The cache is not at the above coordinates

There is now an offset of 50 ft at a bearing of 255 from the puzzle solution !!

Part I

Yes, this was definitely the place.  I walked slowly by the entrance to the pizza parlor that occupied the ground floor. The Pizzeria Italiana seemed to be bustling with all the activities required to open for the evening.  Two young men wearing waiter outfits were setting up tables outside the restaurant that would soon be filled with hungry patrons.  I checked my watch.  One minute early.  I made it a point not to be late.  In my business, being late can put you out of business.   I sat down at one of the newly-placed tables and picked up a menu.  This place served everything from a pepperoni pie to a Genoese papaya sorbet.  But I wasn’t here to eat.  This was business.  I scanned the area looking for anything out of place.  I found it.  A man was standing across the street.   Normally, that in itself would not be notable.  What made this man different was that he was staring straight at me.

As I watched he began to walk toward me.  I was not overly alarmed.  I was expecting to meet someone and he met the description.  As a private investigator, I get odd requests from clients all the time.  This guy was something else.  I was intrigued enough with his story that I was actually looking forward to hearing it in person.

    “You must be Mr. O’Cash”, I said standing and holding out my hand in greeting. “The name’s Magnum …  Opus Magnum,  private investigator.”

     He met my eyes and shook my hand.  I received the sort of hand-crippling grip that you would normally expect from a much larger man.

    “Please, called me G ” he replied.  “With a name like Magnum you must take some ribbing in your line of business.”

     “Yeah, I’ve heard them all.  I imagine you must take some ribbing about your name as well”, I remarked.

     “No, not really…  May I see some form of identification?” he asked warily.

My estimation of this guy just went up another notch.  I showed him my P.I. license which had a picture of me from 10 years ago.  I still looked pretty much the same.

     “Sorry, but I must be careful.”  He checked his watch and said, “Three-fifteen on the dot.  I enjoy doing business with a man who can meet a schedule.  As I mentioned over the phone I think you can help me with a problem and I’m willing to pay you well for your services.”

      I mentally patted myself on the back for my promptness.  With the introductions dispensed with, we both sat down at the table and I waited for him to continue. 

     “I need you to pick up a small package for me and deliver it to this address”, he said pulling a small strip of paper covered with printed dots and slashes from his pocket.  “Oops…sorry, that’s from a different puzzle…  Ah, here it is”, he said pulling a card with a hand-written address on it from deeper in his pocket.

     “That all sounds pretty easy.  Why do you need me?” I asked suspiciously.

     “I need your help to find the package.  You see, all I know is a rough location that’s within a mile or two.  I have written the coordinates on the back of the card with the address.  I also have these 14 clues to help narrow the possibilities down to one specific spot,” he said reaching into another pocket and producing a handful of small items.

     “Those look like pieces of bark with numbers printed on them,” I commented.

    “They are,” he stated.  “I had a friend at the forestry agency examine them and she said they were pieces of bark from one of those trees that peels.”

    “You mean like a birch?” I suggested.

    “Yeah, like a birch, or at least that’s what she told me,” he said.

He placed the pieces of parchment-like bark on the table.  Each had printing on both sides.  The first one I picked up had “3^rd” written on one side and “53^rd” written on the other.  What did the numbers mean?   Were they street names?

     “I have a job and do not have the time right now to spend solving this puzzle.  I want you to figure out the location, retrieve the package, and deliver it to that address.  For that service I will pay you the $1000 fee we discussed,” he stated.

     “I’ll take the job,” I said producing a sealable plastic bag that I had brought along for just this purpose.  I swept the pieces off the table and into the plastic bag.  Then, I carefully zipped the seal on the bag.  Experience had shown me that careful sealing is important in keeping the contents of a bag from becoming moist.

     “Excellent,” he said.  “You will receive your fee upon delivery of the package.  Do you have any other questions?”

      Yeah, I thought.  Like what the heck is going on here?  But $1000 puzzles don’t come my way everyday, so I kept that thought to myself.

     “I have two questions.  First, why me?” I asked.

     “My understanding is that you have an excellent reputation for puzzle solving.  You were also specifically recommended by my employer as a substitute, were I unable to work on this particular puzzle.   And your second question…?” he asked

      “How can I reach you in case I run into trouble?” I asked.

     “You can’t.  You’ll be on your own from this point on.  Good luck.”   He stood and left.

The waiter arrived and asked if he could take my order now.  I figured that I would need my strength to be able to earn that fee, so I ordered a large pepperoni to go …

Part II

I walked up the narrow stairway to my offices on the second floor.  Across the hall from a pet psychologist’s office I found the familiar door with a sign on the frosted glass that read:  Magnum Private Investigations.  I unlocked the office door and set the pizza down on a chair next to my antique desk.   When the door was locked again behind me I dumped the contents of the plastic bag onto the desktop.  I then took the card with the coordinates out of my pocket and set it near the pieces of bark.  I now had everything I needed to decode the location, but how?  What did the numbers mean?  Why were they written on pieces of bark?   I had no way of knowing what clues were important and what was not.  I decided to start by writing down the numerical information on the fourteen pieces.  I spaced them out on the desk and carefully examined them.  Then I flipped them over to reveal the opposing face and looked them over again.  Each side had an ordinal number written on it.  There seemed to be no difference between the two surfaces of the medium.  It was impossible to determine if either side was supposed to be up or down.  Maybe the numbers themselves held the clue.  I methodically picked up one at a time and began the process of recording all the numbers.  I noted what was written on both sides of each piece.  When completed, my entry read:

98^th | 6^th         85^th | 9^th        53^rd | 3^rd         88^th | 12^th         8^th | 67^th

           11^th | 59^th        92^nd | 14^th        73^rd | 1^st         5^th | 62^nd

 77^th | 10^th      94^th | 7^th        4^th | 79^th         13^th | 65^th       2^nd | 82^nd  

What could these numbers mean?  How was I supposed to get coordinates from them?  Frustrated, I decided to concentrate on the other clue.   I got out a map and marked the position of the approximate coordinates that were on the card.  I knew that the small package must be within a two-mile radius of that point.  But where?  There were over 12 square miles to search and much of that area was out in the Atlantic Ocean.  Could the package be hidden out at sea?  Unlikely, but not impossible.  What was seemingly impossible was solving the puzzle without more information.   After staring at the numbers and drawing lines on the map for hours I had finally hit a wall of frustration.   The pepperoni pie was about ¾ gone and I was dead tired.   I decided that I would attack the problem again when my mind was fresh in the morning. 

Part III

 I fell onto the office couch and soon drifted off.  The pepperoni I had consumed probably contributed to my odd mental state.  My mind was spinning around in circles.  My dreams were a miasma of mixed-up imagery.  I kept thinking of numbers and more numbers and cards and pizzas and waiters and forestry workers and addresses and oceans…

 Suddenly, I sat bolt-upright with my eyes opened wide.  Could it…?!  Could … it be as easy as …?  I sprang off the couch and took a look at the numbers again.  Yes!  It was just possible.  That would explain almost everything.  I used my computer to look for some information which I found easily with an on-line search.  I glanced from the screen to the numbered pieces and began writing down new numbers.  Within minutes I had the coordinates that I had been looking for.  It was positively ingenious!  I charted the location of the decoded coordinates on the map and realized that I would have to wait until daylight hours to retrieve the package.   This time when I fell into bed, I was able to sleep soundly.

Part IV

 The next day I went off to the specified coordinates, applied the offset, and successfully located the package, which turned out to be a 35mm cannister. 

Standing next to the final prize, the last lingering piece of this puzzle suddenly became clear.  

Of course…  The circle was complete.  Now it all made sense …