Questions from Boston

Okay, my last full day in Boston and I feel like a stranger in a strange land. I think I need to ask some questions to get my orientation again, so let's see...

It seems likely, based on Happy's recollections, that Cate and Grant were two of the main protagonists when it came to the expansion and recruitment drive for Project 31. They were running things across the campuses of North America - tapes, for sure, but most likely people and fabrics too. Costa's songs are known to have appeared on the tapes, so there would seem to be some link between Grant/Cate and Costa. As one of our investigators so perceptively asked - is Cate Costa?

Also, are the instructions presented on the tapes Coasta's own, or is she relaying messages from a more central figure? Kosyra, perhaps, or Regan, or Searly, even. Perhaps the instructions are coming from 'Mr. Crafts', whoever that maybe (likely one of the 3 suspects just mentioned). Or is Grant 'Mr. Crafts' - we know so little about him beyond a connection with Cate and witness statements aligning him with the tape distribution?

Other thoughts - did Kosyra fund/design the guidestone projects? We know he was 'disgustingly rich' and that he works in construction (or runs a front company marketed as being in the industry); was 'R.C. Christian' his public go-between? Could be Regan? Could be Searly?

I wonder now about the mid-nineties disappearance of Regan and Costa, as proposed by the map found by the candian religious studies student when studying in England - where did they go and what were they doing all this time? Is their disappearance in any way related to the later mass-disappearance of all recognised members of the Soft Michigan core group? Which, in turn, makes me wonder about the couple caught on CCTV using Searly's library card - according to Happy, they would seem to have some historical involvement with the Project 31 (having been spotted on campus with infrequent regularity until the disappearances), yet are not recognised as being Cate and Grant. Who are they?

Other questions - how does Sad Sack tie into all of this, and what is the significance of the missing mixtape 'At The Haberdasher's Request'?I shall try to make a breakthrough before leaving Boston. The heat goes on...

All American Smile

I've just driven round an early evening Boston, having listened to the mixtape twice as the sun came down. Great sunset - from an intense orange to an intense purple, it was like a colourshifted aurora borealis. Anyway, I digress; first the tracklisting, then the theories...

"All American Smile"

Side 1
1. Start at the seam
2. Ode to a lost cardigan
3. Cablestitch
4. Poet's Shirt
5. Waving, Not Drowning
6. Soak That Rag
7. Rode Trips
8. Loose as a Moose (Woddy Allen skit)
9. Melissa and me
10. Knit it, don't quit it!
11. Double Back
12. Cottonpickin' blues

Side 2
1. Tape-stry
2. Breakfast Song
3. Scarf-Ace
4. A friend in tweed is a friend indeed
5. Soft on the outside, hard on the inside
6. The needles and the damage done (with added 3rd verse)
7. Come in no. 31, your time is up.
8. Why I Ran
9. Luminous Fibres (extended)

Now the theory: All the songs on the tape are home recording, very much in the vein of the previous tape we acquired knowledge of. Most of the songs feature vocalised lyrics, mainly female voice, but occasionally male (particularly backing vox) which seem to be giving some kind of instructions.

At first listen they seem to be based around knitting patterns, but the instructions don't seem to relate purely to knitting as I know it, rather, they seem to allude to something grander, of which knitting is only a part of. It's hard to tell - the home-quality recording makes for a muffled listen, something only compounded by the age and condition of the tape.

Side 2 has untitled interludes between most tracks, which seem to be spoken word poems with unrelated lines in alternate French and English; for example:

vous vous asseyez à la table
i am not going to worry...about a thing.
il y a un restaurant minuscule
but so worth it.

It sounds to me as if a French/Canadian man is saying the English parts and an English/American girl is saying the French parts. My knowledge of French is limited, so it is hard for me to draw conclusions until I have had an interpreter review the tape. My theory of the tape(s) is thus: These mixtapes appear as innocent compilations made for a niche group of people of limited import or interest; but it is my belief that their intended purpose was to provide disguised instructions only decipherable by a select group of people who were familiar with the key to break the code.

This would provide a great way to send sensitive information across the country(ies) without it being detected. Even if discovered in transit, the authorities would most likely assume the tapes to be wholly innocent and of no special interest. Which college kid hasn't spent evenings sat with finger hovering over the pause button of his stereo, curating and creating a private 90-minute megamix of favourites to pass among friends. Nobody, upon finding such an item, would be likely to suspect that it may be of greater importance.

So, I am picturing a core group of people recruiting peopleacross college campuses, nationally, then disseminating instructions to said recruits via a series of mixtapes delivered to campuses at regular intervals. This would explain the box of tapes 'Cate' was inposession of when Zac Happy made his amorous approach. At this time, I have no further thoughts, but realise I have forgotten to mention one thing of note - the innerside of the mixtape's inlay card spine bears the inscription 'compiled by Mr. Crafts'. Surely this is something of great interest to us. Who was Mr. Crafts? Is this a name used for Searly, or is it someone else? Kozyra?