Episode 208: Riverview
Alex: From Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale, it's season two of The Black Tapes Podcast. I'm Alex Reagan.
This season, we're continuing our exploration of the Strand Institute's enigmatic president and founder, Dr. Richard Strand. We're telling the story of the black tapes in order, every two weeks. So if you haven't listened to the first few episodes, go back and start there. We'll be here when you get back.
Alex: We have a lot to get to this week, including a trip across the 49th parallel. But before Nic and I could load up his Volvo and head up to Canada to look into the Thomas Warren situation, we had a code to break.
A book cipher works as a kind of security through obscurity. This particular type of cipher uses a specific book as its key. The numbers often lead to page word combinations, but there are other ways to use this system. No matter how you use it, there's one constant: both correspondents must have not only the same book, but the same edition as well. In this case, we knew the book. It was Nine Stories by JD Salinger. We just needed to find the right edition. Strand seemed to think Coralee had a few versions. She loved that book. Luckily, Nic Silver loves that book as well.
Alex: I wanted to push Strand, to ask him what he knew, or thought he might know, about whoever could be holding Coralee. But he sounded like he needed a break. And... well, Nic and I had a date with sexy James Bond in Canada.
Alex: We did have a lead. It took a really roundabout way to get to it, however. I'll explain. When we booked our hotel, I called some old friends to let them know I was visiting Vancouver. One of them is a location scout for a movie production company. She put me in touch with the security company hired to guard one of their sets. This is one of the managers, Alexander Comp. He asked me to call him Xander.
Alex: Riverview Hospital, formerly known as Riverview Mental Hospital, is located about 12 miles east of Vancouver in Coquihalla, just north of the Fraser River. Opened in 1917, Riverview grew throughout most of the century until it reached over 4300 patients. Due to defunding, it eventually closed in 2012. The buildings remained, and since the late 1980s, its long empty halls and lush surrounding forest have become a favorite location for film and TV productions, including everything from The X-Men, The X-Files, Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, The Killing, and countless others.
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Alex: I arranged to meet Xander at his offices later that day. He let us borrow the box for research. I brought it back to the hotel so I could go through it with Nic. The box was one of those large filing boxes. It was marked "E. Hausdorff." There were several folders stuffed with administrative papers, almost all of them moldy from poor storage. The ones that were in tact had nothing to do with E. Hausdorff. The dates on the papers ranged from 1971 to 1975. I was beginning to think that Xander was right, that this box was just for set decoration. But there, at the bottom of the box, sealed in a plastic bag, was an envelope. Inside the envelope, several photographs and an audio cassette tape marked "E. Hausdorff."
Nic and I got our hands on an old cassette player from a friend the next day and listened to the tape. I'm going to play it for you now, without interruption.
Alex: There was no record of a patient named Hausdorff ever having been registered in British Columbia. Aside from the blank hospital administrative papers, we have no evidence that any of this is authentic. But the eerie parallels to Simon Reese are... unsettling, to say the least. In the plastic bag with the cassette tape were several photographs, each was a picture of a wall. And each wall was filled with tiny, hand drawn numbers. Thousands of them.
Three of the drawings contained drawings of shadow men, similar to the ones from Urraca Mesa and the caves at Bath, but no upside down faces. Here I am with Nic, immediately after listening to the tape for the first time.
Alex: I left a message with Three Rivers Hospital, asking to speak with Simon Reese's current doctor. In the meantime, while Nic and I waited for the convention center to open, I scoured the internet for any clues concerning the boy in the river that Cheryl Strand mentioned.
Dr. Strand and Cheryl grew up just outside Somerville, Pennsylvania. Redbank Creek runs right through the middle of the small town, which has a population of just over 500. I searched online for any reference to drownings in Redbank Creek near Somerville before 1990. Sadly, that stretch of water has seen more than its fair share of drownings, most of its victims teenagers and young adults. But I failed to find anything about a drowned boy. I delegated the search to our new intern in Seattle. It was time to head downstairs, to see if Thomas Warren was going to show.
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Alex: Well, Warren was a no-show. But on our way out of the convention center, Nic's phone started ringing. This was odd for three reasons. One, his ringtone was Tainted Love by Soft Cell, not the old fashioned phone sound that was currently coming from his jacket pocket. Two, his phone was turned off. And three, his phone was in the back pocket of his jeans.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a cell phone. Someone had slipped it into his pocket at some point. I turned on my voice recorder.
Alex: Nic asked me if I was comfortable talking to whoever was on the other line. I nodded and he passed me the phone. There was a woman on the other end. At least, it sounded like a woman. Her voice was treated somehow, like a kidnapper asking for ransom. She said to meet her in the parking garage. Yes. The parking garage. This was really happening.
Alex: Nic and I came up with it at exactly the same time. Leave a physical unstamped letter in a mailbox on a certain street in Portland. Whoever she was, she, presumably, travelled all the way across North America to be here now.
Alex: Sammie had a lot to tell us. That's right, her name, or, the name she gave us, was Sammie. We took her for dinner and had a long talk about a whole bunch of interesting things, including the reputed photograph of the Advocate, which was why we'd gotten in touch with her in the first place.
We'll have more on Sammie soon, but in the meantime, Nic spoke to a friend of his from the University of British Columbia, right here in Vancouver. We were actually getting quite a bit accomplished during our trip to Canada.
Nic sent the photos of the crazy numbers to a friend of his from his Dungeons and Dragons days. His friend's name is Steve. Steve teaches advanced mathematics at the University of British Columbia. He insisted on FaceTiming me.
Alex: So, Steve was convinced the photos we found in that plastic bag with the cassette marked "E. Hausdorff" were more sacred geometry. Nic took photos of those photos and emailed them to Strand back in Seattle. He called about an hour later.
Alex: We'll have more on those photographs next time. But now, I have an update on a boy and a river.
Our intern has a wild imagination. I guess that's why we like her so much. So instead of simply doing an online search of a boy drowned in a river, she searched dozens of combinations of words. She didn't come up with much that was useful until she typed the words murder, boy, and river into the search engine. That turned up something. The body of a boy who had gone missing for eight days had been discovered near Redbank Creek in 1976. His name was Bobby Maines. She was unable to find any more information online, but we were able to speak with somebody close to the case. That's coming up. Next time.
During our search into the missing boy, I received a message from Fred Barnes, the administrator of the hospital housing Simon Reese.
Alex: It's The Black Tapes. I'm Alex Reagan. We'll be back again in two weeks.
The Black Tapes Podcast is a Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale production. Recorded in Seattle and Vancouver. Produced, mixed, and engineered by Nic Silver. Edited by Nic Silver and Alex Reagan. Executive producers Paul Bae and Terry Miles.
Thank you so much for listening to The Black Tapes.
This season, we're continuing our exploration of the Strand Institute's enigmatic president and founder, Dr. Richard Strand. We're telling the story of the black tapes in order, every two weeks. So if you haven't listened to the first few episodes, go back and start there. We'll be here when you get back.
Alex: We have a lot to get to this week, including a trip across the 49th parallel. But before Nic and I could load up his Volvo and head up to Canada to look into the Thomas Warren situation, we had a code to break.
A book cipher works as a kind of security through obscurity. This particular type of cipher uses a specific book as its key. The numbers often lead to page word combinations, but there are other ways to use this system. No matter how you use it, there's one constant: both correspondents must have not only the same book, but the same edition as well. In this case, we knew the book. It was Nine Stories by JD Salinger. We just needed to find the right edition. Strand seemed to think Coralee had a few versions. She loved that book. Luckily, Nic Silver loves that book as well.
- Nic: I buy Nine Stories every time I see it in a used book store, I have at least one copy of every edition... and more than one of some others. It's a thing. I give them away as gifts. I do the same thing with a few other books, why are you laughing!?
- Alex: (laughing) Nothing, just... book nerd!! So it was a code?
- Nic: A book code. The first number is the page, the second is the word. You take the first letter of every word and it spells out a message.
- Alex: What message?
- Nic: Okay. (long pause) "Leave me. Find Advocate. Simon Reese."
- Alex: Wow.
- Nic: Yeah. It sounds like Coralee has been keeping up with our progress.
- Alex: Well, if this message actually came from Coralee.
- Nic: Either way, I think you should call Strand.
- Alex: Yeah.
-
- Strand: "Leave me. Find Advocate. Simon Reese."
- Alex: That's it.
- Strand: She is listening to your podcast.
- Alex: That's what Nic and I were thinking. So I should edit out the part about Coralee listening? In case somebody's monitoring her?
- Strand: No. They know.
- Alex: You think so?
- Strand: Yes. I'm gonna need some time with this.
- Alex: Oh. Okay.
- Strand: Okay.
Alex: I wanted to push Strand, to ask him what he knew, or thought he might know, about whoever could be holding Coralee. But he sounded like he needed a break. And... well, Nic and I had a date with sexy James Bond in Canada.
- (car engine humming)
- Nic: So?
- Alex: Where are we? For our listeners.
- Nic: We are currently on the I-5 heading north to Vancouver, British Columbia. We are on the trail of the elusive Thomas Warren.
- Alex: And did we get confirmation that he's going to be at this conference?
- Nic: We did not.
- Alex: Okay. So... why are we driving all the way to this energy conference in your non-energy efficient car?
- Nic: Because, as you know, we're finding it impossible to reach Thomas Warren through regular channels.
- Alex: Right.
- Nic: Also, we have a lead.
Alex: We did have a lead. It took a really roundabout way to get to it, however. I'll explain. When we booked our hotel, I called some old friends to let them know I was visiting Vancouver. One of them is a location scout for a movie production company. She put me in touch with the security company hired to guard one of their sets. This is one of the managers, Alexander Comp. He asked me to call him Xander.
- Alex: Xander, can you describe for our audience what you do on these movie sets?
- Xander: Sure, I'm a manager at Citadel Securities. We're the number one provider of set location security in Vancouver and the lower mainland.
- Alex: And you know my friend Sarah from working with her on one of her movies?
- Xander: Yeah, her company works with us a lot, so I talk with her frequently.
- Alex: Okay. Can you take us back to the night of April 7th, 1993?
- Xander: Sure, but I told this stuff to Sarah a long time ago, like five years maybe? Why the interest now?
- Alex: Well, when Sarah and I were catching up and I told her what I'd been working on, she mentioned you might have something that could be of interest to me... For my show.
- Xander: A movie?
- Alex: No, it's a podcast.
- Xander: Oh-okay, well.
- Alex: So, April 7th, 1993. Do you remember which movie set you were working?
- Xander: It's a television show, and I don't think you want me to say the name, do you?
- Alex: Right, no (laughs), just uh, kind of a description.
- Xander: Okay well, it was very popular back in the day. About two people who hunt ghosts and aliens and things of that nature?
- Alex: Right. And... back then, you were a security guard for the company?
- Xander: Part time, yeah. I was working the night shift.
- Alex: And where was this?
- Xander: Riverview.
Alex: Riverview Hospital, formerly known as Riverview Mental Hospital, is located about 12 miles east of Vancouver in Coquihalla, just north of the Fraser River. Opened in 1917, Riverview grew throughout most of the century until it reached over 4300 patients. Due to defunding, it eventually closed in 2012. The buildings remained, and since the late 1980s, its long empty halls and lush surrounding forest have become a favorite location for film and TV productions, including everything from The X-Men, The X-Files, Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, The Killing, and countless others.
- Alex: So, this was the early 90s. A lot of the hospital had been abandoned by then, I understand?
- Xander: Yeah. It was really creepy. Each guard took a wing, so I was off on my own in the north side of this huge hospital. All we had were these walkie talkies and flashlights.
- Alex: And you were protecting sets?
- Xander: Yup. A lot of work went into these things, all kinds of elaborate set design. So sometimes on weekends, the hospital would attract teenagers, mainly looking for a creepy place to drink and get scared. Kind of a real life horror movie.
- Alex: Right. And on that night, what happened?
- Xander: Well, it was around two in the morning when I heard a noise coming from the far north end of the main corridor. I went to check it out, and saw someone walking out a side door. I called for backup, and we chased the guy into the forest. We lost him. On our way back in, we had to do a sweep of the back staircase, and that's where I found it.
- Alex: What did you find?
- Xander: I-I found this cardboard box in a closet.
- Alex: What was in it?
- Xander: Well, my buddy and I went through it and found all these old patient materials. All yellow with age, mildew. We were worried about black mold and the possibility that somebody was missing some records somewhere, so in the morning we called our boss and he contacted the Ministry of Health. The told us to just keep the box on site until they could send someone out to look at it. It turns out no one can figure out who it belonged to. The patient had never been registered in the province. So our boss figured it's probably a prop from another production company, and they accidentally left it there. We ended up moving it out to our main office and it's been there ever since.
- Alex: But why did you keep it?
- Xander: It just didn't feel right to throw it away, you know. In case somebody needs it or something.
- Alex: Right. Mmkay, so, have you ever looked closely at the files themselves?
- Xander: Not me personally, 'cause I don't do well with that kind of stuff. But I've heard all about it.
- Alex: S-sorry, you don't do well with what kind of stuff?
- Xander: You know... messed up stuff.
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Alex: I arranged to meet Xander at his offices later that day. He let us borrow the box for research. I brought it back to the hotel so I could go through it with Nic. The box was one of those large filing boxes. It was marked "E. Hausdorff." There were several folders stuffed with administrative papers, almost all of them moldy from poor storage. The ones that were in tact had nothing to do with E. Hausdorff. The dates on the papers ranged from 1971 to 1975. I was beginning to think that Xander was right, that this box was just for set decoration. But there, at the bottom of the box, sealed in a plastic bag, was an envelope. Inside the envelope, several photographs and an audio cassette tape marked "E. Hausdorff."
Nic and I got our hands on an old cassette player from a friend the next day and listened to the tape. I'm going to play it for you now, without interruption.
- (following audio is muffled and poor quality)
-
- (tape clicks on)
- Man: The patient is growing increasingly paranoid. Given his callous disregard for his fellow patients and the recent injuries incurred, it was recommended that the patient be moved to the north wing, where his immediate physical needs can be better met.
- (tape clicks off)
- The recent court diagnosis of schizophrenia has forced my hand. We'll begin administering chlorpromazine today. I would like to continue my psycho-social interventions since they seem to be having a positive effect on the patient's mood.
- (tape clicks off)
- I further recommend increased security in the north wing after the recent altercation.
- (tape clicks off)
- The patient has been given conditional supervised employment in the hospital library. This seems to be having a positive effect on his mood, although his obsessive drawings continue.
- (tape clicks off)
- The patient's employment in the hospital library has been revoked after the latest emotional outburst. His talk of the adversary has had a widely disturbing effect on the other patients.
- (tape clicks off)
- Today he had to be sedated by hospital staff when he caused a disruption in the cafeteria, when he stood on a table and started screaming about a quote, "shadow army and the end of days."
- (tape clicks off)
- The patient's access to the cafeteria will be restricted, and I recommended he take his meals in his room until further notice.
- (tape clicks off)
- After two months of investigation, I ruled out dissociative identity disorder. This adversary that the patient claims to be hearing is consistent with episodes from past records, with no change in his personality. The records and photographs verify this. We will continue his program for another month. An increase in dosage is recommended.
- (tape clicks off)
- Staffing issues continue to pose challenges to the safety of the others in the north wing.
- (tape clicks off)
- The patient in 207 is now mimicking Hausdorff's behavior, claiming visitations by dark, ghostly women.
- (tape clicks off)
- The patient is somehow gaining access to his fellow patients at night. Four patients are claiming nightly visitations by ghostly figures, and two of them claim that a tall, dark man came to them in their dreams and left illegible scribbles on their walls. If security issue's not addressed, I fear a form of mass hysteria will continue to spread throughout the north wing.
- (tape clicks off)
- The patient is recovering in the infirmary. He has lost vision in one eye, possible permanent damage to the lens of the other. At times, he's cognizant of the fact that he did this to himself. Other times, he insists on blaming someone he calls "Mr. Splitfoot." He's undoubtedly reenacting his crimes against himself. If this is an indication of self-knowledge, it is possible that the treatment is working.
- (tape clicks off)
- The patient claims he was not trying to blind himself, but to, quote, "peel his face off." The treatment is not working.
- (tape clicks off)
- (0:17:40.2 cannot make out audio) staffing situation is presenting issues with round the clock surveillance.
- (tape clicks off)
- In lieu of other options, it's recommended that we consider the alternative treatment recommended by Father Agostini.
- (tape clicks off)
- Father Agostini's procedure seems to have had an ameliorating effect on the patient. I'm not quite sure how to categorize it. My theory is that, given the patient's religious upbringing and his obsession with biblical imagery, the presence of the priest and the act of casting out the devil may have induced some kind of psychosomatic response.
- (tape clicks off)
- The patient may have convinced himself that he is healed, and is now simply acting the part.
- (tape clicks off)
- It has been five days and the patient has shown no signs of regression. The administration has recommended he return to his duties working in the hospital library, on limited supervised shifts. There have been no recurrence of the writing on his walls.
- (tape clicks off)
- The patient has been sedated and is under 24 hour supervision. He's confined to his room. The victim has been moved to the Vancouver General Hospital for emergency surgery. The librarian believes... the patient was trying to peel off the victim's face. We're still trying to determine how the patient got his hands on that butter knife.
- (tape clicks off)
-
- The hysteria has somehow spread through the north wing. It is likely that the library incident was the catalyst for this. There are now six patients who've drawn on their walls in imitation of Hausdorff.
Alex: There was no record of a patient named Hausdorff ever having been registered in British Columbia. Aside from the blank hospital administrative papers, we have no evidence that any of this is authentic. But the eerie parallels to Simon Reese are... unsettling, to say the least. In the plastic bag with the cassette tape were several photographs, each was a picture of a wall. And each wall was filled with tiny, hand drawn numbers. Thousands of them.
Three of the drawings contained drawings of shadow men, similar to the ones from Urraca Mesa and the caves at Bath, but no upside down faces. Here I am with Nic, immediately after listening to the tape for the first time.
- Nic: Mr. Splitfoot? That is really creepy.
- Alex: Yeah.
- Nic: That sounds familiar, have you...?
- Alex: I, I dunno.
- Nic: No?
- Alex: But, he also mentioned the adversary.
- Nic: Twice.
- Alex: That's just too coincidental.
- Nic: Yeah, I agree.
- Alex: It's as if... Simon Reese used this as inspiration or something. Except there's no way he could have heard this. Could he?
- Nic: I dunno, it doesn't seem like it.
- Alex: Yeah.
- Nic: This box really conveniently landed in your lap though.
- Alex: What do you mean?
- Nic: I mean... how well do you know your friend?
- Alex: We grew up together. Our families know each other well. There's no way she's involved in any of this. She wouldn't even have told me about it if I didn't mention the subject of our podcast.
- Nic: Okay, so that leaves Citadel Security.
- Alex: And they have an excellent reputation. I mean, look at the mold on the documents in the box. That would be hard to fake.
- Nic: Yeah. That's true.
- Alex: I really do think they just found it there at Riverview and forgot all about it.
- Nic: Right.
- Alex: I have a theory.
- Nic: I have one too. You first.
- Alex: (amused) Okay. I don't think Simon's a unique case. What if there are others like him?
- Nic: Okay.
- Alex: What if... what if something's spreading? Like... a virus. And it's been happening for decades, maybe more than that.
- Nic: Hm.
- Alex: What if Simon and... H-
- Nic: Hausdorff.
- Alex: What if Simon and Hausdorff are just the tip of the iceberg? Like, what if there's more of them?
- Nic: (breathes in) Hmm. Maybe. I dunno.
- Alex: Okay. Well, what's your theory?
- Nic: Okay, it's not that far off from your theory actually.
- Alex: (laughing) Okay.
- Nic: What if it's not spreading like a virus, but more like a meme? What if there are people going around spreading this strange apocalyptic gospel? Maybe the same group that's been teaching scary songs to children.
- Alex: Hm.
- Nic: Whether you wanna call them the Order of the Cenophus or the Brothers of the Mount, or whatever, couldn't some group be spreading this message to... a captive audience?
- Alex: Captive? Uh, you mean mental hospital patients?
- Nic: Well, that's easier than... I dunno. It sounds pretty crazy.
- Alex: I know, well, that would mean... what? The doctors are helping spread these ideas?
- Nic: Doctors or priests. What was that, um, priest's name?
- Alex: Oh um, Father Agostini.
- Nic: Right. Father Agostini. If he's still around, maybe we could ask him some questions.
- Alex: Wait. Simon Reese was experiencing these things before he killed his parents.
- Nic: Do we know that though? I mean that's what he told you, but he was young at the time, and he's had a lot of time to formulate convincingly creepy narrative theories in the hospital.
- Alex: Hmm, yeah. Well that's true. Well, if we can find out who had access to Simon, maybe we can find out where he got his ideas.
- Nic: Maybe, yeah.
- Alex: Yeah, I'll call Three Rivers.
Alex: I left a message with Three Rivers Hospital, asking to speak with Simon Reese's current doctor. In the meantime, while Nic and I waited for the convention center to open, I scoured the internet for any clues concerning the boy in the river that Cheryl Strand mentioned.
Dr. Strand and Cheryl grew up just outside Somerville, Pennsylvania. Redbank Creek runs right through the middle of the small town, which has a population of just over 500. I searched online for any reference to drownings in Redbank Creek near Somerville before 1990. Sadly, that stretch of water has seen more than its fair share of drownings, most of its victims teenagers and young adults. But I failed to find anything about a drowned boy. I delegated the search to our new intern in Seattle. It was time to head downstairs, to see if Thomas Warren was going to show.
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Alex: Well, Warren was a no-show. But on our way out of the convention center, Nic's phone started ringing. This was odd for three reasons. One, his ringtone was Tainted Love by Soft Cell, not the old fashioned phone sound that was currently coming from his jacket pocket. Two, his phone was turned off. And three, his phone was in the back pocket of his jeans.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a cell phone. Someone had slipped it into his pocket at some point. I turned on my voice recorder.
- (phone ringing)
- Alex: Answer it.
- Nic: Hello? (long pause) It's for you.
- Alex: Oh.
Alex: Nic asked me if I was comfortable talking to whoever was on the other line. I nodded and he passed me the phone. There was a woman on the other end. At least, it sounded like a woman. Her voice was treated somehow, like a kidnapper asking for ransom. She said to meet her in the parking garage. Yes. The parking garage. This was really happening.
- Alex: I don't have any reception on my phone.
- Nic: Yeah, me either.
- Alex: What are we gonna do if it's a trap?
- Nic: (amused) I can't believe you just said that.
- Alex: I know (titters).
- Nic: Cloak and dagger.
- Alex: Yeah.
- Nic: So what now?
- Alex: (calling out) We're here!
- Nic: Okay, that's one way to go.
- (footsteps)
- Woman: Hello.
- Alex: Heyy.
- Nic: Hi.
- Woman: What do you guys want?
- Alex: Um, well. You slipped a strange phone into his pocket and then mystery dialed us later, so...
- Woman: You got in touch with me first.
- Nic: I don't think so.
- Alex: Wait... are you...?
- Nic: Portland, Maine!
Alex: Nic and I came up with it at exactly the same time. Leave a physical unstamped letter in a mailbox on a certain street in Portland. Whoever she was, she, presumably, travelled all the way across North America to be here now.
- Alex: Wait, you came all the way from Portland, Maine to Vancouver just to see us?
- Woman: No. That would be crazy.
- Nic: Right. Okay, so what then?
- Woman: I came here because I thought Thomas Warren might actually show up this time.
- Alex: You're after Warren too?
- Woman: Obviously.
- Alex: Right.
- Nic: Obviously, of course.
Alex: Sammie had a lot to tell us. That's right, her name, or, the name she gave us, was Sammie. We took her for dinner and had a long talk about a whole bunch of interesting things, including the reputed photograph of the Advocate, which was why we'd gotten in touch with her in the first place.
We'll have more on Sammie soon, but in the meantime, Nic spoke to a friend of his from the University of British Columbia, right here in Vancouver. We were actually getting quite a bit accomplished during our trip to Canada.
Nic sent the photos of the crazy numbers to a friend of his from his Dungeons and Dragons days. His friend's name is Steve. Steve teaches advanced mathematics at the University of British Columbia. He insisted on FaceTiming me.
- Alex: Hi, Steve! Thanks for helping us out.
- Steve: No worries. Is, uh, is Nic there behind you somewhere?
- Alex: No, no, it's just us.
- Steve: Tell Nic he's welcome to rejoin our game. I promise not to kill his character in the first five minutes... again.
- Alex: Rejoin? Uh, how long has your game been going on?
- Steve: 20 years this August.
- Alex: Oh, wow. Um, that's impressive.
- Steve: I know! (laughs)
- Alex: (laughs uncomfortably) So, what do you make of our mathematical graffiti artist?
- Steve: Oh, this is much more than graffiti. Like, much more.
- Alex: Don't tell me. It's sacred geometry?
- Steve: Um, yeah. How'd you know that?
- Alex: I've seen this stuff before.
- Steve: Really? Like this?
- Alex: Well... maybe not so small and intricate, but yes, these types of numbers. Although there were symbols as well.
- Steve: There are actually symbols here, tiny ones. In the numbers. If you magnify.
- Alex: You're gonna have to walk me through this.
- Steve: My pleasure. You know, you really should be on TV, not radio.
- Alex: Thank you.
- Steve: Sure.
- Alex: Right... so...
- Steve: Okay! Uh, these are all expressions of the golden ratio, the equations here. Also known as the golden mean, or divine proportion. That is the golden ratio, or phi. It has very simple uses like computing the greatest common divisor of two integers. Real basic Euclidean algorithms and stuff.
- Alex: Of course. Basic.
- Steve: Yeah! But this, this. This takes all of it to another level. I mean, we're talking grand unifying theory. Mind of God stuff here.
- Alex: Could you maybe try and bring that stuff down to basic as well?
- Steve: Okay... do you remember what an isosceles triangle is?
- Alex: Uh, remind me.
- Steve: It's a triangle with two equal sides.
- Alex: Right, okay, I do remember that.
- Steve: We all grew up with isosceles triangles, so it's understandable that you take them for granted. But, they are fascinating. For example, if you take a few standard triangles with angles of 108, 36, and 36 as I'm doing here, you get something very interesting.
- Alex: A star?
- Steve: A pentagram! Now, see these groups of lines here? Those are concentric circles showing integrability. How things fit together in our universe and beyond, though unseen. These points here inform a sigil, a sign from Medieval pagans.
- Alex: Sorry, a sigil?
- Steve: In Latin in means seal. It was traditionally used as an incantation in pagan sorcery to conjure up ancient demons.
- Alex: Conjure...
- Steve: Demons.
- Alex: Right. Demons. And conjure as in... summon them?
- Steve: Yes. Or, seal them in the underworld away from our realm for our own safety. It all depends on the numbers, symbols, and their positions.
- Alex: Uh, okay. What does the rest of it mean?
- Steve: Here's where it gets pretty cool. See these three intersections? These three points represent a rejection of the holy trinity. Basically what you have here is one of the oldest equations known in mathematics.
- Alex: How do you know all this? This doesn't sound like any math I've heard of.
- Steve: I'm... something of a master.
- Alex: You have a degree in this stuff?
- Steve: No, I'm a Dungeon Master.
- Alex: Dungeons and Dragons.
- Steve: You can laugh, but I'm quite familiar with this stuff, especially in the domain of sacred geometry as it lines up with my area of interest in the occult.
- Alex: So, the person who wrote all this on his walls, what's his message?
- Steve: I can't tell from these fragments, but the world, the universe, is ruled by mathematical principles. Those principles also point to other dimensions. And certain geometric patterns occur throughout nature in beautiful mathematical simplicity. This is one of those patterns. And don't be fooled into thinking this is all obsolete, just 'cause it's ancient. We're still using this kind of thinking to move us forward.
- Alex: You mean... technologically?
- Steve: I mean quantum mechanics. They're both focused on the fringes with gateways, paths to other dimensions. We've been looking for these pathways for thousands of years.
- Alex: Wow.
- Steve: Yeah!! I feel like now might be the right time for me to ask you out for dinner.
- Alex: (long pause) You do?
- Steve: Did I misread the situation?
- Alex: Maybe a little.
- Steve: Coffee?
- Alex: (takes a breath in) I'll tell you what. If you're ever in Seattle, we can have a coffee together. Uh, with Nic, in the studio.
- Steve: With Nic?
- Alex: I'm afraid so.
- Steve: You and Nic are, um...
- Alex: Coffee. In the studio.
- Steve: Got it.
Alex: So, Steve was convinced the photos we found in that plastic bag with the cassette marked "E. Hausdorff" were more sacred geometry. Nic took photos of those photos and emailed them to Strand back in Seattle. He called about an hour later.
- Strand: I found something in those photos.
- Alex: (surprised) What?
- Strand: Watchers.
- Alex: Watchers? What, like Giles on Buffy?
- Strand: I don't know what that is. Is that in England?
- Alex: So not.
- Strand: I'm talking about something similar to the guardians of the Pelori.
- Alex: The Pelori?
- Strand: People refer to them as blacklings, imps, satyrs. Rumplestiltskin was one of them. A kind of evil leader, if you believe folktales can actually come to life. They were tasked with watching the chosen, the children. Each Pelori would have to stay with the child, protecting and guiding them until they grew up. Until they were old enough to... make the sacrifice.
- Alex: The sacrifice?
- Strand: Yes. They bleed the children on the altar, to the old god.
- Alex: Wow.
- Strand: It's pretty dark stuff.
- Alex: Does this give us anything we can use as far as... anything?
- Strand: Well, like a lot of mythology, religion, and superstition, not everything is literal.
- Alex: No?
- Strand: No. These numbers and symbols point to another kind of watcher. A guardian. A protector. Someone or something that watches and only steps in when necessary, or when their steward is ready.
- Alex: Ready for what?
- Strand: I don't know. Those pages are missing.
- Alex: You got all of this from those tiny numbers and symbols?
- Strand: I called a friend.
- Alex: Right. Well, could you get your friend to send over everything he or she was able to glean from those photos?
- Strand: She.
- Alex: I'm sorry?
- Strand: My friend is a she.
- Alex: ...Okay.
- Strand: I'll have her send everything over. We're still going through her notes as well.
- Alex: We?
- Strand: Yes.
- Alex: Okay... Well. Thanks.
- Strand: You're welcome.
Alex: We'll have more on those photographs next time. But now, I have an update on a boy and a river.
Our intern has a wild imagination. I guess that's why we like her so much. So instead of simply doing an online search of a boy drowned in a river, she searched dozens of combinations of words. She didn't come up with much that was useful until she typed the words murder, boy, and river into the search engine. That turned up something. The body of a boy who had gone missing for eight days had been discovered near Redbank Creek in 1976. His name was Bobby Maines. She was unable to find any more information online, but we were able to speak with somebody close to the case. That's coming up. Next time.
During our search into the missing boy, I received a message from Fred Barnes, the administrator of the hospital housing Simon Reese.
- Fred: Hello, this is Fred Barnes calling for Alex Reagan. You'll probably be hearing about this soon, but I wanted to let you know personally. Uh, well. We went to check on Simon Reese this morning and... Well, he wasn't there. He's... Simon is... missing.
Alex: It's The Black Tapes. I'm Alex Reagan. We'll be back again in two weeks.
The Black Tapes Podcast is a Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale production. Recorded in Seattle and Vancouver. Produced, mixed, and engineered by Nic Silver. Edited by Nic Silver and Alex Reagan. Executive producers Paul Bae and Terry Miles.
Thank you so much for listening to The Black Tapes.