Free The Adam Enigma by Mark; Ronald C.; Reeder Meyer Page B

must have been a stickler for order.
    â€œAs I said, I kept the room for him just as he left it. I always assumed he was coming back. But now?” He shrugged.
    Grossinger walked over to a large metal filing cabinet. He opened the upper drawer and inside were reams of handwritten notes, yellow pads filled with mathematical symbols and file folders stuffed with papers.
    â€œAdam wrote constantly all his life. Said he hoped someday to write the quintessential philosophical treatise. Somebody should go through these and see what’s here.”
    â€œYou?”
    â€œOf course not. Maybe you know somebody who might like to be paid to organize this stuff?”
    â€œI might.” Ramsey thought of a bright young graduate from the nearby University of Wisconsin who he just interviewed for an internship.
    Grossinger’s mood shifted. He was no longer the jovial storyteller. “Tell me again what you’re up to?”
    Ramsey wondered how Grossinger would respond to the story of his paranormal experience but he decided to risk the truth. “Do you believe in apparitions or visits from spirits, angels, or even thedead?” Ramsey waited for a reaction but Grossinger’s steely gaze never shifted. “When I was at the shrine three days ago I had what could be called a visitation from Adam. He gave me a riddle about how it was time for me to sow the seeds of a life. I’m trying to make sense of this experience and the riddle. Can you help?”
    The smile returned. “I believe I already have. I have an appointment I must get to in ten minutes.” He then disarmed Ramsey when he said, “Stay as long as you like, lock up when you leave. And when you get back to the Milagro Shrine, tell Carlotta I love her.”
    Ramsey knew Grossinger was playing with him and enjoying it. “A last question. When did you take Adam to Albuquerque?”
    â€œI believe it was in June of 2011. By the way, no one could ever figure out why Adam was driving Sam’s motorcycle that day. Adam always said he had no recollection of what happened.”
    Ramsey spent another hour carefully studying the room. Eventually he was drawn to the book on the table alongside Adam’s bed. It was William James’s Varieties of Religious Experiences , and it was open to the page with a quote underlined: “There are two lives, the natural and the spiritual, and we must lose the one before we can participate in the other.” The idea of him trying to commit suicide immediately popped into Ramsey’s mind. Is that what he was doing on the motorcycle?
    Ramsey tried to make sense of some of Adam’s writings. He’s either a genius or self-deluded. The last thing he noticed on Adam’s desk were books on Scotland and travel logs and maps of Edinburgh. What was it Carlotta had said? His father was Scots and he’d been born in Edinburgh practically on the steps of Holyrood Palace.
    He sat in the wingback chair by the window. The leather was shiny from use and it was obvious Adam had spent many hours reading here. As often happened at a time when he was sifting through clues to puzzles, his thoughts drifted to his old girlfriend, Paige Ripperton, and he wondered what she would think.

Summer 2004
Eugene, Oregon
    R amsey listened to the phone message a second time. “Jonathan, I’m flying into Portland this morning. Don’t bother coming up to get me. I’ll rent a car and drive down. I have something important to tell you.” He’d tried calling her back but she didn’t pick up.
    This is probably not good , he thought. Both of them always looked forward to the reunion that occurred during the hundred-mile trip from Portland to Eugene. It was sort of their thing. Besides, he had something important to tell her too. He was disappointed he would have to wait.
    Paige and Ramsey had met at UCLA, while he was working on his doctorate. She was getting a Masters in psychology. A