Christmas 2022

I guess winter must finally be here! Yesterday we had a combination of sleet, snow, and rain that lasted all day. And in the middle of it all, a medical emergency that required me to have to drive in it (more on that below). But we rejoice in having completed another year and seeing all that God had planned for us. Now we look forward to the start of 2023 in just a few weeks.

FAMILY

In January, Chris and family came up from Florida to help us move into the house across the street that we are now sharing with Kim and the boys. In preparation we’d gotten the basement level prepped so that we could move their bunkbeds down there. Pam organized the painting of one of the upstairs rooms so that we could move our platform bed set into it. I handled the taking things apart and putting back together, but Chris, Aryon, and Tiernan did all the “heavy lifting” of moving it. It’s been interesting – getting used to living in just two rooms instead of a whole house. We are very slowly tackling the elimination of all our accumulations in the old house, but various medical issues (more below on that too) have limited the amount of work that we’ve gotten accomplished.

Besides our typical week together at Pinebrook, we expanded the practice of having Kim’s boys getting to spend a month in Florida with Chris and family. Two years ago it was just Ethan, last year Ethan and Isaiah, and this year adding Caleb to the mix. Donna and I went down at the end of April for Aryon’s court of honor as he received his Eagle Scout badge. We took Caleb with us, then at the end of the week, left him there for the rest of the month of May. In July, following our week at Pinebrook, Ethan went back to FL with Chris and family, then in mid-August we did a swap – with Ethan coming home and Isaiah going there until mid-September. This schedule meant that Caleb had to finish the prior school year remotely from FL and Isaiah had to start this year from there – but we made it all work. For 2023 – we’ll have to see what works, especially since Aryon will be going off to college in the fall and Tiernan has applied to be an exchange student for a year. All the grandkids are growing up far too fast!

One thing that living together in one house has helped with is Donna and I helping with the schooling of Kim’s four boys. This year they are in grades 7, 5, 5, and 3. Ethan has a computer setup in his room downstairs but spends most of the day in Kim’s room where she is working from home and she can help him if/when he needs it. He’s pretty independent and is now taking Spanish as well as the typical Bible/Literacy/History/Math/Science. Isaiah and Caleb have workstations in the living room but bring their laptops into my “den” for me to check their work and for the submission of any assignments. Asher has a workstation in the kitchen/dining room and Donna works with him there. School hours are about 2.5 hours in the morning and another 1.5-2 in the afternoon each day. So we’re all kept pretty busy. Last year they all finished with overall averages of 97-99 and this year they’re maintaining their grades in the same range. But they each have their areas of strength and weakness as well as occasional attitude problems (“I have to write THREE paragraphs!?”). So Donna and I have our challenges.

Our FL grands have been involved in some sort of youth activity for several years – Aryon in Boy Scouts, Tiernan in Trail Life, and Ilyanna in American Heritage Girls. This fall our PA grands all began attending Trail Life as well. The closest troop is 30 minutes away and it’s quite small, but they all enjoy it. Matthew’s current job at a Home Depot warehouse has him working Sat/Sun/Mon/Wed (5am to 3pm), so he’s been taking them to the twice-a-month Thursday night meetings. But they also go camping one Saturday a month, so I take them on Fri evening and pick them up on Sun morning and take them to church.

MEDICAL/HEALTH

Getting older is not without its challenges. Donna was having more and more issues with her one leg, and after extensive checking and x-rays she had a hip replacement in March. When we finally got to see the x-rays ourselves, it was pretty obvious why she was having problems. The healing process was fairly quick, and she now has full use of that leg again. Makes us wonder why we didn’t do it sooner.

Her operation and time for healing meant that I had to delay a surgical procedure on my foot until May. I was just not making progress on the healing of the open wound on the bottom of my right foot, so the podiatrist had recommended a sesamoidectomy (new word for me – look that one up!) Long healing process for that meant many, many, many hours of sitting in my recliner (a present from our kids), two rounds of skin grafts (the first one failed), and finally getting the hole to seal up just a few weeks ago. I still have to take it easy while the deep healing takes place, but it’s nice to not have to rebandage my foot every few days like I have been for the past year.

Our latest adventure was just yesterday. We had planned on moving one of our cats (age about 14) from one house to the next. She objected and when Donna was putting her into a cat carrier for the move she got bitten rather badly on her right thumb. So, in the middle of the snow/sleet, I had to drive her to an express care location for checkup, cleanup, tetanus shot, and antibiotic prescription. Now we’ll have to pitch in to do some of her work for a few days until it gets healed up as well as watch to ensure that it heals properly without infection. Always a new challenge!

I’ve been accepted into a drug-based study for a new Alzheimer’s drug (lecanemab – you may have seen news articles about it). I’ve passed most of the screening, including verification that I have no symptoms yet. Now just awaiting a PET scan in early January as the final hurdle to see if I’m eligible. If accepted it will mean four years of monthly/bi-weekly infusions. But if this will help others in the future I’m willing to do so. Stay tuned!

GENEALOGY

I’ve continued to keep busy with various aspects of genealogical research. Earlier this year I checked out the genealogy of all the teachers I had while growing up. Just remembering all the names was a challenge, but then tracing them back to see who might be a distant cousin of mine was equally challenging. But the biggest excitement was my acquisition of a family coat-of-arms and related genealogy charts for Evelyn Pierrepont, Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, that had been prepared and colored back in 1764 – over 250 years ago. I’ve had it archivally framed and it will be the centerpiece for the 100^th family reunion of the New England Pierpont family that will take place this coming June.

WRITING

Just to show that you can “teach an old dog new tricks,” this year I found myself writing a series of fictional books about Fred Forchelli. I had submitted an entry into a “bad writing” contest earlier this year (where one writes the opening sentence to a fictional book). I didn’t win, but then one of my cousins said that he wanted to know the rest of the story. So I took him up on the challenge and that turned into not one, but three books about Fred and the cases he has as a private investigator. Each of the books is 40-45 pages and they are available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle format.

It's been fun doing this, as I do it strictly in a stream-of-consciousness style – writing one chapter at a time and not having any idea where the next chapter will take things. Each book has taken just a week to a week-and-a-half to write. I’ll never get rich – but few do in the self-publishing world – but the enjoyment I get from it makes it worthwhile.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

One never knows where the “road of life” may take you. There are too many twists and bends that we can’t see beyond. Homeschooling of four grandsons was not something that Donna and I had ever predicted at this stage in our lives. It’s certainly not the typical retirement that one experiences. Mentally, we’re both doing well, but the number of physical challenges and difficulties are certainly more each year.

Having been married for over 50 years, we are now among the “seniors” at church. And there are tasks that we feel more comfortable leaving to others. Thankfully, our growing grandchildren can now take on more responsibilities. And the older ones have passed Donna in height and are gaining on me (if shoe size is an indication, I’m going to be facing challengers in that arena before too long). We love all our kids and grandkids and enjoy as many hugs as they are willing to give us (they just have to take it easy sometimes as especially grandma’s bones are not as strong as they used to be).

But most importantly, God and Christ are still the center and focus of our lives. (Someone remarked to Kim the other day that it’s nice to see all her boys actually excited to go to church and meet with their friends.) So, as long as we keep our eyes on HIM and try as best we can to follow the path he sets before us, we can’t go wrong.

This is the Christmas season, and Christ is the “reason for the season”. We pray that all of you are similarly blessed as we are.

Alan and Donna

[Grandchildren]

 

[Pierrepont Coat of Arms]

 

[Fred Forchelli book on Amazon (one of three)]

 

The Continuing Sagas

Three sagas to report on this week. The first is the continuing problem of the open sore on the bottom of my foot – now 4+ years. Last week I had a skin graft put on the remaining hole – which was 9mm x 7mm. That meant that I had to stay off my foot as much as possible while it healed. My recliner (which my children bought for me at Christmas) is getting a lot of use. I went back to the doctor yesterday. We’ve made some good progress and the hole is down to 5mm x 3mm! They put on a second graft – this time of “live” cells instead of the non-live product they used last week. He’s hopeful that when I see him again next week that the hole will be gone. Then we can put together a plan for keeping it that way. I’ll still have to wear special shoes and avoid too much use, but if we can get the hole to be sealed up that will be great! So, I’m staying off my foot as much as possible this week as well. It’s a little frustrating as my foot is all wrapped and I’m wearing a surgical shoe to prevent damage.

 

The second saga is my continuing involvement in Alzheimer’s studies. I was just notified yesterday that I’ve passed all the screening criteria so far and have now been approved for the next testing phase – a PET scan of my brain to determine the level of amyloid plaque I have. That is scheduled for early January. So far they have determined that I do have the APOe4 gene which makes me susceptible and the results of all the mental/physical acuity test have confirmed that I have no mental impairment. So this PET scan is the last hurdle before I become qualified for the study.

The final saga is my decision to turn my Fred Forchelli story into a three-book series. In the first book, “The Case of the Piece of Paper,” I had made the title page as follows:

Fred Forchelli

World-renowned

Well-known

Investigator and Lawyer

 

The Case of the Piece of Paper

 

I’m not sure why I did this, but when someone asked about it, I realized that it made for a perfect opportunity to turn this book into a three-part series. In the second part – currently being written – the “Well-known” is not crossed out. The subtitle of book two is “The Case of the D.A.’s Dilemma.” I hope to have it done in the next week or so and then it will join the first book on Amazon. The third book will follow shortly thereafter and the “World-renowned” will not be crossed out. I’m not yet sure of the subtitle, but I have some preliminary thoughts as to where it will take place and the opening chapter.

 

So, as I sit here in enforced offloading of my foot, I’m trying to use my creative “juices” to my advantage through this writing project. Three ongoing sagas at once! Who said that life is boring?

 

 

Medical Studies Update – October 2022

C-Diff Study

I was contacted to consider participation in this study while in the hospital in January 2018. This was looking at the efficacy of a new drug to prevent the occurrence of C-diff. You can read more about it at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT03090191. Over the next several months I had three doses of either the vaccine or a placebo. My participation ended in 2020, but no results had been posted at that time.

Earlier this year, Pfizer reported the results of the study (see here). While the study did not meet its primary endpoint of eliminating C-diff (there were 17 cases of C-diff among those receiving the drug and 25 cases among those receiving the placebo), there were some promising results. These included:

·         None of those who received the drug required hospitalization compared to 11 of those who received the placebo.

·         The median episode length of those who received the drug was 1 day vs 4 days for those who received the placebo.

·         The mean episode length of those who received the drug was 3 days vs 16 days for those who received the placebo.

Pfizer is currently evaluating what are the next steps to take.

Just a few weeks ago I received a phone call informing me that I had only received the placebo and not the drug being studied. This reveal was so that I did not need to be concerned about having to reveal my participation in this drug study for any future medical studies or hospitalizations. I’m happy to have participated and hope that the information received from this study will assist in the reduction of the impact of C-diff in the future.

[Injection]

 

 

Alzheimer’s non-drug studies

As I noted last year (see here), I am enrolled in three separate studies – known as ABC (Aging Brain Cohort), APT (Alzheimer’s Prevention Trials), and MTL (Medial-Temporal Lobe). The first two have no end date, the last is a 4-year study. I had my annual ABC and MTL visit last week.

Nothing of interest to report. However, I did find out that if I am accepted into the AHEAD study (see below), that my eligibility for the ABC study will end. I suspect that will be true for the APT and MTL studies as well. For now, I’ll continue on and see where things go with the AHEAD study.

 

Alzheimer’s drug study

Two weeks ago I had the memory testing for the AHEAD study that I had mentioned earlier (see here). Talk about comprehensive testing! It was essentially composed of the full ABC test (except tablet-based instead of paper-based), AND the full MTL test, AND the complete “Cogstate” test from the APT study. You name the type of Alzheimer’s test, I had it all on the same day. In addition, the day included a full suite of physical and neurological tests (blood pressure, ECG, visual and hearing acuity, “touch your nose, touch my finger”, walk to the end of the hall and back (looking for any gait issues or difference in left/right ability). Again, all the different ways that they try to detect if you have any symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Since they are looking for individuals who have no symptoms but who have a genetic predisposition and who have some level of amyloid plaque (my PET scan is next), this all makes sense. But it is pretty intense.

The AHEAD study is only looking for 1400 people at a number of test sites worldwide (compared to the C-diff study which has over 17,000 people). I asked how many were enrolled so far at UPenn. The answer was TWO – one in each arm of the study. There are a half-dozen at various phases of screening (which is where I am as well). But it’s evidently not that easy to find people who have no cognitive issues but who are disposed to Alzheimer’s (from their genetics and the presence of amyloid plaques).

Something else I learned for the first time. If I’m accepted into this study, then I will have to stop my practice of donating blood every eight weeks – because of the regular infusions that I’ll be having for four years. That’s a little bit of a bummer since I’ve been doing so regularly for several years now. The person who coordinates the blood drive at church will be disappointed, so I’ll wait until I’m actually accepted into the study before telling her (assuming that I keep passing the screening criteria).

So, are there weekly/bi-weekly infusions in my future? Time will tell…..

[infusion]

Kevin and the Marble

Kevin was bored. It was late summer, but school wouldn’t start for another two weeks. He and his dad had moved to this house last month but the only other boys in the neighborhood that he’d met did not have similar interests to him. The Smith twins down the block to the right were both athletically minded and were at baseball practice or games nearly every day. Because Kevin had grown up in the city that was not something he’d gotten used to.

In the other direction he’d met three kids around his age. Marcia seemed like a nice girl, but she had some sort of muscle disability and was confined to a wheelchair, so board games were her primary outlet. Tim would have been fun to play with, but he was totally consumed with video games and Kevin’s dad had a firm stance on how much of that Kevin was allowed. And the only other kid that Kevin had met, William, was three years younger and didn’t share any interests with Kevin. While it would probably be better when school started, for now there was not much to do.

Kevin’s mom had passed away about a year ago. She had been ill for several years so while it was good that she was no longer suffering, that didn’t mean that Kevin did not miss her. Kevin’s dad had stayed with his job in the city so that Kevin could finish the school year there, but at the beginning of the summer he had changed jobs and the two of them had moved here where they could live in a house with a yard instead of in the high-rise apartment building that they’d had in the city. Kevin liked this new house and the large park across the street. But being able to go there and run around and enjoy the fresh air was getting old. Kevin really wanted to have friends.

Not being into athletic games and with his dad’s restrictions on the amount of video games he could play was not a problem in the city. There were a number of boys in Kevin’s building who had begun a marbles club. They could play either in the dusty empty lot next door, or, if they were not too loud, in the recreation room of the building during the day when the adults were at work. The rec room had worn low-pile carpets instead of hard linoleum floors, so the marbles did not go sailing off when they were hit. Kevin had a small bag of marbles, and his friend Jimmy would loan him a shooter when they played. Kevin’s dad seemed to recognize this attraction and had bought him another bag of new marbles as a reward for helping get everything packed for their move. But they were all small marbles and Kevin didn’t have a shooter – his dad did not seem to realize that significance.

[Marble pictures]

Thus it was that on this sunny Saturday Kevin found himself wandering around the park for the fourth time this week. His dad was home but, having begun a new job, was working a few extra hours this morning getting familiar with all that his job entailed. Kevin was over on the far side of the park near the creek that ran through it when a glint of something shiny in the weeds caught his eye. Focusing on where he saw that glint, he knelt down and pushed the weeds to the side.

There it was – a marble! And not just any marble, but one unlike any that Kevin had seen before. Most standard glass marbles have a colored swirl running through them to make them look like a cat’s eye. The swirl can be one of several colors – red, orange, yellow, green, and blue being the most common. And there are some more expensive marbles that have two or three colors running through them. But this marble that Kevin had plucked from among the weeds had FIVE colors. The primary swirls were orange, green, and blue, but the edges of the swirls were enhanced with red and yellow – almost like the swirl edges were on fire! This was NOT a standard marble – someone had spent a lot of time putting all those colors in and it was likely a pretty expensive marble.

But more significant to Kevin – this was not the average size marble either. It was a large marble – a shooter! And a shooter that put to shame all the ones that his friends back in the city had in their collections. And one that certainly was several rungs above the old worn shooter that Jimmy loaned him. Kevin was ecstatic!

 

Running home, Kevin burst into the den where his dad was poring over a pile of papers from his employer. Holding up the marble so that it caught the light streaming in the window, Kevin exclaimed, “Dad, look at this marble I found in the park! It’s a shooter! And it has five colors!” His dad began to reply, “That’s a really nice marble, Kevin. But I think you should know …” But Kevin didn’t hear this last part. He was already running out of the room as he shouted, “I’m going to go downstairs and practice marbles in the family room.”

Kevin first went to his bedroom to get his two sacks of marbles – both the small bag with the worn ones and the new bag that his dad had gotten him. He then bounded down the stairs to the family room. Like the community rec room back in the city, the family room had some low-pile carpet on the floor that made it acceptable for playing marbles. Kevin moved aside the items in the middle of the room, marked a rough circle using his older marbles, put the newer marbles in the center and then knelt down with his newly-found shooter.

Holding the shooter in the crook of his first finger and using his thumb to launch it, he first tried a few low-speed shots just to get the feel of it. It didn’t take long until he had gotten back his form and could reliably hit one of the smaller marbles and knock it out of the ring. Now it was time to try some combination shots and see if he could knock out several smaller marbles at once. Aiming at a cluster of three marbles in the center of the ring, Kevin let loose his shooter with as much force as he could muster. His aim was true and the shooter hit the cluster with a loud C-R-A-C-K!

 

It seemed like time had stopped. While two of the three marbles in the cluster had gone sailing out of the ring, sitting in their place were the shattered pieces of Kevin’s prized shooter! There were three larger chunks, a few razor-edged shards, and the glints of a number of smaller pieces that were now dotting the rug. The five colors from inside the shooter were now reduced to just some dull colors among the multiple pieces of glass. Kevin felt like his heart was also shattered like the shooter and he stood there in shock.

It was then that he became aware that his father had come into the room. He wrapped his arms around Kevin’s shoulders and gently held him. Kevin turned into his dad’s embrace as he haltingly sobbed, “It … it broke. I’ve only had it for … for an hour, and … and, it’s broken!” Kevin’s dad held him even closer.

“That’s what I tried to tell you earlier, Kevin,” his dad said. “Because of the time it takes to make these fancy marbles, the cooling process of the glass takes longer and sometimes makes them more brittle. I lost my favorite shooter when I was about your age because of the same problem.”

“You used to play marbles, too, Dad?” asked Kevin. “I never knew that.”

“Yes,” said his dad. “I’ve seen you get interested in them the last few years, but I’ve been so involved in taking care of your mom that I never got around to sharing that with you. I think it’s about time to rectify that situation. Let’s get out the vacuum and clean up this broken glass before it gets imbedded in the carpet. Then I have a few places that I’ve noticed on my drive to work the last few weeks that I’d like to show you.”

Kevin’s dad was true to his word. After they’d done the vacuuming and collected the marbles from under the sofa and around the room, they spent the rest of the day together. Their first stop was at a fast-food place for lunch - one that had been Kevin’s favorite back in the city. Then they went to a large toy store. But instead of Kevin’s dad picking anything out, he let Kevin choose a couple of marble shooters – so he’d have a spare if needed. And he even let Kevin pick out a new video game. His dad had veto authority over the one that Kevin chose as there were still limits on the level of violence or other unacceptable behavior in the video, but that was fine with Kevin.

Finally, they stopped at a YMCA in the same part of town where they lived. It was close enough that Kevin’s dad said that he would be allowed to ride his bicycle there on Saturdays as long as he paid attention to the traffic and rode safely. There were a number of group activities that Kevin could participate in. They didn’t have a marbles club, but the person at the front desk said that if Kevin could get at least three other people interested, that he could start a club and they could use one of the rooms for their club meetings. Kevin felt that he was up to that challenge.

 

When they got home later that afternoon, Kevin turned admiringly to his dad. “Thanks, dad,” he said. “I didn’t think you understood, but I’ve underestimated you. Thanks for being my dad!”

Kevin’s dad smiled back. “And I appreciate you for the attitude you’ve displayed through all of this. Now, do you think you’d be willing to play a game of marbles with me? I’m pretty rusty, but if you’re patient, I might be able to become a worthy opponent.”

 

VW Engine

As I recall, it was the fall of 1960. In those days all the auto manufacturers released their new models at the same time. Although I was only 12, I was really into cars and could tell you the make, model, and year of every car we passed on the road. (FYI – my grandson Isaiah can do the same thing now.) On that weekend each year my father and I would travel around to many of the dealers in the area so see all the new cars coming out.

This particular year the local VW dealership decided to do something special in order to get people like my father to stay longer – and thus increase the chances of people buying a VW instead of something else. So, they arranged for a demonstration. They not only advertised it in the paper but mailed invitations to the VW owners in the region – of which we were one as my father had bought his first VW the previous year.

My father and I thus were at the VW dealer – first just looking at the new cars in the showroom, then, when the sales manager announced that the demo was going to start, going out into the shop area of the building. They had totally cleaned the shop, so there were no vehicles there and the floors had been newly painted. At the appointed time, one of the garage doors was opened and a new VW Beetle driven in – the purpose being that we could see that this was a running vehicle. Parking it in the middle of the small crowd who had gathered, the shop manager announced what would be happening. Two of their lead mechanics moved to the back of the car and opened the door of the engine compartment. They also brought over a tool box – in which they naturally had all the tools they needed and all organized appropriately.

Upon a signal, they began quickly moving to disassemble the engine. First, they removed all the electrical components (spark plug wires, distributor, battery, etc.), then took off all the other easily reached items (v-belt, pulleys, carburetor, etc.) While doing this, one of them put some pans underneath and drained the fluids from the transmission and engine. One got underneath and removed the muffler. Then the two of them disconnected the engine from the transmission and lifted the flat-4 engine out of the compartment.

Setting the engine on a drop cloth, they then proceeded to disassemble it – taking off the heads, removing the cover over the crank shaft, disconnecting all the pistons, removing the valves, etc. Meanwhile the shop manager was keeping up a running commentary about what they were doing so that those of us standing around the car in a large circle understood the various steps. They only thing they did not disassemble was taking the rings off the pistons.

I should also note that since the flat-4 VW engine is air cooled, there is no radiator and no coolant to drain. This eliminates several components that you find on other engines.

Now we had spread out in front of us, and neatly arranged, a disassembled engine and the Beetle sitting there without an engine in it. They gave us a few minutes to walk around and see all the components. Then, working just as quickly, the two mechanics began to put the engine back together – following all the steps they had just completed in reverse.

Adding back the fluids that they had drained – or more accurately, adding new fluids to replace the ones they had drained, they then put a small amount of gasoline in the carburetor, one of them got in the driver’s seat, and they started up the engine, opened the garage door and drove back outside.

Total time for the complete disassembly and reassembly – less than one hour! It was quite an impressive demo. Of course, the purpose of doing this was to not only show potential VW buyers not only how easy it was to work on these cars, but to showcase the skills of their mechanics and thus make everyone want to use the dealer’s services in the future.

As a 12-year-old, and the youngest member of the audience, I know that I was impressed. My father had just bought his first VW the year before and it was the first of a few that he bought there. And in 1973, after I had married and while I was living in CT for a few years before my wife and I moved to PA, I also bought a vehicle from that same dealership – in my case a VW Dasher station wagon, which I bought sight unseen as the Dasher was a brand-new line and they didn’t even have any in stock yet. So, I guess their “demonstration”, at least in my case, paid off.

These days, with all the computer-controlled parts of the engine and all the emissions components, it is far more complicated to work on vehicle engines. Doing the work yourself is all but impossible and they even color-code those things that the vehicle owner is allowed to touch (adding oil, adding coolant, changing/charging a battery) and everything else is off-limits. But in 1960, the air-cooled VW engine was a thing of great simplicity and enabled the demo that I had the pleasure of witnessing.

Fred Forchelli - Credits

Credits

I began a week ago with only a single long sentence that I had submitted to a “bad writing” contest. Posting it on my Facebook account, my cousin Tom challenged me to finish the story. Drawing on my creative juices, I wrote one chapter at a time – strictly in a stream-of-consciousness style – not knowing how the story would turn out and, as I finished each chapter, only having a vague idea of the title of the next chapter. I was writing about one chapter (2-4 pages) a day, waiting for a new round of creative juices before beginning each chapter.

Despite my asking each day for any ideas or comments, it was not until around chapter 7 that someone responded. That anonymous comment made it clear that the navigation from one chapter to the next was not obvious. I went back and added prior/next links in each chapter – the only change I have made to any previously written and published chapter.

At that point I had still not given names to any of the characters except to the main character – Frederick Flintstone Forchelli – who had been named in that first single sentence, and to Jennifer, the person in the Office Services company who Fred relies upon for some administrative activities. But my daughter, Kim, commented that if the “hero” is Fred Flintstone, then the “bad guy” needs to be Barney Rubble. I then also added his wife Elizabeth (Betty) as well as George Jenson (a barely concealed reference to the Flintstones spinoff – George Jetson). I'll let the reader decide what happens to Fred’s new assistant, Wilma!

Thus invigorated, I wrote the last four chapters of the book in just 36 hours. It all fell together surprisingly quickly.

So, my thanks on this to:

·         My cousin Tom who got me started

·         The anonymous poster who was confused about how to navigate

·         My daughter Kim who gave me ideas for names – which I needed to make progress

It’s been a wild week! I hope all of you have enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. This has been a new experience and a fun one.

 

< Prior Chapter

 

 

Fred Forchelli - Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – The Aftermath  

It was a chilly fall day when Fred stepped off the elevator and walked down the hall toward his new office. A lot had happened over the past several months.

Mayor McNaught had apologized for his inappropriate conduct during the last re-election campaign. The city solicitor had decided not to take any action against him. He was overwhelmingly so well liked and continued to do so much for the city that this slight indiscretion could be forgiven.

The trials of George Jenson and Barnard Olshevski had been surprisingly swift and predictable in outcome. With both men testifying against each other there was no question of their guilt. They had each been found guilty and were now serving life sentences in separate prisons.

Elizabeth Olshevski had been the recipient of much sympathy. She had also finally made the decision to seek a divorce from Barnard and it had been granted. With that burden lifted, her creative juices had begun flowing and she had published not one, but two additional mystery novels over the summer. Still writing under the Betty Rubble pseudonym, no one questioned that her latest book was dedicated to Fred Flintstone. That remained a private joke between the two of them.

The board of directors of Jeremy Spencer’s venture capital company had reorganized. Absent the presence of George Jenson, they had hired a new director to help guide their investments. The university had denied any knowledge of George’s escapades and they were now seeking a new person to head their diversity office.

 

But the biggest change was in Fred’s career. Bolstered not only by a generous infusion of cash, anonymously of course, from Elizabeth Olshevski, Fred was making the move to a new spacious office. It was not only air-conditioned, but had two rooms – an outer room for his new receptionist/assistant, and an inner one for himself. George had supervised the purchase and placement of the furnishings. In his inner office he had kept the battered wooden desk – that just held too many memories of his past. But the metal bookcase had been discarded and replaced with a mahogany bookcase and a new file cabinet that now held all his manila folders. The bookcase held not only his law books, but the top shelf had a complete set of the Betty Rubble mystery series – each personally engraved on the title page by “Betty Rubble” herself.

Fred’s old wooden visitor chair had been replaced with a matching pair of comfortable padded ones, but he still retained his high-backed leather chair. The pencil sharpener and coffee pot were now on the cadenza behind his assistant’s desk in the outer room. This room also held a comfortable couch for those waiting to see him – with the fabric matching that on the padded chairs in his inner office.

Fred had also decided to upgrade his use of technology. Taking center stage on his desk was a docking station for his laptop that also connected to a large screen monitor and a full-sized keyboard. No more squinting at the laptop screen while doing his research. And no more plugging in and unplugging his laptop when he needed it. The final object in his inner office was that trusty fan – not that he needed it for cooling now that he had air conditioning, but he had gotten used to the gentle breeze while working. The fan was on top of the new filing cabinet as there were no more wide windowsills in this new building.

Fred had enlisted the aid of Jennifer in locating someone who could make him a professional website befitting his new status as a well-known member of his profession. And Marvin Jones had been good to his word and, when appropriate, had recommended him to others.

Fred had asked Jennifer if she would be willing to leave O’Brien’s and come work full-time for him. She had politely declined as she liked the variety of work at O’Brien’s. But when Fred asked if she had any recommendations for someone else to fill that role, she offered to locate one for him. There had been a twinkle in her eye as she said this.

 

Arriving at the door of his new office, Fred stopped for a moment to admire the gold-leaf writing on the door – “Frederick F. Forchelli, Investigator and Attorney”. Reaching for the doorknob, he was surprised to find it already unlocked. His new assistant that Jennifer had picked out must have already arrived. He opened the door and was greeted by the attractive young woman seated at the desk. “Welcome, Mr. Forchelli,” she said, “I’m your new assistant, Wilma.”

 

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Fred Forchelli - Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – The Crime

Fred arrived at the office earlier than usual the next morning. He had a lot to get accomplished that day. He had already stopped at O’Brien’s Office Services on the second floor and gotten permission to have exclusive use of Jennifer for the day. He’d need her considerable skills to pull everything together.

With her help he dictated notes to be typed, made copies of the appropriate newspaper articles, pulled together the online research results that he had uncovered, and started organizing everything into a cohesive report. Around late morning when Fred felt that they’d be able to get it all done that day, he made a call to the local District Attorney and scheduled a meeting with he and others on his staff for early Monday morning. He was so focused on pulling everything together that it was only because Jennifer insisted that he stopped for lunch. He did so, but only allowed himself a half-hour so that he could get back to work.

Toward the end of the day Fred signed on to his Amazon account and ordered a couple of books. He was not willing to wait even for the promised one-day delivery, so he ordered the Kindle versions. He had some reading to do this weekend to help clear up some of the loose ends.

It was nearly four o’clock when he took the several copies of his report – each in a separate notebook – up to his office. He was tired from the whirlwind of activity that day – and so was Jennifer. He had thanked her profusely. While her contract with O’Brien’s did not allow her to accept tips, he made a mental note to have some flowers and a thank you card delivered to her on Monday.

 

On Monday morning, as promised, Fred met with the local District Attorney, Marvin Jones, and two of his staff. Sitting in Marvin’s spacious office, Fred passed out copies of the notebooks that he and Jennifer had prepared, and he began going through the chronology. They had not gotten far when Marvin, realizing what he had in front of him, asked Fred to pause for a few minutes. They moved into the conference room next door and Marvin asked most of the rest of his senior staff to drop what they were doing and join them. Fred did not have enough copies of his notebook, so they had to share.

Fred began over in his presentation – beginning with the drilling/fracking operation, then how Jeremy Spencer’s venture capital company invested and eventually took over and how Jeremy benefited and became quite rich because of that investment. Then he noted how George Jenson, upon the death of his mother, realized that he was now the sole heir of Jeremy’s estate, but that it was apt to be several decades before he would benefit, and he got greedy. Thus, it was that he contracted with Barnard Olshevski to arrange for Jeremy to meet an untimely death. The police report confirmed that Barnard had been there that night and the presence of the heart medication in his car was an indication of how the murder was committed. Fred suggested that the DA’s office would be able to get proof of payment from George to Barnard through requisition of bank records – something that Fred could not do.

Marvin was an experienced, no-nonsense type of person. He barked a few orders to those in the room and they quickly left to complete their assignments. He had initially taken Fred as just one of many such private investigators/attorneys, but the way that Fred had pulled everything together and the quality of his presentation made a very positive impression on him. Before Fred left, Marvin told him, “You have a lot of potential, we’ll be talking more in the future.”

Fred was on cloud nine. But he had one more important task to perform that day. Pulling out his trusty flip-phone and calling up a number he had saved that weekend, he dialed it. When the feminine voice answered, Fred said, “Betty? This is Fred. We need to meet.”

 

Later that week the news media was abuzz with the happenings. No one was terribly surprised when a group of six policemen entered one of the local bars in the big city and arrested “Bro” Olshevski. They all knew that he was a bad dude and he’d been arrested several times before. But when he was taken before the local magistrate the next morning and charged with the murder of Jeremy Spencer that was unexpected.

But it was the simultaneous arrest of George Jenson – and not in a bar, but in the Diversity Office of the University – that really got people’s attention. Their up-and-coming star, the winner of the Chamber of Commerce Futurist Award, was arrested on a charge of accessory to murder. Because he was viewed as an extreme flight risk, he was also denied bail.

Almost immediately Barnard and George turned on each other. They may have thought they were diverting attention from themselves, but, of course, they only succeeded in providing additional proof of how they were both guilty.

 

On Thursday evening, in a quiet recess in the back of a darkened restaurant, Fred met with his client – Elizabeth Olshevski. Her husband had been arrested earlier that day, but the news media had not yet connected his quiet arrest to that of George’s more spectacular one in another city.

Fred had determined that the only way that a photocopy of that police report would be in the packet of hints would be if the photocopy had been of the one that the police had given to Barnard when he had been warned on that fateful night around the corner from Jeremy Spencer’s house. And one of the few people who would have had access to that copy was Barnard’s wife – Elizabeth.

Fred had also done some further research into the Olshevski couple. While still legally married, Barnard and Elizabeth lived apart – she being a respected English professor and he a long-time criminal. But there was more to it than that. Barnard’s legal name was Barnard Rubble Olshevski. And Elizabeth, besides teaching, was also a prolific author. She published under the pseudonym of “Betty Rubble” – Betty being short for Elizabeth and Rubble being her husband’s middle name. She wrote mystery stories – some of which had been Fred’s reading material the previous weekend.

Elizabeth had a suspicion about her erstwhile husband’s involvement in Jeremy Spencer’s death. But she couldn’t go to the police herself – if Barnard had any suspicion that she was accusing him, her life might also be in danger. Thus, it was her familiarity with the plots in her mystery novels that had led her to become the anonymous client and to let someone else become the accuser. And the name connection between Barney and Betty Rubble and Fred Flintstone had just seemed too perfect – which is why she had chosen Fred to help her.

Elizabeth had been quite successful as an author and had a sizeable bank account from her book sales – which her husband had no knowledge of. While Fred felt that she had been more than generous in her initial anonymous payment to him, she was so grateful to be free of the fear of her husband that she promised that there would be an additional payment in the future.

 

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Fred Forchelli - Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – The People

Fred wanted to find all that he could about the six men on his list. He decided to start at the end of the list with someone he knew and work backward.

Mayor Robert McNaught was the latest of a long line of men from that family who had served in various offices. His father had been a long-time county commissioner and his grandfather had been a Justice of the Peace as well as served in the county office as zoning officer, county treasurer and perhaps other positions over the years. If Robert had a flaw, it was that he was always trying to be better than his ancestors. He was now in his second term as mayor.

It appeared that in his desire to be re-elected, he had accepted significant funds from a few individuals and felt that he owed them a favor in return. Since he had considerable influence on the city council, he had proposed some tax exemptions that appeared to benefit those donors. Fred did not feel that this was among the list of offenses that his client was concerned about. The fact that it had already been exposed in the newspaper meant that the city solicitor knew about it and would take appropriate action.

Robert was married to Jane McGonigle. She was very much into the social scene and participated (and frequently ran) a number of local charities. There was nothing of concern there.

 

Next on Fred’s list was George Jenson. Since he was not only a significant donor to the mayor’s re-election campaign and had been awarded the Futurist Award by the Chamber of Commerce he almost certainly was somehow involved in this case. He had a degree from a well-known university and had lived in the city since his graduation. He was employed as the Chief Diversity Officer for one of the local colleges. While that was impressive for someone not yet 30 years old, it didn’t explain where the funds came from for his donation to the mayor. Fred felt that perhaps he had come from a monied family.

He checked George’s LinkedIn profile but that did not tell Fred anything he didn’t already know. He next checked an online copy of the yearbook from George’s alma mater. That yielded the name of the city where he had graduated from high school. But, more significantly, the yearbook had a picture of George – and it matched one of the individuals that appeared in the grainy picture that Fred had studied earlier. Putting the pictures side-by-side, it was pretty clear that they were of the same person – or that George had a doppelganger.

Suppressing his excitement, Fred began doing some targeted Google searches for the city where George had come from. He found him listed as the grandson in an obituary – and of course it also gave the names of George’s parents. It appeared that George’s mother, Jane, had died a few years ago. Further checking revealed that George’s father, Michael, was employed as a high school math teacher. But those facts did not account for the wealth that George appeared to have. Leaving that as an open question for now, Fred moved on to Jeremy Spencer.

 

Jeremy’s obituary was, of course, a good source of information. He was unmarried and seemed to be focused primarily on running the venture capital company which he had founded. But there was not a lot of information in the obituary about what the company was invested in. Fred knew that many such venture capital firms requested having a hand in running the companies they invested in – in return for supplying the necessary funds. He turned to a number of internet sites and federal 990 filings. Like other such firms, the picture was a pretty complicated one. But buried in one such filing a name jumped out at him – the company that owned that drilling/fracking operation that was the subject of one of his “hints”. It appeared that Jeremy’s venture capital firm was the primary investor and that they owned a considerable share of that company.

Checking further, Fred located the information he had been searching for earlier – the date that the company was established. While the two men from Eastern Europe had been good at finding sources to drill/frack, they did not have the business acumen to run the company once it became a production operation. Jeremy had supplied the funds, helped select others with the ability to successfully run it, and essentially forced the two men out. In return, Jeremy became the primary shareholder and had profited greatly.

This also gave Fred the information he needed about the two Eastern European men – Vladlen Dazdraperma and Vsevolod Mstislav. He took them off the list of individuals to check out further.

The link between Jeremy and the drilling/fracking operation established, the next thing to establish is who inherited Jeremy’s estate – since he was unmarried. Fred looked for further clues in the lengthy obituary. There in one of the concluding paragraphs Fred found it. First there was a mention of Jeremy having been preceded in death during the past year by his sister Jane. Then it mentioned that he was leaving his estate to his nephew, George. Having just done some research on those names, Fred turned back to his now trusty subscription to Newspapers.com and quickly found the obituary of Jane [Spencer] Jenson! This was the source of George’s wealth!

 

Fred’s mind was racing! In just a few hours’ time, he had connected nearly all the hints into a cohesive story. He looked at his watch – it read 2:20 pm. Now he was shocked as well. He’s gotten so involved in his investigations that the hours had flown by. Feeling the need for a mental break as well as some refreshment, he decided to take a trip to one of his favorite fast-food restaurants. He’d earned it.

 

About an hour later, Fred returned to his office. He still had one more person to investigate and one more of the “hints” to connect to the others. He pulled out the copy of the police report and his notes on it. With his growing familiarity with using the power of the Internet and searches, he began typing.

The name Barnard Olshevski was uncommon enough that it was relatively easy to find further information about him. He was not a local resident but lived a few hundred miles away in another city. It also appeared that he had a long rap sheet as his name showed up in arrest notices on several occasions. His nickname was not the expected “Barney”, but “Bro” – using his initials to identify himself. His wife, Elizabeth, appeared to hold down a legitimate job as an English professor at the local university. But “Bro” seemed to be in trouble with the law on a frequent basis.

As Fred started noting all the instances where Barnard/Bro had been arrested and what charges had been filed, he came across a wanted poster from earlier in his “career”. Looking at the typical frontal and side views of this life-long criminal, Fred realized that he recognized him. Once again pulling out the grainy picture from the manila folder, Fred held up the picture next to his computer screen. There were some differences – for example the wanted poster showed a man with black hair and the “hint” picture showed someone with graying temples who was several years older – but otherwise it was obviously the same person. Fred might not have connected the pictures if he just had the frontal view on the wanted poster, but the sideview had Barnard in essentially the same pose. But why would Barnard and George be photographed together?

 

Acting somewhat on intuition, Fred opened up Google Maps and keyed in the location where Barnard had been encountered by the policeman. It showed an upper-class neighborhood with tree-lined streets and large houses. Fred then opened another window and looked up the address of the late Jeremy Spencer. Returning to Google Maps, there it was! When Barnard had parked his car and drawn the attention of the neighbor who called the police, he was right around the corner from the home of Jeremy Spencer – and on the night before Jeremy had been found dead.

In addition, Barnard had a bottle of some sort of heart medication on the seat next to him – and Jeremy had died due to cardiac issues. The newspaper articles following Jeremy’s death had mentioned questions about the cause. Fred opened up the ones that he had saved on his computer earlier in the week. While he was not a physician, it seemed that there was certainly a possibility that an overdose of some heart medications can cause cardiac stoppage and death. The newspaper articles did not go into a lot of detail. But Fred was now in possession of information that could reopen any prior medical investigation!

 

It was starting to get late. Fred needed to get some rest while he thought through all that he had discovered today. He also needed some supper – but a light one as his lunch had been so late. And he could do with a good night’s sleep as well. He refiled everything in the manila folder, turned off and packed up his laptop, turned off his now trusty fan, then turned off the light, closed and locked the office door, and headed for home with his head still spinning.

 

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Fred Forchelli - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – The Timeline

Feeling refreshed the following morning, Fred decided that he needed to follow the inclination that he had when he first received the envelope – to put the events in chronological order. But several of the six pages only contained misleading information as the facts were on the reverse and he did not have printouts of the information that he had filed electronically. So, he got a blank sheet of paper and cut it into six smaller pieces that he could put dates and events on.

The oldest event was obviously in the article about the farm being turned into a drilling/fracking site. There were a few dates in the article itself and he had recorded others in his notes. He quickly realized that he needed more than just six pieces of paper to make his timeline, so he cut up a second blank page as well. He recorded the primary events related to this “hint” and spread the pieces of paper across his desk appropriately. The earliest was the discovery of oil on the farm, another was for the purchase of the property by the two men with yet-unpronounceable names, a third (that he had discovered during his investigation) was the purchase of that small company by the larger corporation. Fred realized that he didn’t have dates for everything. He put a note on the second piece of paper about the “green” protest and a “?” for the date when it might have been absorbed by some other protest organization. He also put a “?” for the date on the third piece indicating the purchase of the initial company by the larger conglomerate. He silently chided himself for not having done the best job of investigating this piece of the puzzle, especially as it was the one hint that seemed the most straightforward.

Next, Fred put down the information about the Chamber of Commerce Award Banquet from two years ago. He noted the date of the banquet and the award that had been left off the page when the article was cut – the Futurist Award. He also put down the name of the recipient, George Jenson, as he had previously recognized that George was involved in donation to the mayor’s re-election campaign. He put that piece of paper to the right of the conglomerate purchase.

Then, Fred created a piece of paper for the re-election and the editorial comment that criticized the mayor. He put both the mayor’s name on that piece as well as George Jenson’s. That one went on the far right of his growing timeline.

Looking next at the last newspaper article and referring to his notes about the obituary that he had uncovered on Newspapers.com, Fred wrote down the date and the name of the deceased, Jeremy Spencer – followed by the word “died”. That piece of paper he placed to the left of the one about the Chamber of Commerce Award Banquet. He wasn’t sure where it went relative to the piece of paper with the “?” date about the purchase of the fracking/drilling company, but he’d get back to that problem later.

Turning to the copy of the police report, Fred began writing down the date and suddenly realized that it was the day before Jeremy Spencer’s death! Why had he not noticed that before? Something else he needed to check out today. He also recorded the name of the person who had been cited – Barnard R. Olshevski – another Eastern European name (probably Polish), but at least this name was pronounceable. He placed it immediately to the left of the piece of paper with the “died” on it.

Finally, Fred looked at the grainy picture. He had no idea who was in it, but he needed to place it in the timeline, so he turned it over to copy the date on the back. Again, something that had not caught his eye before, this date was only a few weeks after the police report and the obituary. He wrote down the date and the word “picture of two men” and placed the final piece of paper in his timeline.

 

Leaning back in his chair, Fred reviewed the pieces of paper spread across his desk. There were eight pieces of paper with dates on them – one of the dates being a “?”. And there were names of six individuals – the two Eastern European men, Barnard Olshevski, Jeremy Spencer, George Jenson, and Mayor McNaught. The only things tying the events together were that three of the pieces of paper were about the drilling/fracking operation, the name of George Jenson appeared twice, and two of the pieces of paper were dated with consecutive dates.

Fred pulled out the cover letter from the manila folder. Most of the nouns were plural – wrongs, perpetrators, individuals, misdeeds. Was Fred investigating one series of connected misdeeds or were they only connected by the commonality of the perpetrators? It wasn’t clear. He wished that he could have a conversation with his unknown client. But she(?) chose to remain anonymous.

However, one thing was certain – this exercise had revealed a number of things that he didn’t know, and he needed to do some further research. He gathered up the eight pieces of paper into a chronological pile and put a paperclip on them. He had a long day ahead of him.

 

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Fred Forchelli - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – The Police Report

Fred woke up on Wednesday morning with a raging headache. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the intensity of the past two days of this case, the fact that he had consumed two large cups of iced diet Pepsi (one at lunch and another at dinner), or the double pepperoni meat-lover’s pizza he had ordered for “dinner”. Maybe it was a combination of all three. But whatever the cause, he took an extra-strength Tylenol and went back to bed for a couple of hours.

Thus, it wasn’t until just before noon that he unlocked his office and prepared to spend the rest of the day working on the remaining hints in the envelope from Monday. He had brought lunch with him today – a PB&J sandwich and a chilled bottle of water from his refrigerator. He figured he had enough caffeine in his system to sustain him for a while. The sky was overcast so his office was not quite as warm as the last few days. But he turned the fan on low anyway and the simple stirring of the air was quite comforting. Then he plugged in his laptop. While waiting for it to boot up, he opened the solitary folder on his desk and pulled out the police report.

 

There are two kinds of police reports. One is the original that is filled out by the police officer when someone is detained or arrested. The other is a computer printout of the information after it is all recorded and transcribed. This was one of the former – not the original itself, but a photocopy of it. Fred wondered how his client had managed to obtain it. He (she?) must have had some inside connections at the police department.

Like any typical original document, everything was in the handwriting of the police officer who filled out the form. There were several boxes of things to check off or separate fields to be entered such as the date, the name of the individual, etc. There was a large central box where the officer could free-form all the details. This particular officer wrote everything in block letters, but even then it was difficult to read much of it – perhaps because it was being filled out in haste, or perhaps because the writing surface was awkward such as the hood of an automobile or a porch railing. The officer’s signature at the bottom was unreadable, but his/her badge number in the appropriate field could be checked out if necessary.

The report did not seem like any significant event. Apparently, someone had noticed an unknown car parked in their neighborhood and, concerned that it might be a burglar, had called the police department to have it checked out. When the policeman arrived, he saw that the car was occupied and running, but that one taillight was out. Approaching the car, he asked the driver to provide identification, registration, etc. This was all recorded on the report. The driver did not appear to be intoxicated, but there was a bottle of pills on the seat next to him. Upon checking, the pills were identified not as narcotics, but some type of heart medication, so there was nothing illegal. The driver had explained that he was from out-of-town and, finding himself on an unfamiliar street, had parked to take a short rest before getting back on the main road and driving back to the city where he lived. The driver had been given a warning about the non-functional taillight and advised to park in a more public place than a residential street if it should happen again. No charges had been filed.

Fred had been hoping for something a bit more dramatic or with obvious ties to the other “hints” that he had studied the previous day. Now he was disappointed. And how was he supposed to make sense of all of this? After completing the detailed notes of what those block letters said, he set aside the police report and took up the final piece of paper that had been given to him.

 

The only writing on the picture was a date on the back. Otherwise, it was just a picture of two men shaking hands. While the picture was not very clear, it was not so blurred that the men would have been unrecognizable. But Fred was not familiar with either of them. Both were smiling and were probably pleased. They did not seem to be aware that their picture was being taken. Upon studying it closely, Fred believed that this picture was probably taken at long range where the photographer would not be seen by the men and that it had been blown up so that the men could be identified. That would certainly explain the graininess. But in blowing it up, the context of the picture had been lost. There were few clues on where the men were, except that it must have been a time-of-day where the faces were fully illuminated. There were no other individuals or buildings visible, and the few trees that could be seen on the one side could have been anywhere.

Fred studied the two faces closely. He wanted to imprint them in his mind so that if he were to see another picture of either of them, he would be able to connect them. But at this point the men were just two unknown individuals shaking hands – apparently on the date on the back of the picture.

 

Fred put his fingertips together and leaned back in his office chair to take stock of his situation. He’d been paid in advance for two weeks of work – but for an unknown client and on some probably illegal/illicit situation that was not yet known.  He had a rapidly filling pad of notes, but much of it was probably useless – in fact likely all the work from Tuesday morning. All his checking into the individuals and companies who had received awards from the Chamber of Commerce were likely just a distraction as the only significant award was the one that had been deliberately cut out before the newspaper article had been copied. And all the names and backgrounds of the people on that society page were similarly wasted time as it was the obituary on the reverse side that was tied to this case. Fred was now pretty well convinced that the copying of the wrong side of the page had been deliberately done rather than just a simple mistake. He leaned forward and drew a long slash mark across all the pages of notes from yesterday morning. He’d leave the pages there and readable. After all, it was possible that he might need them later – or in some future case – but he wanted to avoid being distracted by all those handwritten notes for now.

The article on the fracking had probably been genuine, although how it related to this case was not at all obvious. The editorial opinion was also likely valuable – and at least he had found out before he spent any time on investigating any of the ads or other information on the backside of that page. And the work he had done this afternoon was pertinent, even if he did not yet know how it fit.

It was all very frustrating! He felt he was deliberately being manipulated by his client and he’d have some choice words to say to her when he was able to. (Ouch, he thought, there’s that feminine pronoun again! Why did it keep thrusting itself into his thoughts?)

Straightening up in his chair, he turned off his laptop and put it and the power cord back in his briefcase. He turned off the fan that was rapidly becoming a necessary fixture in his office, switched off the overhead lights, closed and locked the door, and made his way down the familiar hall toward the stairwell. His review of the “hints” now complete, he’d start tomorrow on trying to make sense of them all. But he wasn’t sure at all on where this was taking him.

 

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Fred Forchelli - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – The Hints – Continued

Feeling a slight bit of anger toward whomever had made those copies of the newspaper articles, Fred pondered his next course of action. It was then that he remembered the investigation that he had gotten involved in the prior fall. That case had required that he do some research into some articles that had been printed in the newspaper of another city a couple of hours away. Normally, he would have taken a trip to the newspaper headquarters in that city and asked permission to view their microfilm archives. Alternatively, some larger libraries may have copies of that microfilm. But that is very time-consuming, not even including the travel time and expense to that city.

A chance meeting with another investigator had led him to consider using an Internet research tool, Newspapers.com, instead. Often associated with genealogical research, there were other good reasons for using it. One, you could do it from the privacy of your own home/office, Two, all the newspaper articles were indexed so finding things was considerably easier. But, perhaps most attractive for Fred, the cost of a subscription was less than even one trip to that city. Fred had gotten a one-year subscription and it had proved key to his investigation. He’d not used it since that case, but there were several months left on his subscription.

 

It was early evening when Fred closed up his laptop and unplugged it. Long past the normal hours he kept, even the Christian Counseling Service on the floor below would be closing soon. He’d like to vacate the building before the guard locked the front doors and began making his rounds and the logistics of leaving would be complicated by having to avoid setting off the door alarm downstairs.

Fred was also getting hungry. He’d need to decide if it was better to heat up a can of something in his apartment or to order out – for the second time that day. Even with the extra income from that cashier’s check that he’d deposited yesterday, Fred felt the need to be cautious in his spending. Habits from several years of counting his pennies during these early years in his career were not to be changed overnight.

As Fred wrapped things up and turned off the fan – the fan that had been a blessing for the last few hours and enabled him to keep going – he thought through all that he had learned that day. The indexing power of Newspapers.com had made possible research that would have been impossible just a few years earlier. That was a subscription that he’d definitely renew in the fall.

 

His theory about the mis-matched cutting around the second article had proved to be correct. While still in the society section of the newspaper, instead of a cutout of marriages, engagements, and births, the backside of that page contained obituaries. The cuts were around the death announcement of a man who was prominent in the area – in fact the owner of the largest venture capital company. At the time of his death, he had only been in his late 50s. While his demise was attributed to a heart condition, Fred had recalled that there had been questions at the time. He had used the index of Newspapers.com and had found a few other stories about him to confirm his recollection. He had made screenshots of the various articles and saved them in an electronic folder for this case. Fred wondered if his rapidly developing computer skills meant that his reliance on paper files needed adjusting.

The reverse side of the fourth article that had led to the afternoon’s change in direction had also proved to be enlightening. It was one of those reader-opinion letters that the newspaper published on their editorial page a few times a week. This particular writer was complaining about the newly expanded tax exemptions that the city council had given that seemed to benefit individuals who had donated to the re-election campaign of the mayor. Following his instincts, Fred had done some research into both the donors and the mayor, and he found himself agreeing with the writer of the opinion piece.

But it was on a hunch that Fred decided to also check the other two newspaper clippings that had been put in the manila envelope. The clipping about the farm and fracking was fine – there was nothing of significance on the reverse side. But the article about the Chamber of Commerce awards showed that cut that Fred had assumed was just to get the long article to conform to the shape of the copier had also left out a paragraph in the article. That paragraph was about the recipient of the “Futurist” award – one that was given to someone who was up-and-coming and was expected to make significant contributions in the coming years. And the person being recognized was one of the men who were the re-election donors to the mayor’s recent campaign. Fred felt he might finally be on to something.

He still had to do some research into the copy of the police report, but it was with a sense of satisfaction that Fred picked up his briefcase, turned off the light, and locked his office door. Tomorrow was another day. Now it was time to stop ignoring the growing rumbles in his stomach and focus on his supper.

  

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