Well, that's something
It's probably not enough to justify all the poking around I did on the internet tonight (or, more accurately, last night and this morning), but it's interesting.

I got a W-2 form in the mail yesterday; I know, you're supposed to get them by the end of January, but it looks like Michelle didn't inform her previous employer of her new address, and it also looks like she moved twice last year - the address on the envelope is for a town in New Hampshire up near the Canadian border, but it's covered by yellow sticker that redirects it to Worcester, and then another which sends it here.

So, okay, even if I figure Michelle is probably an innocent dupe in all this, it's interesting to learn something of her life. It took some doing, though - the original address was for a town in the White Mountains, a bit north of Lancaster, and the company listed was just initials - LSZ Corp. A few rounds of Googling revealed a bunch of LSZs, mostly based out of Germany. I eventually found one in Bavaria that owned a similarly-named shell company in the US which operates a group of ski resorts in New Hampshire, Vermont, Colorado and California. The salary there is a little less than what I'm currently making at BioSoft, if I figure she was working there from January to April. I'm guessing she worked the front desk at one of the resorts, seasonal help, and then had to find a new job at the end of the season. This is all guesswork, I realize, but it makes a sort of sense; I can't find much else on the web about that town.

I'm not sure how much good that information does me. Hell, you can't call most of it information; all I really know is that Michelle lived in this town, moved to Worcester, then moved to Boston, and that while she was living in New Hampshire, she worked for this company. I really should rent a car some weekend and go up there, but it's kind of an iffy proposition - what if I meet somebody who knew Michelle before all this, which seems likely? Or even a family member? I sort of doubt the latter, since they'd likely know this address and phone number and would have tried to communicate around the holidays; does that mean Michelle's an orphan or something? Again, that would make sense, but I figure I should probably be somewhat wary of "deducing" too much; I'm not Sherlock Holmes and there's probably a bunch of other reasonable explanations.

The other address was a little more useful, though - well, maybe not useful, and it's in fact kind of a dead-end, but as soon as I plugged the address into search engines, I came up with several newspaper articles about a fire there. Apparently, it started in the kitchen of a restaurant downstairs and then spread. Didn't burn it down to the ground, but made it somewhat unsafe for continued habitation. I don't know if Michelle ever even found someplace to work in Worcester, since you'd figure they'd send a W-2 and it would only take one change-of-address bounce in the post office. I have to figure she must have known someone there - otherwise, well, why the hell would somebody move to Worcester? I went to school there, and unless it's changed drastically over the past decade, there's just nothing there. Drab little city.

So, now I've spent something like seven hours in front of this thing tracking this body's movements over the past year, and I wonder what I've gained. A little more of Michelle Garber's history, I guess, but unless I'm wrong about "the original Michelle" being just as much of a victim as "the original Martin" (I miss simple pronouns), what good does it do me? I guess it gives me a little more to investigate, though I don't know how much researching Michelle can tell me about the people responsible, unless a good chunk of what I've learned from Sam/Michelle and the person currently being Martin Hartle since the Christmas party is an elaborate lie.

(Great. Now not only do I have to get up in four hours, but that whole line of thought is giving me a headache)

-M
- posted 2:56 AM - - (archive use only)