When Slade tries to sneak a peek at what Thomas Noble is working on (since the man doesn't look up or engage him in conversation), it's not anything that's very interesting or useful. He has a notebook filled with his own notes (messy, but clearly detailed), a page or two of what look like police reports on the comatose Haling High students, and what looks like a much older notebook also filled with notes. His son's name is circled in this older notebook.

Slade can't get away with looking very long at anything, so the most he can probably glean is that Mr. Noble still has connections in the police department, he doesn't have any clear ideas or leads for the current strange occurrences, and he appears to be trying to make connections between what is happening now and what happened when he was still on the force.