Addendum to case notes

Why do you think De Leon and Vandeloo headed South straight after their research trip to Nova Scotia? It is obvious now. After investigating the flotilla project in the Nova Scotia boating scene they made straight for the ‘long float’ material source – Mexican chinchilla.

Nota bene, coming tour dates for BSS:
3 Jul 2009 / Rothbury Festival / Rothbury, Michigan
4 Jul 2009 / 80/35 Festival / Des Moines, Iowa
11 Jul 2009 / Harbourfront Centre / Toronto, Ontario
26 Jul 2009 / Wanderlust Festival / Lake Tahoe, California

This is no coincidence. Within a month they travel from Michigan to Toronto to Lake Tahoe itself, California. The roadsters are returning home…We must act fast.

Rain Curtain

Absolutely.

The ‘west-side’ style W-sign as taught by Evan/Ethan (the guy to the left of frame I assume) is inherently important to the case. The northern states have that looming proximity to ‘otherness’ lacked by the more central localities. While the southern states; texas, NM, Ca, have a sunny Mexican other pervading their psyche, the boundary fringe to the north is saturated by something altogether more mysterious – the encroaching rain-curtain of the North – the mist, the winter darkness, the blue-grey sky over the wheatfields that comes along in September like something out of Van Gogh – You can read it in the faces of those northern border-watchers. Like they can hear the static of the rain and know that if they wanted to they could tune right into it…

Why Croatia? Was Evan/Ethan just travelling through, or there for some reason? Was he an important figure, or just a neutral carrier of Wisconsin information for you? The festival circuit would be a good place to recruit strangers for some cause. Just as the circus scene was (/is?) a haven for runaways, fugitives, and those seeking cheap travel and adventure, so the festival circuit is a means for the same old longhaired guys you might see loitering on the dodgem boards to travel discretely and undetected from town to town, country to country, selling falafels and day-glo jester’s hats to teenagers, or screwing together highhats and setting up mic stands. Was Ethan part of this scene? Why was he alone?

In Reply

SAFELIGHT'S suppositions would appear to be sound. This would follow the supposed straining of the UK-US intelligence relationship under the republican administration, and the ‘woolgate’ affair may have exacerbated this strain through further years. It points towards wool entering the realm of ‘power’ currency alongside oil and technology. Currently, the South Americas, politically dominated by the leftist governments of Venezuela and others, but with Mexico (central America) currently leaning more towards the capitalist western model, have a stronghold on the wool market, with the llama and sheep wool-unit being strong against its counterpart in the US. The nationalisation by SA governments of woolstocks, away from the control of US-dominated wool giants backed by the IMF, has further strengthened the hand of the leftist South Americans. Money was injected into the acrylic and polyester industries and polycotton-recycling technology in the US. Much of the actual labour was outsourced to the far east, with stocks of acrylic-mix wool returning by tanker. A plan to ship the product as helium-filled ‘clouds’, which would reach the US by trade winds, has reportedly been drawn up. (Anonymous source.)
However, real 100% wool, in particular merino, will dominate. As military insiders have reported ‘it’s just soooo much softer’…

In Reply

Good sleuthing from ms Kingsbury P.I. BA Phil.
The big fish is indeed in the water.

I note the mention of a certain Jack Vandeloo of Ottawa, and a Jose de Leon, both also ketch ‘enthusiasts’ who many investigators considered likely to be involved in the notorious quota fraud around the Halifax, Novia Scotia bay area in the early 1990’s. The same faces came up again several years later in the Baton Rouge area, after an interim period without any trace as to their whereabouts or activities. In Florida, they were suspected (but later released without charge) in the case of the poaching of young crocodiles to supply private zoos in Mexico. A certain Mr ‘Vermott’ was later to be charged and then convicted of a lesser charge associated with this same crime.

It is unknown whether Vermott was an associate of the other two, or if he was framed by them or others, or whether Vandeloo and de Leon were wholly innocent of the Florida accusations. Vermott was released early and subsequently has been untraced. An ex-work colleague from the Manatee Boat Supplies Company claim he had ‘always talked of visiting Mexico’. Vermott has no known associations with R Searley/Surley/Searly, however a Pasadena phone directory belonging to a James Long was found close to the wreckage of a Buick stationwagon in Maine. In this directory, the name of an R Searle is circled in blue ink with the word Vermouth under it followed by a question mark. Theories have been made that Vermott was an alias, however my contacts feel a more likely explanation is that Vermott used Searle as an alias, intending to pose as Searly, but based on incomplete or incorrect personal information. This supports the theory that both existed and did not know each other directly. Whether foul play can be suspected in the Buick incident, and whether this was conducted by Vermott to silence Long, is unknown.