Casebook Retrieval

I recently retrieved my main casebook which had been idly left at Kingsbury PI's place a few days earlier. It contains observations and suppositions relevant to the case hitherto untouched on.

note 1: The redhead girl in the CCTV footage identified by one of the Boston tech crew as Melody Nelson could she be one of the duo known as 'Melinda Packett'? I recall receipts for auburn hair colour being found at their bay area residence? Sounds like one of those coincidences I don't believe in.

Assuming this is the case, it would seem that there is frequent movement of personnel connected to this whole saga from north to south and east to west. The group seem to have connection in all corners of the continent and also south of the border. Vandeloo and De Leon seem to have moved around more than most people we are aware of in the case - Florida, Baton Rouge, Mexico, Wisconsin, probably Maine. I definitely think these guys are researchers/couriers with major connections moving across the landscape on a constant basis, probably running along differenty routes to the cargo cult already identified. I'm still not sure if they were truly soft core group or if they were government plants.

This moving around would facilitate posting correspondance from all over the US, allowing the group to never use the same address twice, appearing ubiquitous and without an operational centre. This is an organisation structured according to donut law. perhaps they themselves extend around the circumference of the planet and Searly could be anywhere. This is a classic obfuscationist technique, favoured by RC Christian as we have already seen.

One more thing: Dan Stairs. His name sounds so similar to 'downstairs'; it makes me think of basements. I think he could be a good lead. I shall investigate his presence in the Ohio region; preliminary enquiries show he has been spotted in the East Cleveland area.

Timeline

Timeline has now been produced, ranging from formation of the earth through the pre-cambrian, the cambrian, the pleistocene, the age of atlantis, into the dawning of the age of aquarius, to current modern times, taking in the construction of the water-weathered sphinx and the great pyramids, calanais and stonehenge, the guidestones, and the assumed beginning of construction of soft Michigan. Also taking in Ronald Searly’s poetry competition and the often forgotten ‘bin-fire’ incident, of 1982, at which the probably teenage Searly claimed no involvement in said bin-fire. An incident in which I have great interest.

The main new lead I have from laying out known knowns upon an axis of time, is as follows:
In the mid nineties, a Canadian Religious Studies student went from North America to the UK, and there left a map of the great lakes seemingly questioning the location of ‘Keegan and Rosta’ (Regan and Costa). Previously we had surmised that this implied a disappearance of Regan and Costa at that time (in advance of the main soft core disappearance around 2005).

However, it was not until 2004 that material was released by Broken Social Scene, which we know to have been penned by Costa. Three theories could explain this. Either, Costa disappeared in the 90’s, but her material was in the hands of the Toronto music scene before then, later being released by BSS, or Costa disappeared in the 90’s but nonetheless disseminated material to BSS after her disappearance, OR Costa did not ‘disappear’ in the nineties at all. On this third theory, which I favour, the following scenario is possible:

The Canadian RS student, possibly already acquainted with Costa (and Regan) directly or indirectly, is seeking out Costa and Regan, in the UK. She travels there specifically to find them. Whether she succeeds or not is unclear. Costa, possibly with Regan, possibly also with the Canadian RS student, returns to Michigan, and is involved in ensuing road trip activity as part of the beginnings of the soft Michigan project. Costa is also involved with the Toronto music scene directly or indirectly, in years/months directly leading up to the 2004 release of her material by BSS. It is then not until 2005 that Costa becomes untraceable, either from retreating into Soft Michigan, or else from going ‘underground’ to evade various groups, eg. military Project 31 operatives.

I must however check dates suggested by recent Boston contacts including Zac Happy. Did anybody disappear in the 90’s? Melody? When did Zac say the travelling mix-tape couple stopped coming by? When did he say the road trip activity began?

Who disappeared?

What is concerning me as much as the geographics of the case is its timeline. Who disappeared in the late '90s, and why; who disappeared in 2005 and why? If Melody Nelson disappeared in 2005 and now seems to now be getting active again, is this a sign that the cargo cult is back in operation, and will the other 'disappeared' of 2005 now resurface?

Saint Kilda

My feeling is that ‘Melody Nelson’ and at least some others from the soft core are still out there, in hiding from some, but active and at large. It is a coincidence (or rather, perhaps it is no coincidence) that one of the other parties we have traced as being at large since 2005 is Melinda Packett / Melissa Parrish. I don’t know what to make of the Melody / Melanie / Melinda Doll – perhaps many members of the group are at large using these common aliases. Perhaps not. I would agree with your supposition that the cargo cult is once again active. I have a feeling that Sad Sack, the European stranger I guessed to be Belgian, is a dream spirit named Serge Brel, or possibly Jaques Gainsbourg, who has got in touch with me to aid his own longstanding search for Melody. I had previously suspected Sad Sack of being female, but either I was wrong, am wrong, or else Sad Sack is multi-gender or gender-changing. Or perhaps the spirit of Serge/Jacques takes the form of his image of Melody.

My French is better in dreams than in waking life, so I shall quiz him/her further soon. Last night I became lost in an area of forestry commission pine plantation as darkness fell. I found a network of bumpy tracks used by forestry vehicles and followed. Eventually I came out to a visitor’s centre building where some kind of seminar was in progress. I believe semiologically this was Kielder Forest – or Kilda, by its northern spelling – the visitor’s centre was the mysterious lodge in the enclave of St. Kilda. I may return there tonight.

Melodic Development

Deep insights abound via the investigator's poise. I had never considered that Searly may have had the hands of a government man (either his own hands, or those of a government man placed upon him for 'steering'). I have been working under the assumption that he was involved as an outsider - one of the remnant folk, a pro-softness man. Your shedding of light via anglepoise now means I must question the whole case from a new perspective. Reassess.

Was Searly really a fully signed up government operative? Hard to believe. Maybe he was posing as one and got found out. Was he a soft-core member who got fingered by the law and 'agreed' to 'help' them in order to save his own skin, yet was really relaying his inside knowledge back to his fringe group of fabric-ators? Or was he really a military man posing as someone from a much more flowery subculture in order to infiltrate the soft Michigan core? Could a military man really pass himself off in such a manner? Do the authorities employ 'soft' guys?

If Searly is indeed tied to the Buick wreck as you describe, that would mean he very likely had dealings with 'Pinsk' or could even possibly be him. I could head there from Boston if any leads surface in the next 18 hrs.

Anyway, while you have been shining tungsten light on such matters, I have been bathing in glow of the halogen bulbs in the film dept of Boston Uni. Had to change my cover (no way could I pull off being a documentarian when surrounded by film/media lecturers and technicians. I am once again playing dentist, looking for my fiance, 'Melody', who has ran out on me with the kids - 'I must find her; for the kids' safety' I told the film guys - no-one questions a kid in danger. A couple of the technicians remember how a girl slightly older than typical students used to use the editing facilities occasionally, booking out the edit suite once a term under the name 'Melody Nelson'.

Told the film guys that she was my girl - tell me all you know, has she been here recently? Apparently not - she hasn't been seen on campus since summer 2005. The tie-in with the disappearances of other members of Project 31 is beyond co-incidence. I ask what kind of films she used to edit (to help me figure what she may be involved in and get an idea for 'what danger my children may be in') and am told that they were 'road movies of some description... super-8 footage of the Northeastern landscape receding from the rear windshield of an automobile... car full of young hip-kids... soft fabrics... home knits... Canadian border crossings... picnics... acoustic guitars... quilting'. On a hunch, I show the techies the CCTV still of the 50's girl at the library, telling them it is the most recent picture I have of her, and is the evidence which led me to Boston - was this 'Melody Nelson', I ask. 'Damn straight' comes the reply, 'those old clothes are a dead giveaway - she only ever wore natural fabrics'.

So, we have a positive ID, but no current whereabouts or idea of recent activity, though we can now connect her to Searly via the library card.

In Reply

I never trust a dentist. Never. But that’s just me. I might trust you if you were a dentist – like I would maybe trust a 19 yr old T-shirted Californian smelling of reefer to inspect my teeth with sharp objects over the usual business-suit power-trip zombie tooth doctor who x-rays children’s brains and fills their gums with mercury to pay towards his holiday villa in Spain. Fuckers…I can’t find it easy to think that these people will BELIEVE you to be a dentist. But maybe your disguise is good. Adding 10 years of wristwatch wearing classic FM squareness and subtracting 30 years of true knowledge. In which case you are truly THE master of disguise.I assume nothing was learnt from Sally about the disappearance of Melody Nelson and the involvement in this of the Cargo Cult? Have you been down to the university campus for clues? The film and media department could be worth a try. Tell the professors you want to talk about the Wizard of Oz. Say you’re looking for ‘Dorothy’.

A Query

Are Randy and Ryan the same man? I wonder about the lineage of Ms. Gainsbourg. The mysterious ‘Cargo Cult’ involved in the disappearance of a Ms. Melody Nelson, as reported to us by a Mr. Gainsbourg, may be of relevance to the case. Did you pack a wah-wah pedal?

And remember, while sitting in car with scotch sleeping – ‘watch out for the polis!’ I was busted three times in one night once, while parked up trying to sleep with a bottle of beer. Guilty until proven innocent.