The New Atonement Chapter 1: The Tip

Sam Rutkowski and Casey Wood had dreams of being ace reporters. The goal was forty years ago too short. Forty years, writing for a tabloid is not a dream. The only ace reporting is celebrity break-ups, drug use, and weight issues. Nothing about foreign affairs, political woes, and murders of newspaper value. Sam, Casey thought that was the case after college. The newspaper business went in a different direction. Being co-editors of a junior college paper got them far as a tabloid called, Hearsay. They spent the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s writing reports base on tips. Tips from the usual suspects of family and friends superstars. Their pay was fair and livable. Sam, Casey didn’t care about rich pay, they wanted to report on real issues.

Forty years later the two men may get that chance. A black billionaire from Atlanta bought the tabloid. Clarence Foster sold CDs after High School graduation out of his car. He invested that money in technology produced in Atlanta. Took the dividend to sell real estate to foreigners looking to live in Atlanta. Clarence expanded his money to the media. He made a small step in buying the tabloid Hearsay. Clarence took pity on two sixty-year-old reporters trapped in journalism Hell. He decided to turn Hearsay into a serious paper. No more stories about celebrity break-ups, drug use, and weight issues. “Hearsay” made a move from print to net around the 2000s. It’s easy for Clarence to modernize the paper. Sam and Casey had to learn to use the computer to get the stories out there. They consider the processor like a new typewriter; if attached to a flat screen monitor and mouse.

Now that the Hearsay is a real newspaper there needed to be a serious news story. The young journalists are investigating stories they worked on since being hired. Sam and Casey are in the process of finding a story. They're used to getting tips for their stories back in the days of the tabloid format. Clarence pitied the old men. They needed a serious story and not just a story about a celebrity. He took a shot at bringing back a tip line. This time, no tips on personalities, their break-ups, drug use and weight issues. Sam, Casey didn’t mind a suggestion on politicians. It meant they’d go to Washington D.C. to cover politics. The old Hearsay readers were not followers of the tip line rules. Still calling to report a celebrity drug use, sex life, and weight issue. The two men used to hear these tips.

One night in Clarence penthouse apartment above the Hearsay building. Sam, Casey ordered pizza to eat while observing the tip line. Clarence became fascinated with hearing Sam, Casey tales of Hearsay. Back in the day when it once was a tabloid. He was surprised to hear no mention of crazy alien stories. The old owner didn’t like aliens, due to nightmares of aliens as a child. They did get tips on alien sightings. They never reported on those tips for the owner sake. Casey remembered one tip they got that could be a significant news story. In the middle 80s, a Catholic priest got a seventeen-year-old girl pregnant. He was a high ranking priest in his state. The owner didn’t want any stories on religion either. Just gossip about celebrities and their woes. Two decades later, the Boston Globe broke the news about sex abuse of children by the Catholic priest. Clarence took aback by the ignorance of a real news story. A real story that took decades to blow up.

“That real news wasn’t the only real news tips Hearsay got,” Sam added an extra surprise to the conversation. After eating his pizza, Sam took the elevator down to the office. Ten minutes later, Sam gave Clarence a large yellow envelop stuffed with papers.

Clarence couldn’t imagine the number of tips leading to serious news. Soviets were hiding weapons among the Amish in America. Rich Americans were trafficking drugs through golf courses. News stories were worthy of a Pulitzer or at least a spot on the nightly news. Clarence continued to be amazed at Sam and Casey. Staple to the tips was professional reports on those tips. Clarence became so into the stories, he didn’t touch any more pizza. Sam, Casey ate the remaining slices while viewing Clarence reading their reports.

“We knew the publisher wouldn’t run the tips. So, Sam, me took the tips and wrote reports in our spare time for fun.” Casey explained, after drinking his soda from a red solo cup.

Clarence couldn’t believe the amount of information the two men put into their reports. At the same time writing terrible stories on Hollywood elites. Even if, the reports were between thirty and twenty years old. “I have to publish these articles. I don’t care if they’re over thirty years old, people need to see this”, Clarence held a couple of papers at Sam and Casey. “Your former publisher is a ‘dickhead.’ I’ll send these reports to legal, proofreader and webmaster for publication.”

“But Clarence, these reports are outdated. There’s no way today standards would understand.” Casey caution Clarence about the period these fake articles.

Clarence didn’t care about the history of the reports. He cared about what talent wasted at the Hearsay. Something from the past needs recognition for the future. One of the stories Sam wrote in 1987 rang truth today. There was a cover-up of brutality against gay black men by black police officers at the Florida Keys. That article will be Sam first accurate news report at Hearsay. Clarence promised to write a forward to explain to readers why the article was in 1987. Sam was glad all over to have a severe news story published at Hearsay. Casey wasn’t jealous of Sam being the first. He knew Clarence would release one of his reports soon. Clarence didn’t mind Casey invading his liquor cabinet for a bottle of wine. Sam grabbed a couple of wine bottles. The trip to the kitchen wasn’t hard, just a few steps from the living room. Clarence would join the celebration in a couple of minutes. He went to another room to scan the article to send to the editor. The editor sent a copy to a lawyer. Legal department approves the report. The article posted back to the editor for proofreading. The final text of the article made to the webmaster hands around two in the morning. While Sam report edited, the three enjoyed a bottle of 160-year-old wine.

Before Clarence bought the Hearsay, the old owner installed a sound on the company computer. A loud ding meant someone submitted a tip. Still hyper from the celebration wine; Clarence, Sam, and Casey were ecstatic. They took a power walk of a few steps on the left side of the room. Clarence jolted his mouse side by side to wake up the computer. His first task as a new user of the company computer is to delete old useless tips. Easy to find new tips after a clear inbox. They search for a location, then a subject of the tip. The area; a mid-size town in Oklahoma. The topic; documents regarding the Catholic church in the state of Missouri. An image file was attached to the tip. Old, yellowish, typed paper was scanned to fit a computer screen. The person connected ten pages of old documents. Clarence printed all the scanned documents for further observing. They thought the Boston Globe had done this story.

The tipster provided clarity in the text box.

My Grandmother worked for the Archdiocese of St. Louis at the age of 6. They moved her to a new position when she turned 12. She didn’t have much schooling, they taught her the basics of reading and writing for her new job. Her job was to do bookkeeping for the church business. When she was 18, she ran away to Oklahoma. She took all the documents she worked on with her for future discovery. Now that she’s dead I have the records and ready to share with you. My Lutheran church/school are in need of money. By giving you these documents, we hope to be paid for giving you this tip.

The tip didn’t sign with a personal name, but the name of the Lutheran church/school; Holy Cross. Clarence made an Internet search of the church/school location in Oklahoma. The population of Patches, Oklahoma is twenty thousand. Town mayor is Rad Bell. A middle-aged, white man. With a white comb-over hair. Holy Cross isn’t the only church in Patches. Three other churches occupy the town. Two Baptist and a Methodist surround the general town area. There are two small public schools outside the city. An elementary and high school. A middle school divided between the primary for sixth, seventh and high school has the eighth. The town website states Holy Cross school is an all grades school. Holy Cross the church was established in 1930. Holy Cross, the school, was created in 1950. The church/school has a twenty-year difference between their establishment. The town website had the church/school website listed. When Clarence clicked on the link, the link was dead. Instead of showing info, pictures of Holy Cross, a 404 error appeared on the screen. He did get the information of address and phone number on the town website.

Sam, Casey, and Clarence reviewed the scans while finishing the rest of the celebration wine. Every page was a list of names and currency amount. The date on one of papers was 1936; the tipster grandmother would’ve been seven at the time. She worked for the Catholic church when she was six. There’s no way the child typed this document at seven. Casey did notice another page had the date 1941 on it. That’s the year the child turned twelve, thus promoted to doing secretary work. The list of the documents puzzled the men. There are names, next to the names were amounts of money. Every name was a number with no dollar sign. The numbers range from four to eleven. The gender of the names was mixed, no single gender. The boy names listed with high amounts than the girls. That finding disturbed the men. The three men remembered science class and the lessons in experimenting. They come up with a hypothesis to the papers.

“Do you think these documents are settlements to an abuse case?” Sam made his hypothesis.

“It’s strange to see an eight-year-old case of abuse in the Catholic church. On the other hand. The abuse has happened beyond the 1960s.” Clarence pointed out after Sam hypothesis.

They looked further into the documents. Casey noticed a memo on top of one page dated 1938.

"All children on the list checked. The clients have made payment for the child. May do what they please with a child. Bring child back by next morning for examination and cleaning for next client. "

After reading the memo, Casey shook in fear. Sam, Clarence took noticed of Casey reaction. “Check the memos of some these documents! There are not settlement numbers.”

Sam, Clarence abide by Casey words. Sam noticed the same memo on a list dating back to 1934. Clarence saw the same memo in a 1943 document. The documents resemble an old database; before the invention of computers. The three men are familiar with blockchain and cryptocurrency. The digital concept is all over the Internet news. The more Sam, Clarence read the documents, the more they see a blockchain of children. The two men made a scared reaction to the papers. They quickly flop the articles on the coffee table. Their bodies rattle with shock after seeing the “big picture” in those documents.

“These are not settlement money indeed,” Clarence exclaimed frighteningly. “I know people in this business.”

Sam, Casey heads pop to Clarence direction. Clarence's eye widened in surprise. “I just sold CDs out of my car! I just hustled CDs to people who’ve done that business.” Clarence defended himself from the silent opinion.

Sam reassured Clarence, “We believe you. We’re processing the truth in these documents”.

Casey followed suit by shaking his head in agreement with Sam.

The memos on each document expanded into something terrifying. It's child prostitution. The memos state payment for a moment with a child. It gave strict instruction to return child by morning. There's one guideline that opened the box. "The examination and cleaning of each child for next client." The money listed next to each child was not money for the child. Each child had a price listed with their name. Clarence didn’t understand why so cheap for a child. Some children priced at twenty dollars. Other children priced at fifty dollars. Casey schooled Clarence about the price difference. Twenty to fifty dollars weren’t considered cheap in the era of the Great Depression. The men were more disturbed seeing an equal number of boys on the list. Their price was the same as the girls. Sam wonder why the age of the children wasn’t listed. Casey wondered the same. He did double check the tipster note. The tipster grandmother worked for the church at six. They moved her to secretary work at twelve. Casey made a rough figure of ages between six to eleven years old.

Casey grandson suggested jotting his notes on a cell phone. Just in case he spontaneously gets an idea or formed a rough draft on the go. Sam though the idea was weird but convenient. He too jotted down notes and rough drafts on his cell phone. They grab their cell phones to write down letters on the findings of the documents. Clarence went to his computer to check out more information on Patches, Oklahoma. The article was far from written. Sam assumed Casey and him would go to Missouri. In hopes of getting more evidence through the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Clarence made the call to his assistant on booking a flight on his private jet. The jet is sitting in a hanger for months at a small airport in New Jersey. This developing news story is a good reason to fly the plane again.

“Clarence, when to do we leave,” Casey asked Clarence while reading more into the documents.

“Ten in the morning, enough time for you two to eat breakfast on the train to Jersey,” Clarence answered back from the computer.

“Missouri is not that far from Jersey? Enough time for lunch, dinner, and research.” Sam predicted the timing of the trip.

“You’re not going to Missouri. You're going to where the main evidence is, Oklahoma”, Clarence made the reveal to Sam and Casey. Afterward, he took his glass of wine and made a sip.

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