Last to Die

“Just the usual stuff.”

“Meaning?”

“A scientist proposes a theory, stakes out a position. Sometimes he gets emotionally attached to that position when others disagree.”

“Who disagreed with Neil?”

“I can’t even remember, that’s how normal it was. He and Brian, they were always having spirited debates, but it was never hostile, you know? It was more like this egghead game between them. You get the two of them talking about debris disks, and whoosh! They’re like two rambunctious kids playing in the sandbox, tossing toys at each other.”

Frost looked up from the notes he’d been jotting. “Debris disks? What are those?”

“That was the subject of their research. It has to do with interstellar cloud cores. When they collapse, angular momentum causes them to form these spinning disks of gas and dust around baby stars.”

“They got into arguments about that?” said Jane.

“Hey, we get into arguments about everything. It’s what makes science so damn engaging. Yeah, sometimes the debates might turn personal, but we can deal with it here. We’re all big boys.” He looked down at his belly and added with an ironic sigh, “Some of us bigger than others.”

“What kind of arguments would you get into over a dirt disk?”

“Debris disks. There’s a lot of controversy about how these rings of dust and gas transform into solar systems with planets. Some say the planets form because of multiple collisions, but what makes those debris particles stick together? How does mass accumulate? How do you turn a bunch of swirling particles into a Mercury, Venus, and Earth? It’s a question we can’t answer yet. We do know ours isn’t the only solar system. There are countless planets in this galaxy alone, and many of them are in the habitable zone.”

Frost, who might as well have had TREKKIE tattooed on his forehead, rocked forward with sudden interest. “You mean we could colonize them?”

“Maybe. Habitable zone means that life in some form could exist there. At least, the carbon-based life we’re familiar with. Data from the Kepler Mission identifies a number of what we call Goldilocks planets. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right. In fact, that’s why Neil and Brian were going to Rome. To present their data to the team at the Vatican observatory.”

Frost gave a surprised laugh. “The Vatican has an observatory?”

“Quite well regarded, part of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.” He saw Frost’s raised eyebrow. “Yeah, I know, it sounds strange that this is the same church that attacked Galileo for believing the earth revolves around the sun. But their academy has some impressive astronomers. They were anxious to look over Neil and Brian’s latest research, because it has major implications. Certainly for the Vatican.”

“Why would this research concern the Catholic Church?” asked Jane.

“Because we’re talking about astrobiology, Detective Rizzoli. The study of life in the universe. Think about it. What does it mean to our perceived place in that universe if we find life on another planet? What happens to the concept of divine creation and Let there be light? It overturns humankind’s most cherished belief, that we are unique. That God made us. It could topple the central pillar of the church.”

“Topple? Did Yablonski and Temple actually have the data to do that?”

“I don’t know that I’d call it proof, exactly.”

“They shared it with you?”

“I saw their initial analysis of data from infrared and radio telescopes. It came from one of those Goldilocks planets I was telling you about. There was carbon dioxide, water, ozone, and nitrogen. Not just the building blocks of life, but also molecules that indicate photosynthesis is taking place.”

“Which means plant life,” said Frost.

Bartusek nodded. “It was highly suggestive.”

“How come we haven’t heard about this?” said Frost. “Where was the press conference, the big White House announcement?”

“You can’t just come out and announce this stuff without being absolutely certain, or you’ll look like an idiot. You know you’ll be attacked. You know there’ll be wacko deniers of every stripe coming after you. We’d need contingency plans to deal with all the nuts who’d try to drive truck bombs into our buildings here.” He stopped to take a calming breath. “So, no. We do not make announcements, not until we can prove anything beyond a shadow of a doubt. Hell, ET himself would need to land on the White House lawn before some people would be convinced. But Neil and Brian, they felt they had enough evidence. In fact, that was one of the last things Neil told me, before he died.”

Jane stared at him. “That he had proof?”

Bartusek nodded. “Of extraterrestrial life.”

TWENTY-FOUR

 

JANE AND FROST WERE SILENT AS THEY DROVE TOWARD COLUMBIA, both of them stunned and trying to process what they had just heard. After their visit to NASA, this was an anticlimactic journey down a mundane highway toward the unexciting office where Olivia Yablonski worked as a medical equipment sales rep.

“I’m wondering if we had it wrong,” said Frost. “I don’t think the boy was the target in New Hampshire.”

Jane glanced at her partner, who was squinting ahead, as though trying to peer through fog. “You’re thinking it was the boy’s uncle. Brian Temple.”

“Both men are about to reveal something earth shattering. Neil gets taken out. Brian panics, flees with his wife and nephew to New Hampshire. The bad guys come after him.”

“Trouble is, we don’t know who the bad guys are.”

“You heard Bartusek. Finding ET would shake up the world. It would make people question everything they learned in Sunday school.”

“So, what, we’ve got some albino assassin monk killing NASA scientists?” She laughed. “I think that was a movie.”

“Consider what religious zealots already do to defend their beliefs. Those climate scientists at MIT, they’re always getting threats. This is gonna really bring out the crazies. If it ever gets announced.” He frowned. “Interesting that NASA hasn’t.”

“Sounds like the proof isn’t there yet.”

“Is that really true, or is this too hot for them—for anyone—to handle?”

Extraterrestrial life. She spun that possibility in her head, trying to see it from every angle, imagine every repercussion. A motive for assassination? The murders of the Yablonskis and the Temples were definitely the work of professionals who knew their way around Semtex. “There’s a problem with this theory,” she said. “It doesn’t explain Claire Ward’s family. He was a diplomat, working for the State Department. What’s his connection with NASA?”

“Maybe they’re unrelated cases. We’re just linking them because both kids ended up at Evensong.”

She gave a sigh. “Now you sound like Crowe. Different kids, different cases. Just a coincidence they ended up in the same school.”

“Although it is interesting …”

“What?”

He pointed to a road sign for the turnoff to Washington. “Didn’t Erskine Ward also work in DC for a while?”

“And Rome. And London.”

“At least we’ve got a geographic connection between the Wards and the Yablonskis. They lived within the same fifty-mile radius.”

“But not Teddy Clock’s family. Nicholas Clock’s job was in Rhode Island.”

“Yeah.” Frost shrugged. “So maybe we’re trying to connect things that have no connection, and we’re just making it all too complicated.”

She spotted the address they were searching for and turned into the parking lot. It was yet another strip