Dehan frowned. “Don? Don was fun?”
“Sure. Have you met him yet? He’s cool. I miss him sometimes. Real smart, intelligent, a real open mind. And lots of fun.” She laughed. “And when he and Danny started hitting off each other, they’d crack you up. They were good times. But that night we were all just kind of freaked out.”
“So you went home early.”
She didn’t answer straight away. She stared down at her hands on the table for a while, then heaved a big sigh and said, “Not exactly. I am really not proud of what I did that day. I behaved like a total bitch. I kind of lost it, and all Saturday I just came on to Danny big time. It freaked him out, it upset everybody, and it really upset Paul. At first Danny took it as a joke, but as I kept on pushing, he started to back off. Paul started getting mad. Like, he went really cold and wouldn’t talk to Danny.” She hesitated a moment. “In retrospect, I guess that was what I wanted, to break them up. So I pushed harder. When Danny wouldn’t respond, I got mad too, and around four, everybody started to leave. It was a pretty crazy weekend. Paul took me home and we broke up in the car.”
I said, “Was it mutual?”
She made a face. “Kind of. I wanted it, I was tired of him, but he broke up with me. He told me he never wanted to see me again. What made him really mad was not that I had betrayed him, but that I had broken his friendship with Danny.”
Dehan asked, “He phrased it like that, with those words?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
The room fell silent for a long moment. Finally, I sighed and said, “You have given us a lot to think about, Jane. Thank you for being so candid. I just have one more question. Paul is a martial arts instructor. Was he already into the martial arts when you were engaged to him?”
“Oh yeah, all his life, since he was like six years old.”
“Taekwondo?”
“Not just taekwondo, though that was his main discipline, also kendo and ninjitsu.”
I stared at her, wondering if she realized what she had just told me. I was pretty sure she didn’t. Dehan saw her to the door while I sat and stared at the table and thought about Danny and Paul—and the FBI.
Nine
Dehan returned to her desk and I stepped out to stroll under the plane trees on Storey Avenue while I phoned Bernie at the Bureau. It was warm, not yet the oppressive heat of July, but moving that way, and the dappled shade of the trees was welcome.
“Yeah, Stone, what’s up, my friend?”
“Bernie, listen, I have a very unusual request.”
“All of your requests are unusual, Stone. It’s what makes you so loveable—that and your hot partner. What makes this one different?”
“Yeah, I know, but this one is special. Listen, twenty years ago, June 8th, 1998, there was a murder in Soundview Park. It was never solved…”
“Yeah, I know, you’re doing the cold cases. OK, how can I help?”
“This case has some very unusual features, Bernie, and it seems your boys at the Bureau may have got involved.”
“In a homicide? That’s local PD’s brief. What was in it for the Bureau?”
I stopped in the shade of a tree and stared down at the sidewalk, thinking about what I was about to say. Finally, I said it. “Bernie, the victim was one Danny Brown, a UFO researcher, and there’s circumstantial evidence that he might have been killed by a UFO...”
I could hear the smile in his voice. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m not kidding, Bernie. And please note, I am not saying that I believe he was, only that there is circumstantial evidence. And also note, Bernie, that the ‘U’ in UFO stands for ‘unidentified’.”
He snorted. “OK.”
“However, the detective who had the case back then now believes the victim was in fact killed by an ET, and, the night he was killed, several hundred people saw an unidentified flying object over Soundview Park at the spot where he was killed. So, I am not saying this lightly.”
“OK, Stone. I hear you. What do you want?”
“I want you to listen to me. The UFO was seen by hundreds of witnesses, it was reported in the press—whatever it was, Bernie, it was there. That is not a matter of opinion. It’s a fact. So, here is where you can help me. Several of the people who were involved with the victim in his research claim that they were visited by agents who purported to be Feds. They say they were told by these agents to keep quiet about the murder, and about what had happened.”
“Holy shit.”
“My feelings precisely. As of right now, I am more interested in the Bureau’s involvement than in the ETs. So, I would like to interview those agents, and I need you to find out, A, if it is true that they went to see the witnesses and, B, if so, will they talk to me about it? And Bernie, make them understand I am not using official channels as a courtesy…”
“Yeah, OK. But you do realize, Stone, that the FBI does not have a department specializing in supernatural phenomena or UFOs. That’s just fiction.”
“I know that, Bernie. I also know that the Bureau has investigated both from time to time, when it has considered there might be a threat to national security.”
“OK, I’ll make some inquiries and get back to you.”
“I appreciate it. Oh, and, Bernie…”
“Yuh?”
“What do you know about cattle
