. The text is often in a vintage sailor style of Serif or with more flourish that can make an older tat harder to read.
We analyzed the width of the spaces between the characters. All of us agreed that the use of a wide marker would cause any writer to adjust their spacing in order to allow the ink to spread and remain legible.
Fortunately, we know a handwriting analyst (not a forensic graphology analyst). The bottom line was that the note showed no signs of deception and could be taken literally as a warning about a broken door.
The semantics was something else interesting. The note doesn’t say, “Don’t open the door. It’s broken.” It says not to “move” the door. That’s not normally how people speak about a door which is installed. It signified that the door was likely not attached to a wall at all. It was a door placed against something, leaning precariously.
Which Door?
The neighbors typically use their garage door to go in and out of their house. They have a tall fence around part of the yard and a gate from their parking lot to access it. Could someone use the word door when they mean gate, especially considering the tall height? It felt more likely to the Winchester-Nabu team that a gate would more likely be broken than a door. That’s not always the case. We were trying to figure out the probability of a gate versus a door in breaking. The house next door is only a few years old.
Houses settle over time which can cause doors and windows to shift out of place. Many of the houses here are old and only a few have had any upgrades by modern families. We focused on the closest neighbors’ house first. None of us remember any of the doors at the next door neighbors’ house placed against anything, removed from its installation.
“I have a thought,” I said. “We know they go in and out through the loud, mechanical garage door.” It’s frequently when Gus and I are in the driveway, startling us and causing Gus to pull on his leash as he runs back to our house.
“And you never allow me to go inside to snoop.” Gus continues trying after all these years if that garage door is left open. While the house was being built and before the people moved back in, he was granted some leeway in trespassing and exploring the new construction.
“My point is,” I continued, “that with the wind and natural push and pull of the air when a large door like a garage bay door is opened, a small piece of paper could float outside. It’s a garage. Maybe a broken door was in there so it could be repaired.”
Oliver rolled over to paw at a toy banana. “Are you saying there’s nothing creepy, magical, or even suspicious about this note?”
“Well, it’s just one theory.” I didn’t look at him. Was I admitting defeat in closing a case with surreal twist? It did seem unlikely for us.
Gus spun the tubes of his game to release some treats. “I think you’re wrong. I think we should pursue other avenues. There could be a broken portal to the Underworld. If one of those doors is broken, who knows what would happen to anyone trying to use it? Like a bad teleporter that turns things inside-out. We have to find out if any of our contacts know about any damaged doors, portals, gateways, whatever you want to call them.”
Back to the Field
More of our critter friends and informants are back after the Winter break. We not only get to see old friends like Chippool, but we have a couple new friends too! One is an Eastern grey squirrel named Silver Sable. Oliver and Gus had the opportunity to interview her for information. It wasn’t free. She requires payment in the form of peanuts. A lot of peanuts. I think she’s building a nest and is preparing to share her loot.
They asked her if she knew anything about a broken door (or door-like thing). Her response did not surprise us. Many trees are dead surrounding the estate. They break easily in storms. Plus, there are the neighbors in the back 40. They enjoy knocking down trees. Even dead trees serve as places for animals to nest and perch. Silver told us that the Winchester-Nabu estate’s residents are not the only one upset about this. The land used to be a tree farm. When trees came down naturally, people were allowed to take it for wood; and then new trees were planted once in a while. I think it had been a long time since new trees were planted.
Regardless, other neighbors are complaining about the activities. The critters have been listening to this chatter the whole time.
Silver took a look at the note and surprised us. “I know who wrote this. I recognize the shapes of your human alphabet.”
“Who?” All of us said.
“A lady who lives a little bit south, three backyards that way.” She pointed and nodded her head. “This note isn’t about a magical portal. This time.”
“I sense a but,” Ollie said.
“But, many of the fae doorways and passages to the Underworld and Overworld have been damaged. The gnomes and other fae folk already have a plan in place. They’re making progress in building new egresses that aren’t in the most dangerous places where those humans seem to be destroying things,” Silver said.
Case Findings:
What could have been a piece of evidence into a horror mystery with gruesome details, turned into a cerebral study about our neighbors. Ollie and Gus had to their first chance to work with a newcomer to the neighborhood, Silver Sable, an elegant Eastern grey squirrel. She told us everything we needed to know. It’s clear to us that she knows even more about the happenings around town. Her information costs a pretty penny—rather, peanuts—which is something we hope we can always provide to those in need.
Case Status: Closed