Chapter 14

The next four days after our Chapel Hill field trip I generally goofed off. After her one day’s rest Alison began to hike with me again. She advised me that she would be hard at work writing during the rest of her days, and evenings for a while. During that time, she expected me to do research on the not so good Witch of Chapel Hill. So I and my friend from ‘Geeks Are Us’, checked the Internet. He couldn’t help me with my calls to policemen, and other individuals inside the city and state government. For those I relied on my charm, lies, and damn lies.

I began by reading the stockpile of records and computer files left on my computer by the Geek of the day. There would have been almost a room full, if they had been stored on paper. I forced myself to compose a daily summary during those four days. I made it for Alison to read but also for me as well. It was really a list of short reports filled with facts of interest I found daily hidden in the police reports. So Alison had the facts available to her so that she could continue working on her story.

During each of those morning walks, we discussed my days find from the previous day. On the first day after our skipped day, I explained that I had found out the name of the detective handling the Caroline, the not so good witch’s case. His name Jonah Goldberg. He had been a new detective. He mostly did the paperwork on the case. I found that out by reading a couple of dozen reports, he had written.

Among the reports I found the interview with Professor Moorehouse. The Professor gave him the name of the university which hosted the conference. There was also a note to follow up with the Sheridan hotel about his stay there. Also there was a notation to check with the university. I had no idea if there was a follow up contact with either.

On a later report I found a notation which advised me that the professor had registered at both places, and had even used his credit card at the Sheridan. It all seemed open and above board. I was reading the reports of someone else, who had done the research for me. I needed to check that information for myself, but I had no idea how to do that. It seemed to be a procedural matter best handled by the author herself.

That being the case, I approached Alison’s during her first day back on the urban hiking trail. “Alison, I am having a problem with my information gathering. I need to verify the information with the sources, but I am not a cop, so how do I convince them to talk to us?”

“I was afraid you might have this problem, Ed, you are not investigating to find the truth about Caroline’s death. You are researching to help me write a piece of fiction. You don’t have to get to the truth, you have to help me make up a plausible story line. I need you to gather all the information available and then help me to make sense of it. That’s all your job is now,” Alison suggested.

It was a shock to me. It put me back into the seat of a paper pusher. “Then you don’t need me at all. I will let you read those records yourself,” I threatened.

“Look, I wouldn’t have brought you in, if I didn’t feel that I needed you,” she said. “You understand the cop language and the subtlety of those reports. You just aren’t responsible for what is in them. No one is going to jail from what we do.”

“I’ll have to think that over,” I admitted. “I can tell you one thing right now. I am not going to be your geek of the day.”

“The job is what is, as you are fond of saying,” she replied.

“Then maybe the job isn’t for me,” I suggested.

“Ed, I need you to do this for me,” she asked in a calm but hard voice.

“I can’t do it reading second and third handed reports. I need some kind of status. I’ll be damned if I know what it can be?” I stated as calm as I could. It was frustrating to me that she just didn’t understand.

I finished the hike, but Alison said she had too much work to do, so I ate alone. I spent that time trying to decide what I could do to gain some status with the people I need to speak with. The status didn’t have to be real, it just had to sound good to a semi idiot, which we all were when handling routine information.

I came up with something that I figured might work, but I wanted some advice on the viability of the con. So I tried to think of someone who knew about cons. I thought, who better to ask than the Judge.

I rode the scooter to a fancy national coffee shop chain store. There I bought him a double fancy latte. Then I delivered it to The Haven. Of course I called first to be sure he would be available.

“So Judge what do you think?” I asked. “Will it work?”

“With some people for sure. With some people maybe, and some will just tell you to fuck off.” he suggested. “A good con is all about playing the odds. You find the people most likely to buy into it, and play to them. You can also find a new story for those you can’t use that particular story with.”

“I need to convince them over the phone to cooperate. Will that line of shit work?” I ask.

“Ninety percent of the time. If not come back and we will get you a better line. But you need to give them your phone number, so they can call back to verify your address,” he advised me. These days you also need an online presence. A web page that looks professional. I would suggest you farm out that job to the Geek. Since you are in no hurry design your cards and have them printed with a normal delivery time. It will save you more than a couple of bucks.

I went home and considered the cup of coffee a good investment. I sat around trying to work out a good layout for my web page. What I came up with was the legend ROGER’S Research. That would be the foreground super imposed over drawing of a parchment scroll, and the drawing of a very old scale. I found the images on line. Then I had the geek put it all together for me. I had ‘Go Uncle Amos’ host it. It cost me under five hundred bucks of the twenty five grand I got for the Murder of Eve producers.