Goldbeard PI - Part one: arriving in Sunlit Tides

 The Backstory

Coral Goldbeard grew up in one of the most wealthy and influential families in Barnacle Bay. The grandaughter of a shady politician, daughter of a known and successful criminal, and an academic failure in high school, Coral chose to take "the road less traveled" early on by becoming a teenaged sleuth. Her so-called cases while in high school were pretty lame, mostly dealing with people kicking gnomes or stealing or using another's toothbrush, but she somehow knew that someday she would make it big as a private eye.

So after graduation and a makeover, she took her graduation money and set off for Sunlit Tides, where she purchased a modest house and began her new life . . . 

Her goal is to establish herself while her friend Fawn Annan finishes high school, then hopefully joins her in Sunlit Tides where they can start a legitimate private investigator agency together. 

(By the way, when I took over the Goldbeard household, both Coral and her brother Kidd were flunking school. I had to fight like crazy for Coral to keep her failing grades up to graduation because I wanted to see of failing students got to graduate. They do; in fact, Coral was voted "Most Likely to Change the World.)

I don't remember all of Coral's traits, but I know she's a daredevil, often grumpy, and she dislikes children. I see her as more of an adventurer than a person who wants to settle down and start a family, so we'll see how that goes based on her wishes. 

Life as a Private Investigator

The first family Coral met in Sunlit Tides was the Hoffman family: Hugh and Hazel, and their daughter Helen.

Despite disliking children in general, she seemed to get along okay with Helen. They enjoyed some time in the pool together before Coral decided it was time for some day-drinking.

The next day, Coral decided to explore some of the amenities near her home. She checked out the gym, . . . 

. . . met Cyrille Lynch, the bartender at The Hot Spot, . . . 

. . . and discovered that the so-called public pool across the road from her house is a hangout for nudists.

She also met Mary-Sue and Daniel Pleasant, who are newlyweds spending their honeymoon in Sunlit Tides. 

They eventually move to Pleasantview according to the Sims timeline, and have twin daughters -  Angela, whom they favor, and Lilith, whom they neglect. By the time we see them in Sims 2, Daniel is having an affair with the maid, and the Pleasant's marriage is on the rocks. Daniel is already starting to show his true colors, if you ask me.

"Come on baby, light my fire!"

Hazel Hoffman is not impressed. 

Maybe someday Mary-Sue will enlist Coral in following Daniel. For now, Coral is more interested in the mysterious masked woman. She definitely looks like she's up to something.

Her name is Alana Kahale. 

Poor Alana broke into sobs. I wonder what's wrong. 

One of the first "big" cases Coral was given had to do with a guy who got his credit cards stolen. After some sleuthing, Coral discovered that the culprit was Lucretia Parrott.

Coral worked on her relationship with Lucretia, and they became friends. Then Coral convinced Lucretia to turn over the credit cards so Coral could return them to their rightful owner. Lucretia became Coral's first friend in Sunlit Tides, and Coral hoped she had set Lucretia on the straight and narrow. 

Lucretia is one of three triplets; her sisters are Clementine and Ramona. They had another sister, Beverly who died of electrocution, according to The Sims Wiki. Of the three, Clementine is the most mature and serious - the others are pretty much directionless beach bums. 

While Coral hoped that she was a good influence on her new friend Lucretia, she soon found herself in a moral dilemma. While staking out a hangout, Coral spotted Lucretia and another girl engaging is suspicious activities. 

Coral was so disappointed in her new friend.

Lucretia had the nerve to look right at her, daring her to report this transaction to anyone. 

Poor Coral will need to do some soul-searching. Does she let this incident pass and pretend she didn't see what was going on? Does she report her friend to the authorities? 

After Lucretia left, Coral did something that took me by surprise. Out of nowhere, she walked up to this unsuspecting teen (Maggie Strong) and slapped her! She didn't even know her!

She did this right in front of a police officer, who did absolutely nothing about it. He was more interested in dancing with the flamboyant paparazzo. 

 I began to wonder if this town, like Barnacle Bay, was also full of corrupt cops. A few sim-hours later, I realized that I might have to give officer Leo Wahine the benefit of the doubt. It appears that this evening he was out celebrating his birthday, and is probably planning on retiring soon. Maybe he just had a case of short-timer's disease.

In the meantime, Coral thought it was a good idea to get to know members of the police force, thinking it might help her get some better cases and notoriety. She offered to buy Leo a cup of coffee and was curious about the pay scale for law enforcement in Sunlit Tides. 

I had just completed a shell renovation challenge and placed a family of five in the world. The Masters family consists of Josiah and Lori Masters and their teenage son and two daughters. Some members of the family made their first appearance at this point. 

I have no idea what Lori was up to that put her in the state she was in, but it appeared that she and Josiah were on a date. 

I wonder what their kids are up to. I might have to drop in on the family soon and see how they are doing in the house I made for them - and playtest it a bit. Hopefully Lori hasn't set the kitchen on fire of anything. 

Back to Coral and her P I career. Her next case involved Gilberto Gonzalo, who reported that his ring was missing. Coral met him at his house and dusted for prints.

In addition to Gilberto's prints, she found prints belonging to Kai Kahale, an up-and-coming politician.

She questioned Kai about his possible involvement with the missing ring, but he swore he and Gilberto were friends, and he was simply over at the house having lunch with him last week. After some
additional sleuthing, she found the ring stashed in a corner of Gilberto's house. He must have just misplaced it. Case solved. 

The following case involved the Parrott sisters. Ramona, (Lucretia-the-credit-card-thief's sister), reported that her favorite book was missing. 

While Ramona was showing off her skills with the Asian grill, Coral questioned her sisters about the book. 

Both sisters said they thought it was at the bookstore, but really it was discovered at the library.  Ramona was definitely giving her sisters the stink-eye, assuming one of them was the thief,

especially Lucretia (who had a mishap with the Asian grill.) Ramona wasn't content with simply having the book recovered and returned to her but insisted that the thief be found. This sent Coral all over town on a wild goose chase. She finally went to the bookstore owner and asked if there were any known book thieves in town, and he laughed at her. She went back and confronted Ramona (who by then had her own mishap with the Asian grill) and learned that the whole thing was a hoax, and that Ramona was just using Coral's experience as material for an article she was writing about private detectives. 

"Thanks soooo much for the humiliation, Ramona. Booooo!"

Maybe Coral should steer clear of the Parrott sisters. 

The next day she got a call from Cyrille Lynch, the bartender at the Hot Spot, who reported his girlfriend and love of his life, Venus Lovelace, was missing. 

After questioning him about who Venus was and what places she liked to hang out, whether she had any family, etc. Coral learned that Cyrille knew next to nothing about the woman except that he was madly in love with her. After questioning various people around town, Coral discovered an unsettling pattern.

I suspect Venus was a grifter who skipped town, but we'll have to wait for the next episode to see what conclusion Coral reaches.