Interviewing The Brother
Having found little of value at Peter Tait’s apartment, Connor, Eric and Simon went to interview his brother, Eric. They found him, and his roommate, William, living in a luxurious and tastefully decorated townhouse. Tait was a successful corporate lawyer; his luxurious townhouse was easily worth more than a million dollars.
At first, the elder Tait was not interested in speaking with the investigators, but when they told him of their belief that Peter had not committed suicide, Edward relaxed, and spoke with them over cocktails.
Edward had not seen Peter for a few months and knew little about Peter’s work other than that he seemed to enjoy his work at Dawn Biozyme. He did not believe that Peter committed suicide. It was entirely against his character.
Peter’s Effects
Edward eagerly offered whatever assistance he could provide, starting with the large manila property envelope from the police department that contained Peter Tait’s personal effects.
Aside from a recent ATM withdrawal, there was nothing unusual about Peter’s wallet. Eric noted that a recent withdrawal was uncharacteristic for a suicide. There was also two sets of keys in the envelope: one with automobile keys a set of house keys, and a second ring of large and tarnished old-fashioned ones. Edward did not know what the older keys were for.
There was a note pad with list of things to “take to the farm.” Most noteworthy were shotguns, shells, and bear traps. Two entries were the names of garden supply stores in Samson. The rest of the pad was blank, though one page seemed to have been torn out.
Finally, there were two cards in the envelope, one was a business card for the Theodore, Edgar, Dillon & Little realtor agency, and the other was a tarot card, The Hanged Man, which Simon noted symbolized hopelessness or futility of action.
The Car
Peter Tait’s car had been returned to Edward as well, and the investigators examined it with the assistance of Tait’s roommate, William. It was evident to them immediately that the car had been vandalized, and not damaged in a collision.
The fenders and had been bashed thoroughly, probably with baseball bats. There were also chips and parallel grooves in the paint, which William deduced had been made with different kinds of table forks, and he showed the investigators where the initials BOF had been carved into the paint.
Simon inspected the inside of the car and discovered a gash a slip of paper under the driver’s floor mat bearing what looked like a telephone number. It matched one they had seen in the recent calls on Tait’s phone. Eric discovered a gash in the driver’s seat within which a journal had been hidden.
Following the Clues
Eric read the journal while Simon called the stores on the list and Connor called the realtor. The journal described Tait’s pursuit of a body-building coworker named Jennifer Armbruster, who, over the span of the entries got involved in some kind of secret experiment and allegedly drew from 5 foot two to over seven feet tall!
The stores turned out to be dead ends. Tait had not placed any orders to pick up nor had had any previous history with either vendor. The realtor confirmed that Peter Tait had purchased a farm near the town of Delilah, a couple of hours to the east in the mountains. The seller, a Mr. Harold Gall, had been in a hurry and the transaction was handled by his agent, Ateley P. North Properties.
Connor followed up with the Ateley agency to discover that both the telephone number and the address did not exist. When he called Mr. Gall, the party on the other end was rude and hung up abruptly.
To the Farm
Having pursued all the other leads, the investigators decided to visit Tait’s farm. As it was already early evening, they elected to depart in the morning.