So there were more rules to this weird notebook. And it looked like I would have to inflict more changes on reality in order to discover what exactly they were. Some gimmick. Was it intended to make the owner of the book curious so they would write more, or to trip them up later on with punishment for a rule broken when they didn't know what the rules were?
At any rate, at least now I knew I would have to be specific; so I probably couldn't use it on an unidentified person. No writing something like, "The murderer of Sara Giles will turn themselves in," probably. I would need names, and maybe an understanding of the situation I had decided to change. Which was a bit dangerous. After all, on the off chance someone got suspicious, they could narrow suspects down by the information they had access to when making changes to reality. That is, if anyone actually got it into their head that some wacko was changing reality with a ratty little book.
No, I thought shaking my head. I shouldn't assume that no one would know what I had done. After all, there was one such book, who could say there weren't others? I tapped my pencil on the paper, lost in thought. After ruminating on the situation for a while, I came to the conclusion that if I was going to keep the book, the best thing to do would be to figure out as many rules as quickly as possible, while spacing out incidents enough that it was unlikely my location could be suspected due to the time of use.
Then again, what if I specified the time the change would take place? If that was the case, then when I wrote the change wouldn't matter, right? But how should I--
As my thought trailed off, I got up and walked to my closet. After rummaging around, I found an old board game with a pair of dice. Bringing it back to the desk, I rolled it once. 5 and 3. So, 8. I rolled again. 2 and 4. 8:24, and just for kicks, I'd say AM. If I waited until PM, it meant another day passing before I was able to check the results. Now I just needed a subject.
If I used someone in my caseload again, it might draw attention. Instead, I trawled the internet. There were plenty of true crime stories, but I needed a case famous enough that if something happened to the perpetrator it would be reported. That guy looked good; he molested and assaulted dozens of women, then used his financial power to try to make it all go away. Luckily someone had the presence of mind to keep their cell phone on record. Nevertheless, he still only got a slap on the wrist. Time to correct that wrong, and what better way than by using one of his favorite insults?
"Ronald Prakash will turn into a cow at 8:24 AM UTC tomorrow morning."
Now I would just have to wait and see.