Alone

[Wayne23]

8/21: We offer to 3 PFs.

8/22: I went to the school and hung around in the teachers' lounge for most of the day, interviewing teachers when they came in. Also talked to the secretaries, the administrators, the custodians. They won't let me speak to any students.

Syla had no known enemies, no one she was having any sort of a dispute or feud with, no one on the staff that she had problems with.

8/29: There's an ex-boyfriend, Roger Bell. I spoke to him. He admitted that the break up was not friendly. She started seeing the florist before breaking up with Bell and when he found out he wasn't happy about it. He felt used and cheated on. No alibi. He lives alone and says he was sleeping that morning. Didn't wake until 8:00, got to work at the auto body shop at 9:00.

9/5: Edgar Ward is the father of a student who is failing English. He called both Syla and the Principal repeatedly, accused Syla of picking on the son, not liking him, singling him out. He was rude, argumentative, and had made threats.

I interviewed him:

"I'm glad the bitch is dead but I didn't kill her. Whoever did, they did the town of Mayne a favor. She was a lousy teacher and she gave athletes bad grades. My son couldn't play soccer because of the grade in her class. He is passing everything else."

He said he was home at the time of the murder then headed for work at about 7:30. His wife and two children supported that story.

9/12: 3rd suspect, Billi Cleve. She was a student teacher under Syla. Syla failed her, said she simply wasn't suited to teach. Billi now works as a waitress and is very bitter.

"I went all the way through school and right at the end she destroyed my chance for a career. I thought I did a great job in her class. It was clear to me that she didn't like me right from the start."

Billi works dinner through closing, has no alibi. Says she sleeps late because she gets home late at night.

9/18: Nobody signed but 2 are close.

Going to the Tip-Off.

9/19: Interviews with teachers about the parent, Edgar Ward, and the student teacher, Billi Cleve.

It's clear that Ward was a real trouble maker. He'd made things as difficult as possible for Syla, with the administration, with the school board, on social media. He was doing all he could to get her fired. But it wasn't working. Syla had support from the administration and from the community. Her job seemed safe and other students in the class were posting that Ward's son wasn't handing in his work and was disrespectful.

According to the other teachers Billi Cleve didn't dress or act or speak like a teacher. All who I spoke with said that while they had not seen her in the classroom she just didn't seem like a professional educator to them.

All circumstantial but both Ward and Cleve were definitely still suspects.

9/25: Got two, #384 and 429, lost one.

9/26: Syla's friends didn't like the ex boyfriend, Roger Bell. They all had less than positive things to say. He was rough around the edges, didn't seem to treat her well or to show in any way that he actually cared about her. They suspected that he might have been abusive. The current bf is viewed as a nice guy.

10/2: 1st day of practice. We're solid in the back court but we only really have two decent inside players. We'll play small ball.

We lose another recruit.

10/3: Back to the police. Nothing new. No DNA evidence that was unexpected. Nothing on the victim. Prints in her apartment were the people expected, friends and the boy friend.

10/10: Letting the evidence settle and thinking about the case. No new avenues to explore for now.

10/17: I talk to Syla's parents. Nothing helpful. There's a sister. I'll track her down.

10/24: The sister mentions that the ex was kind of a playboy. She says he saw other women and boasted about it to Syla.

10/31: I talk to the ex, Roger Bell, again. He's not cooperative. When he actually answers a question it's a yes, a no, or a very brief reply.

11/7: One of the other detectives finds a knife that they believe is the murder weapon. No DNA or prints. I visit the homes of the three suspects. No knives matching the one we found. If it was part of a set I didn't see any evidence that the set was in any of these three homes.

[Wayne23]

11/13: Season starts tomorrow.

11/14: 92-75 over Princeton here. Balanced scoring, 5 players had between 13 and 16, and the next two had 9 and 8.

Off to the Tip-Off vs. #1 seed, #5 ranked Oregon. Tough match up.

I play a hunch and go to the home of Patrick Brine, Syla's bf when she died. He gives me permission to check his knife drawer, not knowing that we found the murder weapon. Sure enough, he has a set of knives to match the one weapon, and that particular knife is not in the drawer. I ask him about it and he claims that he has no idea what happened to it. I ask when it disappeared.

"I don't know. I don't use it that often and it kind of stays in the back of the drawer. When Syla died and I found out it was a knife, for some reason I looked for it, and it wasn't there. It could have been gone for a day or for months. No idea."

This is not enough to arrest him but it is suspicious.

11/18: 74-88. They took an early lead and we never caught up. We played them even for the last 30 minutes or so but it was too late. 16 for PF Anei Cana, 11, 9 for Ram Masi, who plays C this season.

7 of our next 8 and 8 of our next 10 are on the road.

11/21: 86-67 at Omaha. Easy but costly win, more on the latter in a minute. Houk led us with 19. 14 and 12 for 6th man F/C Tony Trax.

Starting C Ram Masi broke his right wrist and is out until about the end of January. Trax will take his spot. Damn!

11/22: Nothing new on the murder.

11/24: 80-70 over North Florida here. 18, 8, 5 with 4 steals for Houk. +8 RBs, 7 TOs. Glad to see the RB #, with Masi out, but the next 6 are on the road.

11/28: 79-69 at North Alabama. 20, 5 for SG Ben Tarr, 16, 7, 4 for Houk, 16, 7 for Trax.

11/29: We're having an unusually severe rainy season, nothing like we've seen before. Much heavier, almost torrential rains, higher temps, some wind. There have been lots of days when the robotic crews could not do outdoor construction. Nothing close to a hurricane but it's wet and there are flash floods and puddles everywhere.

I'm spending a lot of time at Patrick Brine's flower shop and talking with and watching him and his assistant, Patty Lowe. Nothing more than a hunch but she is definitely hot for him. I can't tell about his feelings. If there are any he's masking them very well when I'm here. And Patty is not warm and fuzzy when I speak with her. It seems like she resents my presence. She is very guarded.

12/1: 72-50 at Florida A & M. 25, 2, 4 for Houk, 19, 12 for Trax, who has really stepped up. +11 RBs, 11 TOs.

We're not playing tough teams but so far we're doing what we need to do.

5-1, RPI #68.

[Wayne23]

12/5: 82-72 at Howard. 17, 13 for Trax, 18, 7 for Houk, 18 for sub guard Rob Wilk. 10 TOs.

Billi Cleve has left town. No one seems to know where she went. We want to know. The rules of this murder mystery are that everything happens in the town of Mayne so we can't leave town to find Billi.

12/8: 75-73 at Grand Canyon. We blew a 17 point lead. They took their first lead, 73-71, with 41 seconds left. We came down and they fouled PF Jess Hunt, our worst free throw shooter. He hit both ends of the one and one to tie it with 36 seconds left. They worked the clock down to 7 seconds, took a 15 footer and missed. Trax got the RB, got it to Tarr, who hit a 17 footer with less than a second to play for the win. Tarr led us with 21, 1, 5. -8 RBs, which is unusual for my teams. We hit 13 threes, which is also unusual, and that made the difference in a real nail biter.

12/12: 91-64 at Kansas City. A real blowout. 21, 6 for Trax, 21 for SF Anei Cana, 18 for Wilk. 5 TOs but -5 RBs. Hm...

A week off, which will be nice, given how long this road trip is.

Still no sign of Billi. Edgar Ward continues to be rude and very difficult to deal with. Nothing new on anything else. I spend a lot of time at the school and at the flower shop, just observing and asking the occasional question.

12/19: 72-81 at Merrimack. We almost got through the long road trip without a loss, but not quite. Their starting guards killed us, 41 points, 11 assists, only 3 TOs. 19, 7 for Trax, 16, 4 for Houk. Only +1 RB. We're definitely missing Masi, but he won't be back for a long time.

12/22: I'm still curious, to say the least, about Patty Lowe. Something doesn't quite come together...

Another week off and our next game is at home. After that it's conf play.

12/26: 88-71 over North Texas here. Easy win. 22, 8 for PF Jess Hunt, 21, 6, 5 for Tarr. +8 RBs, 10 TOs.

1/1/2228: 9-2, RPI #101 to end pre-conf play. +10.1 PPG, +3.3 RBs, -6.4 TOs (10.8). 6 players average between 15.5 (Houk) and 9.0 PPG. Hunt leads us with 8.2 RBs and Trax gets 7.7. Houk gets 4.1 assists.

I'm trying to subpoena bank and credit card records for Syla and for lots of the people of interest- Edgar Ward, the disgruntled parent, Billi Cleve, who is still missing, Roger Bell, the ex-bf, Patrick Brine, the current bf, and Patty lowe. They are all fighting the subpoenas and all of them have lawyered up.

[Wayne23]

1/2: 83-74 at Boise ST to start Mountain West play. We were down 13 early in the 2nd half. 30, 6 for Trax. +14 RBs.

1/4: 86-63 over Fresno ST here. We led all the way. 27, 8 for Trax, 20, 3, 6 for Houk. 5 TOs.

1/9: 73-52 at UNLV. This is the team that owned us last year so this is a good sign! 20, 4 for Trax. +12 RBs.

I get the subpoenas for all of the bank and credit card records as well as all phone records. Going over everything will take a few days.

1/11: 95-91 in OT over a tough San Jose ST, here. Houk hit a late three to get us to OT, and he scored the last 7 points during the OT, on 4 free throws and a three. He ended up with 31, 12, 5. 16, 7 for Trax, 12, 9 for Hunt. 11 TOs.

2 minor injuries, Trax's hand and Houk's shoulder. They should both be at or near 100% for our next game.

1/13: I've gone through all of the information- phone, bank, credit card. Nothing is jumping out at me as strange but I'll keep looking and re-looking.

1/16: 74-76 in OT at San Diego ST. A battle all the way. At the end they had the last possession and hit a 16 footer off a screen. The refs didn't help us; they went to the line 35 times and we went 20, but mo terrible calls at key moments. 17, 14 for Trax, 15, 4, 4 for Tarr.

1/18: 71-74 to Air Force here. NOT a good loss. We blew a 17 point lead and lost it on a buzzer beating three. Only 4 TOs but -8 RBs and 33.8% shooting, 6-28 on threes.

13-4, 4-2, RPI #68. Tied for 2nd, 1 back of 1st.

I'm still spending my time at the school and the flower shop. There's a very weird French teacher on the staff who looks guilty every time he sees me, but I see nothing to indicate that he has anything to do with the murder. Patrick Brine is cool as can be and Patty Lowe still seems a little off to me. Still no sign of Billi Cleve.

[Wayne23]

1/20: 76-69 over Colorado ST here. We were down as many as 11. 20, 4, 7 for Houk, 14, 9 for Trax. -6 RBs, 9 TOs.

1/25: 91-80 at 1st place Nevada. Great win! We were down 11 early. 15, 10 for Cana, 16, 1, 5 for Tarr. 11 TOs.
In a 4 way tie for 1st.

Masi will be back for our next game.

No way to know how the other guys investigating the murder are doing. This is set up strictly as a competition and we won't know anything until one of us solves the mystery.

1/30: 80-73 at Wyoming, one of the teams tied for the lead. Tied at the half. 21, 4 for Tarr, 18, 9 for Trax, who is now starting at PF. 10 TOs.

2/1: 77-61 over New Mexico here. 8 players had between 6 and 14. +10 RBs, 8 TOs.

Still a 3 way tie for 1st. Everyone else is out of it.

Nothing happening in the murder case.

2/6: 74-73 at Fresno ST. This was an escape- against a team with 2 wins all season. We didn't play well all night. At the end they missed an open three that would have won it.

2/7: I may have a breakthrough in the case. More later.

2/8: 80-56 over Boise ST at our place. Easy win. 26, 9 for Masi, 17, 12 for Cana. +22 RBs, 10 TOs.

We're alone in 1st. 19-4, 10-2, RPI #48.

I think I've solved it. Just a few details to wrap up.

[Wayne23]

2/12: 79-66 over UNLV here. We led all the way. 31, 5 for Masi, 17, 4 for Cana. 8 TOs but -13 RBs.

2/15: 73-79 at Air Force. Last season we couldn't beat UNLV. This season it's Air Force. -7 RBs, they shot 51%. 18, 10 for Trax.

1 game lead on San Jose ST and Nevada.

Patrick Brine came into the office.

"I think Patty did it."

"Why?"

"She's been dropping all kinds of hints about the two of us getting together. I keep telling her it's too soon; I'm not ready. I'm still mourning. At the end of work yesterday she said, 'I didn't do all of this for nothing, I hope.' When I asked her what she meant she walked out, got into her car and drove off, but on her way out the door she asked me if I missed my knife."

We brought Patty in and questioned her. It took a long time, but eventually she cracked and admitted to stealing Patrick's knife and using it to kill Syla. She knew the route Syla usually ran and parked at the most secluded part of it. When Syla ran to the spot she stopped. Patty said she had car trouble. She managed to get a totally unsuspecting Syla to turn her back somehow and she then slashed her throat and drove off.

We asked Patrick about providing an alibi for Patty and he said that she had just been gone for a few minutes on an errand and that he had forgotten about that until the arrest.

2/20: 89-60 over Nevada. 24, 11, 3 for Masi, 15, 6, 8 for Tarr, 16, 6, 5 for Houk. +16 RBs, 9 TOs.

San Jose ST lost so we have a 2 game lead with 3 to play.

2/22: 86-90 in OT at Colorado ST. We were down 28 early and by 20 at the half. We came all the way back and tied it at the buzzer, but big men Trax and Hunt fouled out and Masi had 4 in the OT and we didn't get it done. 29, 6, 3 for Tarr, 14, 9 for Trax, 14, 8 for Masi.

1 game lead over 2 teams, 2 over Colorado ST. 2 to play and they're both at home.

2/27: 69-46 over Wyoming. 14, 8, 6 for Houk, 14, 5, 4 for 6th man Jess Hunt.

3/1: 71-51 over San Diego ST and we win the regular season Mountain West. 15, 10 for Trax, 11, 5, 4 for Hunt.+16 RBs, 11 TOs.

3/5: 23-6, 14-4, RPI #39. +10.5 PPG, +3.6 RBs, -6.3 TOs- 10.7, the best for any of my teams so far. Trax leads us with 14.4 PPG, and Houk gets 14.1. Trax leads with 7.4 RBs, and Hunt gets 7.1 from the bench. 4.6 assists for Houk.

My friends and I are enjoying the break from the Scavenger Hunt and then the murder mystery but we're looking forward to other challenges.

[Wayne23]

3/7: We'll play #9 seed New Mexico, 15-15, 7-11, in the quarters. We won by 16 at home.

3/8: 88-63. Never a game. 18, 13, 6 with 6 steals for Masi. 13, 6, 6 for Houk. 10 TOs.

#4 seed Colorado ST, 20-11, 10-8, in the semis. We split a pair of close games.

3/9: 59-74. We got mugged. We shot 30.1% and were not anywhere near on our game. Awful.

This will hurt in seeding for the NCAA. We should be in with an RPI of 39, but without the tourney title we'll be a poor seed.

Colorado ST won the tourney.

3/12: play in game vs. Cincinnati, 19-13, for the #12 seed. Looks like a tough match up for us.

3/14: 78-75. Close all the way. We built a 7 point lead late and they chipped away. They got it to 1 with 4.4 left, fouled us and Houk hit both. They missed the potential tying three at the end. 18, 7 for Trax, 16, 2, 5 for Houk.

#5 seed, #18 ranked Maryland, 24-11, in the round of 64. It won't be easy.

3/17: 72-88. They were better. 26, 3, 5 for Houk but he didn;t get much help.

4/3: #7 Clemson wins the title.

We had a rough rainy season and we're having a rough winter. Temps in the single digits, just above freezing, occasional snow flurries, which we've never seen before, and moderate winds, which rarely happens.

4/4: Awards: Greg Houk is Def POY and 1st team in the MT West, along with Tony Trax. I am Conf. COY.

Would I move? Yes. It's time for a new challenge, but only with the right offer.

4/9: Visiting Colorado, Georgia, and Houston.

Going to Georgia. Not a bad team and they have some good people coming back and lots of good looking recruits coming in.

4/3: I ask for a facilities upgrade.

No.

25-8, 14-4; good season. Overall I'm 138-56, .711 for 6 seasons. On to a new beginning!

[Wayne23]

5/1: Recruiting class #38 for my new team, the Georgia Bulldogs.

6/5: Looking at transfers.

6/15: We get a good looking PG.

6/26: 4 scholarships. At least for now we're only looking at guards.

7/1: Total failure of the water filtration system. It is completely shut down. We've had problems with it before, but not like this. I have enough water for about 2-3 weeks. After that, if it isn't fixed, I'll need to boil water or come up with an alternate means of making it potable.

7/11: No fix with the water system yet. Several things have been tried.

7/21: The holo water expert has been unable to solve the problem with water filtration so far. He has come up with tablets for me to put in water I ingest in whatever form. The other consequence is that I can't leave the food prep to the holo because there's no way to get the tablets into the water used for cooking via the holo. So I need to do my own cooking in most cases. The holo can still make sandwiches and cook things that don't use water, but this has added to my work load.

7/31: The holo expert has tried all of the obvious solutions with no results. The system is broken. All we can do is 3D print a whole new system. That's a complicated and time consuming fix that will tie up lots of our resources for weeks. The holo expert wants to try a couple of long shots first.

8/15: We're going to print the new water filtration system. It should be ready to install by 9/5.

8/21: We offer to 3 PGs and an SG.

9/4: The water filtration system is now completed. It needs to be transported and installed, which will take another several days.

9/10: The water filtration system was put in place, "plugged in," and started up. It didn't work. The holo expert is looking at my videos and trying to come up with a solution.

9/14: Nothing is getting this replacement water filtration system going. I'm doing a lot more cooking than I want to and given that I drink a lot of coffee that adds up, too. I used to just get my coffee in the holo.

9/18: No commitments but I think we're close with a couple of guys.

We're in the Sunshine Shootout.

The holo guy says we need to print another water filtration system. He found an error in the print program for this one and there's no way it will ever worked. He fixed the error. It will be printed by about 10/9. Then another week or so to move and install. Damn!

9/25: We get 2 PGs, #71 and 137, and an SG, #52. I'm going to withdraw the offer to the other PG and go for a big guy.

10/2: 1st day of practice. We're picked to finish 4th. It's a tough conference and I'd be happy with that.

10/9: The new water filtration system is printed. The holo guy decided to have it checked out here before bringing it to its final location. That will take a few days.

10/13: The water filtration system looks to be 100% okay. It is now being moved and will be set up. We're a week away from turning it on.

10/21: It works! Now three days of testing water quality.

10/24: The water filtration system has passed all tests and I'm using it as of right now. Just made a cup of coffee.

11/11: Things are running smoothly in all areas. Spending the weekend on the boat with Lana, Emma, Jed, and Len.

We're about two years behind in the construction schedule. No doubt we'll fall even farther behind before the settlers arrive in 18 years or so, but there's not much i'm willing to do. I don't want to work any more than I'm already working. My mental health has been good to very good since I went to this work schedule and I want to keep it that way. I guess part of that is that the longer I'm here by myself the more real my friends become, and the more real the holo experiences become. Not sure how mentally healthy that will turn out to be when real people arrive, but it's keeping me going now, and that's what counts.

[Wayne23]

11/13: Season starts tomorrow.

11/14: 69-64 over Evansville here at the Coliseum. Down 4 at the half, 7 early in the 2nd half. Our big guys did a good job on the boards (+12) but couldn't score (24 points total for all big men). 19, 6, 4 for PG Valo Coli, 21 for SG Ram Eloi.

Another pretty active rainy season has slowed construction and made the whole settlement puddle city. It's difficult for me to get to construction sites to supervise. When I can;t supervise no work gets done.

11/17: 80-72 over Air Force here. We led all the way. 18, 7, 2 for Eloi, 19 for PF Tre Arin. +8 RBs, 12 TOs.

11/20: All three recruits sign. Still chasing a big guy.

11/21: 82-63 over IUPUI here. 17, 6, 5 for Coli, 13, 7, 5 for Stew John, his first good game. Maybe he's finding himself. 7 TOs.

Water is leaking into the dome. The rains have been heavy and continuous. We have a robotic crew working on patching and fixing all areas where there either are leaks, or might be future leaks. Another crew is cleaning up. There has been some damage. Not quite sure how much yet but we're checking.

11/22: The holo is down. No serious damage but some leaks, and we want to be sure everything is 100% okay before using it.

My living unit is dry. I'm living on packaged foods. I always have some of those available, just in case. It won't come to that but I could get by for at least a few months on this food. It's not very tasty though. And I'm making my own coffee. I managed to smuggle some out of the holo before shutting it down. Life without coffee would be unpleasant at best. I'll be fine but this will cause a further delay in construction since I need to remain in the dome to supervise and check in on the repairs and rebuilding.

11/24: 65-71 at Central Michigan. 1st road game, 1st loss. They led by 13 at the half. We never got it to a 1 possession game. The difference- and more, was at the line. They went 27 times we went 12. A lot of really questionable calls, and almost all of them favored them. 29, 3, 4 for Coli but no one else did much.

11/26: Repairs and shoring up to prevent future floods continue in the dome. The holo is still down, which leaves me really isolated. The robots are terrific workers but they are robots. They don't have any personality. Interaction with them is all business. I'm missing my "people." A LOT!

11/28: 93-64 over Bucknell here. Solid win. 23, 5, 8 for Eloi, 17, 5, 7 for Coli, , 15 for John. Our guards, at least so far, are our weapons on O.

11/29: A wall collapse on an outside wall in the dome. It happened during construction of water resistant walls and left a huge hole open to the outdoors. We quickly got that patched up with a temporary fix because the big cats and bears have been in the area regularly. The permanent fix will take some time so I'm going to be isolated until probably the end of the year. Damn!

12/1: 68-35 over South Alabama. Amazing D! 13, 7, 3 for Eloi, 13, 5 for John. +13 RBs. We held them to 19.6% shooting, 2-21 on threes.

5-1, RPI #256. We've been playing weak teams.

The collapsed wall is being fixed but it's complex. The patch is on the outside and the work is being done on the inside. They've partially enclosed the work area but there's a lot of noise and some dust and debris gets through.

Things are a lot less than pleasant around here and the solitude is getting to me. There's also the factor that without the holo there isn't much to do. I've reverted to coaching on my computer which gives me about 10% of the realism I get when coaching in the holo, but aside from reading there's almost nothing else for me to do so I'm coaching in a crappy atmosphere. And it's going to be this way for awhile. The coffee will run out before the repairs are completed even though I've cut my consumption in half. The food is lousy and there's not much variety. No good at all.

[Wayne23]

12/5: 85-55 over Charleston here. They had a 5-2 record and i looked for a tough game. Didn't happen. 14, 12 for John, 13, 3, 7 for Eloi. +13 RBs, 9 TOs.

Headed for the Sunshine Shootout. We're the #6 seed and we play #3 Oklahoma ST., 5-1.

Feeling very alone. I miss the boat. I'd LOVE to go for a boat trip with my "crew." I could hike on the planet but even with bodyguards the danger from big cats and bears is just too high. I get to construction sites with my 4 bodyguards and even that feels dangerous. I haven't mentioned it but the bodyguards are armed. They have a type of laser weapon. They usually just need to aim just in front of any animals that are looking dangerous but occasionally they have had to kill an animal when it became too aggressive.

12/9: 82-83. Tough loss. The game was close all night and there were 4 lead changes in the last minute. They won it on an off balance three with a hand in the shooter's face. I thought we played really well. +11 RBs. 16, 11 for PF Ban Spen, 14, 6 for Eloi, 12, 3, 7 for Coli.

12/12: 76-47 over Illinois-Chicago here. 25, 4, 6 for Coli, who is our go to guy. +19 RBs, 11 TOs.

A week until the next game.

12/15: Repairs and rebuilds have hit a snag. It turns out there is a problem with something in the holo. Some water damage to an important component. My holo expert cannot be used, of course, since he "lives" in the holo, but the robots think they can fix this by 3D printing a new copy of the damaged part. It will hold things up by a couple of days but they'll work on other things in the dome in the meantime.

12/19: 79-56 over North Carolina here. Okay, this year's UNC team is not their typical powerhouse (5-4), but still, a great win! 23, 4, 4 for Eloi, 20, 4, 5 for Spen.

Another week off, then the last pre-conf game, at Maine.

12/26: 71-68 at Maine. We led most of the way but they almost caught us at the end. They missed a three at the buzzer. 17, 2, 5 for Eloi, 10, 5, 7 for Coli. +7 RBs.

1/1/2229: We end pre-conf play at 9-2, RPI #70. +15.7 PPG, +9.7 RBs, -2.1 TOs. Eloi leads us with 15.7 PPG; Coli gets 14.6. John gets 7.1 RBs. Coli gets 6.0 assists.

I'm told repairs in the dome should be completed in a week or so, including in the holo. I certainly hope so. I'm not doing very well.