23 July 2006
First, he explains why he was in kindergarten for three years. First year, too young. Second year, just right. Third year, Rheumatic Fever, hospital, and missing so much school that he couldn’t catch up with his classmates, so he kept going to kindergarten.
But that year he learned to read. He loved books. He read every story in the kindergarten classroom and was way ahead of the level of his peers. Until the day that he found a book in which the last few pages had been torn out in a rage by a much younger classmate. Dag was furious that he couldn’t read the last page of the book. But then his mother explained to him that all he had to do was imagine the ending of the story. He could make it any way he wanted. Did he want a happy ending? A sad ending? He could make up multiple endings if he wanted to, and no story ever needed to have an ending that wasn’t happy if he wanted it to be happy.
It took Dag a few years to get it fully engrained, but eventually he got in the habit of not reading the last chapter of any book. Instead he would make up the ending that suited him.
Dag reviews the main events of the story. His ex-wife hires him to find her husband, his former best friend. He finds the former friend by way of the friend’s current mistress, who’s boyfriend knocks Dag unconscious. Dag’s office is ransacked by the former friend’s business partner, who happens also to be the ex-wife’s lover. Dag discovers that the former friend has been laundering money for an unknown client operating through a shady syndicate of thugs that tries to kill him by shoving him in the Chicago River. When he catches up with the former friend, he discovers that the friend has embezzled millions from the unnamed client and is in the process of giving it all to charity. Dag enters into the scheme but before he can follow through the former friend is murdered. Dag checks into a hospital to await a heart transplant, but is called by the thugs who have kidnapped Dag’s partner, Riley, and are holding her for ransom of the laptop that belonged to the former best friend. Dag discovers that the ex-wife’s lover is in on the kidnapping and breaks through a window knocking the lover over. In the process, the lover’s gun discharges and he is critically wounded. Dag flees with Riley, but the thugs are closing in on him when a friend from the FBI shows up with help. Dag ends up back in the hospital, but sacrifices his position in line for a heart-transplant so that a kid can have the heart, which happens to be donated by the lover. In the aftermath, Dag distributes all the former friend’s assets to the ex-wife, the mistress, and a number of charities, but never finds out who killed the former friend or who the mystery client is. Dag has sent Riley to find a possible key to the mystery in the form of a hexadecimal code tattooed to the wrist of the lover.
But now Dag is really tired. He really wants to solve this mystery. In fact, however, he is too tired just now to keep narrating, so he asks the readers to imagine their own “happy ending,” as he is imagining his.
End Chapter Thirty
End Book
But that year he learned to read. He loved books. He read every story in the kindergarten classroom and was way ahead of the level of his peers. Until the day that he found a book in which the last few pages had been torn out in a rage by a much younger classmate. Dag was furious that he couldn’t read the last page of the book. But then his mother explained to him that all he had to do was imagine the ending of the story. He could make it any way he wanted. Did he want a happy ending? A sad ending? He could make up multiple endings if he wanted to, and no story ever needed to have an ending that wasn’t happy if he wanted it to be happy.
It took Dag a few years to get it fully engrained, but eventually he got in the habit of not reading the last chapter of any book. Instead he would make up the ending that suited him.
Dag reviews the main events of the story. His ex-wife hires him to find her husband, his former best friend. He finds the former friend by way of the friend’s current mistress, who’s boyfriend knocks Dag unconscious. Dag’s office is ransacked by the former friend’s business partner, who happens also to be the ex-wife’s lover. Dag discovers that the former friend has been laundering money for an unknown client operating through a shady syndicate of thugs that tries to kill him by shoving him in the Chicago River. When he catches up with the former friend, he discovers that the friend has embezzled millions from the unnamed client and is in the process of giving it all to charity. Dag enters into the scheme but before he can follow through the former friend is murdered. Dag checks into a hospital to await a heart transplant, but is called by the thugs who have kidnapped Dag’s partner, Riley, and are holding her for ransom of the laptop that belonged to the former best friend. Dag discovers that the ex-wife’s lover is in on the kidnapping and breaks through a window knocking the lover over. In the process, the lover’s gun discharges and he is critically wounded. Dag flees with Riley, but the thugs are closing in on him when a friend from the FBI shows up with help. Dag ends up back in the hospital, but sacrifices his position in line for a heart-transplant so that a kid can have the heart, which happens to be donated by the lover. In the aftermath, Dag distributes all the former friend’s assets to the ex-wife, the mistress, and a number of charities, but never finds out who killed the former friend or who the mystery client is. Dag has sent Riley to find a possible key to the mystery in the form of a hexadecimal code tattooed to the wrist of the lover.
But now Dag is really tired. He really wants to solve this mystery. In fact, however, he is too tired just now to keep narrating, so he asks the readers to imagine their own “happy ending,” as he is imagining his.
End Chapter Thirty
End Book
Dag wakes up with tubes in his nose and a weight on his chest. He discovers that the weight is Riley curled up on the bed beside him. He watches her for a long time, then transfers all his biometric codes to her. When Riley wakes up, she tells Dag that he had a pretty bad night and she was afraid she was going to lose him. She isn’t going to say goodbye to him.
Dag tells her that he needs a pair of legs, and she offers hers to him in several ways. Ultimately he tells Riley that there was a hexadecimal code tattooed on Simon’s wrist and that Angel had one, too. Dag believes that they are part of a code that will unlock more of the mystery of who the unknown source of funds was. That might in turn lead to Simon’s murderer. But he believes the code is incomplete. She needs to check Bradley’s corpse to determine if he has a piece of the code as well. Then she would need to feed it into Simon’s computer correctly and track down the real money and the criminal mind behind it all.
Finally, Dag gives Riley his little computer and tells her that she’ll find that she is administrator enabled. The job is up to her to complete. He gives Riley the command that will get her into his server and tells her where the codes for the vault are to be found. Then he sends her out to do the work.
When Riley is gone, Dag sees the kid. It has now been three days since her transplant and she is up and moving. She stops to see Dag and tells him she was afraid he was dead. He tells her that she doesn’t need to worry. All stories have a happy ending. If she ever needs anything, look up DH Investigations, and she’ll be taken care of. The mother thanks him as well and they leave.
End Chapter Twenty-Nine
Dag tells her that he needs a pair of legs, and she offers hers to him in several ways. Ultimately he tells Riley that there was a hexadecimal code tattooed on Simon’s wrist and that Angel had one, too. Dag believes that they are part of a code that will unlock more of the mystery of who the unknown source of funds was. That might in turn lead to Simon’s murderer. But he believes the code is incomplete. She needs to check Bradley’s corpse to determine if he has a piece of the code as well. Then she would need to feed it into Simon’s computer correctly and track down the real money and the criminal mind behind it all.
Finally, Dag gives Riley his little computer and tells her that she’ll find that she is administrator enabled. The job is up to her to complete. He gives Riley the command that will get her into his server and tells her where the codes for the vault are to be found. Then he sends her out to do the work.
When Riley is gone, Dag sees the kid. It has now been three days since her transplant and she is up and moving. She stops to see Dag and tells him she was afraid he was dead. He tells her that she doesn’t need to worry. All stories have a happy ending. If she ever needs anything, look up DH Investigations, and she’ll be taken care of. The mother thanks him as well and they leave.
End Chapter Twenty-Nine
Angel visits Dag in the hospital to see what the results are of his funds distribution. When Dag tells her all the funds have been distributed, she asks to see the list. She checks it and is unhappy that a particular charity that was a favorite of Simon’s was not on the list. Dag reveals that he knows that the specific charity that she is referring to was a front and that money contributed to it would, in fact, go to Simon for future expenses. Angel breaks down and says that it was hers. Simon promised her he’d take care of her.
Dag tells her that he transferred title of the house in Croatia to her, and that she would find one million dollars in a Swiss Bank account for her, the amount that Simon had indicated he was keeping "to live on." In order to get access to anything, however, she will have to expatriate as she would have to deal with the IRS if she brought anything into this country. Dag assures her that she is on a watch list with the FBI and they would have her if she ever moved back to the US or brought money into the country. But before he gives her the account numbers, Dag wants to know more about Angel. He drags out of her that she has a boyfriend (waiting in the hall) and that Simon was no more than a bank account to her.
She insists that she allied herself with Simon because of his high goals. Dag wants to know if her boyfriend killed Simon. Angel just replies that Simon was old. He was going to die soon anyway. Before Angel leaves, Dag spots the tattoo that matches the one Simon had. He manages surreptitiously to memorize the Hexadecimal number. When Angel leaves, Dag's FBI agent friend steps into the room and congratulates Dag on distributing the funds, but is disappointed that two critical pieces are still missing from the puzzle. First, they don’t yet have Simon’s murderer. Second, they don’t know what the source of the funds was. All Simon’s business seems to have been legitimate except that he embezzled money from the source. But the source isn’t stepping forward to file charges, so there is no crime. He’s pretty disgusted that Dag failed to get a confession or locate the source.
End of Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dag tells her that he transferred title of the house in Croatia to her, and that she would find one million dollars in a Swiss Bank account for her, the amount that Simon had indicated he was keeping "to live on." In order to get access to anything, however, she will have to expatriate as she would have to deal with the IRS if she brought anything into this country. Dag assures her that she is on a watch list with the FBI and they would have her if she ever moved back to the US or brought money into the country. But before he gives her the account numbers, Dag wants to know more about Angel. He drags out of her that she has a boyfriend (waiting in the hall) and that Simon was no more than a bank account to her.
She insists that she allied herself with Simon because of his high goals. Dag wants to know if her boyfriend killed Simon. Angel just replies that Simon was old. He was going to die soon anyway. Before Angel leaves, Dag spots the tattoo that matches the one Simon had. He manages surreptitiously to memorize the Hexadecimal number. When Angel leaves, Dag's FBI agent friend steps into the room and congratulates Dag on distributing the funds, but is disappointed that two critical pieces are still missing from the puzzle. First, they don’t yet have Simon’s murderer. Second, they don’t know what the source of the funds was. All Simon’s business seems to have been legitimate except that he embezzled money from the source. But the source isn’t stepping forward to file charges, so there is no crime. He’s pretty disgusted that Dag failed to get a confession or locate the source.
End of Chapter Twenty-Eight
Brenda visits Dag in the hospital at his request. She is wearing black and Dag asks if it is for Simon or Bradley. He confronts her with the fact that she’s been sleeping with Bradley, which she doesn’t deny. Dag asks her how it feels to be rid of two emotional entanglements in a week. She responds that she is going for a hat-trick.
Dag explains the distribution of Simon’s estate and Brenda throws a fit. She knows there was more. Dag calmly tells her that when he caught up with Simon, he had been giving away all the funds he’d stolen. Apparently he had succeeded before he died because by the time Dag got the keys to the accounts they were all empty.
Before she leaves, Dag asks her point-blank if she killed Simon. He recites the time-tables of her plane in and out of Minneapolis to meet Bradley. She tells Dag that they were married over 25 years. She loved him to death. Then she stalks out, turning at the door to warn Dag that she is going to get what is hers, even if he has to pay her.
When she leaves, the FBI guy steps out of Dag’s closet and they talk. There is not enough evidence to pin anything on Brenda and Dag failed to elicit a confession. The agent wants to know if the accounts are really empty. Dag tells him that all but one are and gives him the key to it so he can monitor Brenda’s activity. The agent thanks him and they part.
End Chapter Twenty-Seven
Dag explains the distribution of Simon’s estate and Brenda throws a fit. She knows there was more. Dag calmly tells her that when he caught up with Simon, he had been giving away all the funds he’d stolen. Apparently he had succeeded before he died because by the time Dag got the keys to the accounts they were all empty.
Before she leaves, Dag asks her point-blank if she killed Simon. He recites the time-tables of her plane in and out of Minneapolis to meet Bradley. She tells Dag that they were married over 25 years. She loved him to death. Then she stalks out, turning at the door to warn Dag that she is going to get what is hers, even if he has to pay her.
When she leaves, the FBI guy steps out of Dag’s closet and they talk. There is not enough evidence to pin anything on Brenda and Dag failed to elicit a confession. The agent wants to know if the accounts are really empty. Dag tells him that all but one are and gives him the key to it so he can monitor Brenda’s activity. The agent thanks him and they part.
End Chapter Twenty-Seven
19 July 2006
In the hospital, Dag is working on his computer and pulls up the hospital data list for heart transplants and discovers that he is next in line. He also looks up the record of Billie the kid and sees that she is next, but is failing fast. He edits the list and bumps her up ahead of him. When the doctor arrives to tell Dag that a heart donor has just been located and that they will be in to prep him shortly, Dag confides to the doctor that he is not next in line. The doctor says that Dag might not make it until the next one was available, but Dag says he’ll have to take his chances. The doctor agrees to take the little girl first. Dag sees her trundled past on her way to the operating room.
The FBI agent comes in to brief Dag on how the action went down after Dag passed out. It turns out that after 30 hours of attempting to save him, Bradley died from the gunshot wound when Dag broke through the window. The heart going into the kid is coming from Bradley.
Dag tries to pry out of the agent what the result was for the murder of Simon. He says they’ve booked the two guys from Chicago on it, but he is doubtful if it will hold. They are still no closer than they were at the start to finding out who the guy is behind the original money laundering. Dag asks about Brenda and Angel, but the agent says they both seem to be telling the truth and if Dag can’t come up with anything better they’d just go back to waiting patiently for something to break.
Riley brings Dag Thanksgiving Dinner. They discuss the next steps in Dag’s investigation. He tells Riley that he wants to see Brenda the next day, and even though Riley bristles at it, she agrees to get her into the hospital.
End Chapter Twenty-six
The FBI agent comes in to brief Dag on how the action went down after Dag passed out. It turns out that after 30 hours of attempting to save him, Bradley died from the gunshot wound when Dag broke through the window. The heart going into the kid is coming from Bradley.
Dag tries to pry out of the agent what the result was for the murder of Simon. He says they’ve booked the two guys from Chicago on it, but he is doubtful if it will hold. They are still no closer than they were at the start to finding out who the guy is behind the original money laundering. Dag asks about Brenda and Angel, but the agent says they both seem to be telling the truth and if Dag can’t come up with anything better they’d just go back to waiting patiently for something to break.
Riley brings Dag Thanksgiving Dinner. They discuss the next steps in Dag’s investigation. He tells Riley that he wants to see Brenda the next day, and even though Riley bristles at it, she agrees to get her into the hospital.
End Chapter Twenty-six
Dag reminisces about his first love. It was never consummated. It was a sweet and innocent love that was highly charged with sexual hormones, but never crossed the line of sexual activity. He talks of the first touch. Holding hands. Dreaming dreams. And of how he knew that once he made love to his girlfriend it would never be the same again. He knew that he would never be in love like that again.
Then there was Riley. Their relationship had all the same hallmarks of being sexually charged, but unconsummated. And he knew that he had a second opportunity in his life to experience a love like Paula’s. He talks about what being with Riley has meant to him since she first met him. Ultimately, he tells why he never acted on the suggestions, or made a pass at her. It all goes back to telling her she was safe with him and how finding her in danger had caused everything inside him to rebel against the situation and protect her.
End chapter twenty-five
Then there was Riley. Their relationship had all the same hallmarks of being sexually charged, but unconsummated. And he knew that he had a second opportunity in his life to experience a love like Paula’s. He talks about what being with Riley has meant to him since she first met him. Ultimately, he tells why he never acted on the suggestions, or made a pass at her. It all goes back to telling her she was safe with him and how finding her in danger had caused everything inside him to rebel against the situation and protect her.
End chapter twenty-five
After trying to reach his FBI contact, Dag leaves a message and decides to go in. He starts by going back to his office and pulling the blinds down. Then he uses a peep hole to train his new telescope on the building he located earlier. He sees clearly that there is a telescope trained down on him, and that it appears to be Smiesen’s crew that are working it. He watches for any sign of Riley, but from this angle he can’t really see in unless they are at the window. After watching for a long time, he sees Bradley come to the window. That’s when he calls the FBI. He is told that the agent is in the air from Chicago to Minneapolis.
Dag moves to a new vantage point as he is waiting for the call on his cell phone. He goes to the top of the building that they are in and sets his ropes to come off the rooftop to the window he has identified. Once he has established a view into the window, he sees that Riley is tied to a chair and that there is an argument underway. Using surveillance devices that he has, he attaches a bug to the window and listens as Bradley tells the gangsters that they have to kill Riley, too, because she can identify him. Dag is desperate to rescue her. The gang members leave Bradley with a gun to guard Riley and go out to make the exchange with Dag. Bradley makes the call to arrange the switch. He goes to the telescope to watch Dag’s window while he calls him and just out of sight Dag talks to him, then comes crashing in through the window.
The impact knocks Bradley back and the gun discharges. He falls to the floor and Dag unties Riley and rushes from the room. They reach the street and see the gang members running toward the building. Dag and Riley run up the hill into town, with Dag gasping for breath. They are nearly caught when the FBI agent steps out and jumps the bad guys. Dag collapses and Riley catches him.
End Chapter Twenty-four
Dag moves to a new vantage point as he is waiting for the call on his cell phone. He goes to the top of the building that they are in and sets his ropes to come off the rooftop to the window he has identified. Once he has established a view into the window, he sees that Riley is tied to a chair and that there is an argument underway. Using surveillance devices that he has, he attaches a bug to the window and listens as Bradley tells the gangsters that they have to kill Riley, too, because she can identify him. Dag is desperate to rescue her. The gang members leave Bradley with a gun to guard Riley and go out to make the exchange with Dag. Bradley makes the call to arrange the switch. He goes to the telescope to watch Dag’s window while he calls him and just out of sight Dag talks to him, then comes crashing in through the window.
The impact knocks Bradley back and the gun discharges. He falls to the floor and Dag unties Riley and rushes from the room. They reach the street and see the gang members running toward the building. Dag and Riley run up the hill into town, with Dag gasping for breath. They are nearly caught when the FBI agent steps out and jumps the bad guys. Dag collapses and Riley catches him.
End Chapter Twenty-four
Dag wakes up in the hospital when his cell phone rings. Riley is on the phone. She is calm but stressed. She tells him that she is being held hostage and that they want Simon’s laptop. A voice comes on the phone and tells Dag to get the computer and wait for further instructions. There will be an exchange made at midnight tonight. They tell him they willl be watching him. Dag tries to tell the guy that he’s in the hospital, but the phone goes dead.
Dag explains to his doctor that he has to go. The doctor makes it very clear to him that if he leaves the hospital, he will very possibly lose his postion in line for a heart transplant. He is at or near the top right now. Dag makes the decision to leave anyway. Something the kidnappers said about watching him doesn’t quite seem right. If they were watching him now, they would know he was in the hospital. He takes an evasive action and leaves the hospital, then instead of going to his office he grabs a pair of binoculars at Washinski’s and then heads for Pier 56 (where they played video gtames). He goes to the arcade and takes the stair to the roof of Pier 56. From here Dag starts triangulating possible places where someone could see into his office window on Pier 61. He realizes at the last minute that the place he’s chosen to stake out could have been one of the possible places.
Ultimately, however, Dag sees a movement in a window above the viaduct and realizes there is a telescope trained on his office. He weighs his options and decides to move in on this one himself. He goes back to Warshinski’s and buys some rope and climbing supplies. Then waits for dark.
End Chapter Twenty-three
Dag explains to his doctor that he has to go. The doctor makes it very clear to him that if he leaves the hospital, he will very possibly lose his postion in line for a heart transplant. He is at or near the top right now. Dag makes the decision to leave anyway. Something the kidnappers said about watching him doesn’t quite seem right. If they were watching him now, they would know he was in the hospital. He takes an evasive action and leaves the hospital, then instead of going to his office he grabs a pair of binoculars at Washinski’s and then heads for Pier 56 (where they played video gtames). He goes to the arcade and takes the stair to the roof of Pier 56. From here Dag starts triangulating possible places where someone could see into his office window on Pier 61. He realizes at the last minute that the place he’s chosen to stake out could have been one of the possible places.
Ultimately, however, Dag sees a movement in a window above the viaduct and realizes there is a telescope trained on his office. He weighs his options and decides to move in on this one himself. He goes back to Warshinski’s and buys some rope and climbing supplies. Then waits for dark.
End Chapter Twenty-three
Dag starts recording this day as if it is Saturday. He talks about getting up late, but feeling somewhat better than he did earlier. He decides to go down to the office and takes Maizie. He takes the key that Angel gave him and have a go at the laptop again. He also figures that he’d better make sure that he has everything set for executing Simon’s will.
Dag discovers that the encrypted files contain the bank accounts and access numbers for where Simon hid 30 million dollars and where he intended to distribute it. It appears he intended to leave Brenda only what he legitimately had in his accounts. Dag starts transferring funds to various charities and decides to sweeten Brenda’s share just enough that she won’t be encouraged to look any further for it. Then Dag hides all records of anything else that Simon might have stashed away, and transfers the house in Croatia and a substantial account to Angel. Dag feels he’s done a good day’s work when Riley calls and asks him what he’s doing in the office on Sunday.
Dag is stunned. He’s lost a day. He has spent the day thinking it was Saturday and realizes that he is getting worse. He checks his medications and discovers that he has taken the correct number of doses, but he can’t remember anything that happened on Saturday. Is there a missed Dr appointment here? That could trigger Dag’s awareness that things are getting bad and he’s really dying. Does the doctor hospitalize him right then?
End Chapter twenty-two
Dag discovers that the encrypted files contain the bank accounts and access numbers for where Simon hid 30 million dollars and where he intended to distribute it. It appears he intended to leave Brenda only what he legitimately had in his accounts. Dag starts transferring funds to various charities and decides to sweeten Brenda’s share just enough that she won’t be encouraged to look any further for it. Then Dag hides all records of anything else that Simon might have stashed away, and transfers the house in Croatia and a substantial account to Angel. Dag feels he’s done a good day’s work when Riley calls and asks him what he’s doing in the office on Sunday.
Dag is stunned. He’s lost a day. He has spent the day thinking it was Saturday and realizes that he is getting worse. He checks his medications and discovers that he has taken the correct number of doses, but he can’t remember anything that happened on Saturday. Is there a missed Dr appointment here? That could trigger Dag’s awareness that things are getting bad and he’s really dying. Does the doctor hospitalize him right then?
End Chapter twenty-two
10 July 2006
No entry will be made on this day. Dag will start talking Sunday as though it were Saturday.
End Chapter Twenty-One
End Chapter Twenty-One
Riley returns to the hospital and tells Dag that she has checked him out of the Hilton and that they have tickets back to Seattle that afternoon. Dag’s doctor wants to see him the minute he gets back to town.
Dag tries to tell her that he can’t go without trying to talk to Angel and Riley just tells him that she has also checked out and is gone. The doctor comes in and tells Dag that he’s releasing him into the care of his private nurse (glancing at Riley) and that if it were not for the agreement of his doctor in Seattle, he’d ship him down to the Mao Clinic for tests and possible transplant procedures. Dag says he’d much rather be home, but he is very slow getting up from bed. Riley helps dress him and they leave for the airport.
When they board the plane, Dag expects Riley to sit next to him, but she sits across the aisle. Then Angel boards the plane and sits next to Dag, much to his amazement. They have the trip back to Seattle to talk to each other and she tells Dag her theory that Smiesen caught up with Simon. When Dag asks her for the evidence, saying that he saw Angel with Simon heading for the witch’s hat. Angel says Simon sent her to a coffee shop while he finished some business before they left. She started to feel uncomfortable after about twenty minutes and went back to the tower. She didn’t know Simon had fallen from the tower, but went up the stairs. She found Dag passed out on the stairs and called 911. When they got there, they found Simon.
Dag suspects that Angel may have had something to do with the death of Simon and suggests that she got what she wanted from Simon and pushed him to his death. Dag reaches across to Angel’s neck and pulls Simon’s thumb drive out of her cleavage. Angel says Simon gave it to her because he was afraid that if anyone got hold of him they’d kill him for the drive, but she doesn’t really know what’s on it. To prove she’s okay, she gives Dag the drive.
Dag want’s to do some work on it right away, but when they land in Seattle, Riley is true to her word and takes him to Swedish Hospital to be checked out by his doctor. The doctor reluctantly lets Dag return home instead of admitting him, but warns him that he needs to lay low and that he needs to be on best behavior for the next available heart. On the way out of the hospital, Dag sees the kid who, when he didn’t show up for group was sure Dag had died and they wouldn’t tell her. He reassures her and goes home.
End Chapter Twenty
Dag tries to tell her that he can’t go without trying to talk to Angel and Riley just tells him that she has also checked out and is gone. The doctor comes in and tells Dag that he’s releasing him into the care of his private nurse (glancing at Riley) and that if it were not for the agreement of his doctor in Seattle, he’d ship him down to the Mao Clinic for tests and possible transplant procedures. Dag says he’d much rather be home, but he is very slow getting up from bed. Riley helps dress him and they leave for the airport.
When they board the plane, Dag expects Riley to sit next to him, but she sits across the aisle. Then Angel boards the plane and sits next to Dag, much to his amazement. They have the trip back to Seattle to talk to each other and she tells Dag her theory that Smiesen caught up with Simon. When Dag asks her for the evidence, saying that he saw Angel with Simon heading for the witch’s hat. Angel says Simon sent her to a coffee shop while he finished some business before they left. She started to feel uncomfortable after about twenty minutes and went back to the tower. She didn’t know Simon had fallen from the tower, but went up the stairs. She found Dag passed out on the stairs and called 911. When they got there, they found Simon.
Dag suspects that Angel may have had something to do with the death of Simon and suggests that she got what she wanted from Simon and pushed him to his death. Dag reaches across to Angel’s neck and pulls Simon’s thumb drive out of her cleavage. Angel says Simon gave it to her because he was afraid that if anyone got hold of him they’d kill him for the drive, but she doesn’t really know what’s on it. To prove she’s okay, she gives Dag the drive.
Dag want’s to do some work on it right away, but when they land in Seattle, Riley is true to her word and takes him to Swedish Hospital to be checked out by his doctor. The doctor reluctantly lets Dag return home instead of admitting him, but warns him that he needs to lay low and that he needs to be on best behavior for the next available heart. On the way out of the hospital, Dag sees the kid who, when he didn’t show up for group was sure Dag had died and they wouldn’t tell her. He reassures her and goes home.
End Chapter Twenty
Dag wakes up in a hospital and sees Riley in the chair opposite him playing with his computer. She looks at him and smiles a welcome greeting. She tells him what happened. Simon is dead. Dag begins to put together the pieces and surmises that Simon has somehow contrived to stage his own death and that he and Angel are long gone. Riley objects with the fact that the body is in the morgue. She finally reached Brenda this morning and she will be in Minneapolis tomorrow to identify the body and take it home. Dag asks where she is now and Riley says she is in Florida.
Dag needs Riley’s legs and sends her to the morgue to check the body herself. Specifically, Dag wants to know if there is a tattoo on the inside of Simon’s left arm and what it says. He also wants to know if there has been any sign of Angel. Then Dag goes back to sleep. He feels Riley pat his arm before she leaves.
The FBI agent shows up to talk to Dag and tells him that he’s suspected of murdering Simon. Dag explains that he never made it up there and that he suspects that it isn’t Simon that was killed. The agent poo-poos that thought, but tells Dag that he has pulled strings with the local authorities and has told them that Dag was trying to pursue Simon to prevent him from committing suicide, but had a heart attack on the way up. The absence of any evidence that Dag had made it to the top has caused the authorities to release Dag to the agent’s care, and he is telling Dag to go home and drop the case.
End Chapter Nineteen
Dag needs Riley’s legs and sends her to the morgue to check the body herself. Specifically, Dag wants to know if there is a tattoo on the inside of Simon’s left arm and what it says. He also wants to know if there has been any sign of Angel. Then Dag goes back to sleep. He feels Riley pat his arm before she leaves.
The FBI agent shows up to talk to Dag and tells him that he’s suspected of murdering Simon. Dag explains that he never made it up there and that he suspects that it isn’t Simon that was killed. The agent poo-poos that thought, but tells Dag that he has pulled strings with the local authorities and has told them that Dag was trying to pursue Simon to prevent him from committing suicide, but had a heart attack on the way up. The absence of any evidence that Dag had made it to the top has caused the authorities to release Dag to the agent’s care, and he is telling Dag to go home and drop the case.
End Chapter Nineteen
This is the chapter in which we discover that Brenda is Dag’s ex-wife, and Simon is his ex-best friend. They were all going to be partners and start a company together after they had paid their dues in the consulting industry. But Dag didn’t realize how close partners they had become. He had been married for two years and had just closed on his new house with Brenda when he found out she’d been having an affair with Simon from the beginning. He signed a quit-claim deed on the house and paid off the mortgage with a personal loan??? Or something. He has always referred to the event as the “great fire,” in which he lost everything, including his faith in marriage.
But we also find out that Brenda has always been able to manipulate Dag. So much so that the best thing he could do for himself was to walk out on the whole thing, his marriage, his two friends, and their big business plans. Instead, he joins a big consulting firm out east and becomes a top computer wiz in the accounting world, growing with the industry and understanding computers in a natural way that led him to the top in the IT department. That’s where he was when he decided to start his own business and came back to Seattle to become a computer forensics expert and investigator in the fledgling personal computer world. Then, when he least expected it, his one-time friends started coming back into his life, just at the time when it seemed he was losing it.
End Chapter Eighteen
But we also find out that Brenda has always been able to manipulate Dag. So much so that the best thing he could do for himself was to walk out on the whole thing, his marriage, his two friends, and their big business plans. Instead, he joins a big consulting firm out east and becomes a top computer wiz in the accounting world, growing with the industry and understanding computers in a natural way that led him to the top in the IT department. That’s where he was when he decided to start his own business and came back to Seattle to become a computer forensics expert and investigator in the fledgling personal computer world. Then, when he least expected it, his one-time friends started coming back into his life, just at the time when it seemed he was losing it.
End Chapter Eighteen
Dag rents a car and continues watching Simon and Angel. When he sees them leave the hotel with their bags packed and jump into their car, Dag’s suspicions are confirmed. He follows them dodging through traffic to the Witch’s Hat tower in Prospect Park. Angel and Simon park and head up the hill. Dag, much slower, is winded by the time he gets to the tower but finds no sign of either Angel or Simon when he gets there. The door to the tower, however, is ajar, in spite of the fact that the tower is closed year-round. It was a favorite make-out spot for daring college kids when they were there in the 70s. Dag can’t help but think of Brenda in this context.
He pushes into the tower and starts to climb. He hears voices high up above him. A woman and a man are arguing. Dag can’t tell if it is Angel or not. He imagines that Simon brought her here for a look at his youth before they take off. But the tone of the voices hurries him upward, counting the steps as he goes. Dag begins to gasp for air and recognizes that his heart is giving him problems. He reaches for a glycerin tablet and pushes it into his mouth as he hears a scream from above. He only gets a couple more steps up before he collapses on the stairs clutching his heart.
While he is lying there, realizing that he is dying, he hears footsteps coming down the stairs. He can’t bring the face into focus, but a woman is bending over him and kisses his lips. Then she is gone and Dag loses consciousness.
End Chapter Seventeen
He pushes into the tower and starts to climb. He hears voices high up above him. A woman and a man are arguing. Dag can’t tell if it is Angel or not. He imagines that Simon brought her here for a look at his youth before they take off. But the tone of the voices hurries him upward, counting the steps as he goes. Dag begins to gasp for air and recognizes that his heart is giving him problems. He reaches for a glycerin tablet and pushes it into his mouth as he hears a scream from above. He only gets a couple more steps up before he collapses on the stairs clutching his heart.
While he is lying there, realizing that he is dying, he hears footsteps coming down the stairs. He can’t bring the face into focus, but a woman is bending over him and kisses his lips. Then she is gone and Dag loses consciousness.
End Chapter Seventeen
Dag settles in to the same hotel in which he saw Simon pick up Angel at. Then tries to figure out what is going on. He decides to go down to breakfast and while there Simon and Angel come in to the café. Simon recognizes Dag immediately and decides on the direct approach, indicating that Brenda must have her hooks in Dag again. Then Simon proceeds to tell Dag why he fled and what he intends to do. He asks Dag to be a part of it.
Dag is not completely convinced, but Simon says he’ll lay the whole thing out on the table if Dag will take over the distribution of funds so Simon and Angel can escape to Croatia, where he has secretly purchased a retirement home. To affirm his intent and show how honest he is, Simon takes Dag to a lawyer and has him made executor of his estate and gives him his will. Then Simon winks at Dag and says, “Just in case I should die soon.”
Dag make calls to Riley, and Brenda. Then he meets Simon and Angel for dinner and he agrees tentatively to work on the distribution, but that it has to be done carefully. He doesn’t want Smiesen picking up any scent of what is going on. I want to make a twist in this whole thing somehow. There is a key element that at this point no one should know who is dealing what kind of a hand to whom. Dag has to be shown to remain suspicious of Simon’s timing, especially thinking that he might run out on him and/or leave him holding the bag with Smiesen.
End Chapter Sixteen
Dag is not completely convinced, but Simon says he’ll lay the whole thing out on the table if Dag will take over the distribution of funds so Simon and Angel can escape to Croatia, where he has secretly purchased a retirement home. To affirm his intent and show how honest he is, Simon takes Dag to a lawyer and has him made executor of his estate and gives him his will. Then Simon winks at Dag and says, “Just in case I should die soon.”
Dag make calls to Riley, and Brenda. Then he meets Simon and Angel for dinner and he agrees tentatively to work on the distribution, but that it has to be done carefully. He doesn’t want Smiesen picking up any scent of what is going on. I want to make a twist in this whole thing somehow. There is a key element that at this point no one should know who is dealing what kind of a hand to whom. Dag has to be shown to remain suspicious of Simon’s timing, especially thinking that he might run out on him and/or leave him holding the bag with Smiesen.
End Chapter Sixteen
08 July 2006
Here's my latest continued list from the spreadsheet on S&E questions and thoughts.
I'm sure there will be more later. Soon, more chapter synopsis.
- Something has to enable Dag to ethically dispose of the money that he discovers without returning it to the company it was taken from. I believe that this requires uncovering that Simon has been laundring money for a non-legitimate concern and has been skimming from it. I think that he might even have been in the process of disposing of it himself with Angel's help. This could introduce the criminal element that Dag is confronted with that results in one of (perhaps the last one of) his perilous conclusions.
- If we have Dag forced to give up Simon's computer, perhaps that would be part of what releases him from obligation to divulge the computer as evidence. His mirror of the harddrive cannot be admitted as evidence.
- If a computer forensics expert is asked by an enforcement agency to test a computer for one crime, say child pornography, and during the course of that he uncovers evidence of another crime, say tax evasion, is he obligated to provide that information to the agency? Is it even legal for him to provide it? What are the limits on a search warrant for computer data?
- Simon and Angel have matching or complimentary tatoos that put together form the key to another stash. What are the tatoos? A bank account number? Is there an extra password hidden in Simon's files?
- What is the process for waiting for a heart transplant? At what point would the doctors simply hospitalize Dag and keep him in bed? What medications is he on that he can't be without?
- How much can I do to conceal information on my laptop that someone with skill can/can't undo? If I erase all the files on a disk can I get them back? What about if I reformat the drive? What are the chances of recovering and breaking into an encrypted file? How do I recover a password? What other methods of protection could be used that can be broken?
- If I recover an erased disk, what are the chances that I could use the disk to access a network that it was formerly active on?
- Dag needs to take Riley to some event at a Swedish cultural thingy in Ballard sometime during the story. This is important as a setup for what Riley needs to do in the next book, but also gives a little color to Dag and to the relationship with Riley. What is the event? Where is it held? Who do they meet?
- Bradley looks like a big tough guy, but he's really a wuss. Riley drops him with a kick to the solar plexus. "If I'd wanted to hurt him I'd have kicked him in the balls, but it was too smal a target."
- Does Bradley get killed? What is the mob's response to him?
- Does Bradley set Dag up when he goes to Chicago? Does the info that he gives Dag lead him directly to the place where Dag least should be?
- What is the nature of the mob that Dag encounters? Bradley and Simon are laundering money for them, where does it come from? Is there an ethnic nature to the mob, or just a generic bunch of bad guys? Where do they get the money?
- How does money laundering work? At what point in the process could a person embezzle money in the scheme without it being obvious that they'd been dipping into the pot?
- Does Dag routinely help people get a heart ahead of him, or is it a one-time thing? One-time thing, he gives up his life on the spur of the moment. Routine, he pushes his luck one notch too far. Which is it?
- How much do your lungs hold? What is the cubic inch capacity when fully expanded? In other words, if you sucked in one breath that was actually water, how much water would you have just inhaled?
- When does Mrs. Prior come into the picture?
- When do we see Maizie do more cute tricks?
- Where does Dag stop for coffee in the mornings?
- The Chicago gangster is Earl Smiesen, compliments of VI Warshawski. Earl runs a little import/export business on the docks of Lake Michigan. In reality, he's hired muscle. The real gang is somewhere behind him, once removed from Simon's operation. This will be another setup for the next book. Who is behind the big money?
I'm sure there will be more later. Soon, more chapter synopsis.
06 July 2006
Dag is released from the hospital on condition that he fly directly back to Seattle and check in with his doctor. Riley gets him a flight that connects in Minneapolis because all direct flights from Chicago are full. Dag stops to purchase a new computer to set up on the flight. Dag settles in on the plane and spends the hour from Chicago to Minneapolis adding things up. The attack is too convenient to have been anything but a setup by the boss of I/E. Dag also begins to think that Brad set him up to be disposed of.
In the Minneapolis airport, Dag is waiting for his connecting flight. When it arrives from Seattle, he watches the arriving passengers get off before he can board. While sitting there, he sees Angel get off the plane and head for baggage claim. Dag immediately leaves the boarding area and follows Angel to baggage claim and then to a cab. He catches the next available cab and gives chase. When she gets out at the downtown Hilton, Dag looks for a convenient place nearby where he can keep an eye on where she goes. As he stakes out the lobby, he sees Simon come to meet her.
Dag calls Riley to tell her he won’t be back tonight after all, but he will need back-up. Riley is to let Brenda know that Dag has found Simon and that he will call her with details as soon as he has them.
In the Minneapolis airport, Dag is waiting for his connecting flight. When it arrives from Seattle, he watches the arriving passengers get off before he can board. While sitting there, he sees Angel get off the plane and head for baggage claim. Dag immediately leaves the boarding area and follows Angel to baggage claim and then to a cab. He catches the next available cab and gives chase. When she gets out at the downtown Hilton, Dag looks for a convenient place nearby where he can keep an eye on where she goes. As he stakes out the lobby, he sees Simon come to meet her.
Dag calls Riley to tell her he won’t be back tonight after all, but he will need back-up. Riley is to let Brenda know that Dag has found Simon and that he will call her with details as soon as he has them.
Dag muses about how he had seen statistics that had so shocked him that he started acting irrationally. He bought a convertible, managed to land a college-aged girlfriend, and started going to all the hot party spots in Seattle. He discovered “there was more Scotch under the bar than I could drink.” The girlfriend left him for someone her own age when he started to settle down. She said he was a regular stick-in-the-mud.
He remembers how he felt the first day he saw Riley and how he felt when he saw her behind the wheel of the convertible. Maybe he’d over-estimated when mid-life would occur based on his current health. But he knew that he’d never subject her to the kind of things he subjected his former girlfriend to. And most certainly, he wouldn’t have her around to watch him die.
He remembers how he felt the first day he saw Riley and how he felt when he saw her behind the wheel of the convertible. Maybe he’d over-estimated when mid-life would occur based on his current health. But he knew that he’d never subject her to the kind of things he subjected his former girlfriend to. And most certainly, he wouldn’t have her around to watch him die.
In Chicago, Dag decides the direct approach is the best. He goes to the offices of the I/E business and manages to get in to see the “boss”. He says that Simon is missing and he’s been hired to find him. Since records show frequent trips to Chicago on his expense reports, he wants to check to see if they have seen him.
There is the usual back and forth about minding one’s own business and working on computers and what can and can’t be trusted. Dag asks questions about the business that are avoided. At some point during the interview, he pulls out his computer to look up some information. The boss fixes on the computer and suddenly wants to know all about it. Dag lets him believe that it has data on it that he is using to hunt for Simon.
In his hotel room, Dag puzzles out more of the pieces, but Simon’s trips to Chicago aren’t on any of the credit cards that he normally uses. So Dag starts hunting for other credit cards and finds them behind a fuzzed file. Proud of himself, he heads out to go to dinner. On the way over the Chicago River he is mugged. A man grabs his computer bag and shoves him in the river.
There is the usual back and forth about minding one’s own business and working on computers and what can and can’t be trusted. Dag asks questions about the business that are avoided. At some point during the interview, he pulls out his computer to look up some information. The boss fixes on the computer and suddenly wants to know all about it. Dag lets him believe that it has data on it that he is using to hunt for Simon.
In his hotel room, Dag puzzles out more of the pieces, but Simon’s trips to Chicago aren’t on any of the credit cards that he normally uses. So Dag starts hunting for other credit cards and finds them behind a fuzzed file. Proud of himself, he heads out to go to dinner. On the way over the Chicago River he is mugged. A man grabs his computer bag and shoves him in the river.
Dag has his weekly appointment with the doctor who is not happy to have him traveling. Dag talks to the kid as he is waiting in the clinic and tells her he’ll bring her something from Chicago. Perhaps there is a little flirting going on with the mother.
Then Dag heads for the airport. On the way, he calls the FBI agent and tells him that he thinks he has a lead and is headed for Chicago. Agent says to be careful. The import/export company is a front for the mob. In the plane Dag begins to theorize about the case and what he is going to find. What are the facts and what is still to determine. I think he does some work on the computer while he is airborne.
As Dag puts things together he begins to see a second set of anomalies in his examination of the books. First he is convinced that Simon and Brad have jointly been embezzling money from the I/E business. Then, he realizes that Simon has cut Brad out of a major portion of it, and that a series of numbered accounts in Switzerland contain a lot of money. How much, Dag is not sure because he cannot yet access the passwords for those accounts. In Chicago he checks into a hotel downtown. (Any Chicago jazz tonight? Quite possibly.)
Then Dag heads for the airport. On the way, he calls the FBI agent and tells him that he thinks he has a lead and is headed for Chicago. Agent says to be careful. The import/export company is a front for the mob. In the plane Dag begins to theorize about the case and what he is going to find. What are the facts and what is still to determine. I think he does some work on the computer while he is airborne.
As Dag puts things together he begins to see a second set of anomalies in his examination of the books. First he is convinced that Simon and Brad have jointly been embezzling money from the I/E business. Then, he realizes that Simon has cut Brad out of a major portion of it, and that a series of numbered accounts in Switzerland contain a lot of money. How much, Dag is not sure because he cannot yet access the passwords for those accounts. In Chicago he checks into a hotel downtown. (Any Chicago jazz tonight? Quite possibly.)
Simon’s partner’s name is now Brad Keane. Dag decides that he has to confront Brad with the information that he has found regarding their import/export client. He suggests that a close audit of the books would reveal some irregularities in their accounting. Brad is incensed. He rants about how he can’t believe that Simon would cook the books on their biggest client. He turns suddenly wary of Dag. Brad starts to ask how he found out about the client and if that were all on the laptop. Dag dissembles a bit, but leaves Brad believing that Simon had a personal set of books on the laptop. He asks if Dag has unlocked the laptop, but Dag says there was no unlocking with a password. He has merely accessed the files through a remote boot.
Dag leaves his interview with Brad suspicious of the whole affair. Brad wants Simon brought back to face the music. He suggests to Dag that Simon may have gone to Chicago, since that is where their client is located. Dag takes the comment into consideration, and now that he has something to go on, he checks the records again and decides that he needs to make a trip to Chicago. He makes a flight reservation for after his doctor appointment on Thursday.
Dag leaves his interview with Brad suspicious of the whole affair. Brad wants Simon brought back to face the music. He suggests to Dag that Simon may have gone to Chicago, since that is where their client is located. Dag takes the comment into consideration, and now that he has something to go on, he checks the records again and decides that he needs to make a trip to Chicago. He makes a flight reservation for after his doctor appointment on Thursday.
Dag starts digging further into the computer, and this time uses what he has uncovered to remotely log into Simon and his partner’s server remotely. From there he starts downloading accounting information and his job changes from computer forensics to auditor. The accounting background helps.
Dag discovers the accounts for an import/export business and figures that is the direction he needs to investigate next. Something is fishy with the accounts and Dag suspects that not only is money laundering going on, but that they are embezzling money from the mob as well. He begins to track down the threads that will lead to various Swiss bank accounts.
Dag sends Riley off on another mission, this time to find out all about the Import/Export business and to see if she can track down any of the partner’s travel plans. This time she gets to display some of her computer hacking skills as last time she played the one-on-one role with Angel.
Dag discovers the accounts for an import/export business and figures that is the direction he needs to investigate next. Something is fishy with the accounts and Dag suspects that not only is money laundering going on, but that they are embezzling money from the mob as well. He begins to track down the threads that will lead to various Swiss bank accounts.
Dag sends Riley off on another mission, this time to find out all about the Import/Export business and to see if she can track down any of the partner’s travel plans. This time she gets to display some of her computer hacking skills as last time she played the one-on-one role with Angel.
Riley, in her typical manner, makes a suggestive comment to Dag in the office. Dag calls her bluff and leaves with her for "Lunch", leaving Maizie in charge of the office. Dag and Riley walk out of the office, but instead of going to lunch, a hotel, or Dag’s apartment, he takes her to Pier 56 and challenges her to a video game match. They have a riotous time for an hour, then get fish and chips and walk back to the office. Simon's partner, Bradley Keane, has come in while they were gone, intent on stealing the computer. When Dag & Riley return, Maizie is sitting on Brad in Dag's office growling. Brad tells Dag that Brenda had no right to give him the computer and that if he doesn’t get the data from the computer, their client will be furious. He especially is concerned that he get the accounts that Simon has, which strikes Dag as odd since that kind of information would be on the company server, not on the laptop. That gets Dag’s interest piqued. (Possible clue: Dag may spot a thumbdrive on a chain around the partner’s neck when he is putting himself back together after Maizie took him down.)
Brenda arrives while Brad is still there and there is a confrontation between Brad and Brenda. It appears that there is something more going on between them than simply the issue of the laptop. Dag resolves to dig a little deeper. He tells the Brad that he will return the computer to him, much to Brenda’s disgust, but that it is currently disassembled. If he’d like to come back in a couple days, he would have it put back together and ready for him. When everyone leaves, Dag reassembles the computer, substituting a mirror drive so that he still has the original.
Brenda arrives while Brad is still there and there is a confrontation between Brad and Brenda. It appears that there is something more going on between them than simply the issue of the laptop. Dag resolves to dig a little deeper. He tells the Brad that he will return the computer to him, much to Brenda’s disgust, but that it is currently disassembled. If he’d like to come back in a couple days, he would have it put back together and ready for him. When everyone leaves, Dag reassembles the computer, substituting a mirror drive so that he still has the original.
04 July 2006
Well, not exactly about Dag, but about Security & Exchange in general. Now, having posted 8 of 30 chapters, here are my discoveries:
First off, I really thrive when I've set a strict set of boundaries in which I have to operate. That's one thing I like about NaNoWriMo. I have thirty days in which to write the whole story. So I set up this year's book to progress one day at a time through the thirty days of November. That is what has suddenly informed my new discoveries. It's a little like the TV show 24 where in each hour you see exactly one hour out of the 24 in a full day. Only I am doing this from a single POV. So what do you do when your MC/narrator is "sleeping?"
I've realized that I have a tendancy to either write nuggets with huge gaps between them as I did in Accidental Witness, and simply ignore everything else in life that is going on during the time that I cover with the words "the next week..." or I get bogged down in minute detail of what is happening in the moment, recording how many cups of coffee he's had and how many steps it is from office to post office. (Yes, a little of my own obsession with counting things shows through. How many things do you have to count to be considered OCD? Different subject.)
So, if Dag spends an entire day tearing apart the laptop computer and decoding passwords, is that just a really short chapter: "I spent the day tearing apart the laptop and decoding passwords," or can I use other devices such as his telling what was happening to Riley while he was stuck in the office: "Meanwhile I sent Riley down to Stocks & Blondes to find out more about Angel. She found the task harder than it appeared..." I am tending toward the latter, especially since Dag spends about 9 of the thirty days of the month in the hospital. I don't think that I have to wait for Riley to come back that night and tell Dag what happened to her. I think, as the narrator, Dag can just tell what happened in the story, even though it puts him into a third person instead of a first person narrative. I've found several examples of that in some of the detective writing I've been reading and the movies that I've watched. It's going to be a little tricky, but I think I can make it work.
The next thing is that I'm fighting a tendancy to compress the story. It would be so much easier if, like most movies and TV episodes, I only deal with a couple days time span in which an incredible amount happens, he gets the assignment, figures out the mystery, and ends the story quickly and easily. You can lose yourself in detail because there has to be a momentus event every thirty minutes. Stretching the story out over the full month of November, while a more realistic portrayal of the timespan it would take to solve this mystery, means that I have to find something noteworthy about every day to write a chapter on, and that no day merits more than a chapter. That's cruel! I've hedged somewhat by allowing myself six days of the month to reminisce about his life, and suddenly I've managed to skip a dull day and move to one that's more exciting. But I haven't solved the one that there is too much happening on one day. I'm having to carefully tease out the threads so that I can spread them over multiple days instead of just the one.
And speaking of multiple threads: I have three storylines that are interwoven into this plot. The first is the six interludes in which Dag goes back in his memory a decade further and each of the stories told there serves to advance the other two storylines a little further as he recalls a key event from the past. But you can't really just leave it at that. This is all one man's story, and you can't break it apart so that he's telling three stories independently. I've set it up so that five of the six interludes occur while Dag is in the hospital. (The first one opens the story and sets the stage.) But he's in the hospital because of something that has just happened in the mystery storyline (find the missing husband/money) and always leads to something further in the life or death storyline (need a new heart but so does the little kid).
On process, I've created a huge spreadsheet in the form of a calendar. I started blocking out days with static items that shouldn't be changed ever. Dag has a standing appointment with his doctor and group counseling every Thursday. When you are waiting for a heart transplant, you can't really just skip an appointment. Then there is the complication of one Thursday being Thanksgiving, so the appointment has to be changed: Wednesday or Friday? There is the working schedule of Angel at the nightclub. She's not there every night, just on weekends. Do I want the calendar to match this year's November, or let be a mythical November and put Thanksgiving the distance I want from the end of the story?
Then I started blocking in the big chunks of time on the calendar. How long does it take for Dag to actually crack the codes on the computer? How long does it take to find out that they are laundering money? How many days is he in Chicago? Who is taking care of Maizie while he's gone? How many hours is he in the air? What is the temperature in Minneapolis? How does he stake-out Simon and Angel without freezing to death? Then I figure out the big transition points that land him in the hospital in Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, and again in Seattle. Those become the key transition points for the interludes. Are the well-spaced? Do I need to compress a couple days in one area? Make more things happen to justify another day someplace else? Each day has a chapter title that I use to summarize what I think the key event of the day is, and then it has a very brief synopsis of the action. On the big synopsis (that I'm posting), I detail the action of the day, often having to go back to the calendar and juggle things around a bit more.
All told, I'd have to say that I'm glad I'm doing all this work four months before we start writing in earnest. I haven't even begun the technical research that I need to do in order to keep the story credible. I definitely don't want to spend time in November tracking down the steps to getting a heart transplant and how to break a 128-bit encryption key. Yow!
Would love your comments.
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cloister27
> So, if Dag spends an entire day tearing apart the laptop computer and decoding passwords, is that just a really short chapter: "I spent the day tearing apart the laptop and decoding passwords," or can I use other devices such as his telling what was happening to Riley while he was stuck in the office ... ?
Well, the more interesting questions is "why did it take all day?" If it took all day because the password was really hard to crack, then you're right. That's not very interesting to read and makes for a pretty short chapter. But maybe there are some other options:
* it's hard because of some unexpected reasons which end up teaching Dag something interesting about simon.
* it's dead easy. He's into the files within minutes, but then quickly notices something odd in the files, which takes him all day to figure out. Something he knows he has to figure out first, because it would mean something important about how to interpret the rest of the files. That can turn into a chapter's worth of more interesting narrative, because the task becomes not a duel between Dag and an encryption system, but between Dag and Simon, with the files playing the role of Simon's proxy.
First off, I really thrive when I've set a strict set of boundaries in which I have to operate. That's one thing I like about NaNoWriMo. I have thirty days in which to write the whole story. So I set up this year's book to progress one day at a time through the thirty days of November. That is what has suddenly informed my new discoveries. It's a little like the TV show 24 where in each hour you see exactly one hour out of the 24 in a full day. Only I am doing this from a single POV. So what do you do when your MC/narrator is "sleeping?"
I've realized that I have a tendancy to either write nuggets with huge gaps between them as I did in Accidental Witness, and simply ignore everything else in life that is going on during the time that I cover with the words "the next week..." or I get bogged down in minute detail of what is happening in the moment, recording how many cups of coffee he's had and how many steps it is from office to post office. (Yes, a little of my own obsession with counting things shows through. How many things do you have to count to be considered OCD? Different subject.)
So, if Dag spends an entire day tearing apart the laptop computer and decoding passwords, is that just a really short chapter: "I spent the day tearing apart the laptop and decoding passwords," or can I use other devices such as his telling what was happening to Riley while he was stuck in the office: "Meanwhile I sent Riley down to Stocks & Blondes to find out more about Angel. She found the task harder than it appeared..." I am tending toward the latter, especially since Dag spends about 9 of the thirty days of the month in the hospital. I don't think that I have to wait for Riley to come back that night and tell Dag what happened to her. I think, as the narrator, Dag can just tell what happened in the story, even though it puts him into a third person instead of a first person narrative. I've found several examples of that in some of the detective writing I've been reading and the movies that I've watched. It's going to be a little tricky, but I think I can make it work.
The next thing is that I'm fighting a tendancy to compress the story. It would be so much easier if, like most movies and TV episodes, I only deal with a couple days time span in which an incredible amount happens, he gets the assignment, figures out the mystery, and ends the story quickly and easily. You can lose yourself in detail because there has to be a momentus event every thirty minutes. Stretching the story out over the full month of November, while a more realistic portrayal of the timespan it would take to solve this mystery, means that I have to find something noteworthy about every day to write a chapter on, and that no day merits more than a chapter. That's cruel! I've hedged somewhat by allowing myself six days of the month to reminisce about his life, and suddenly I've managed to skip a dull day and move to one that's more exciting. But I haven't solved the one that there is too much happening on one day. I'm having to carefully tease out the threads so that I can spread them over multiple days instead of just the one.
And speaking of multiple threads: I have three storylines that are interwoven into this plot. The first is the six interludes in which Dag goes back in his memory a decade further and each of the stories told there serves to advance the other two storylines a little further as he recalls a key event from the past. But you can't really just leave it at that. This is all one man's story, and you can't break it apart so that he's telling three stories independently. I've set it up so that five of the six interludes occur while Dag is in the hospital. (The first one opens the story and sets the stage.) But he's in the hospital because of something that has just happened in the mystery storyline (find the missing husband/money) and always leads to something further in the life or death storyline (need a new heart but so does the little kid).
On process, I've created a huge spreadsheet in the form of a calendar. I started blocking out days with static items that shouldn't be changed ever. Dag has a standing appointment with his doctor and group counseling every Thursday. When you are waiting for a heart transplant, you can't really just skip an appointment. Then there is the complication of one Thursday being Thanksgiving, so the appointment has to be changed: Wednesday or Friday? There is the working schedule of Angel at the nightclub. She's not there every night, just on weekends. Do I want the calendar to match this year's November, or let be a mythical November and put Thanksgiving the distance I want from the end of the story?
Then I started blocking in the big chunks of time on the calendar. How long does it take for Dag to actually crack the codes on the computer? How long does it take to find out that they are laundering money? How many days is he in Chicago? Who is taking care of Maizie while he's gone? How many hours is he in the air? What is the temperature in Minneapolis? How does he stake-out Simon and Angel without freezing to death? Then I figure out the big transition points that land him in the hospital in Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, and again in Seattle. Those become the key transition points for the interludes. Are the well-spaced? Do I need to compress a couple days in one area? Make more things happen to justify another day someplace else? Each day has a chapter title that I use to summarize what I think the key event of the day is, and then it has a very brief synopsis of the action. On the big synopsis (that I'm posting), I detail the action of the day, often having to go back to the calendar and juggle things around a bit more.
All told, I'd have to say that I'm glad I'm doing all this work four months before we start writing in earnest. I haven't even begun the technical research that I need to do in order to keep the story credible. I definitely don't want to spend time in November tracking down the steps to getting a heart transplant and how to break a 128-bit encryption key. Yow!
Would love your comments.
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cloister27
> So, if Dag spends an entire day tearing apart the laptop computer and decoding passwords, is that just a really short chapter: "I spent the day tearing apart the laptop and decoding passwords," or can I use other devices such as his telling what was happening to Riley while he was stuck in the office ... ?
Well, the more interesting questions is "why did it take all day?" If it took all day because the password was really hard to crack, then you're right. That's not very interesting to read and makes for a pretty short chapter. But maybe there are some other options:
* it's hard because of some unexpected reasons which end up teaching Dag something interesting about simon.
* it's dead easy. He's into the files within minutes, but then quickly notices something odd in the files, which takes him all day to figure out. Something he knows he has to figure out first, because it would mean something important about how to interpret the rest of the files. That can turn into a chapter's worth of more interesting narrative, because the task becomes not a duel between Dag and an encryption system, but between Dag and Simon, with the files playing the role of Simon's proxy.
03 July 2006
The FBI agent appears and informs Dag that he now has a key role in an investigation that they are pursuing regarding gangland activity and money laundering. They want Dag to follow the trail and keep them informed. This is something he agrees to, with several wry comments about how he would keep them informed of anything that didn’t affect his client’s rights and privileges, etc. etc. Dag rests at home on Sunday, going over his options and the threat of a solicitation charge if he didn’t cooperate. He also tries to figure out who had attacked him. He sends Riley to find out more about Angel and to see what she could find out about the attack.
We follow Riley for the remainder of Sunday as she tracks down Angel and discovers that she has a “boyfriend” who is insanely jealous. Angel confides to Riley that she is afraid that the boyfriend might have done something to Simon and that he was the one who attacked Dag the night before. Angel is apparently afraid and is ready to run, but wants to be available if Simon calls for her to join him somewhere.
We follow Riley for the remainder of Sunday as she tracks down Angel and discovers that she has a “boyfriend” who is insanely jealous. Angel confides to Riley that she is afraid that the boyfriend might have done something to Simon and that he was the one who attacked Dag the night before. Angel is apparently afraid and is ready to run, but wants to be available if Simon calls for her to join him somewhere.
Dag departs from the story and talks about his life before becoming a detective. He had been an accountant with an aptitude for computers when they first hit the accounting firms big. He had started in data entry and progressed to Technical Support and eventually to IT management. He talks about a the work he encountered the day after his 42nd birthday and how he discovered that he could answer any question to his own satisfaction. That is, any question except one: Why was he doing what he was doing. The answer, when he finally came to it, was simply that he had never followed his desires to be something on his own. That is the day he left his job and became a computer forensics specialist, first just doing computer recovery jobs, then progressing to the point where he called himself a private detective and as a result had to get a license. What he failed to understand at the time was how that course of action had landed him in a hospital bed with a splitting headache and a police officer asking him questions.
Friday night, Dag returns to Stocks & Blondes to track down the elusive Angel. He finally meets her and amid the minor comedy of her trying to get him to have a lap dance and his wanting to ask her questions about Simon, she finally agrees to meet him later at… xyz… Angel tells him that she is worried about Simon and that he hasn’t contacted her in several days. She alludes to the idea that they were going away together.
Dag also discovers another clue at the club in the form of an FBI agent who is asking questions as well. They have a mysterious meeting after which Dag leaves on foot, as usual to walk home. This time, however, he is mugged. As he is being accosted he hears a woman’s voice screaming not to hurt him, but it is too late. The assailant clubs Dag and he hears a scuffle as he loses consciousness.
Dag also discovers another clue at the club in the form of an FBI agent who is asking questions as well. They have a mysterious meeting after which Dag leaves on foot, as usual to walk home. This time, however, he is mugged. As he is being accosted he hears a woman’s voice screaming not to hurt him, but it is too late. The assailant clubs Dag and he hears a scuffle as he loses consciousness.
We discover that Dag has a weekly doctor’s appointment when Riley reminds him that it is time to go. She drives Dag to the hospital where his Doctor practices. She wishes him luck.
Dag and his doctor have a conversation in which we learn that Dag is awaiting a heart transplant and his doctor is concerned about the deterioration that seems to be accelerating. Doctor berates Dag about going to a smoke-filled club and swears he’ll report the club to the authorities. They are distracted by a gurney on which a child (about six or seven years old) is rolled by. The child’s mother is in attendance and is obviously very worried.
Dag and the doctor talk about the sad state of affairs in which there is such high demand for hearts and so few donors. The child has a congenital defect that can only be helped by a transplant, and her time is running out. Dag goes to visit the kid in her room on his way out and discovers that in spite of her illness, she is a perky, bright and energetic kid who has a great view on life, far beyond her age. Dag finds out she is also on the waiting list for a donor heart.
Dag and his doctor have a conversation in which we learn that Dag is awaiting a heart transplant and his doctor is concerned about the deterioration that seems to be accelerating. Doctor berates Dag about going to a smoke-filled club and swears he’ll report the club to the authorities. They are distracted by a gurney on which a child (about six or seven years old) is rolled by. The child’s mother is in attendance and is obviously very worried.
Dag and the doctor talk about the sad state of affairs in which there is such high demand for hearts and so few donors. The child has a congenital defect that can only be helped by a transplant, and her time is running out. Dag goes to visit the kid in her room on his way out and discovers that in spite of her illness, she is a perky, bright and energetic kid who has a great view on life, far beyond her age. Dag finds out she is also on the waiting list for a donor heart.
When money moves in Seattle, you want to be where the money movers are. The last remaining strip club downtown was where the money movers gathered. The club had adopted the name Stocks & Blondes. It had taken just a few hours for Dag to get into Simon’s bank records after he had the passwords. And one reading of where ATM withdrawals had been made to trace him to the chic, exclusive club.
Dag is admitted without issue, even though the club was testing it’s theory that a “members only” club could be exempted from both the state’s no-smoking ordinance and the city’s four-foot rule. Dag started asking questions of the dancers and one said she knew Simon, but if he really wanted to find out about him Dag should come back on the weekend and talk to Angel. She was his special dancer and he dropped a lot of money on her when they were together. Some rumored that they were seeing each other outside the club as well, but the management hadn’t stepped in yet.
Dag leaves after a stimulating conversation and berates himself for his mixed feelings about being there. He goes home and takes Maizie for a long walk, trying to clear his lungs of the smoke from the club.
Dag is admitted without issue, even though the club was testing it’s theory that a “members only” club could be exempted from both the state’s no-smoking ordinance and the city’s four-foot rule. Dag started asking questions of the dancers and one said she knew Simon, but if he really wanted to find out about him Dag should come back on the weekend and talk to Angel. She was his special dancer and he dropped a lot of money on her when they were together. Some rumored that they were seeing each other outside the club as well, but the management hadn’t stepped in yet.
Dag leaves after a stimulating conversation and berates himself for his mixed feelings about being there. He goes home and takes Maizie for a long walk, trying to clear his lungs of the smoke from the club.
When money moves in Seattle, you want to be where the money movers are. The last remaining strip club downtown was where the money movers gathered. The club had adopted the name Stocks & Blondes. It had taken just a few hours for Dag to get into Simon’s bank records after he had the passwords. And one reading of where ATM withdrawals had been made to trace him to the chic, exclusive club.
Dag is admitted without issue, even though the club was testing it’s theory that a “members only” club could be exempted from both the state’s no-smoking ordinance and the city’s four-foot rule. Dag started asking questions of the dancers and one said she knew Simon, but if he really wanted to find out about him Dag should come back on the weekend and talk to Angel. She was his special dancer and he dropped a lot of money on her when they were together. Some rumored that they were seeing each other outside the club as well, but the management hadn’t stepped in yet.
Dag leaves after a stimulating conversation and berates himself for his mixed feelings about being there. He goes home and takes Maizie for a long walk, trying to clear his lungs of the smoke from the club.
Dag is admitted without issue, even though the club was testing it’s theory that a “members only” club could be exempted from both the state’s no-smoking ordinance and the city’s four-foot rule. Dag started asking questions of the dancers and one said she knew Simon, but if he really wanted to find out about him Dag should come back on the weekend and talk to Angel. She was his special dancer and he dropped a lot of money on her when they were together. Some rumored that they were seeing each other outside the club as well, but the management hadn’t stepped in yet.
Dag leaves after a stimulating conversation and berates himself for his mixed feelings about being there. He goes home and takes Maizie for a long walk, trying to clear his lungs of the smoke from the club.
Dag opens by talking about what he can do with a computer and we find out that his own network is secured behind a physical as well as software firewall. He begins by enslaving the laptop hard drive and copying the entire disk in a mirror image on another hard drive. Then he puts the original in safe-keeping with his own network equipment. Then Dag starts dissecting the hard drive, first by circumventing the password and simply examining the contents. In doing this, he discovers there are encrypted files, but a lot of the disk is open to his perusal. He starts by looking up internet history, which gives him travel files and dates.
In looking at the travel dates, Dag discovers that Simon has often traveled with a companion. He starts digging up information on where Simon has gone and where he might be planning to go.
Riley comes in with a report on Brenda and Simon. Simon is low-profile, but known to be a rich businessman in some import/export business. He has a partner (yet unnamed) who is equally affluent, but because he is single is less ostentatious. Brenda, on the other hand, is a member of several arts boards, civic organizations, and even a political caucus. She seems to crave any position that will give her status. Dag sums it up by saying, “That sounds about right.” Riley leaves thinking she will do a little more research.
In looking at the travel dates, Dag discovers that Simon has often traveled with a companion. He starts digging up information on where Simon has gone and where he might be planning to go.
Riley comes in with a report on Brenda and Simon. Simon is low-profile, but known to be a rich businessman in some import/export business. He has a partner (yet unnamed) who is equally affluent, but because he is single is less ostentatious. Brenda, on the other hand, is a member of several arts boards, civic organizations, and even a political caucus. She seems to crave any position that will give her status. Dag sums it up by saying, “That sounds about right.” Riley leaves thinking she will do a little more research.
02 July 2006
Dag is in his office when Brenda Barnette walks in. There is an immediate air of tension that accompanies her. It is obvious that they know each other, but haven’t seen each other in many years. It is also obvious that no matter how he balks at it, Dag will do whatever she says. We are led to believe that she holds some power over him, but we don’t know precisely what. “I could have gone to my grave happy if I’d never seen her again.” Maizie adds a bit of commentary by sticking her nose in the back of Brenda’s knee and she collapses back in a chair. We find out a little bit about Maizie’s heritage.
Brenda wants Dag to find her missing husband, Simon Barnette. All the usual questions regarding the police, etc. She reported him missing, but they only said they would keep her informed. Dag says he doesn’t do field-work like that. He does computer forensics. She says that is why she came to him. She pulls out a laptop and says it is Simon’s and that she believes there are clues to his disappearance on it, but that she couldn’t log into it. She knew that Dag could work around it.
Dag recites a warning that if he has possession of the laptop, he will possess potentially damaging information about her husband and even about her. He will know her credit card and banking information, travel record, internet tracks, and anything else that Simon might have kept on the computer, even if it had been erased. Brenda says that she knows she can trust Dag. He asks if she is sure and she asks if he wants to steal her identity. He affirms that from what he knows he’s happier with the one he has.
Brenda leaves and Dag calls Riley in. He gives her Brenda’s name and address and tells her to do a records search on her. Last ten years. Is she in the news, etc. Riley is to look up both Brenda and Simon. She takes the assignment with glee. Dag settles back to look at the computer.
Brenda wants Dag to find her missing husband, Simon Barnette. All the usual questions regarding the police, etc. She reported him missing, but they only said they would keep her informed. Dag says he doesn’t do field-work like that. He does computer forensics. She says that is why she came to him. She pulls out a laptop and says it is Simon’s and that she believes there are clues to his disappearance on it, but that she couldn’t log into it. She knew that Dag could work around it.
Dag recites a warning that if he has possession of the laptop, he will possess potentially damaging information about her husband and even about her. He will know her credit card and banking information, travel record, internet tracks, and anything else that Simon might have kept on the computer, even if it had been erased. Brenda says that she knows she can trust Dag. He asks if she is sure and she asks if he wants to steal her identity. He affirms that from what he knows he’s happier with the one he has.
Brenda leaves and Dag calls Riley in. He gives her Brenda’s name and address and tells her to do a records search on her. Last ten years. Is she in the news, etc. Riley is to look up both Brenda and Simon. She takes the assignment with glee. Dag settles back to look at the computer.
01 July 2006
I was fifty-five when I decided to become an acrobat.
Dag relates the story of seeing a nouveau circus show in Las Vegas when he was there six months ago for a "Geek Convention." Then he tells us that the convention was on investigative electronics, otherwise known as spyware. While touring an aisle in the exhibit area, he realizes that he's picked up a shadow. He maneouvers her into a conversation and when she suddenly turns friendly and asks if he'd like to get lucky, he says no and recites a list of reasons, concluding with the fact that she is a student of Lars Anderson who has probably been listening to every word. Lars appears and congratulates Dag on his field observation skills. We find out that Lars was an instructor of Dag's years ago (army days?) and Deborah "Don't call me Debbie" Riley is his prize student in Criminal Justice. He asks Dag to show her some of the ropes in the real world. Dag agrees and meets Riley for dinner.
They pass through a casino and Riley repeats her "Wanna get lucky?" question. Dag is ready to be upset, but she points to a roulette table and asks him to show her how to play. Dag gives her a $5 chip and tells her that on her first spin she should play her age. She looks at the table a moment, then places the chip on 28. Dag looks at her with raised eyebrow and she pushes it across the line to 25. Just before the spin, Dag drops a chip on 24. The 24 hits. He gathers the money and turns from the table telling Riley that if she'd been honest she'd have won.
As he turns away, Dag is suddenly hit with a heart attack and lands on the casino floor. The last he remembers, Riley is pushing a pill in his mouth and saying to chew.
Dag wakes up in the hospital the next day with Riley sitting beside him playing on his computer. He asks how she got into his computer and she tells him that she just passed his finger over the biometric scanner and unlocked it. But there was nothing on it but the basic install stuff, so she just went up to the internet to play games. She was pretty amazed that it just connected to the internet with no extra WiFi or anything.
Dag hires Riley to return to his room to take care of Maizie and finds out that she has already done so. She stayed there last night. Finally, Dag asks her to drive him back to Seattle. We discover that each year he takes his Mustang convertible out and drives from Seattle to Las Vegas and back, but this year he can't drive back by himself. Riley agrees. On the trip back, we discover that Riley has stolen a nurses ID badge from the hospital and passes herself off as his nurse when they check into a motel for the night. She continues to care for both Dag and Maizie.
Dag finishes the reminiscence by saying that was how he met Riley, his trusted secretary and apprentice, but that it didn't really explain how he found himself hanging from a sixth story waterfront window with one foot on a telephone line contemplating becoming an acrobat, and he reckons that is the story he should probably tell.
End of the first chapter.
I would guess that the further I get into this the less developed the chapter summaries are going to be.
Dag relates the story of seeing a nouveau circus show in Las Vegas when he was there six months ago for a "Geek Convention." Then he tells us that the convention was on investigative electronics, otherwise known as spyware. While touring an aisle in the exhibit area, he realizes that he's picked up a shadow. He maneouvers her into a conversation and when she suddenly turns friendly and asks if he'd like to get lucky, he says no and recites a list of reasons, concluding with the fact that she is a student of Lars Anderson who has probably been listening to every word. Lars appears and congratulates Dag on his field observation skills. We find out that Lars was an instructor of Dag's years ago (army days?) and Deborah "Don't call me Debbie" Riley is his prize student in Criminal Justice. He asks Dag to show her some of the ropes in the real world. Dag agrees and meets Riley for dinner.
They pass through a casino and Riley repeats her "Wanna get lucky?" question. Dag is ready to be upset, but she points to a roulette table and asks him to show her how to play. Dag gives her a $5 chip and tells her that on her first spin she should play her age. She looks at the table a moment, then places the chip on 28. Dag looks at her with raised eyebrow and she pushes it across the line to 25. Just before the spin, Dag drops a chip on 24. The 24 hits. He gathers the money and turns from the table telling Riley that if she'd been honest she'd have won.
As he turns away, Dag is suddenly hit with a heart attack and lands on the casino floor. The last he remembers, Riley is pushing a pill in his mouth and saying to chew.
Dag wakes up in the hospital the next day with Riley sitting beside him playing on his computer. He asks how she got into his computer and she tells him that she just passed his finger over the biometric scanner and unlocked it. But there was nothing on it but the basic install stuff, so she just went up to the internet to play games. She was pretty amazed that it just connected to the internet with no extra WiFi or anything.
Dag hires Riley to return to his room to take care of Maizie and finds out that she has already done so. She stayed there last night. Finally, Dag asks her to drive him back to Seattle. We discover that each year he takes his Mustang convertible out and drives from Seattle to Las Vegas and back, but this year he can't drive back by himself. Riley agrees. On the trip back, we discover that Riley has stolen a nurses ID badge from the hospital and passes herself off as his nurse when they check into a motel for the night. She continues to care for both Dag and Maizie.
Dag finishes the reminiscence by saying that was how he met Riley, his trusted secretary and apprentice, but that it didn't really explain how he found himself hanging from a sixth story waterfront window with one foot on a telephone line contemplating becoming an acrobat, and he reckons that is the story he should probably tell.
End of the first chapter.
I would guess that the further I get into this the less developed the chapter summaries are going to be.
It is the first of July, and I made my commitment to complete the detailed outline for Security and Exchange while other friends are writing another full novel as part of JulNoWriMo. So, I'm starting this entry with what I think is an overview synopsis of the story, my approach, and how it will develop. Then I'll start with chapter by chapter outline tomorrow.
Security & Exchange is a first person detective novel borrowing heavily on the traditions of such detectives as Sam Spade, Mike Hammer, Phillip Marlowe, and Peter Gunn. The tone is somewhat tongue-in-cheek without being self-effacing. The Main Character (MC) is 55-year-old Dag Hamar, of Swedish descent, raised in Ballard (Scandanavian suburb of Seattle), Washington. His side-kick is 25-year-old Deborah Riley. The thirty year age difference figures heavily in some of the story. At this point, suffice it to say that Riley (as Dag calls her) is his secretary, apprentice, and "legs".
That is where the first of three interwoven storylines kicks in: Dag is in failing health, badly in need of a heart transplant due to a bout of Rheumatic Fever as a child. The clock is ticking on him. He spends a lot of time laid up or in the hospital and depends on Riley to do the legwork for significant parts of the mystery. Dag narrates the story revealing a lot about the reality of facing death in a middle-aged man.
Storyline two: Dag regresses back through his life a decade at a time, starting by relating the story of his first full fledged heart attack six months earlier. It marks the beginning of his relationship with Riley. At six points in the book he tells a story about what happened when he was 40, 33, 26, 16, and 6. Those are a little arbitrary, and as I work out the outline, the exact ages may differ. These sections each start with a sentence like "I was fifty-five when I decided to become an acrobat."
The third storyline, of course, is the mystery itself. In it, Dag is approached by a woman near his own age who is looking for her missing husband. She approaches Dag for several reasons, not all of which are immediately apparent. But the express reason is because Dag is known first and foremost as a leading investigator in computer forensics. Brenda Barnette (the client) brings Dag her husband's laptop computer which she believes holds the secret of his disappearance, but which she cannot access past the password. Throughout the story, we see Dag piece together the clues from the computer to paint a picture of infidelity, gambling, embezzlement, and money laundering. As he discovers a trail that leads into organized crime and eventually Simon Barnette's body, the other parties interested start targeting Dag as a threat or an avenue to more information. These include the mistress, her boyfriend, Simon's partner, and the mob boss that Simon was working for. (Possibly also an FBI agent.)
The story will be written during the month of November as part of NaNoWriMo, and the story will unfold during a November with each day's narration by Dag corresponding to the day's in November. That means there will be 30 chapters, including the six that are interludes in the action telling the decade by decade revelations that show Dag where to go next in his investigation. Next: The outline for Chapter One.
Security & Exchange is a first person detective novel borrowing heavily on the traditions of such detectives as Sam Spade, Mike Hammer, Phillip Marlowe, and Peter Gunn. The tone is somewhat tongue-in-cheek without being self-effacing. The Main Character (MC) is 55-year-old Dag Hamar, of Swedish descent, raised in Ballard (Scandanavian suburb of Seattle), Washington. His side-kick is 25-year-old Deborah Riley. The thirty year age difference figures heavily in some of the story. At this point, suffice it to say that Riley (as Dag calls her) is his secretary, apprentice, and "legs".
That is where the first of three interwoven storylines kicks in: Dag is in failing health, badly in need of a heart transplant due to a bout of Rheumatic Fever as a child. The clock is ticking on him. He spends a lot of time laid up or in the hospital and depends on Riley to do the legwork for significant parts of the mystery. Dag narrates the story revealing a lot about the reality of facing death in a middle-aged man.
Storyline two: Dag regresses back through his life a decade at a time, starting by relating the story of his first full fledged heart attack six months earlier. It marks the beginning of his relationship with Riley. At six points in the book he tells a story about what happened when he was 40, 33, 26, 16, and 6. Those are a little arbitrary, and as I work out the outline, the exact ages may differ. These sections each start with a sentence like "I was fifty-five when I decided to become an acrobat."
The third storyline, of course, is the mystery itself. In it, Dag is approached by a woman near his own age who is looking for her missing husband. She approaches Dag for several reasons, not all of which are immediately apparent. But the express reason is because Dag is known first and foremost as a leading investigator in computer forensics. Brenda Barnette (the client) brings Dag her husband's laptop computer which she believes holds the secret of his disappearance, but which she cannot access past the password. Throughout the story, we see Dag piece together the clues from the computer to paint a picture of infidelity, gambling, embezzlement, and money laundering. As he discovers a trail that leads into organized crime and eventually Simon Barnette's body, the other parties interested start targeting Dag as a threat or an avenue to more information. These include the mistress, her boyfriend, Simon's partner, and the mob boss that Simon was working for. (Possibly also an FBI agent.)
The story will be written during the month of November as part of NaNoWriMo, and the story will unfold during a November with each day's narration by Dag corresponding to the day's in November. That means there will be 30 chapters, including the six that are interludes in the action telling the decade by decade revelations that show Dag where to go next in his investigation. Next: The outline for Chapter One.
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