Ethan/Evan

This massless gravity you describe could well be the phenomenon the term 'Boston Mass' refers to. The concept of an empty centre and the idea of something that exists, but isn't seen are both applicable to the case. Also, A donut could be described as a closed loop. I now presume that Boston may operate as a hollow centre for (at least some of) the operations. This would explain why evidence of Searly has been found in the surroundings of Boston, but the man himself is not there. The ring of habituations arcing from Nova Scotia to Wisconsin should be examined in more detail. This would extend north through Canada and down to the mid-Eastern states.

Incidentally, while working a case at the request of Bob Palindrome in Croatia back in 2006 i met a guy called Evan (or maybe Ethan, details are sketchy) from Wisconsin, a happy-go-lucky type. I was gathering evidence of a music festival which was relatively unknown at the time and attracted maybe less than a thousand young European revellers. Two things struck me about Ethan the evening I met him at an open-air bayside restaurant, one - he was the only American at the festival I had met, two - he appeared to be there completely on his own - quite unusual for a foreign festival-goer. He possibly wasn't even attending the festival, just happened to be in the vicinity.

His behaviour was described by some people in the group I was shadowing as 'friendly', while others referred to it as 'annoying'. Being a tolerant man, these attributes eventually led to him spending quite a lot of time talking to me. He did strike me as an interesting character, slightly out of step with the rest of the crowd. I remember eating grilled tuna steak while he told some elaborate tale of how he came to be there, involving mis-dated work contracts and holiday leave, but I fail to recall the details. In fact, all I remember concretely is him teaching myself and Kingsbury PI the vogue-ish hand sign which accompanied the territorial phrase 'Wisconsin Baby!' favoured by the local youth there. See attached picture for reference.

I have no further memory of anything Ethan told me, as it did not seem pertinent to the case I was working back then. Had I been handed the Searly case earlier, I could have used this opportunity to ask 'Ethan' of the local wool subculture. Such misfortune can only be attributed to poor aim by the arrow of time.