Thanksgiving Noir

The morn of Thanksgiving, the Willis couple was preparing the dining room for their guests. The table was decked out with a festive cloth with autumnal colors and a selection of gourds surrounding a cornucopia as the centerpiece. Carol and Jacob Willis are both archaeologists from different groups who met at a dig in Carthage Tunisia. They have been married for 3 years and have no children yet, but they do have enough extended family to fill a small table. They also have a well-trained Airedale Terrier named Peanutbutter. Their house was reasonably sizable: 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, decorated with a series of vintage decor and knick-knacks, plus a few antiques here and there. The backyard is very spacious with a small vegetable garden, a birdbath fountain in the middle, a doghouse off to one side, and an aviary on the opposite side that houses a barn owl named Amaya.

It was nearing one o'clock in the afternoon and the Willis' family and friends were starting to arrive as the Thanksgiving feast was to begin at 1:30. The first to arrive was Carol's brother, Matt Hill who works as a carpenter and is also a wood crafting hobbyist. Along with him is his wife Rachel, a geologist. The next to arrive, about five minutes later, was Nick Flemming; a friend of the family who works in real estate. The final arrival didn't approach the house until about ten minutes before Thanksgiving lunch was to be served. Miss Elaine Fisher, a recent graduate from the University of Arizona in Tucson who is currently pursuing a career in business affairs. As Elaine stepped out of her car she looked up at the house through her dark sunglasses to admire the old fashioned brick and mortar. She approached the ornate front doors and rang the bell, which was at once answered by Mrs. Willis. Elaine apologized for her late arrival, blaming her tardiness on a long train whose tracks intersected the road she used. Miss Fisher was just as impressed with the interior design as she was with the outside and she voiced her admiration to Carol as they walked to the next room where all the rest of the guests were standing, enjoying refreshments and either catching up with one another or making each others' acquaintances. Nick, who overheard the conversation, introduced himself to Elanie. Carol mentioned to Elaine that Nick was the real estate agent who sold the Willises their house. Mr. Flemming added that he helped furnish certain rooms of the house. He then took out his phone to show a selection of pictures to Miss Fisher. He had five pictures of rooms: one of the main foyer fully furnished, one of the master bath fully furnished, one of the kitchen fully furnished, one of the main living room fully furnished, and the last one of the same living room taken at an angle in front of the bookcase. When Elaine finished her conversation with Carol and Nick, she approached Jacob who had just finished chatting with the Hills, and asked him about the progress with the owl he rescued.

Elaine Fisher is a close friend of the Willises. Carol used to babysit Elaine when she was a small child, and as she grew up they decided to stay connected and keep each other up to date with what's been going on in each others' lives. About a year ago, Carol found an injured barn owl just outside of the wooded area behind the backyard. The owl had a broken wing, so she called her husband to come out to help it. The Willises built a small enclosure in the backyard for the owl during the recovery process. A few weeks later when she was able to fly again, the Willises released the owl back to the woods behind their house. However a day later as Jacob was about to take down the temporary enclosure, he discovered that the owl came back. Since then, all other attempts to return her to the wild resulted her coming back to the Willis' backyard one to two days later. It was then that Carol decided to employ her brother Matt to expand the owl enclosure and fix it so she had the freedom to come and leave as she wished. They even named the owl Amaya, which is Arabic for "night rain". Since Carol knows Elaine likes owls, she gave her email address to her husband Jacob so he could keep Elaine updated on the owl's recovery progress.

Further on into the conversation Jacob offered to take Elaine to the aviary to visit Amaya before lunch and extended the invitation to the rest of the guests. Nick agreed, and so did Matt. Matt had seen the owl before because he was the one who expanded the enclosure for the Willises, but he wanted to make sure his wife got a chance to see Amaya as she had not seen the enclosure yet. Mrs. Willis stayed behind in the house to supervise the lunch preparation (?—was she cooking or was someone else cooking?). Amaya seemed to be a little shy about meeting so many people at once, since as she was accustomed to only being visited by Jacob and Carol. To Elaine, this only made Amaya seem more adorable. Nick seemed a bit distracted to have much of a reaction to seeing a barn owl up close. Matt, the one who helped build Amaya's home, hoped his presence would be more of a comfort to her, but she was still too nervous with the other unfamiliar visitors. Matt's wife, Rachel, was a little nervous. She wasn't particularly a fan of birds. Meanwhile Jacob was talking to Elaine about Amaya's health and her activities. He also mentioned that he had a special wood idol of a barn owl made that is in the living room on the bookcase. Jacob led the group back in the house and into the living room where the statuette was nestled in a central alcove in the bookcase. Nick inquired if it was made out of Rosewood. Jacob casually corrected him stating that it was made of Mahogany. Matt jokingly teased that there was a rumor that his sister and Jacob keep a rare deep blue Tanzanite gem inside the idol that is worth two million dollars. "That's the rumor anyway" Jacob chuckled and dismissed the subject. Just then Carol rang the dinner gong to signal that lunch was ready to be served, and everyone moved toward the dining area.

During the feast, Elaine learned that Nick has been having a hard time finding clients because of corporate competition. Miss Fisher then questioned why Rachel has a problem with birds. Rachel explained it was a series of events that made her feel uncomfortable around pheasants (why specify pheasants?); it started when she saw Alfred Hitchcock's movie “The Birds” when she was young and that on a trip to the zoo a toucan bit her arm. It didn't draw blood, but it scared her enough to be uncomfortable around all birds of prey. Elaine also learned that Matt was investigating going back to college to embark on an education degree as he has become interested in teaching.

Later that evening, after everyone was shown their rooms for the weekend, Elaine Fisher was in her room reading and Matt Hill ordered pizza for dinner. Nick Flemming decided to go out for Italian food. After everyone ate and went to bed, all was quiet for a few hours until Peanutbutter started barking, waking up Elane. A loud crash followed shortly, changing Elaine's mood from annoyed to concerned. She grabbed her robe and started down the stairs to find out what was wrong. As she descended the stairs to the living room she immediately saw what had happened: There were already two people in the room, Rachel Hill and Jacob Willis, standing over the owl statuette on the floor, broken in 3 pieces. The head was detached, and the body was broken off the plinth it was standing on. When Elaine asked what had happened Jacob explained that when he heard his dog Peanutbutter barking he rushed down to investigate, as Peanutbutter never barks at night. Mr. Willis further explained that when he came down he found Rachel near the statue and asked her what she'd done when Miss Fisher arrived. As Jacob explained what he had found, Matt and Carol arrived downstairs. Rachel tried to explain that she wasn't the one who broke the idol, that she had come downstairs to get a glass of water from the kitchen, evident by the glass of ice water in her hand, and that she came to see what happened when she heard the crash and dog barking. Just then Nick stumbled into the house, having just returned from the restaurant, limping a bit, apparently drunk. Peanutbutter was in the corner with his ears up and softly growling. Elaine asked if the dog was alright, but Jacob was preoccupied with their current predicament. Carol answered Elaine's question, stating she didn't know. The confusion was only momentary as the conversation veered back to Rachel and the broken statuette. Jacob persisted in blaming the broken idol on Rachel, stating that she probably broke it because she hated birds. Rachel rebutted his accusation, saying that she doesn't mind likenesses of birds and that she is only afraid of live ones. Elaine went to pick up the rosewood head and body of the broken statuette to investigate it further. She noticed a small drop of fresh blood on the floor and signs of a small struggle. Elaine pointed out that it couldn't have been Rachel who broke the statue since she is holding a glass of water and there's no sign of a scratch on her. If she had been involved in a struggle and dropped the barn owl statue, she would've dropped the glass of water too. Elaine then remembered the idol was made of mahogany, yet the broken statuette before her is rosewood. After further conversation Elaine remembered Nick mistaking the statuette for rosewood earlier that day, and she also remembered the rumor Matt mentioned about Mr. Willis having a rare and valuable gem inside the idol and that Mr. Flemming was hurting for cash from his failing business. She then noticed his limping and that a lower part of his pants leg was torn, and she began putting the pieces together. Elaine deduced that he returned to the house earlier than he led everyone to believe and tried switching the statuettes, but was met with the challenge of Peanutbutter the guard dog, who Miss Fisher assumed noticed Nick trying to take something belonging to his family, barked to alert the Willises and tried to stop Mr. Flemming from leaving by biting and holding his lower leg close to his ankle. Miss Fisher then asked to inspect Mr. Flemming's car, to which he begrudgingly agreed, but only after several moments of strenuous protest. It didn't take long to find the original mahogany statuette in the trunk of Mr. Flemming's car, covered in a cloth. Now that the Willises have their barn owl statuette back, no charges were pressed because there was no need to have the police called, and Jacob apologized to Rachel for the misunderstanding. But Mr. Flemming hasn't been invited back to the Willis' home since this incident.