"Bye, lads." "See you, Jack." "Thanks for coming." "Good to see you." "Hello, Cheryl." "How are you?" "Surprised to see me, Jack?" "Derek would have wanted me to be here, don't you think?" "You're looking well." "He cut me out of the will." "Half that house is mine, Jack!" "Look, I don't think this is really the time or the place." "Does 20 years of marriage not count for anything?" "I expect Derek said that when you left him." "Oh, touche, Jack." "How's the view from up there on the moral high ground?" "I don't want to talk about this." "Not today." "Funny, isn't it, how I left him and he cut me out of his will and yet you left him and he made you the executor?" "I didn't leave him." "Yes, you did." "You just slipped away slowly enough that he never noticed." "When was the last time you saw him, Jack?" "Or spoke to him, even?" "You were as sick of that bloody case of his as I was!" "You knew he was wasting his time." "I should be getting on." "Well, I'm contesting the will, Jack." "He wasn't of sound mind when he changed it." "Oh, I think he was." "We'll let the law decide, shall we?" "You're wasting your time." "Do you think there's a judge anywhere who would look at" "Derek's theories on the Edelmann case and still consider him sane?" "This is Derek's reputation." "It's my money!" "And you're prepared to drag his name through the mud, tarnish everything he achieved just for a few quid?" "Derek always wanted the case to come to trial." "Now he gets his chance." "Perhaps I'll see you in court, risking your own reputation to defend Derek's." "I doubt it, though, eh?" "# It's all right, it's OK" "# Doesn't really matter if you're old and grey" "# It's all right, I say it's OK," "# Listen to what I say" "# It's all right, doin' fine" "# Doesn't really matter if the sun don't shine" "# It's all right, I say it's OK," "# We're gettin' to the end of the day. #" "I'm sorry, Jack, but this case is neither unsolved nor open." "Peter Edelmann committed suicide." "Derek always thought there was more to it than that." "A lot more, according to his files, and none of it remotely plausible." "I'd be the first to admit that some of Derek's theories were a bit..." "I know he was a friend, Jack." "This is not about friendship, Sandra, it's about loyalty." "A fellow police officer whose name is about to be dragged through the mud." "If we take this case on, all that happens is that we end up looking every bit as crazy as Derek." "Where's the harm in looking through the files unofficially?" "He may have missed something." "Be honest, if this file landed on your desk and you'd never heard the name Derek Brooker..." "I know, I know, I'd think he was several sandwiches short of a picnic." "But I knew Derek and he was a good detective." "And if he thought that Edelmann's death was suspicious, he must have had grounds for it." "OK then." "Put it on the board." "Thank you." "Peter Edelmann." "Respected author and journalist, specialising in evolutionary biology and gene theory." "Oh, THAT Peter Edelmann!" "On 18th September, 2002, Edelmann's body was found here in the woods about four miles from the village of Tentemill Green, where he lived, and two miles from the perimeter of an American Air Force base, which has since been decommissioned." "Cause of death was an overdose of tranquillisers, Temazepam, apparently self-administered..." "I remember this case." "There's a shock!" "One of the tabloids claimed to have an anonymous source who said Edelmann was killed by the American government." "Wouldn't surprise me." "And it was because of those allegations that a Murder Investigation Team was set up, led by Derek Brooker." "But they couldn't find any sign of foul play." "The pathologist report confirmed the overdose." "There was no sign of any violence or coercion." "The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide." "But Brooker still thought there was a case to answer, so he devoted his retirement to pursuing his own investigation, but was never able to prove a thing." "Any motive?" "Did Brooker have a theory?" "Well, according to witness statements, Edelmann was involved in an alleged incident here in the woods, on the night of 13th September, five days before he died." "What kind of incident?" "Supposedly, an aircraft had crash-landed." "The US Air Force deny it had ever happened, but Brooker didn't believe them." "He was convinced that Edelmann had seen something that night." "Derek's theory was that Edelmann planned to publish an account of what he'd seen that night, but was killed to stop the story from ever seeing the light of day." "So we find out what the story was and that gives us potential motive." "That's the trouble." "Edelmann's computer was taken during the course of the investigation and someone "accidentally" wiped the hard drive." "You're not serious?" "So it's not hard to see why Derek thought there was something fishy going on." "Hang on." "This isn't Watergate, so before we all turn into Woodward and Bernstein, maybe Jack would like to tell us what Brooker thought Edelmann had seen?" "Brooker thought, Brooker believed..." "Peter Edelmann was a member of a group of UFO spotters." "They were the source of the original murder allegations and they claim that it was a UFO that crashed in the woods that night." "A flying saucer?" "!" "Actually, a UFO just means an Unidentified Flying Object." "A military test plane or the like." "Unidentified doesn't necessarily mean..." "Derek believed that Edelmann was killed because he'd seen evidence of the US government's ongoing contact with extraterrestrials, Brian." "Ah." "Look, Brooker might have got his motives wrong, but that doesn't mean he was wrong about everything." "And if we can show that Edelmann's death was suspicious, then we can mount a proper investigation." "Peter Edelmann was living with his girlfriend, Susannah Morton." "She's still at the same address." "Seems like a good place to start." "Absolutely not, Brian!" "It's not an official investigation." "So don't call it an interview." "Derek Brooker was in regular contact with Susannah Morton right up till when he died." "So what's to stop Jack talking to her, off the record, as a friend of Derek's?" "And what's to stop us going along with him, for moral support?" "Count me out." "This is a colleague's reputation on the line!" "No." "This is a massive forest full of bloody Yanks, that's what it is!" "Two very good reasons for me to stay here." "Fine." "Then whilst we're gone, you can plough through Derek Brooker's case files for us." "X-Files, more like!" "The truth is out there, Gerry." "Oh look - Peter Edelmann wrote some of these." ""The Cichlid Fish of Lake Tanganyika"." ""Sicklid"." "Whatever." ""A Study Of Speciation In Evolution by P Edelmann and S Morton"." "Oh, thank you." "Do have a seat." "Thank you." "You co-wrote this?" "Well, the credit's a bit generous." "Evolution isn't really my field, but I helped Peter out with the maths." "I have a PhD in particle physics." "Oh, right, didn't realise." "That's OK." "Not looking like a physicist is generally considered a good thing!" "The publishers wanted to print a revised edition of that book." "But Peter was due to fly out to the Congo a week and a half after he died." "The timing of his death is one of the many reasons I don't believe he killed himself." "We should stress, Miss Morton, that we're not here in any official capacity." "We're looking over Derek Brooker's files and if it appears there's a case to be answered..." "Peter didn't kill himself." "That much I'm sure of." "Did he ever suffer from depression?" "No." "Or any kind of mental..." "No." "We lived together for ten years, I think I'd know if there was something wrong." "And yet Peter died of an overdose of prescription tranquillisers." "They were for the flight to the Congo." "Peter was scared of flying." "If he had to get on a plane, he'd take a pill to knock him out for the journey." "How did he happen to have the pills on him on that day?" "That morning, he'd gone into the surgery to have his jabs for the Congo." "He picked up the pills at the same time." "How was he when he left the house?" "I'd say he was... preoccupied." "He could get like that when he was working." "This particular mood, did it date from the incident in the forest that Derek Brooker talks about in his report?" "When Peter saw the UFO, you mean?" "With all the little green men running around making crop circles and interfering with the local cattle?" "Is that what you want to know about?" "Peter wasn't some UFO nut." "He was involved with the group because he was researching an article into what motivates irrational belief systems." "Did he tell you anything about what happened that night?" "Not really." "He said he'd been up into the forest, which is where he got the skin rash..." "Rash?" "Yeah." "Peter had a rash on his face, neck and hands." "He said it itched like hell." "Of course, after he died, that is what the conspiracy theorists really latched onto." "A classic side-effect of a close encounter, apparently." "But he gave you no indication that anything out of the ordinary had happened that night?" "The first I heard about any plane crash was... during the investigation into his death." "So whatever happened, presumably that's what Peter was writing about?" "Miss Morton, we need a good solid reason to question the original verdict of suicide in order to re-open this case..." "Don't." "Don't re-open the case." "I don't believe that Peter killed himself." "But if proving that breathes new life into these ridiculous conspiracy theories..." "I'm saying don't re-open the case." "Please." "Let Peter keep what's left of his name." "Ah, there you are!" "Look lively, we've another appointment." "With who?" "David Beaumont and Terry Thaxted." "Who?" "Beaumont and Thaxted." "The organisers of this UFO group that Peter Edelmann was involved with." "Absolutely not!" "No, no!" "The allegations - these are the fellows who first told the press Edelmann had been murdered." "Whatever we think about 'em, we can't ignore them!" "It's one thing to visit Susannah Morton unofficially, but you can't go around re-interviewing witnesses when the case is still closed!" "Sorry, they're expecting us." "What?" "!" "Don't worry." "As far as they're concerned, we were never there." "Come on." "Mr Lane explained the clandestine nature of your visit and I can assure you that neither myself nor Mr Thaxted here are strangers to subterfuge in our line of work." "What exactly is your line of work, Mr Beaumont?" "We run a privately financed, independent ICER group." "ICER?" "International Centre for Extraterrestrial Research." "From our headquarters here, we scan radio frequencies." "We also log and archive successful contacts from like-minded groups around the globe." "Are there many of those?" "Hmm, you'd be surprised." "Peter Edelmann was involved with our group." "Really?" "Susannah Morton told us that Peter Edelmann didn't believe a word of this UFO business." "He was only here to research an article." "Whatever Peter's reasons for joining, or his level of scepticism, I believe he finally witnessed something that changed his world view quite considerably." "You're talking about the crash in the forest?" "Indeed, Mr Lane." "We received several phone calls about some kind of aircraft dropping out of the sky and crash-landing in the forest some miles west of the Air Force base." "What time was this?" "About 11 o'clock in the evening." "I telephoned the other members of our group, Peter Edelmann included, and we rendezvoused here at around 11.30." "I can let you have precise times, we keep a detailed log..." "You went out into the forest?" "Mmm." "By the time we got there, the Air Force had put up an armed perimeter so that no-one could get close enough to see anything." "The men guarding the perimeter were wearing those." "What are those for?" "Chemical and biological warfare." "Officially..." "Excuse me?" "They don't just protect against terrestrial hazards." "So, supposedly, Peter Edelmann found a way through this perimeter?" "Yes." "He was gone for quite some time." "When he came back, you've heard about this skin rash?" "Yes." "A commonly reported symptom following a close encounter." "Did Mr Edelmann tell you what he'd seen?" "No." "He wouldn't talk to anyone, he went straight home." "But what he saw must have been something quite special." "Because he kept it secret?" "Because they killed him before he had a chance to tell anyone about it." "Who's "they"?" "The US Air Force." "Or related agency." "Black-ops." "Do you have any proof to support this allegation?" "Since when did people like this need proof of anything?" "Jack!" "Oh, look at all this!" "Flying saucers and aliens!" "Proof doesn't come into it!" "Mr Halford doesn't believe in the possibility of life on other planets?" "Mr Halford is beginning to doubt the possibility of intelligent life on this one!" "Jack!" "Jack..." "Thank you for your time." "We've got to keep an open mind, Jack." "No, Brian, that's exactly what Derek Brooker did and look where it got him." "Just because Derek couldn't prove his theories, doesn't necessarily mean he was wrong." "What?" "If Peter Edelmann was murdered, then it's either because he saw a flying saucer, or he saw something else." "Now, we're choosing to believe the latter, but since neither can currently be proved or disproved, then surely one's as likely as the other?" "Have you gone mad?" "Actually, you're both overlooking the fact that we're still no closer to proving Edelmann was murdered in the first place." "Unless we can do that, I'm afraid this investigation goes no further." "Well, first off, according to the Yanks, there wasn't even a crash that night." "It was a training exercise." "And they've always maintained that Peter Edelmann couldn't have seen anything, even if he did breach the perimeter, because there was nothing to see." "Great!" "So I checked on his medical records." "He had no history of depression or mental illness and the Temazepam was prescribed for his trip to the Congo, which was booked and confirmed for the week after he died." "Just cos he was planning a trip doesn't necessarily mean he didn't kill himself." "You'd be kicking yourself to have all those jabs and not go, though." "I had that Yellow Fever jab once, when me and Esther went to bloody Portugal." "A lot of Yellow Fever in the Algarve, is there?" "Better safe than sorry." "Me right arm swelled up like Arnold Schwarzenegger!" "Got it!" "Got what?" "Edelmann's inoculations." "There's a statement from his GP." "On the day that Peter Edelmann died, he had a whole range of injections for his Congo trip." "Not everyone who commits suicide cancels their plans in advance!" "No, no, no." "That's not what he means, is it?" "Post mortem..." "Here it is. "No sign of coercion or violence." Fine." "But they were checked for signs that no poisons or tranquillisers were administered other than the ones he'd swallowed." "They check for needle marks." "So, what, they didn't find any?" "No." "Show me." "As Brian says, apart from the needle marks themselves, these jabs could have caused swelling, bruising..." "Nothing." "Even if they discounted them, they would have at least mentioned it here." "Well, maybe the... maybe the pathologist..." "No, that would..." "Somebody's rigged the post mortem!" "Find me that pathologist, I want to talk to him." "And put together a list of witnesses." "We're going to rattle some cages!" "Officially?" "Damn right, officially." "The pathologist was a woman - Dr Eileen Harding." "But she's not a pathologist any more." "Two months after her post mortem report on Peter Edelmann, which more or less guaranteed the coroner's verdict of suicide, she quit her job and moved with her family to the States, where she works for a medical research company called Unifend Pharmaceuticals." "Now, who wants to guess who their biggest client is?" "The American Government?" "Bingo." "You are kidding me." "And we can't talk to her." "Apparently she's on a team-bonding exercise in the middle of nowhere and is expected back at the end of the month." "Pull the other one." "OK, who can we talk to then?" "Well, our most obvious source of witnesses is the American Air Force base, but since it was decommissioned, the personnel have been scattered to the four corners of the earth." "However..." "The base commander, Colonel Charles Norton, retired when the place shut down and still lives in the area." "And in theory, he should know exactly what, if anything," "Edelmann saw that night." "I doubt he's going to be falling over himself to tell us anything, though." "What about you, Brian?" "Well, the US Air Force ran their own investigation of all this." "They found nothing amiss, but since we can't access their report for reasons of "national security", there's no way of telling whether the whole thing's a whitewash or not." "The chap who ran the investigation was a Leonard Kuziak." "Now, Kuziak's still over here, but he's not in the military anymore." "But he runs some kind of theme-cafe in West London." "You're welcome." "The pumpkin pie, is that good?" "Just like Momma used to make." "Oh, let's hope not." "My mom could burn water." "I'll go for a slice of pie and a chocolate malt." "Coming right up." "Leonard Kuziak?" "What's the retirement age for cops in this country?" "I was a wide receiver back in college." "19 years old, you shrug off all the knocks. 40 years on, that's when you pay the price." "Where were we?" "The crash in the forest." "There was no crash." "September 13th, 2002." "The date's neither here nor there." "Eight years I was in command of that Air Base." "They decommissioned it and I was the last man out the gate." "Eight years." "I didn't lose a single aircraft." "So the reports of a crash...?" "Reports of a crash?" "The only report I'm aware of, Detective Superintendent, speaks of a training exercise taking place on the night in question." "What sort of exercise?" "Search and rescue." "In the event that one of our aircraft did come down outside a base perimeter in enemy territory, we need to respond quickly." "Seal the area, recover survivors, equipment and so on." "And the personnel involved in such an exercise, what would they wear?" "Protective clothing." "Chemical warfare suits." "Same as when we're dealing with alien spacecraft." "That is where you're going with this, isn't it?" "As I explained on the phone, Colonel Norton, we're investigating allegations against the US Air Force in connection with the death of Peter Edelmann." "And you don't find those allegations to be ridiculous?" "Clearly not." "Well, you should." "New evidence has come to light." "What new evidence?" "We're not at liberty to discuss that." "Uh-huh." "Then how about I save us all a lot of time?" "What always ticked me off about this thing from the get-go was the idea that a civilian just walks through a secure military perimeter." "We're out there training search and rescue teams to recover downed aircraft in enemy territory." "Do you think we set up our perimeter, then just let some journalist waltz through it?" "Never happened!" "If you're so sure that no-one could get through your security, why bother with an investigation?" "This is the OSI we're talking about, Mr Standing." "The Office of Special Investigations." "We're responsible for maintaining law and order within the US Air Force and the military holds itself to a higher standard." "Someone accuses us of any improper behaviour, let alone murder, you'd better believe we're going to investigate it." "And thoroughly." "Chocolate malt?" "Er... no thanks." "Best shake this side of the pond." "You hungry?" "You want a chilli dog?" "No, I'm fine." "I've eaten, thanks." "Just for me." "Slow day?" "I'll ride it out." "I live out the back, so I keep the overheads low." "Where were we?" "Your investigation." "Oh." "So we spoke with the personnel responsible for securing the perimeter, along with the guys who were working the crash-site, the officer in charge and the operations guys on base, who'd been monitoring radio communications the whole time." "Bupkis." "Hmm?" "Nothing." "Zip." "No perimeter breach." "No unauthorized personnel at the crash site." "No unusual comms traffic." "Even if this guy Edelmann had got through the perimeter, someone would have noticed him." "Assuming no-one lied to you." "You have to understand - this is life and death stuff in the military." "Someone breaches the perimeter and it's your fault, you call it in." "Maybe you catch hell for not paying attention, but letting a potential enemy through and not warning anyone?" "That's a world of trouble." "What if someone knew Edelmann..." "Way ahead of you." "We looked at every single participant's personal file." "None of those guys knew Peter Edelmann." "Edelmann didn't see squat that night." "He was never there." "I got to get back to work." "A guy walks out into the forest and takes an overdose of pills." "Sometimes it really is that simple." "Are you all right?" "I had a bicycle... 45 minutes ago, I had a brand-new bicycle." "Oh, toe rags!" "I haven't heard that one before." "Sounds like a medical condition!" "Didn't you lock it?" "Yeah." "What, they nicked the lock?" "I'm not surprised." "It cost £100." "A hundred quid?" "!" "Well, it was tamper-proof." "Tamper proof?" "!" "Nah, nah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." "No, it's pretty funny." "Look, do you want a lift somewhere?" "No, I'm OK thanks." "Sure?" "You're a cop." "That's the second time in an hour." "Is it that obvious?" "I used to be married to one back in the States." "Ah." "And that put you off them for life, right?" "Is that how your luck usually plays out?" "Most of the time." "Luck can change." "This poor woman actually agreed to go and have a drink with you?" ""Agreed"?" "She asked me!" "Isn't it a bit dangerous for someone with a severe visual impairment to be riding a bike in London?" "She could get her white stick caught in the spokes!" "What's so funny?" "Nothing." "Gerry's been asked out on a date by a 45-year-old!" "Woman?" "Very funny." "She happens to be gorgeous." "With a thing for older men." "Much older." "Maybe she's just looking for a man with wisdom and experience." "Thank you, Sandra." "And she thinks Gerry might know one!" "Whilst you were out on the pull, you didn't happen to bump into Leonard Kuziak, did you?" "I did, as it happens." "Sounds like the same story as your Colonel." "He said his lot carried out a full investigation and there's no way" "Edelmann could have got over their perimeter." "If he didn't see anything, there's no motive to kill him." "Assuming it was murder, maybe we're looking for motive in the wrong place." "How many enemies can a science writer make?" "Let alone enemies who can make the death look like suicide and get the pathologist to go along with it." "But we mustn't forget the pathologist could have made a mistake." "And the fact that she moved to America could just be coincidence." "Nah, we're missing something." "Peter Edelmann was a clever bloke..." "A man of science, practical and methodical..." "Bingo!" "With the odds of winning the Lottery at 14 million to one against, it struck me as unlikely that a man as logical as Peter would have bought a ticket." "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Mr Lane, but Peter had been buying a ticket every Friday, without fail, for about six months." "He'd been working on a system to improve the odds." "Well, this was a Wednesday." "Excuse me?" "You say he bought a ticket every Friday." "But this was bought two hours before he died." "On a Wednesday." "May I?" "If Peter was intending to kill himself, why would he change his routine, buy a lottery ticket for a draw he didn't expect to be around for?" "These numbers aren't right." "How do you mean?" "Peter's system relied on an algorithm that generated a different set of numbers each week." "But there was a peculiarity to it - it could never generate prime numbers." "One, three, 17 and 19 are all primes." "Could he have changed the system?" "No." "Could it be a code?" "Was Peter trying to leave a message behind?" "That's a bit of a leap." "Well, if it is a code, I wouldn't know where to begin to crack it." "Yes, but he would have known that, wouldn't he?" "So if this is a coded message, who did he think would be able to decrypt it?" "It's not Fibonacci." "Could be a Farey sequence." "Or Thue-Morse expressed in decimals?" "Atomic numbers?" "Atomic weights, perhaps." "Or a combination of the two." "But you think it's a code?" "Well, that's the problem with codes, Mr Lane, because you can't tell if it is or isn't a code until you decode it." "We don't want to jump to unfounded conclusions." "Why break the habit of a lifetime?" "There are things we could do..." "Would it help to use the police computers back at our office?" "THEY LAUGH" "Thank you very much, but I think you'll find that any computer a policeman is capable of using, won't achieve anything like the computational power we have here." "How long?" "How long is a piece of string?" "You go." "I'll stay and let you know if we turn anything up." "See, sushi is actually a cube of vinegared rice, covered with either fish, vegetable or meat." "Now, a lot of people think it's raw fish, but that's sashimi." "That one just moved." "Well, listen we can go somewhere else if you prefer?" "No." "No, I'll try anything...once." "Futomaki." "Excuse me?" "Rice mixed with fish and vegetables and wrapped in nori, which is a kind of seaweed." "You know, I never would have guessed you were into this stuff." "I'm surprised." "In a good way." "Bon appetit." "I'm not saying the woman's an angel, Jack, but Derek Brooker was a man with obsessions." "He can't have been much fun to live with. "For richer, for poorer." "In sickness and in health."" "Unless it isn't any fun, in which case you run off with a doctor ten years your junior in the hopes that he buys you a Merc!" "I mean, it's a miracle to me that Esther puts up with Brian." "And his obsessions only last a few days at a time." "But can you imagine Esther destroying Brian's reputation to get her hands on his money?" "Of course not." "But then I can't see Brian cutting Esther out of his will either." "I'm not saying the woman is right, Jack, but I do think you should try and empathise a bit." "Jack?" "I'm impressed, Jack." "I really didn't think you'd stick your neck out for Derek." "Sandra Pullman, this is Cheryl Brooker." "Pleased to meet you." "Yeah, I know who you are." "I'm even more impressed with you, putting your career on the line for someone you didn't know." "Cheryl..." "I wonder how the newspapers will react when they hear the police are frittering away tax payers' money searching for flying saucers?" "We're looking into this case because new evidence has come to light." "Yeah, that's just how the tabloids will report it(!" ")" "I'd be updating your CV about now, if I were you." "Cheryl..." "You brought this on yourselves." "Just remember that when your faces are splashed across the front page." "Still think she was hard done by?" "I don't even know what you do for a living." "Oh, you can't guess?" "Should I be able to?" "I guessed you were a cop." "Turnabout is fair play." "All right, erm, model?" "That's tacky!" "No." "Thank you." "Well, I don't think you're a restaurant critic." "True." "Or an expert on bicycle security." "It's really not that interesting." "No, but if you do it, I doubt it's boring." "Tacky again?" "No, actually that one's just about right." "There's a kid up our street could probably sort that out for you." "Fixed our video up like new when Esther split her tea on it." "Actually, that's monitoring signals." "Eh?" "CMBR." "Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, the radiation that was generated when the universe came into existence." "If you de-tune a television, a small proportion of the white noise you see is an echo of the Big Bang." "The rest is thermal interference and a variety of other signals that are either too weak to resolve or else indecipherable to our equipment." "In amongst that, there may one day be a signal we can interpret." "A message, perhaps." "Like those Magic Eye pictures." "I could never get those to work." "Well, we're no strangers to mockery, Mr Lane." "Oh, no, I wasn't..." "You're clearly interested in science and maths, and you seem to know a fair bit about it." "But don't you ever wonder that you might be wasting all that on this alien business?" "From a purely scientific perspective, the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence is a far from irrational belief, Mr Lane." "How's that, then?" "Show him Drake." "Who's Drake?" "So these are just old cases that no-one's ever managed to solve?" "Yeah." "Yeah, new evidence comes to light and we have another look at them." "Like what?" "Well, at the moment... we're investigating a possible government conspiracy." "Yeah." "Cover-ups, murder, the lot." "Is that why you were at the diner?" "No." "No, not exactly, no." "Look, I shouldn't really be talking about ongoing investigations." "I'm sorry." "No, no, you're fine, it's..." "This is me." "Very nice." "This is the awkward moment, huh?" "Yeah." "I'm not going to invite you up, Gerry." "I want to, but I'm not going to." "It's all right." "I don't have many rules, but this is one of them." "Take me out again and we'll see what happens, OK?" "OK!" "There we are." "The Drake equation, devised back in 1960 by Dr Frank Drake, a professor of astrophysics at the University of California." "Now, Drake was trying to calculate the probability of us making contact with other intelligent civilisations out there in the universe." "Another crackpot." "He based his calculations on the number of new stars formed every year, the number of planets orbiting those stars and the number of those planets that were likely to sustain life forms intelligent and technologically advanced enough to make contact." "You listening to this?" "Yes, yes." "Fascinating." "Is this leading us anywhere relevant, Brian?" "Look, the point is that even by using the most conservative estimates, this equation proves that the existence of other intelligent life out there in the universe is far more likely than not." "Morning, all." "What have I missed?" "Brian thinks Edelmann might have seen a UFO after all." "He's been brainwashed by our conspiracy nuts." "PHONE RINGS" "I'm simply saying there is mathematical proof for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence." "Have those nerds cracked the code?" "They're working on it." "So, how was your date?" "I don't kiss and tell." "Yes, you do!" "If it was more than a kiss, you'd be shouting from the rooftops." "We had a very pleasant evening, actually." "Someone's just tried to burn down Leonard Kuziak's diner." "Cheers." "Thank you." "They haven't found any bodies yet, so that means Leonard Kuziak wasn't in his flat at the time or the fire was so hot there's nothing left of him to find." "Arson?" "Looks like it - most restaurant fires start in the kitchen." "This one started in the dining area." "So unless Forensics find any human remains, it's either attempted murder or a warning of some kind." "Relating to the Edelmann case?" "Bit much of a coincidence, isn't it?" "No-one knew we were even talking to Kuziak." "Someone did." "Who?" "I'll ring you later." "Where are you going?" "Gerry?" "PHONE RINGS" "Yeah, Brian?" "Great." "Hang on." "They've cracked the code." "We'll come and get you." "We think Peter's lottery numbers refer to the periodic table of elements." "If we transpose these numbers to their corresponding chemical symbols, we get hydrogen H, lithium Li, carbon C, oxygen O, chlorine Cl and potassium K. Spelling something out." "Not necessarily, no." "An anagram?" "So when you say you cracked the code..." "Oh, yeah, CLOCK's in there." "Or CLICK." "HILLOCK." "No, that leaves a C out." "You can't even make a word using all the letters!" "Maybe it's another code." "You've cracked the top layer, to reveal another cipher." "Or turned a random series of numbers into a random series of letters and wasted a lot of time in the process." "Tell them!" "We don't think this is an anagram." "Then what?" "The elements these numbers refer to..." "We think it's the chemical basis for an alien life form." "The one Peter saw in the forest that night." "Ohhh!" "Complete dead end." "Not necessarily." "It might still be a code, and those two might even be right about the letters they represent." "But they don't mean anything." "Not to us, no." "But maybe he was sending it to somebody specific, somebody who would know what the letters meant." "I'm sorry." "Well, it's a long shot." "Maybe they really were just lottery numbers." "Is it that simple?" "What?" "I don't think it's a code." "I think it could be an address." "An IP address?" "A what?" "Internet protocol." "It's the address of a Web server." "If that's where Peter backed his work up to..." "September the 13th 2002." "The night of the crash." "SIREN WAILS" "Is this possible?" "It's certainly possible." "So Peter claims that he got past the supposedly secure perimeter the US Air Force had set up and he saw the wreckage of a plane crash." "Still burning." "And he saw bodies." "Quite a few, by the sound of it." "This is it." "This is motive for murder, isn't it?" "They wouldn't want this to get out." "Why not?" "Planes have crashed before." "If the plane was on a secret mission..." "That would explain covering up the crash, but it hardly justifies murder." "You can't think it was a coincidence that Peter saw this five days before..." "It can't be proven." "The only evidence we have of a crash, let alone bodies, is this article by Peter." "He's not with us any more." "So there's no-one to corroborate the story." "Maybe there is someone." "Look." "That looks like the same rash that Peter had the night he came back from the forest." "I thought it might be." "Evidence of a close encounter, they said." "I know exactly what Peter Edelmann had a close encounter with." "These gloves are made from a material similar to latex." "They sprinkle a powder inside them to stop them sticking to your skin." "Same stuff they use in forensic gloves." "I'm allergic to it, which is why I had the same reaction when I put them on earlier as I used to get at crime scenes." "Fifty quid says Peter Edelmann had the same allergy." "So Peter got through the perimeter because he was wearing one of the these suits." "Now, we've always assumed that he was on his own." "But there are two suits, so the question is which one of you was with him?" "Beer?" "I've taken care of Melissa." "Yeah, anonymous tip to friends in high places should keep her out the way for a while." "Melissa?" "Mm-hm." "She was using me to get information about the investigation." "I didn't tell her anything important, but obviously it was enough to get your place burned down." "Melissa, the nurse?" "The what?" "She's a nurse in an old folk's home around the corner from my place." "She comes in all the time." "No, but I asked her what she did, and she dodged the question." "She probably didn't think changing adult diapers was a very sexy topic for a first date." "You thought she was spying on me?" "Yeah, I..." "Well, they're a little subtler than that." "You guys start asking questions after all this time, you'd be amazed how fast word gets around." "They probably thought I'd talk so they torched my place to either warn me or kill me." "But who are "they"?" "The Martians." "They're taking over." "Come on, it could be one of a dozen intelligence agencies." "Something like this, there's not usually a lack of interested parties." "But it IS to do with Peter Edelmann." "Whatever I tell you now, that's it." "I won't repeat it anywhere else." "I won't sign anything and I won't go on tape." "I leave here and you'll never see or hear from me again." "If you've got anything pertinent..." "I was an officer in the United States Air Force, Mr Standing." "I was good at my job and I never gave anyone cause to ever think I'd ever tell what I knew." "Yet the first sign of trouble, they torch my place just to shut me up." "Now, that pisses me off just enough to tell you what I know." "But I won't go on the record and I won't stand up in court and betray my country." "That being the case, do you want to listen to what I have to say or not?" "KNOCKING" "Do you know what time it is?" "We have a few more questions for you, Mr Norton." "Colonel Norton." "You want to talk to me, make an appointment." "I don't think so." "We found the article that Peter Edelmann was writing." "We want to know about the bodies." "They killed Peter Edelmann, Mr Lane." "They killed him because he tried to tell people what we saw that night." "Do you think I was going to stick my head above the parapet once that had happened?" "Tell me what you saw, Mr Thaxted." "We got a call about eleven in the evening from one of the members of our group." "He'd seen some kind of aircraft crash in the forest." "Peter Edelmann was here with us." "We decided to go and take a look." "They called it a training exercise, which was the most effective way of sweeping the whole thing under the carpet." "But there WAS a crash?" "Of course there was a crash." "Anyone within a five-mile radius must have heard the noise." "There were clouds of smoke, and a decent section of the forest was destroyed by the impact." "By the time the three of us got out into the forest, it was crawling with air-force people, clouds of black smoke rising up from deep inside the forest." "There was no way they were letting anyone near it." "We knew straightaway this was something big." "So you came back here and put the protective suits on." "Peter was desperate to get inside the perimeter." "Mr Thaxted and I tossed a coin to see who would go with him." "I won." "Or lost, depending on your point of view." "This nonsense brings you to my door at this hour?" "We're not so sure it is nonsense." "I can't help that." "You're still maintaining this was a training exercise?" "Absolutely." "And yet Peter Edelmann says he sneaked through the perimeter." "Impossible." "Even if he was covered head to foot in a chemical warfare suit?" "Would it be possible then?" "We got as close to the perimeter as we dared and then put the suits on over our clothes." "I don't know about Peter, but I really didn't think we stood much of a chance of getting through." "But it was worth a try?" "Yes." "And, as it turned out, we just walked through." "No questions asked." "Everyone seemed in a big hurry." "There were jeeps going to and fro, people barking orders over radios." "The crash site was about a mile in from the perimeter." "We'd had to jog all the way to keep up with the others, so..." "What did you see, Mr Thaxted?" "I saw bodies, Mr Lane." "A lot of bodies." "This is the fantasy of a man just before he took his own life." "If this is all you have..." "PHONE RINGS" "Excuse me." "Hello?" "OK." "Thanks, Brian." "We have another witness." "No, you don't." "Yes, we do, and this one's very much alive." "But I'd like to remind you that you no longer enjoy the protection of the US Air Force." "You are a guest in our country." "I should start telling the truth, if I were you." "When it comes to sticking by an obviously implausible story, most governments would give the average nine-year-old kid a run for his pocket money." ""There was no crash, it was a training exercise." "You heard a noise?" ""You saw clouds of black smoke?"" ""Trees snapped in half or else burnt to a crisp?"" ""Hollywood-style special effects to make the whole thing as real as possible for our boys."" "You'd be surprised how easily people swallow it up." "So what was it that crashed?" "I don't know." "There was almost nothing left intact." "The whole area was scattered with wreckage, some of it still burning, some of it partially melting from the heat of the burning fuel." "Did you see any insignia, logos?" "Any numbers, even partial, on the pieces of..." "No." "Subpoena the logs for the night in question." "Every flight in landed safely, every flight out reached its destination without incident." "And every flight appears on those logs?" "What are you suggesting?" "If someone wanted to make a flight disappear..." "OK, sure." "Let's indulge that line of questioning, shall we, see where it leads?" "Say someone wanted to cover up an incident, someone with the power to delete a flight from the official" "US Air Force log, to make it vanish into thin air like it never existed." "So tell me - you imagine that someone with that kind of influence can be caught out by you?" "There was no flight." "It was a... ..Gulfstream jet." "CIA-owned." "It was flying out of the base en route to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." "Something happened just after takeoff, some kind of mechanical error, and they ditched it in the forest." "All right, so it was a CIA plane and it crashed." "What was the need for all the secrecy?" "The plane's not the thing, Mr Standing." "It's the cargo." "It took a while before I even realised what I was looking at, all these black lumps scattered across the ground, like larger versions of something you'd scrape off the bottom of the oven." "Men were gathering them up into bags and packing them into the back of a truck." "I couldn't work out why until I... trod on one." "It cracked under my foot and, when I looked closely," "I realised it was a hand." "In his account, Peter Edelmann claims he saw bodies in the wreckage. "Claims"." "They were all body parts, these black lumps, charred to the bone, scattered amongst the wreckage everywhere you looked." "Whose bodies were they?" "What was that plane carrying?" "British citizens of various nationalities suspected of involvement in terrorist activities." "So they could just as easily have been innocent." "Just like the poor nurse you've currently got locked up in a cell." "People the US government suspect of being involved with terrorist groups, who enjoy the legal protection of their host country - we can't extradite them, you don't have enough evidence to arrest them." "So the CIA snatches them off the street and flies them out in secret." ""Secret" being the operative word." "If we admitted there was a crash, we would have to call in the British emergency services to deal with it." "They find bodies, they want names, names we can't give them because we had no right putting those people on the plane in the first place." "So by calling it a training exercise, you keep the authorities away." "That's the idea." "How many people on this plane?" "Two pilots and nine prisoners, and they all died on impact." "And Peter Edelmann saw it?" "He saw the bodies." "Well, what was left of them." "He put two and two together pretty fast and started asking some uncomfortable questions." "Who killed Peter Edelmann?" "What, you think I know the names?" "I don't even know if people like that have names." "I don't know who they take their orders from, how they get in or out of the country, nothing." "I know why it happened, and that's it." "Got any more beer?" "You need to make a statement." "What we can give you is protection, a new identity, relocation." "You could even open another diner if you wanted." "The thing..." "Cheers, Gerry." "It was a private plane bound for Guantanamo Bay." "Nine prisoners, all British citizens suspected of terrorism, illegally abducted by the CIA." "They call that "extraordinary rendition", don't they?" "I'd like you both to leave." "A plane that was kidnapping British citizens crashed on British soil." "You have no evidence." "Peter Edelmann saw the bodies, started asking awkward questions, and so he was killed." "Was that your decision?" "Either charge me..." "If you didn't give the orders, you must have known about it, which makes you an accessory after the fact." "Tell us what happened, Mr Norton." "There was no plane crash." "It was a training exercise." "We don't have a witness." "What do you mean?" "So you did see the bodies?" "What was left of them, yes." "The bodies of what, Mr Thaxted?" "Aliens." "Ohhh!" "Aliens?" "Isn't it obvious?" "That's why they killed Peter." "Because he saw the bodies." "They were nine prisoners bound for Guantanamo Bay." "They were being t..." "It was a plane, not a bloody spaceship!" "If I may, they WOULD say that." "No, no, they wouldn't, actually." "You see, that's the point cos, they're not saying anything." "In fact one of our colleague talked to somebody on the inside." "Ah." "What?" "Someone on the inside?" "Someone with a vested interest in having you believe their cover story?" "Extraordinary rendition is the cover story?" "!" "Well, that's the way they work." "A plausible lie covers an implausible truth." "You saw those bodies, Mr Thaxted." "Not human ones." "They were burned beyond all recognition!" "Ah." "Someone's got to you." "Sandra..." "If someone has bribed or threatened you to falsify evidence, that's called witness tampering." "Surely you are not suggesting..." "They believe it, Sandra." "Don't be absurd, Brian!" "This man is the only living witness we have to a flagrant breach of international law and a conspiracy to cover it up that led to the murder of a British citizen!" "You saw those bodies with your own eyes." "I know what I saw." "Fine, OK, fine." "So you really do believe, do you, that all of this is to do with little green men and flying saucers?" "I know what I saw." "Those body parts, were they green?" "The phrase "little green men" isn't meant to be taken literally." "Shut up!" "I'm not lying, Ms Pullman." ""Detective Superintendent"." "That's it." "We're done here." "Mary always said we were mad to marry into the police force." "But she coped with it, didn't she?" "I couldn't." "I was just... counting the months till Derek's retirement, when I would get my husband back." "And then the Edelmann case..." "What are you doing here, Cheryl?" "I'm not going to contest the will." "I've changed my mind." "It's not like I need the money." "Well, it was... never about the money anyway." "I wanted my side of the story to be heard." "But you're right - it's not worth the damage it would do to his memory." "Who's that?" "I'm dropping the lawsuit." "That's what I've come here to tell you." "Has someone approached you about this?" "Shake my hand, Jack." "What are you afraid of?" "Just shake my hand, please." "Goodbye." "The number you have dialled has not been recognised." "Please check the number and try again." "CAR ENGINE STARTS" "Sounds like the same car I saw at the cemetery." "Maybe whoever put the wind up Cheryl did the same to Melissa." "Yeah, either that or I was right in the first place and she was in on it all along, which makes you lot right." "How's that?" "Well, a woman like that's never going to go for a bloke like me, is she?" "Oh, Gerry, we were joking." "Yeah, well, she's vanished now, so we'll never know." "We've really blown this one." "We didn't blow anything." "The case is now officially unsolved." "We know the truth of what happened and sooner or later we'll find a way to prove it." "Yeah, but do we really know the truth, though?" "Hm?" "Well, I mean, Peter Edelmann's article says he saw bodies but he didn't know whose bodies they were." "Leonard Kuziak said they were prisoners." "Colonel Norton says there wasn't even a plane crash and Beaumont and Thaxted..." "Oh, don't bring them up again!" "Oh, no, no, go on, Brian." "I'm just saying, who do we trust?" "Maybe Kuziak was spinning a yarn to keep us off the real story, you know a riddle inside an enigma, all wrapped in a thingummy." "In which case, the truth would be...?" "Well, according to the Drake Equation, it's far more likely that there are..." "He thinks it was aliens!" "I'm just saying we've no proof to support one version of events over another." "Maybe there ARE more things in Heaven and whatnot." "His mechanism's gone." "He should phone home!" "Yeah, well, you believe what you like." "But when whatever it is comes crawling out of them woods bent on world domination, then you'll all be sorry." "FIVE-NOTE MELODY FROM "CLOSE ENCOUNTERS"" "# It's all right, it's OK" "# Doesn't really matter if you're old and grey" "# It's all right, I say it's OK" "# Listen to what I say" "# It's all right, doin' fine"