Notes

Backstory.

Sam was born in London, England on May 3, 1986 to Dinesh Rashid and Aisha Keegan. His parents were together for the first five years of his life, divorcing per Aisha’s request due to an affair that she kept secret and as a result was able to gain full custody of Sam. A year later, she married Nick Keegan, the man she’d been having an affair with, and she and Sam moved in with Nick and Nick’s then eight year old Philip. The new living arrangement was not welcomed by Sam, who missed his father, only allowed to visit him every other weekend. What was worse was that Nick was clearly not overly fond of Sam and could be outright cruel to the boy, and Philip was even worse, constantly picking on and bullying him. Due to her intense desire to stay in her new husband’s favor, Aisha ignored Sam’s complaints and told him to suck it up.

This treatment at home was rough at the start and only intensified as the years passed, with physical beatings from Philip and increasing neglect from his mother and stepfather added into the mix. Sam begged to be allowed to live with his father, but Aisha was too prideful to admit that she couldn’t provide a good life for her own child and refused. Unable to take it, Sam ran away for the first time at age 11. He was caught within a few hours, but this would not deter future attempts. He tried again a year later, this time not reaching out to his father and evading capture for a solid three weeks, enough time to start learning what resources he had at his disposal while out on the street. A social worker looked into his living situation following the incident, but Nick, who had friends in varying levels of local government, and Aisha put up a front to make it seem that the only problem was Sam himself and a lack of respect for his loving family. Dinesh pleaded for Aisha to let Sam live with him at this point given that Sam was clearly unhappy, but once again, Aisha’s pride and a threat from Nick prevented this escape.

Three more times over the next few years, Sam would leave home to live on the streets for up to a month each time, knowing that he’d put his father at risk (per Nick’s promise) should he go to the man instead. He made friends with other homeless individuals, helping them as he could in return for their aid and advice. Even after being forced to return, he would delay going back home after school as long as he could, hiding out with one of those friends and giving them food stolen from the school and his house. It was after the third time he was forced to return home after being missing for a long period that Dinesh got an attorney and, with renewed confidence, pushed Nick and Aisha to let Sam come and live with him. Tired at this point beyond pridefulness, Aisha relented and at age 16, she signed over full custody to Dinesh. Sam was finally able to live with his father and not only have a peaceful home life, but a fresh start entirely, with Dinesh moving them across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States in pursuit of a job opportunity.

Using summer courses to help him catch up with school, he was able to graduate with a 4.0 GPA, earning a partial scholarship that allowed him to attend college to study criminal justice. Despite the chaos of his earlier life and years of uncertainty as to what would even become of him, this major was picked with a very specific goal: becoming a private detective.

What had made Sam interested in working as a private investigator was his father’s best friend, Victor Ramsey, a seasoned PI. While it was made clear that the work wasn’t exactly as exciting as fiction made it seem, it still appealed greatly to Sam, who would go on to intern for Victor after college then work for upon receiving his private investigator’s license. Victor retired when Sam was 33, and Sam took over the business.

Sam takes on all manner of cases, from infidelity to background checks to missing persons. This latter category is his area of specialty, in particular when it comes to runaways. However, in addition to searching for the missing person, he’ll investigate their family and those closest to him to the best of his ability to ensure that he’s not forcing them to return to a life of misery or even putting them in danger. In fact, he has on a couple of occasions helped to cover up the tracks discovered of abused runaways and has helped them to get back on their feet.