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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