Mr. Stoneyheart Makes a Proposal

Miss O’Riley was shattered by her recent experience. While the police had recovered her stolen paintings and her gallery looked as it always had, she was a changed woman. She no longer felt the same pleasure in her work and each morning was a trial for her, bringing back all the shock she had felt when she discovered the burglary. She also felt confused and unhappy because Old Bert apparently was the thief, someone she had trusted and felt was her friend. More and more she turned to Mr. Stoneyheart for his advice and support.

Mr. Stoneyheart had been paying a great deal of attention to Miss O’Riley throughout all this. He listened to her worries and took her out to dinner frequently in an attempt to raise her spirits. For Miss O’Riley this was the only bright spot during this bleak time.

One day Mr. Stoneyheart IM’d Miss O’Riley saying he had an idea about her gallery and wanted to discuss it with her. Miss O’Riley was of course very anxious to hear what Mr. Stoneyheart had to say so she invited him over right away.

Mr. Stoneyheart and Miss O’Riley sat down in her office where Mr. Stoneyheart brought out a briefcase.

“I know that you have been going through a very difficult time lately and I have been wondering how I could help you. “

Miss O’Riley was pleased to hear this.

Mr. Stoneyheart continued “I have a proposal to make to you. I know how much you love the gallery and I am sorry to see you in such distress. You seem to be getting no happiness from your work here and that should not be. Nothing would give me greater satisfaction than to see you as you were before the robbery, the lovely young woman I first met a few months ago.”

“I would like to invest in your business so that you never worry about the finances again. Of course you would still run the gallery, but I would be able to take a more formal role in advising you, and in this way take the day to day cares off your shoulders.”

With that Mr. Stoneyheart opened his briefcase and showed Miss O’Riley more cash than she had ever seen in her life. Miss O’Riley jumped out of her seat and stared with astonishment at the opened briefcase. For the moment she was struck dumb.

Mr. Stoneyheart also presented a document for her to sign which would give him partnership in the Tissot Gallery. Miss O’Riley was still in shock, but gradually was beginning to comprehend what he had said. She looked at him for a moment, then said “Does this mean that we would be partners?”
Mr. Stoneyheart assented. “Yes, we would be partners together in this business. What do you think about that?”
Miss O’Riley glowed at the prospect of a partnership with Mr. Stoneyheart. She replied “Oh Mercy, nothing would make me happier!”

Hibiscus Hastings

The Investigation Begins

Poor Miss O’Riley was completely overcome. She had sunk all her savings into the venture and couldn’t see how she was going to recover from this blow. She wandered around the empty gallery, then went upstairs to her apartment and just sat for a while, her mind going over and over what she had just seen. After a few minutes had passed she began to revive and called the police. A handsome officer named Detective Braveheart came right over.
Detective Braveheart asked Miss O’Riley for a list of the works that had been stolen. Being an organized woman she had one at hand, with titles, descriptions and pictures of the artworks that had been stolen. As Miss O’Riley began to focus on the work ahead of her, her mood changed from one of despair to anger at the person who had done this to her.
The detective inquired if she had seen any suspicious people in her gallery recently, but she said no. Various residents of the sim had dropped by, as well as some friends of hers, but nothing out of the way had happened, at least not while she was in-world. Unfortunately the welcome mat only recorded the number of visitors to the gallery and not the names, so there was no way of telling who had been in. Over the holidays there had been a slight increase in numbers, but that was to be expected.
After talking for a while with Miss O’Riley, Detective Braveheart left and began to search the area around the gallery. He also spoke with some of the neighbours. One man did recall seeing someone in the gallery moving artworks around, but he did not think anything of it at the time. The man said the visitor was shorter than average and older, too, with grey hair. When asked if he could recall the name of the avatar, the neighbour said he thought it was something like “Old Bert”.
In the meantime, Miss O’Riley sent an urgent IM to Mr. Stoneyheart, begging him to come right over as something dreadful had happened and she needed his help.

With thanks to Boye Jervil for the photograph of Old Bert moving frames.

A New Year Dawns

Old Bert enjoyed the holiday season very much. He and Daisy continued seeing each other, going to holiday parties together, visiting art galleries,

dancing and touring different sims. They enjoyed a lovely carriage ride around Victoriana on Christmas Eve and exchanged Christmas presents.

On the professional front things were going well, too. Old Bert by this point had settled into his job at the Pre-Raphaelite Gallery and was taking on more responsibilities as he grew familiar with the sim and with the artworks belonging to the gallery. It was one of the happiest times of Old Bert’s life.

Mr. Stoneyheart continued from strength to strength personally and professionally. He had managed to reassure Gloria after their disastrous weekend cruise. At the same time he kept in touch with Miss O’Riley, the Tissot Gallery owner, maintaining a watchful eye on that particular enterprise. Miss O’Riley, of course, was very pleased about this.

Then one day early in the New Year Miss O’Riley arrived at work to discover that all the artworks, except the free gift painting, had been stolen. She stood and stared at the empty walls in horror and as it all began to sink in she burst into tears and began running frantically from room to room, trying to make sense of what she saw. She so desperately wanted everything to be just as it had been when she left work the night before. But that could not be. A burglary had taken place and all her paintings were gone!

Hibiscus Hastings