It all Started with a Misunderstanding...,

I took a call from someone who found me in the Yellow Pages. I had forgotten that anyone still had these. Why could I not be the next Private investigator to hit it big in Texas? Why was I relegated to divorces and assisting ex-Feds who decided that the grass is greener in the public sector when their gloves and “limitations” come off? And old women who mightn’t be able to even barter with me?
Anyhow, 
This “Boomer” is wearing me out with questions. How did I get into this field? How young I sound... dropping references that No-one. My. Age. Should “get”.
Well, I typed fast and YouTube’d faster, back before the “Fall” Because I do not have a degree and I need to eat.
This is the norm and not the exception, the “revolution” brought an actual Fahrenheit 451esque dystopia that not even the lame stream media could deny anymore. The soundest “Sleepers” unplugged and when they realized that the Circuses ran away when the bread ran out and we all took to bartering.
Why anyone would care anymore about investigation?
Well let me explain.

Humanity is not completely lost, there are repositories of knowledge and those intelligent enough to have kept and maintained actual books and libraries are the new leaders. They are bartering information formerly known as truth. People are willing to do physical labor to eat and keep their shelter but post-EMP there were no distractions.However, there was a mass extinction event wherein those who could not “Deal” took their own lives.
They needed the constant stimulation and were uncomfortable being alone or in quietude, their entire raison d'être was lost. There is a movement called the “New Deal” But it hasn’t gotten too far on foot because people are conflating it with its historical meaning. Anyhow,
I digress.
I tell her very simply that I was a Government Firefighter Paramedic before the” Fall” and that when the position description was “changed”. I, in my desire to continue in that helping vein (and, as I said before needing to eat.) saw that investigation was the route that I needed to take.
People wanted to know what happened to their families, loved ones, and such.
Others who still had actual money to barter wanted to know the truth, how and in what ways their Governments lied to them and since ironically much of this evidence is documented by the “bad actors” themselves, I use the libraries and internet cache system in the odd minutes where there is a way to get access to what is left of the internet but I do but most of my work via landline and HAM radio. I recently acquired a Satellite Phone I am trying to create a “phone patch” over the next few days to get it to work. I have to use generators car batteries and bicycle power but I get the job done. 


So, this woman “Grace” calls me and says. "My people were prosperous we had land and cattle.
I still have actual money but I am willing to barter land and permanent shelter if you can help me.” I tell her that “I will work for what you can spare” I feel her distrust of my age and the sound of my voice drop away...I feel as if I can see her “smile’ through the phone conversation.
I have a sister that was murdered in cold blood by a Man that she was “seeing” even though she was married (she adds in quickly as if ashamed.) I tell her that since the “Fall” morality has been “relivized” the word for its having been made relative. She goes silent. I tell her that I am a Believer because it was passed down to me through my Mother and I do not agree with that "law”.
She seems relieved, I ask her to “please continue,” she adds that unlike other people who use my service she "already knows who committed the murder" and that she was trying to work with Law Enforcement before the “Fall” to bring the murderer to justice, then the unthinkable happened and the case was remanded to people who could not handle it, because those that could, would not handle it. (It just so happens that the murderer is related to someone in the State Legislature) I started to feel that water over the bridge of my nose and decided to curb that. I asked her what she wanted done. She intimated that she would pay handsomely for a vital organ, proof that this person was “adjudicated” and I told her, 

“Hell No! I am a private eye not a "hired hand", and besides that type of arrangement would need better proof than some random organ and besides, how would you be able to know who it is?
You can’t do forensics I could give you a calf’s liver for all that you would know. Anyone else that you ask this of will turn you in to the Progressives for that and you would be chipped and remotely micro-managed, you have to be careful! She starts sobbing and telling me that I cannot be a true believer if my heart is not rent by this! I did not have the heart to tell her that I specialize in doing what she had already done and was afraid to ask her what she wanted from me, so I listened hoping to G-D that I was not just a listening post for the lonely, it’s been 15 minutes and I am as hungry as "Hel".
My mind starts wandering..., I think that Hel is spelled with one “L” in Old Norse. While I am on the topic of languages I recall every time, I was teased because I would teach myself a new language I learned a few before the “Fall” and am not going to let this keep me down.
Now they make fun of me because I live out of my car and read classics in the original Greek and Latin working through the grammar distracts me from my hunger, the cold, and the heat, whatever. She is apologizing profusely now because I have been silent listening to her and she equates my silence with disdain or contempt or guilt associated with her  wanting me to break the “old law.”
I acknowledge her and finally ask her what she thinks that I can do for her, now?
She says that I should help her bring a lawsuit.
I do not know whether to laugh or cry.
I ask her which court does she think is still operative?
Everything was shifted to internet all cases were electronically filed and there is currently no infrastructure. I think that you would have a better chance if I gave you the contact information for a “hired hand.” She tells me that she does not want to risk that after what I told her.
I waited a few minutes and then I told her I don’t know how to tell you this, I hate telling people this one truth, it hurts me to my core and makes the water run over my nose but here it is.
“There is no more rule of law, the one “working” television channel is nothing but black propaganda serving the people who created the chaos that led to this.”
“The same people who bullied me that I was “wasting money” on a Humanities and Liberal Arts Focus Language Major in Russian and German and Minoring in Classics -Greek /Latin and Philosophy when I could have worked a minimum wage job and saved my money and eventually lived the American Dream” and “How can you learn when you don’t have the basic necessities of life” by and large are all dead today most, by their own hand when the fiat economy could not find a fiat mechanic (others claimed planned obsolescence,) I experienced poverty before the “Fall” and the ridicule worsened the suffering now that we are all of us as one living in abject poverty and struggling to survive, it is much easier to love your neighbor as yourself. In fact, I have rarely seen such peace as we have right now. The survivors who agitated and brought this about are living in hiding their elitism eluded them.
I am not gloating but I am glad that I did not quit and that I believe in a power greater than myself. As long as I have a book I have my sanity I retain my life. I would like to help you but I don’t know what to do, I am running out of energy to power my phone, I am tired and hungry so if there is anything else..., I lost that connection.
Unresolved, Unrequited..., and I’m Unforgiven tooooooo...G-D I loved Metallica.