Background:
Doug vaguely knows Rod. He has seen him around town. Mostly he has seen him with his daughter. He was always with his daughter. Having no children of his own, Doug was quietly jealous of the sight of these two. Mainly because they always looked like members of the mutual admiration society. It was something he sought through his reporting-a connection with others through a passion of his. These two seemed to always be in their own happy little world. Oblivious to all around them. In his line of work, he relished a glimpse of this, knowing the difficulties most face in the world around them.
One day, Doug introduced himself to Rod on a whim. He had to know what it was like to “feel” what he was seeing between those two. Doug premised the intro by requesting Rod let him interview him and his daughter for his weekly feature he ran about local people of interest. Rod declined the request, citing not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to his daughter and him. Being a reporter, Doug naturally pushed for further clarification.
Seeing Rod’s uneasiness in responding to his push, Doug backed off and simply stated, “I was just interested in bringing to light what it is you two share between each other, and offering it to the world. I see you around a lot and was interested in knowing how you would describe the feeling between you two.”
Rod nervously chuckled, “well, I, I, I, well, I just know I have been blessed with such a great daughter. From the moment I saw her, my love was everlasting. It has been my solemn promise to her since before she could understand what words were, that I would do everything in my power to ensure she was always loved and well taken care of. I have told her many times, ‘I want others to see us and immediately know what love is.’ She will be ecstatic when I tell her we have succeeded in our mission. Thank you for your kind observation, Mr…”
“Granson,” I reminded. We shook hands and Rod walked off smiling as if he had just found the key to World Peace. I found myself grinning from ear to ear as well. That was it! That was exactly what I was seeing….love. It was on full display for all the world to see. And I was extremely grateful to witness it. I felt compelled to thank him and his daughter immensely for opening my eyes to that. If I couldn’t get a feature to showcase what they had, at least I could relish the fact I had an exclusive look in to what they were bringing to the world. Love.
That’s why I must know what it is that created something so bad in this person’s life to make them want to exit it. The curiosity of wanting to know what it was that this man was feeling while he was alive, is the same curiosity that is getting me now. Making me want to know the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the whole thing. It just seemed so senseless for someone to have the ability to love and be loved so much to “check out” like that. Everybody else is just writing it off as a simple suicide. In seeing and speaking to this man, though, I know this suicide was anything but simple.
Beyond all that, my ability to be a good judge of character comes into question. Or solidifies it. It boggles my mind I was the only person who showed up for this person’s funeral. And I barely knew him. There is no way my sense of judgement is that skewed. That’s not the man I saw. I’m sure that’s not the man his daughter KNEW. Right now I have more questions than answers. Time to do what I do. Get those answers!
Initial Discoveries:
“Yeah, man, go ‘head. You find anything contrary to what we did let me know. Got me?” Officer Kendrick granted me access to Rod’s home.
“Got you. Thanks a lot.” I responded on my way inside Rod’s.
“Don’t know what you’re looking for exactly? Open and shut case. In all my years never seen anything different when they go out like that.” Kendrick added.
I waved him off and got to work.
Everything looked normal as normal could be inside the home. Tidy. Smelled ok. Seemed like one of those homes where if you got something out it went back when it was done. Nothing telling off the bat.
There were three bedrooms. One being the father’s. One being the daughter’s. One made into an office. I was drawn to the office.
In the office were mountains of books. Every self-help book you could think of adorned the multiple bookcases.
“Big fan of Tony Robbins, I see.” Was the first thing I noticed. “Multiple copies of ‘Think and Grow Rich.’”
The four walls of the office displayed motivational sayings and posters along with a huge dry erase board. Judging by the amount of residual marker ink on the board, it had been used frequently. Unfortunately, no residual information was left on the board to aid in my discovery process.
I sat down in the faux leather desk chair and leaned back stretching my legs under what looked to be an old government-issue desk. One of those heavy steel monsters with the laminate top.
While slowly twisting the chair from side to side with the occasional, methodical spin all the way around, I began soaking in the atmosphere of the room. I got the distinct impression this man was the practical type. He sought constant motivation in his work life. The way his desk drawers were ordered and things all going the same direction led me to deduce he was particular, almost OCD’ish. He liked organization but wasn’t a neat freak. This was evidenced by everything being in its place and his bookcase being set up in an alphabetical fashion while stacks of papers were strewn to and fro on the desktop.
Maybe he was working on something “fresh” and that’s why the papers were not as organized as I had come to expect from this man. Funny, I don’t even know this guy and here I am acting as if I do. For all I know he’s got the mind of an Einstein.
A macabre vision popped into my head after the Einstein reference. Rod’s desk reminded me of a picture I once saw of Einstein’s desk as he left it the day he passed away. An eery comparison to make, but, the resemblance is uncanny:
There is still a lot to learn. But something tells me this office is the nucleus to understanding it all. I’m anxious to see what these papers will tell me about the whole thing.
Paper Trail:
Seemingly, to me, the papers are a glimpse into this guy’s mind. There are some smaller handwritten notes along with typed up notes and printed-out copies of stuff from various sources. The handwritten notes are barely legible to my eyes. Even putting on my glasses didn’t make it easier to make out his human hieroglyphics. Set those aside for my cryptologist buddy to help decipher.
Looks like he loved spreadsheets. Quite a few financial projections for what could be business ideas he was working on. This guy seemed to be into just about everything. No wonder his desk was like this. I wonder if he had difficulty sleeping? I say that because it just appears to be he would have a hard time shutting off his mind.
There was no rhyme or reason I could make out for the different stacks of papers. He probably knew where everything was and what it all meant, but, I couldn’t make anything of it all except he had an active mind and many ideas on many subjects. Maybe he just suffered from information overload like the rest of us? No! This guy wasn’t “suffering” from the information. He was corralling it. Hoarding it? NO! Not hoarding it. He was going to use it. He was definitely an information-gatherer. I could have used his skills to further my career, for sure. Hindsight’s 20/20!
Buried beneath the flurry of strewn ideas, were two enticing manila folders. It was the moment I was waiting for. That Eureka moment! Historically, my anticipation of this moment always reaped the dividends I was expecting to receive. Presently, I was reaching euphoria.
Seeing those two manila folders immediately got my Spidey-sense tingling. You see, the rest of the papers were strewn about and, although “stacked” in some fashion or another, were bunched together with other subjects/topics. In my experience, when the entirety of something resembles chaos and there is a glimpse of order within that chaos, it’s the order which offers a “golden nugget.” These two manila folders represent this case’s golden nugget.
<<<FIND THOSE GOLDEN NUGGETS HERE>>>
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