“No, but I figured with your top secret job and all, something must have happened, and they want to talk with you. I see the sheriff’s car going up and down the street all day long now. And Marie said she saw a dark colored SUV parked in front of your house one day last week and two guys looked like they went inside your house.”
Nick feigned surprised. “Hell! What’s going on?”
“You don’t know?”
“I really don’t, Dom. I’ve been on a road trip for the past week. Lost my cell phone when I was driving across the country, and I didn’t bother to call my office. I didn’t see a need to.”
“Well, you better call your office or the feds or whoever tomorrow, ‘cause I think they want to talk with you. Somebody sure does.” Dom turned and walked down the walkway, without even a parting goodnight. He called back at Nick, “Used to be a nice quiet neighborhood here.”
Nick was upset and discouraged; not because the police wanted to talk with him, he expected that, but because he felt he had now blown it with Dom. He doubted Dom would have any interest in taking him and an alien friend to the Bahamas in two weeks. “What the hell am I going to do?” he wondered out loud. Then it struck him that if special agents had been into his house, it might be bugged. He better watch what he said from now on.
It was almost 10pm when Nick washed up and got ready for bed. He had a return ticket to BWI for early the next morning. He imagined he would have plenty of questions to answer once he got back to Maryland. Just as he was getting into bed, the doorbell rang. He tugged on his jeans and a t-shirt and answered the door.
Two deputy sheriffs stood on Nick’s doorstep. They curtly asked him for his name and some ID and if they might come inside and talk with him. Nick invited them in, imagining Marie next door peeping anxiously through her side window.
“What’s this all about?”
“We had a report of a possible kidnapping, sir.” The one deputy seemed satisfied with Nick’s drivers license. “Would you mind if we had just a quick look around your house?”
Nick nodded his consent, but asked, “Who was kidnapped and what does this have to do with me?”
“We just need to look around, sir. Have a seat if you would.”
The one sheriff spoke into his radio and within two minutes, another police car had pulled up to the house. Now a burly officer entered his home and stayed by Nick’s side while the other two, with hands on their holstered weapons, unclipped and ready to draw, took a tour of his home and garage. They spent quite a bit of time investigating every possible hiding spot, peering into closets, under the bed, attic crawl space, and garage. Eventually one asked Nick if they might check his car.
When they were done, they went back to a now dour-faced Nick sitting on his sofa. The burly deputy spoke. “There was an incident at the base where you work, Mr. Rossi. Federal agents want to have a talk with you. They’ll be here first thing in the morning. I wouldn’t try to leave if I were you. Just stay here and wait for them, okay?”
“Yeah, I guess so. Can’t you tell me a little more? I’m just a little confused. What kind of incident are we talking about?”
“I’m not at liberty to say, sir. That’s up to the federal agents. If I were you, I’d try to get a good night’s sleep and be packed and ready to go to Washington in the morning. From what I understand they will be escorting you there.”
“Okay, I’ll be ready,” Nick replied solemnly.
The deputies walked out, shutting the door behind them. Nick went back to the bedroom, undressed again, and packed his bag for the next day’s flight. He wasn’t that surprised, but he hadn’t expected it to exactly come down to this, so quickly.
Nick decided he would call both of his children to see if any police had been questioning them. Both his son Tom and daughter, Michelle, responded that they had indeed been contacted as to their father’s whereabouts. They were relieved that he was calling them and that he was all right. Both children wondered what was going on, but Nick downplayed everything as “just some little incident at work”.
Nick hoped he could at least get a few hours sleep, but he was so nerved up that he got up around midnight and turned on the TV. Eventually the exhaustion from taking care of Amie, plus the strain of his evening visitors, overtook him. Nick fell asleep on his new sofa.
The next morning Nick awoke at 6am, with the TV still going, and he felt tired and depressed. Once the feds showed up to “escort” him, he wondered if that would be the last he would ever see of his retirement home. If he wasn’t able to get back down here to help Amie, he imagined that she would eventually be discovered. He should have dumped her near Sedona, he thought, but no, he had to be the hero and take her to Florida. Using Dom’s boat was probably out of the question, so how was she going to get to her spiritual place?
Still asking and trying to answer the questions he seemed to pose endlessly to himself, Nick stepped into the shower and prepared for a long, long day. After shaving and dressing, he went into the kitchen and made some coffee. He had just finished his second cup when the doorbell rang.
Nick opened the door to two men in dark colored suits. The older of the two showed his identification as F.B.I. Agent Allen. He introduced his partner as Agent Leonard.
“May we come in, sir?” Allen asked politely, but Nick knew it wasn’t an option and waved them in. “We’d like to talk with you about a matter of grave national security, involving the facility you work at in Nevada. Would you mind sitting down on the couch while we ask a few questions?” Nick sat down, and waited politely while they checked his ID, saying nothing.
“There is a person you worked with at Area 51, a person known only to us as Amie. Do you know this Amie?”
“Yes, she worked on my team. Of course, you know everything we do there has the highest classification. Have you been briefed? What is your highest classification level?”
“Sir, we are aware of the sensitive nature of this investigation, which is why we don’t expect you to say much about what you know or don’t know until we can get you into a secure area in our DC office. We’ve been sent here to escort you to FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC. There’s a late morning flight out of Ft Lauderdale. We’ll all be on that flight together. You don’t need to do anything except get yourself ready. We’ll handle the details. Is that clear, sir?”
“Yes, that’s perfectly clear,” Nick said a little testily. “Is there anything else you can tell me about this? I just returned from a week of vacation and was planning to fly back to BWI this morning.”
“Yes, sir. Your ticket will be reimbursed, but we need you to go with us.”
“Well, I’ll be glad to cooperate and help in any way I can.”
“I appreciate that, sir. It will make our job a lot easier and friendlier that way, too.” Allen didn’t crack a smile.
“While we’re here, would you mind if we take a look at your car?”
Nick told them to go ahead. He asked if either man wanted a cup of coffee. He figured he needed to act as nonchalant as possible. He knew everything he now said or did would be noted.
The agents declined his invitation for coffee and proceeded to check out the Honda. He watched them don latex gloves, take photographs, and poke around under the seats and in the trunk looking for evidence. They got out a special kit from their vehicle and took a number of fingerprint swipes and cataloged them for later reference. Nick watched Agent Leonard pluck what looked like several fibers from the front passenger side seat and put them in a plastic, self-sealing bag, but he was watching a little too far away to be sure what exactly Leonard found. He hoped it turned out to be one of Terri’s pet hairs.
While the agents worked, Nick debated whether to call his boss, Robert, or not. He figured Bob already knew they were taking him in for questioning. Nick knew there was little he or his boss could say on an open line phone. He decided to hold off on that call until after he had been questioned further by the feds.
When the two agents finished
with the car, they came back into the house and told Nick it was time to leave. Nick had finished washing the dishes and his bag was packed and waiting for him by the door. He turned down the A/C and walked out, locking the door behind him.
Chapter 19
Nick was flown to Reagan International in Washington, DC and taken to the FBI Building for a brief interrogation. Nick felt that this session went well, as those talking to him acted as if he was most likely a victim of abduction, rather than a conspirator in an escape. He felt that he handled himself well, insisting throughout that he was neither victim nor perpetrator, but merely a surprised and confused man who had gone on a brief vacation trip only to find himself embroiled in an event of intense national importance. He was treated respectfully and even offered lunch, but his briefcase was searched as well as his luggage, and his Tracfone and camera were taken from him. He was then bundled into a black SUV by a congenial agent and driven to the National Security Agency in Maryland. It was growing late in the afternoon when he was brought to a secure room somewhere on the fourth floor of the huge building. Nick knew that here the real questioning would begin.
Like many rooms at NSA Headquarters, this one was without windows and was entered by a cipher lock on a heavy steel door. A long, rectangular table, surrounded by uncomfortable looking chairs, was placed in the center of the room. As Nick walked into the room, he perceived a strange, dark mirror along the back wall, which he assumed was two-way. It was obvious that the entire proceedings would be recorded in some manner and probably watched by an anonymous group of people.
Nick’s escort led him to a chair at the head of the table and then quickly exited without a word. Nick was left by himself to marinate for a while, before the first team of two investigators arrived. By this time, he felt very intimidated, but he tried to summon what energy he could for the interrogation ahead.
The first team was obviously the “nice guys” in the “good guys/bad guys” school of interrogation. They appeared affable, shook his hand, introduced themselves, and chatted with him briefly about the weather in Florida. Within a few minutes, Nick was surprised to see Robert, his boss from the aerospace company, enter the room. Robert gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, before sitting down next to him. He told Nick that everyone in the room had been cleared for the forthcoming discussion about Amie’s disappearance.
One investigator began by first turning towards the two-way window and then back to Nick. “Please take your time when answering, but please be direct with us, and understand that everything you say is being recorded. The determination on your ability to retain your top secret clearance will depend on the truthfulness of your answers.”
The investigators then began the more serious conversation by describing to Nick every detail concerning the day Amie escaped Area 51. Nick did his best to act totally surprised by the information that they revealed. “From everything we know Nick, you are the only person that she collaborated with on a frequent basis. Naturally, we want to know everything you can tell us about your relationship with her. Any information you can think of about her would be helpful, so that we can get her back to Area 51 before she comes to some harm, or she brings harm to others. We hope you fully understand the importance of this investigation.”
Nick indicated that he did understand and implied that he wanted to help them with their efforts to locate Amie and would tell them whatever he could. The questioning moved to a request for a more detailed accounting of Nick’s activities during the entire day, with particular emphasis on what he did after he left the hangar party.
Nick took a deep breath and related the story of how he boarded the Janet Airline flight to McCarran and then hopped into his Civic and began a wonderful trip across the southern part of the country. “As far as my relationship with Amie,” he concluded, “from my perspective it was strictly professional. I hardly noticed her at the party and therefore I took no notice of when she left. I felt the same about my assistant, Shelley. Ours was also a professional relationship. I did ask her to stay and clean up, so I wouldn’t have been looking for her to be getting on the Janet Airlines flight with me. Frankly, I was too preoccupied with my own thoughts that day about ending the project. And I was looking forward to the total relaxation of the road trip ahead, so I didn’t pay much notice to anyone in the terminal or on the flight. I’m as distressed as you all are about Amie’s disappearance, but I don’t know any more than what I’ve told you.”
They then asked Nick to discuss, day by day, the details of his trip. After relating as much information about the trip as he could remember, the investigators began asking him to recall more specific details. To their dissatisfaction, Nick was not able to remember the names of most of the motels where he spent the night. He also could not remember the names of anyone he met along the way. He reminded them that he did not take this trip to make friends; he was traveling to experience “the joys of the open road”. He told them that he had brought his phone and digital camera along with him, and both contained many pictures that would corroborate everything he was saying. However, the FBI had confiscated them.
“You need to talk with the FBI,” Nick offered.
“Nick, do you use a credit card?”
“Yes, I do.”
“You didn’t use a credit card the entire time of your trip, did you?”
“Well, no I didn’t.”
“Want to tell us why not.”
“With my recent move to a home in Florida, I felt I was using my card too much. I felt that, on this trip, I’d have better control over the money I was spending if I just paid cash.”
“What about your cell phone Nick?” one investigator asked, “What happened to it?”
“I dropped it the very first day of the trip and broke it. Actually, it slipped out of the car and I drove over it to be exact. I heard a crunching sound and stopped the car in the parking lot. That’s when I discovered what had happened, and had to buy another cheap one for the trip.”
The investigators abandoned that line of questioning and soon told Nick it was time for a break. Bob said he needed to get back to the company for a meeting, but he had wanted to be there to show his support for Nick. Bob assured the two investigators that Nick had been a superlative employee over the years. Bob then cheerily told Nick he’d see him at the office the next day. At this point, Nick had begun to overcome his dread and anxiety. He felt the interview had gone well, and he actually felt empowered when his boss had said, “See you tomorrow.”
“That must mean something,” Nick thought, “why else would he have said that?”
But, when Nick got up to leave as well, he was told rather curtly by one of the interrogators to remain seated. “There are a few more people who want to talk with you.”
“Well, I’ve told you everything I know.”
“Could I get you something, sir? A bottle of water maybe?”
Nick said that would be good, and asked if he might also turn down the temperature in the room, as it was a little warm for his taste. Again he was left alone for a rather long period of time.
Finally, a different team of two men entered. One carried a bottle of room temperature water and handed it to Nick without comment. Without any introductions, the two men sat down and just stared at Nick for a short time, while he drank his water.
They then began the interrogation with the same warning that everything he said was being recorded and that his security clearance could be in jeopardy if he did not answer truthfully. They then assured Nick that they were fully cleared to discuss any and all events related to his work at Area 51. That marked the end of the “niceties” displayed by either of them.
The shorter investigator spoke with a southern accent. He asked Nick to go over everything he had told the other two men during the previous hour’s discussion, but he kept interrupting Nick to ask questions. “Why did you not do this?” “Why did you do that?” He shot Nick a disdainful look for every excuse or explanation that was given.
When Nick had finished relating the details of his trip, right up to the time he pulled into his driveway at his Palm City home, the investigator sidled over beside Nick and took out a photograph of Nick’s Honda Civic parked at the Excalibur entrance. “That car look familiar to you, Nick?”
Nick looked at it and laughed. “Come on guys, of course it looks familiar, it’s a blue Civic. And you know I have one, too. But guess what? There must be a million blue Civics on the road, and that’s one of them.”
“Yes, but this particular blue Civic was used, we believe, to pick up the alien being, Amie at the Excalibur Hotel.”
“Well, it isn’t mine.”
“Are you sure, Nick? It could be yours. It fits the time frame. You left the parking lot just a short while before this car was photographed at the Excalibur. It could definitely be yours.”
Nick shoved the photo back to them, noting that it didn’t depict his face in the car. He pointed out that they didn’t have a second photo of the rear of the car nor any identifying license plate.
“Don’t be so sure,” the short interrogator drawled.
They team also wanted to know why Nick waited so long in the Las Vegas Airport parking lot. They had video footage, taken from the lot security camera, of Nick entering his Honda, opening a door, rolling down some windows, and sitting there for almost a half hour. Nick explained that he had felt incredibly fatigued after the brief Janet flight. He reminded them that he was in his mid-60s and was sometimes prone to light headedness and headaches. He felt, that day, as if he had overindulged in cake and beer at the party, and had merely wanted to take a brief rest before beginning his long journey.
Then they went over the issue of the cell phone, which Nick had turned off. He reiterated his story. They implied he did not want to be contacted by anyone. Nick said he was almost glad it was broken. That it was a relief to be left alone, get off the grid for a few days. Then Nick added defensively, “Is that now against the law?” They dropped the subject.
SKY WOMAN OF GROOM LAKE Page 14