Cash Aldrick

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Lucas Cash Aldrick (born January 15, 1976) is a private investigator in the greater New Orleans region. Although he normally works out of a small office in the city, he lives on the bayou in Dutchtown, Louisiana. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he developed a knack for and reputation as an online presence fixer.

After being contacted by his high school girlfriend, Cash sets off on a journey to discover what happened to her father, but in the process falls deeper into other mysteries that he struggles to untangle.

• Cash is motivated to be the hero, enjoying the thrill while feeling that his actions to protect Greer when they were younger were ethically questionable.
• Cash wants to understand all the mysteries he has unearthed, no matter the cost.
• He is constantly confronted with people who do not want him to solve these mysteries.
• Cash will discover that people want to forget, that they are ultimately their own antagonists.

Cash is stirred from his enclosed existence during the pandemic by the request he receives from Greer, a request to discover what happened to her father and to provide her with a better version of that story. He struggles with the ex-boyfriend of his friend Rae. When Joey ends up dead not far from Cash's house, he is accused of murder and believes the two mysteries — Greer's father's disappearance and Joey's death — are related. As Cash digs deeper, he learns that Gerry was involved in several arsons in the wake of past hurricanes and possibly a murder. When Cash discovers the person who connects all the mysteries, he becomes a pawn in a fight between Gerry and Hal and must overcome both.

Biography

Early life

Cash was born in the village of Sleepy Hollow, Illinois, in the Northwestern suburbs of Chicago, on January 19, 1976. His parents, Fritz and Hannah (nee Smith) Aldrick, were teachers at a local elementary school. They died in a car accident while driving across the Fox River when Cash was 14. As they had no extended family, Cash spent the rest of high school living with an elderly pastor of the Evangelical Free Church his parents had attended.

During his senior year of high school, Cash began dating Greer Gallagher, whom he'd known for a few years at Dundee-Crown High School. During their short relationship, Cash learned about the abuse Greer suffered from her alcoholic father, Gerry Gallagher. Following their graduation, Cash helped Greer escape to Colorado. In the months that followed, Cash was dogged by rumors that he had killed Greer, since they had agreed that they would not tell anywhere where she was going lest her father find out.

A few weeks later, Cash met Rose Peralta and quickly fell in love. As Cash was beginning to clean up his life after several months of hard living, Rose suddenly told him she never wanted to see him again. Within a few days, he drove to St. Louis, where he lived out of his car until he was able to start college the next semester.

Professional life

Education

Cash received his BA in Theological Studies from St. Louis University in 1998, focusing on textual interpretation and ethics. He considered for a while going into the priesthood, but could never regain the faith of his childhood. He was then accepted into the MA program in Anthropology at the University of Mississippi. He received his Master's degree in 2001 and moved to Baton Rouge to study literature at Louisiana State University. His dissertation, Something in the Shape of a Contradiction: The Hero and the Temptress in the Novels of Wilkie Collins, was well-received by his committee, and he received his Ph.D. in May 2006.

That summer, he was hired as a temporary, full-time instructor of English at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he remained for three years. He started with the vision of being the teacher who convinces resistant students to love learning. During that time, he taught first-year composition and World literature survey classes on a 5/5 load. He failed repeatedly to get the chapters of his dissertation published, but felt too exhausted by the work of the dissertation and by his heavy teaching load to write anything new. By the start of his the fall semester of his third year at SLU, he had given up on academia, feeling that the exhaustion he felt would never end.

Police Officer

On a whim in August 2008, he applied to become a police officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department. He was accepted and began his training while making a minimal effort to teach his classes at SLU. All of his assigned readings were mysteries and crime fiction. He graduated from the BRPD Police Academy in June of 2009.

His three years as a police officer were a constant struggle between the boredom of traffic duty and the unethical methods of arresting juveniles and minor offenders, who were always African American, on drug charges as a means to fight the "War on Drugs". Cash found himself constantly questioning the motives of his colleagues as well as his own actions. Eventually, he felt like he couldn't continue and turned in his badge.

Bartender and Private Eye

Out of a job, Cash fell back on work he had done in college and grad school, bartending. He took the first job he could find, working the bar at the Best Western Plus near Armstrong Airport. He spent most of his two years at this job reading. While working the late shift, he spoke with a guy who had spent the past five nights at the bar. After a number of conversations, the guy admited that he was a private investigator who was trying to get pictures of a cheating husband. Eventually, he encouraged Cash to become an apprentice investigator to help him out. For the next three years, Cash worked for the Malone Agency as an apprentice investigator while continuing to bartend. During most of that time, he ran background checks for employers, spied on cheating spouses, and took pictures of people who had filed false worker compensation claims for insurance agencies.

In 2016, having gained the necessary experience and having saved up a considerable amount of money, Cash started his own company, Epic Investigations. He rented a small office space in the Warehouse District of New Orleans. For the next four years, he had mild success, telling himself that he wanted to focus on real mysteries while still mostly taking pictures of people who were lying to their spouses or their bosses.

In March 2020, Cash went into full lock-down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Struggling to pay his bills, he accepted a job from a family in Donaldsonville to clean up the online presence of their teenage son who they saw as the next Garth Brooks. His success with that assignment led to a few smaller but similar projects. That June, he was contacted by his high school girlfriend, Greer, to find out what happened to her father after he declared bankruptcy and disappeared in 2000.

Relationships

Cash has only had two significant relationships in his life, both as a young man, both ending badly. Throughout his 20s and 30s, he dated casually without much effort, often with long spans of being completely single. He barely remembers the names of the women he dated at that time.

Greer Gardner

Cash met Greer in high school. They were friends with the same people for a year or so, following the death of Cash's parents, but did not take notice of each other until the beginning of their senior year, at a Halloween party for which he dressed as Fox Mulder and she dressed as an alien. Neither had done much dating before then.

Glencoe beach on an overcast day

Much of their relationship that year occured in response to the abuse Greer suffered by her father. Cash felt intensely responsible for Greer's safety while also feeling incapable of helping, as Greer refused to tell any adults about the abuse and always insisted on returning to her father after he had "cooled down". Although Cash was able to come and go as he pleased while living over the garage at Pastor Updike's house, he was unable to give her long-term shelter from her father.

One of the worst incidents occured on Thanksgiving, just a few months after they had started dating, and around a time when Cash was starting to feel that the relationship wasn't worth continuing. As a result of the abuse that night, both Cash and Greer committed themselves differently. Cash committed himself to protecting Greer as long as necessary; Greer committed herself to getting away from her father permanently. Cash came up with a way for Greer to leave immediately after graduation, if she applied to an out-of-state pre-college program. Although Greer did not like the idea of going that far away, Cash convinced her that it was for the best. He was motivated both by her safety and his own freedom.

Their final semester as high school students was stressful, as they both worked on their plan. Cash felt himself pulling away from his other friends in order to stay close to Greer, while his friends felt that he was simply not interested in their friendship anymore. They ditched everyone during prom because Gerry had given Greer a black eye that morning. When everyone saw Greer at school the following Monday, they assumed Cash had done it to her.

Following their graduation, a ceremony neither wanted to attend (although they had to attend to get their diplomas), they again skipped out on all the parties. Without telling anyone, Cash put Greer on a bus to Colorado, so she could start their early-enrollment program. They didn't speak again until 2020.

Rose Peralta

Rosamaria "Rose" Peralta

Cash met Rose in July 1994, six weeks after he put Greer on the bus. Rose worked as a tattoo artist in Carpentersville. For their first date, they skipped the fireworks and went to see a movie. Because Forrest Gump was sold out, they saw Wolf instead, and were both deeply disappointed. They dated throughout the summer, and Rose, who was two years older than Cash, helped him find an apartment to rent in Carpentersville, so he could get out from under Pastor Updike's roof.

Rose offered Cash a great deal of stability at a time when everything else had fallen apart. Their relationship was very calm but also very mature. It was radically different from his relationship with Greer, and Cash felt himself quickly falling in love, perhaps for the first time, with Rose. Although he felt guilty with the thought that he had shipped Greer off just to get rid of her and free himself of the burden of their relationship, he felt like he was growing into a real, adult relationship with someone he could spend the rest of his life with.

One night in October 1994, he came home to his apartment to find all of Rose's things gone. When he called her apartment, she didn't answer. The next day, when he went to her work, one of the large tattoo artists blocked him from entering and told Cash that Rose didn't want to see him anymore. There was no more contact. By the end of that week, Cash had gotten rid of all of his possessions and driven to St. Louis.

Rae Bordelon

During his first year as an independent investigator, Cash gave up his Mid-City rental and slept in the Warehouse District office space he rented for his agency. During down times with his job, he dreamt about living off the land, storing his own food, and going completely off the grid. Having saved up some money through a few good paying jobs, he bought a house in Dutchtown because he wanted some land and some space. While he was moving boxes of books into his new house, he was greeted by Rae, who lived down the road. She brought him a basket full of cans of pepper jelly and blueberry preserves.

Cash's house on the Bayou des Allemands

Cash and Rae became good friends, mostly becasuse Rae continued to show up on his doorstep and to drag him out of the house when she could. Cash enjoyed Rae's company, and liked hanging out with her and her daughter Sandy, but he never saw himself dating Rae, despite a certain physical attraction. On and off during the next three years, Rae dated Joey, much to the chagrin of Cash. Yet Cash never made an effort to become involved with Rae. If pressed, he would admit that Rae is the closest thing he has to a best friend.

During one her many breakups with Joey, Rae convinced Cash to spend Valentine's Day 2020 with her. The ended up sleeping together, but the next morning, Cash regretted it. He spent a few weeks avoiding her, but after an argument, slept with her again on March 20, with the Governor's stay-at-home order looming. He then used the pandemic as an excuse to not see her and later heard from Sandy that she'd taken Joey back in after he lost his job at one of the local chemical plants. Sandy also told Cash that she always felt uncomfortable around Joey.

Cash taught himself how to hack someone's WiFi network and how to access a computer on that network. As a result, he was able to record Joey's browser. After a few weeks of spying, he had collected plenty of evidence of Joey's viewing of porn involving teenage girls. He made copies of all the materials and sent them to Rae, who promptly kicked Joey out of her house.

Hélène MankMank

Cash met Hélène after calling the police when Joey attacked him. Beyond an immediate physical attraction, he found her curiosity refreshing, as he'd become rather unintersted in most things during lock-down. His early hesitation to respond to her interest in him had mostly to do with her age, as she is almost 15 years younger than him.

Characteristics

Physical Appearance

Cash Aldrick

Cash is slightly tall, an even six feet, and rather slim. To keep himself inside and to alleviate some of the boredom of lock-down, he has developed an extensive yoga practice, which he does every morning at sunrise. The yoga has given him more tone and definition without making him bulky.

Cash has a lot of energy, although many people do not seem him exerting that energy. He is always doing something, even though that may simply be thinking deeply about something. He sleeps only about five hours a night, staying up rather late, but still getting up with the sun. He does not need to keep constantly on the move; however, he can get fidgety if he feels "trapped" into sitting still.

Were it not for the bit of gray in his hair and his beard, most people would think him a few years younger than his current age of 45. Previously, he'd kept his hair in a messy shag, but it has grown down to his shoulders in the past six month. In order to make it seem neater, he began undershaving it with an old set of clippers. Most days, he pulls it back in a ponytail and doesn't think any more about it. He currently keeps his beard at the same length as the shave part of his head.

In the summer of 1994, Cash got into a number of fights with former friends. The worst of those fights led to a broken nose. Never having it properly set, Cash now sees the prominent and crooked nose as his defining characteristic.

Most days, Cash wears a t-shirt, jeans, and steel-toed work boots.

Tattoos

Cash had always been enamored by the idea of tattoos, but after dating Rose the tattoo artist, he become a convert. His back and upper arms are covered in tattoos of literary quotations that mark various stages of his life. He has not gotten a new tattoo since the one marking the completion of his doctoral studies. He rarely thinks about his own tattoos anymore, and is often taken aback on the rare occasion that someone asks him about them.

Personality

Cash's 1948 Chevrolet 3100

Cash has a fairly laid-back attitude about most things. He rarely gets upset about things, but he also rarely gets very excited about things. His detachment grows from his belief that life is both absurd and meaningless. He sees no use in over-reacting to the things that happen in life. The pandemic has only solidified this way of thinking for him.

Cash's success as an academic and as an investigator so far was always his ability to recognize patterns and connections that other people don't see. This has also made him a quick learner and someone who can easily adapt to a given situation. He feels he has recently struggled with this inate ability, blaming it on the "COVID Fog", although he also acknowledges that he could just be getting old. When in the depths of such thinking, he is easily distracted, almost to the point of obsession. Once the patterns and connections are identified though, he can easily become bored. Likewise, his once very good memory seems to be struggling.

Health

Cash has always been in good health, even as he lived a hard life. After giving up on academia, he stopped drinking entirely for a number of years, having been a heavy drinker of mostly bourbon for throughout grad school and his time as a professor. He was never able to give up his smoking, though, until Louisiana legalized medical marijuana. He know smokes a few joints each day thanks to a prescription for PTSD. When he turned 40, Cash began drinking red wine after five years of complete sobriety. On the recommendation of his doctor, he drinks two to three glasses a day, but sometimes finishes the bottle in one night. He accepts that his addictions are more to the actions than to the substances. He simply enjoys the physical habits of smoking and drinking.

Plot Synopsis

Get It All Back

Act I

Cash is a private investigator who, although he had been planning on getting out of the business, during lockdown, has taken on a few jobs through which he scrubs the online reputation of clients. One day, just after Louisiana has started to reopen in June, he is contacted by Greer, his high school girlfriend, who now goes by Gwen. Eventually she admits that she wants to hire him to find out what happened to her father and to offer a better life story. Cash resists the request, but after an encounter with Joey, the ex-boyfriend of his friend Rae, he sees the job as an opportunity to atone for his failure to properly "save" Greer from her abusive father when she was younger.

Act II

Cash begins his work in Sadie, Louisiana, an old mill town, where Gerry, Greer's father, may have been in 2005. With no luck at town hall and the police station, Cash visits the library and works through old newspapers looking for any clues. While there, he is assaulted by two police officers, but in the process, gets a hint at where to look for information about Gerry. The trail eventually leads him to the owner of a hardware store, who directs Cash to talk to Crazy Charley. Charley chases Cash off before providing any answers, but a message from Charley's wife directs Cash to the local hospital. Cash hacks into the hospital's system and learns about Gerry's medical problems and surgeries. While there, though, he watches through his home security system as Joey breaks into his house. When he tries to get back home, he finds his tire slashed and has to spend the night in Sadie. The next day, he drives around Sadie with Hal, the owner of the local newspaper, to get a spare.

Cash makes connections about how someone knew he was in Sadie looking for Gerry. While doing so, he learns that the same person is following Hélène and Sandy on Instagram. With Hélène's help, he sees that the connection began when he first visited the library. Hélène then spends the night.

Act III

Returning to Sadie, Cash tracks down Wilson, the librarian who helped him in his research, and finds a phone number but no address for Gerry. After a scuffle with Wilson, Cash finds a collections of news clippings about the fires that followed recent storms in Sadie. Before he can do more, he is contacted by Rae, who tells him Sandy is missing. Cash texts Hélène for help. Before leaving, Cash hides his phone in Wilson's car

Back in Dutchtown, Cash finds Sandy and Hélène at his house. After taking Sandy home, Cash talks with Rae about his relationship with Hélène. Afterwards, Cash tracks Wilson's movements through his phone and finds a remote location that seems like a possible hiding place.

At Gerry's shack, Cash is overwhelmed and tied down by Hal and Wilson. Gerry appears, ghostlike and barely lucid, but makes Wilsonshow a video that presents his side of the story, and reveals to Cash that he is the one who scared off Rose. Before Gerry can talk about his life after Katrina, Sandy scares off Wilson and Hélène overpowers Hal.

Act IV

Cash and Hélène spend two weeks in quarantine together after learning that Gerry had COVID. During that time, Cash figures out that what connects the four from Sadie is a series of fires in the wake of Katrina, which culminated in the death of an unknown person when the old newspaper offices burned down. Cash hacks into the newspaper's web server and revises a number of old articles to implicate Hal, the owner.

Hélène was troubled by Cash's willingness to break the law in order to hassle Hal. On the Fourth of July, Cash learns that his New Orleans office has burned down and that a body has been discovered inside. Learning that the body is Joey, and understanding that Hal set the fire, Hélène walks away, overwhelmed by the cascading consequences of Cash's actions.

Act V

The day after Hélène moves out, Cash watches Sandy and her friends playing on his dock and wonders what they will remember of the pandemic.