Hmm… What do you think of something like this?
Hello Mr. Rank,
Good evening, I was wondering if you might be the same Martin Rank who wrote a piece about thirty years ago on Brandon Lachmann? He was a young boy found in an abandoned subway station in New York. I found your information through the Times and was wondering if you knew any more about the case.
Thanks for your time.
I won’t send it if anyone has any objections, but I figure it’s a pretty benign email.
Just throwing an idea out there:
Vanessa Bell was an artist and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. She had a daughter, Angelica Garnett, who was a writer (amongst other things). Vanessa has one work of art in Merseyside, at the Tate Liverpool, called Still Life on Corner of a Mantelpiece.
I’m not sure if this really fits but I’ll keep looking. This website is good to see what works of art are in Merseyside - you can put a date in the search bar and it will give you works that are in Merseyside from around that time.
Absolutely! Perfecto! 
Awesome, it’s sent! Hopefully we’ll get a reply. 
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Fingers crossed!
Morning recruits, @reesylou created a new Fragment Topic called The Unknown Illiomancer in Fragments. Splitting this one’s tricky because the fragment is so much a part of The Cagliostro and Lauren…
So for clarity’s sake, and for the sake of new recruits, let’s keep general Lauren/Cagliostro/Marty Rank chat here, and the search for the illlomancer here. Does that work for everyone? I am VERY open to opinions/options… I want the forum working for you as efficiently as possible.
Believe it or not, I have a life to live but I would much rather be here. That’s life out there, but this is home. 
That works, we can move talks of the unnamed illiomancer to the other thread. Thanks Endri!
Today’s random tin foil hat theory that’s probably wrong.
I figured I’d test my theory on what that symbol on page 7 was. I poked an old friend of mine who knows a thing or three about pagan symbols and wiccans and showed it to her. The first words of her mouth were ‘that means winter’.
Given that one of the first page is an arcane symbol or protection circle of some sort, and the last page is this rune I wildly guess that those runes are some sort of protective spell on the book, preventing it from being read. The approach of the winter solsitice in 2 weeks (In the Northern Hemisphere anyway) is one possibility for the reason the pages are beginning to be revealed.
If I guess right (and let’s face it, you don’t want to bet that I am) the book will become more readable approaching the 21st. Whether it becomes less readable after the 21st or remains that way for all of winter I don’t know, but it’d behoove us to keep copies of everything we get our hands on in case it fades away.
Holy cow, that’s brilliant. The idea that it becomes more readable the closer to the solstice is amazing. If you’re right, then we know we’ll have the full text by the 21st (or is it the 22nd this year–for some reason I think it changes every once in a blue moon). Great find and tell your Wiccan friend thanks for the help!
Just checked, and I’m afraid not. 
Hmm… I guess we can give it more time. I would send something else but I don’t want him to feel like we are bombarding him ^^;
Hopefully he’s just busy? Apparently things aren’t going well for him if the email is any indication. Actually, now that I think of it, hopefully he hasn’t been bumped off by whoever his enemies are. 
I’m sure he’s focused on whatever his current crisis is. Responding about a 30 year case might take him some time to refresh his memory what we’re even talking about. Still, this is a decent enough attempt to contact him without giving away how we know about him. I’d say hang in there and wait a few days more.
So I got a response from Marty today… 
Do you know that cult still has gullible folks emailing me this same thing every year? let it go. A kid died. End of story. There’s nothing else down there now but grief and misery.
Trying to figure out what to say to him. Guess he’s had at least minor encounters with the Devoted… I wonder what they’ve said to him.
Also, there are two new emails in the Cagliostro web server. One about Lauren’s home life, that she accidentally sent to C. Unsurprisingly, her family doesn’t know anything about her real job. Also, she’s still really interested in that illiomancer book, seems to have some magical pull to it, which is interesting.
Geez. Marty don’t play. Sounds like a pretty big meanie, I guess the Devoted really hammered him about the whole ordeal. All I could think you could say to him is something quite rude… 
I kinda feel bad for Lauren, I hope she’s gonna be okay. Hopefully the magical pull of the book doesn’t get to her too much and drive her nuts or something else out of a horror movie.
@Revenir Well on the plus side, he knows there’s a cult. On the down side he either believes or convincingly lies about there being nothing unnatural about the case.
On one hand, we could just let him go now as he probably knows nothing.
On the other hand…having a New York Times journalist with 25+ years of experience and contacts could be handy to have access to.
I’d say it’s your call ultimately, but we could cut straight to the chase. We have access to something he would want. We could hand him the RSVP list today and it’d give him a lot of what he’s looking for to either get the pressure on him elevated, or at least use it to get that interview with AC. Of course, doing that would alert AC that someone is in their email. So I wouldn’t hand him the list until after we had all the fragments we wanted, but it’s an option.
The question is, does he have anything we want? He may not know what we know, but I’d wager he can find out a lot when he’s so inclined.
I dunno, I think you’re right that having an experienced journalist on our side could be beneficial. And I suspect he knows at least a little bit about Cagliostro and people similar to him. Plus, his name has come up twice in our journey - I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Here’s what I’m thinking of sending him:
Mr. Rank,
Ah, so you know about the Devoted. Don’t you think it’s odd that a cult has been built from the death of a boy? Surely you’ve wondered why this case has brought in so much interest, after so many years. There’s more to the story than a simple missing persons case.
There are strange things happening in New York. Not just in the subway station where Brandon disappeared, but other places too. Places like a magic show for the obscenely wealthy and powerful.
As I understand it, you’re interested in gaining an interview with Cagliostro. However, he’s a busy man, I doubt you’d get it without leverage. I can give you that, in the form of an RSVP list for his next performance. I’m sure that would be enough to get the pressure on you elevated, or at least gain you an interview with Cagliostro. All I ask for in return is the use of your skills as a seasoned journalist.
So, what do you think? Are you interested in a mutually beneficial exchange?
Sincerely,
A not-so-gullible person
Do you think it’s coming on too strong? I don’t want to scare the dude off, but I also want to make sure he doesn’t ignore me. 
I don’t think it’ll scare him off, from the looks of it he really needs a story to help boost his career, I don’t think you’ll make him go away so easily. The only concern of mine is that if Marty tells Cagliostro about him having the RVSP list, it may compromise both the site, the file index, our ability to get the information from the book, and the email. They’re smart enough people, with an extremely underground organization to protect, they’ll change passwords, if not literally everything. I personally am against taking that risk, but I’m not the one making the decision. Just make sure to weigh everything up, and make the decision you think is right. We mountaineers gots 2 trust each otha, thems da rules. 
I say it’s a reasonable gamble to take. It’s not like we are trying to blackmail him or anything. We just want to find a way to work with him. Maybe we can help each other.