Cash Aldrick
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Case Garland (b. 1975) 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 Des Allemands, Louisiana. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he developed a knack for and reputation as an online presence fixer.
Biography
Early life
Case was born in the village of Sleepy Hollow, Illinois, in the Northwestern suburbs of Chicago, on January 19, 1975. His parents, Fritz and Hannah (nee Smith) Garland, were teachers at a local elementary school. They died in a car accident while driving across the Fox River when Case was 15. As they had no extended family, Case 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, Case began dating Greer Gardner, whom he'd known for a few years at Dundee-Crown High School. During their short relationship, Case learned about the abuse Greer suffered from her alcoholic father, Nick Gardner. Following their graduation, Case helped Greer escape to North Dakota. In the months that followed, Case 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 months later, Case met Leslie Goss and quickly fell in love. As Case was beginning to clean up his life after several months of hard living, Leslie suddenly told him she never wanted to see him again. The next day, 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
Case received his BA in Theological Studies from St. Louis University in 1998, focusing on textual interpretation and comparative religions. He was then accepted into the MA program in English at the University of Mississippi. He received his Master's degree in 2001 and moved to Baton Rouge to continue his study of 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. During that time, he taught first-year composition and American 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 boredome 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". Case found himself constantly questioning the motives of his colleagues as well as his own actions. Eventually, he flet like he couldn't continue and turned in his badge.
Bartender and Private Eye
Out of a job, Case fell back on work he had done in college and grad school, bartending. He took the first job he could find, working the bart 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 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 Case to become an apprentice investigator to help him out. For the next three years, Case 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, Case 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, Case went into full lock-down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Struggling to pay his bills, he accepted a job from a family 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
Case 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
Case met Greer in high school. They were friends with the same people for a year or so, following the death of Case's parents, but did not take notice of each other until the beginning of their senior year, when a large group had a bonfire on Glencoe Beach before classes started. Neither had done much dating before then.
Much of their relationship that year occured in response to the abuse Greer suffered by her father. Case 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 Case 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 Case was starting to feel that the relationship wasn't worth continuing. As a result of the abuse that night, both Case and Greer committed themselves differently. Case committed himself to protecting Greer as long as necessary; Greer committed herself to getting away from her father permanently.
Their final semester as high school students was stressful, as they both worked on their different plans. Case 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 Nick had given Greer a black eye that morning. When everyone saw Greer at school the following Monday, they assumed Case 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, Case put Greer on a bus to North Dakota, so she could start any early-enrollment program for college. Except for a few phone calls during that summer, they didn't speak again until 2020.
Rose Peralta
Case met Rose in June 1998, a month after he put Greer on the bus to North Dakota. Rose worked as a tattoo artist in Schaumburg. Their first date was to see The X-files movie, which they were both deeply disappointed in. They dated throughout the summer, and Rose, who was two years older than Case, helped him find an apartment to rent in Carpentersville, so he could get out from under Pastor Updike's roof.
Rose offered Case 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 Case 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 1998, he came home to his apartment to find all of Rose's things gone. When he calls her apartment, she doesn't answer. The next day, when he goes to her work, one of the large tattoo artists blocks him from entering and tells Case that Rose doesn't want to see him anymore. There is no more contact. By the end of that week, Case had gotten rid of all of his possessions and driven to St. Louis.
Rae Bordelon
During his first year as an independent investigator, Case 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 Des Allemands 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 a few houses down the road. She brought him a basket full of cans of pepper jelly and blueberry preserves.
Case 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. Case 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 Case. Yet Case 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 Case to spend Valentine's Day 2020 with her. The ended up sleeping together, but the next morning, Case regretted it. He spent a few weeks avoiding her, and then used the pandemic as an excuse to not see her. He 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 Case that she always felt uncomfortable around Joey.
Case 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 Mank
Case 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
Case 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.
Case 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, Case got into a number of fights with former friends. The worst of those fights led to a broken nose when a skinhead headbutted him. Never having it properly set, Case now sees the prominent and crooked nose as his defining characteristic.
Most days, Case wears a t-shirt, jeans, and steel-toed work boots.
Tattoos
Case 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
Case 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.
Case'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
Case 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, Case 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.
