Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #3: Books 9-12 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [reading in the dark TXT] 📗

I am dedicating this conference, tonight, to the memory of a very remarkable young man. His parents, Stuart and May, are with us tonight, and we extend an especially warm welcome to them.”

I had seen them come in a couple of minutes earlier, and now several heads turned to look, there was some friendly waving, and silent mouthing of greetings. Kirkpatrick started talking again.

“We extend also a very warm welcome to Detectives John Stone and Carmen Dehan, who are with us tonight…” There was more head turning and staring, but more in astonishment this time than in friendliness. “They are, curiously enough, here tonight because the New York Police Department has decided to reopen the case on Danny’s homicide, and we are keen to cooperate as fully as possible. Who knows, they may end up with some very unsuspected suspects.”

He smiled and there was scattered laughter. He became serious again, and waited for the laughter to subside.

“I doubt there is a person in this room who is not familiar with the name Danny Brown. To Stuart and May, he was their cherished son. To me, he was like the son I never had. To many, he was an inspiration, for his dedication and energy, to all of us he was a well-loved friend. It is impossible to conceive that he was anything but that, to anybody. Which is why it is such a tragedy, and such a mystery, that he is not with us tonight. We continue with our mission, in his memory.” There was a lot of warm applause. He gestured to the man behind him and said, “Please welcome as our first speaker tonight, a man who needs no introduction, United States of America Air Force Colonel Chad Hait!”

I looked at Dehan. Her eyebrows had shot up all the way to her hairline. Colonel Hait spoke in a voice that was accustomed to being listened to.

“ I never had the honor of meeting Danny Brown, but I know how much he meant to most everybody here, and as I address you tonight, I do so with the belief that his death will not be a vain one. I have been researching the subject of UFOs for about forty years, since I was a young pilot stationed across the Atlantic. I have been an active, dedicated investigator for the last twenty of those years. And I can tell you that within the field of UFO research there is one subject that is taboo; one subject that nine out of every ten ufologists will not address—will not even talk about—and that is the possibility that the Visitors are not, as many believe, highly advanced, benign friends and guardians, but hostile predators, just as Professor Stephen Hawking predicted they would be…” He paused and looked around the room. “Well, let me tell you.” He smiled and gave a small laugh. “And I hope our friends from the NYPD are awake and paying attention, because I have with me here tonight hard, photographic evidence, and sworn testimony, from witnesses in the U.S.A., in Latin America and in Europe, that proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the alien visitors to this planet are hostile. Let me put it simply, ladies and gentlemen, they are here to kill us.”

Eleven

The colonel continued in that vein for the next sixty minutes. And he was as good as his word. He adduced photographic evidence, and sworn statements, to back up three cases of people who had been killed in inexplicable circumstances, that were all recognizable as what he called ‘classic mutilations’: they had all had their blood drained out of their bodies, all had at least some organs surgically removed, and in all cases, there were no tracks or footprints in the vicinity.

When he’d finished showing us the last of his slides, he was quiet for a moment, sucking on his teeth. “I’m going to go off on a tangent here for a moment,” he said suddenly. “As I have already said, I am glad we have two police officers here tonight, because I want to ask them both a question. I know it’s hypothetical, and I know it calls for speculation, but we’re among friends here and nobody is going to hold you to your word, or quote you.” There was some scattered laughter. “Detective Dehan, Detective Stone, many of us in this room have had visits from that other law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, at some time in our lives. Usually they have not been asking for information so much as requiring us not to divulge any to anybody else. But on this occasion, as we have you here, let me ask you this: Let’s assume the murderer in this case is not from Alpha Centauri, but Sicily. Let’s say we are not trying to prove that the killer is an extraterrestrial, but a Mafioso—are we ready to go to the DA? Are we ready to go, with this evidence, to the DA? What is he going to say? Have we got enough to go to trial and be confident of a win?”

Everybody turned to look at us. Dehan looked at me. I thought about it for a moment and stood.

“First of all, I can’t speak for the DA. Maybe Darcel is a fan of the X-Files. I don’t know her that well. But setting that to one side, it’s not that simple, Colonel. Because we’re talking about different burdens of proof. The burden of proof you need to convince a cop, or the DA, that the Mafia was behind a murder is actually pretty low.” There was a small ripple of laughter. “But the burden of proof you need to convince a court of law that Robert de Niro whacked Joe Pesci in Tony’s Ristorante on February 14th, is very high. It is, as you said, beyond a reasonable doubt.

“What does that mean? What am I saying