The Broadcast

by Liam Fialkov

  But the affairs didn’t fill his heart with joy; they left him discontented, and so he started to seek healing for his soul in a world where he felt safe and protected, more than in the real, alienating world. He turned to the computer, to the Internet and to chat rooms.

  In the evenings he sat in front of the screen for hours, spending his time in long chats with foreign women. He knew he was looking for someone special, but he didn’t know what the characteristics that might answer his yearning were. He would chat with two and even three women every night, women from all over the US and Canada. He sensed great anticipation and enthusiasm during the first few weeks. Filled with excitement, he examined the information they offered about themselves and looked at the pictures they chose to present; he tried to figure out who were the women behind those concise pages—perhaps lonely souls like him.

  With time, the charm started to diminish. He got tired of the futile wandering in chat rooms, so he visited the online dating services less and less. And when he was ready to give up on the fruitless search—he met someone. He had found her, or perhaps she had found him. When they chatted, he was engulfed with a strange feeling; it was like they were connected with invisible threads that were uniting them through the computers and bridging the distances. It wasn’t love, or so he told himself, but a deep and rooted connection that made him think that she was like the sister he never had. He would write a line, and she completed it; she developed a thought, and he knew immediately where she was heading. He rejoiced so much about finding her that he even thought of telling his wife about his new friend, but after further consideration, he decided not to.

  Her name was Irene. She was a married woman with a PhD in Computer Science, who taught at a university in the state of Minnesota. She had two children, a boy and a girl. Irene spent her nights alone, after she put her kids to bed. Her husband, a slippery sales agent that she no longer loved, no longer respected, and no longer hoped would change his ways, was absent from home most days during the week because of business and random adulterous affairs.

  She was raised by a single mother. Like Jonathan, her father was killed in a car accident when she was little, so she was told. She didn’t know her father at all, didn’t remember anything about him, and had almost never been able to extricate any details about him from her mother.

  Jonathan and Irene spent hours in the chat room, where they communicated on a daily basis. He knew how she looked from pictures that she’d sent him and from searching the Internet. He saw that in spite of her age—she was about four years older than him—she still possessed traces of exceptional beauty, and her face maintained a youthful appearance.

  As time passed, they moved to telephone conversations, getting closer and touching each other with their voices. He loved to hear her soothing voice, which was sympathetic and comforting. They talked calmly, at ease, like they had arrived at their natural place, and they were not in a hurry to reach anywhere. They felt that they could open up to one another, expose themselves and talk almost about everything. Like Jonathan, Irene also had gone through a time when she suffered from panic attacks. She experienced uncontrolled fears of an undefinable entity, wickedly plotting against her. She was afraid of the dark, and always made sure to leave a small night light on in her bedroom. There were times when she awakened from her sleep breathless and scared, following strange dreams. Fortunately, she managed to gain a great deal of improvement in her condition with the help of prescription medications.

  Jonathan had openly told her almost everything that came to his mind. In a state of unfamiliar calmness, he felt he had found himself an ally in whom he could completely trust. He told her about his wife, who was unfaithful but whom he couldn’t stop loving, and about their failing attempt to bring a child into the world. He talked about his orphanage and the foster homes where he hopelessly yearned for love, about his work and his attraction to fix machines and computers, perhaps as a compensation for his inability to heal his wounded soul. He told her about his fascination with the more unusual phenomena of our world, the ones that don’t obey common logic. He allowed himself to open up like he didn’t do even with Sarah. And he didn’t know if it was the distance that made him feel so safe or maybe the way in which she attentively listened, in a nonjudgmental and supportive way and the way she allowed herself to open up to him, trusting him in a way that moved him deep in the core of his being.

  Irene listened when he was talking, and from time to time she commented in her soothing and comforting voice. He told her that like her, he suffered from panic attacks, but unlike her, he chose not to treat them with medications. He didn’t tell her about the unusual site that Sarah and he had discovered in the forest.

  Chapter 12

  The Broadcast

  Investigative Police Officer Roger Lambert, of the Los Angeles Police Department, jumped at the opportunity to use the unusual technology, hoping to solve a case that had troubled him for about eight years. In that incident, which had gained huge media coverage, a young and promising movie actress disappeared. She had been a beautiful twenty-year-old star who had been considered to have a bright future in the entertainment industry. Her body had been found after three weeks of searches, rolled inside a carpet in the city’s dumping grounds. Roger Lambert, who had investigated the crime, faced a complicated challenge because her friends and colleagues said she was a charming young lady that everybody loved and they couldn’t think of any enemies who could do such a horrible thing. They all appeared to be genuinely shocked and devastated.

  When the police officer started to dive into the details of the investigation, he had discovered that the young actress, Dianne Gillis, was not as pure and innocent as she was portrayed in the eyes of her friends, the media, and the public. She had known very well how to manipulate the people around her in order to achieve her goals, and hadn’t had a problem with using wicked methods. She had started her successful career at the age of seventeen—still a minor—when she had a tumultuous love affair with a leading Hollywood producer.

  After some time, she had threatened him that she would publish details of the affair, including intimate, erotic clips that she’d secretly filmed, which documented their sexual encounters. She told the producer that the first person to get to watch the footage would be his wife.

  Following the extortion, Dianne Gillis won her first significant role, which had been her breakthrough into the public spotlight. She had earned rave reviews from the critics, who hailed her excellent performance and her ability to merge with the character she was portraying. Overnight, she received the fame and status of a star, which she had strived for, a status that many girls in the Unites States and throughout the world dream of. She had also caught the eyes of influential industry professionals, who now courted her and offered her major roles in their movies.

  After she had achieved the much sought after fame, which made her rich and brought a constant stream of fans to her door, the young star found it difficult to cope with her great success. She consumed alcohol and drugs in dosages that grew fast and started to influence her daily functioning and mood. She got involved in a wild and unrestrained love affair with her drug dealer, a tough criminal who, despite his pleas and demands, she had refused to allow to accompany her to the shiny events she was invited to. She made it clear to him that she didn’t want to be seen with him in public so as not to hurt her image and her chances of getting positive and significant roles in upcoming productions. Instead of him, she chose to arrive at the formal soirees and the photographed parties accompanied by young mail stars who played at her side in movies and TV productions. The tough criminal had a hard time dealing with the insult, and he had been furious about her photographs in gossip sections of tabloids, alongside other men.

  Furthermore, Dianne Gillis had drawn away and alienated herself from her Catholic family, who refused to accept her far-from-modest appearance in movies and magazine pictures. In her family’s view she brought shame on them, and therefore the
y had cut off all ties with their daughter. After her murder, family members isolated themselves in deep grief and refused any contact with the media.

  The investigative team, led by Roger Lambert, had three main suspects, who all had solid alibis. The criminal boyfriend, who claimed he was at a nightclub at the time of the murder, and who had witnesses that confirmed his whereabouts. The producer who discovered her and whom she extorted, who claimed that at the time of the homicide he was in Miami, on the other side of the continent. And the third suspect, although the least likely, was the victim’s father or someone hired by him.

  During a visit to New York, Roger Lambert called the TXB network, introduced himself and his role in the police, and managed to arrange a meeting with producer Walter Lindsey.

  “You are filming from above, right?” asked the police officer when they were sitting face-to-face.

  Lindsey neither confirmed nor denied, and he didn’t even nod his head in response to the question. “Go on,” said Lindsey, looking directly at his interlocutor.

  The ambitious officer expressed his concern. “I’m worried that there could be a problem in documenting a case like this, because according to the police report the murder was committed late at night in the apartment of Ms. Gillis, and not outside in the open air.” He examined the producer who was listening attentively, and continued, “The previous two incidents that were documented by TXB, the Gonzales and the Jenkins cases, had occurred outside a house and during daytime, a fact that enabled outdoor filming, but in our occurrence, the conditions are quite different.”

  “I remember the incident,” Walter Lindsey said in a sympathetic tone. “It was an intriguing affair with an unfortunate, tragic outcome, and you’ve correctly identified the difficulty and limitations that we’re facing. I would like to write the fine details of the occurrence in my notebook. It would be helpful if you could submit the facts, as accurately as possible, and I’ll check to see what we can do to help the police.”

  Walter Lindsey wrote down the information that the police officer revealed. He asked several clarifying questions; he was particularly interested in the exact time and location of the murder, and the models and colors of the cars of the suspects. The investigative officer had undoubtedly remembered the incident, and he delivered the details as precisely as he could.

  Lindsey made it clear to the policeman that if TXB obtained a film that documented the event, Officer Lambert would have to participate in a televised production and agree to the same terms that were required of the other policeman, Officer Tucker of Springfield, Illinois.

  Officer Lambert had no problem accepting the conditions and signing a document stating he was obligated to them. “I know you have to make a living,” he said, smiling.

  Producer Walter Lindsey thought that if he got the requested documentation, and brought about the solving of the case, he would be guaranteed an especially high rating. He based his assumption on the fact that the young actress was a beloved celebrity, and her death aroused great interest in the US media and across the sea.

  And indeed, two weeks after their meeting, the New York producer was able to call the police officer in Los Angeles and reveal, “It seems I have a clip with which you’ll be able to solve the case and arrest the murderer.”

  The tough police officer was excited. “When will I be able to see the footage?” he asked.

  “When you get here,” Lindsey responded.

  Roger Lambert made the long journey from California to New York. After the unusual documentation that was shown in the two previous broadcasts, he was curious, and could not wait to see what the mysterious technology had found in his case. Unlike the previous policeman, Officer Tucker, Roger Lambert actually liked the spotlight, and enjoyed sitting and chatting with the popular host, who treated him in her familiar warm and caring manner.

  As with the previous broadcasts, there was a preliminary filmed session in the studio, after which the police would be given time to advance the investigation. Officer Lambert was interviewed about the complicated case and some of the issues his team confronted. He explained that all the main suspects had a solid and backed alibi, which was why the case reached a dead end.

  The showing of the film began in the studio as two cameras followed the officer who was watching the pictures with great interest. In the clip, a parking lot was shown, and the officer recognized the place as being near the victim’s spacious house in an affluent Beverly Hills neighborhood. The parking lot was well lit, and although it was night time, there was no difficulty in seeing what was happening.

  A dark, mid-sized station wagon pulled in and a man got out of the car and was seen knocking on the actress’ door.

  In a different clip that was filmed about an hour later, the same man was seen leaving the house, carrying with him what looked like the rolled carpet, inside of which was probably the dead body. He shoved the carpet into his vehicle in a hurry and then looked around to verify that nobody had noticed him. For a split-second, he gazed upward.

  “Stop!” yelled the police officer, and the film froze on the face of the man, which was lit by a streetlight.

  “My God,” said Roger Lambert.

  “Do you recognize this man?” Susan Riley asked with a somber facial expression.

  “Yes,” the officer answered, “and he was not one of the main suspects.”

  “But who?” the host asked.

  “One of her friends who was questioned at the time,” answered Lambert. “A young actor who worked with her on the set of a TV show. He didn’t have a motive for such a crime and was just questioned in order to shed light on her personality.”

  Following the new information, the police arrested the man, who was already thirty years old. By this time, he had gotten married and had two little children. At first he denied any involvement in the homicide, but when he was shown the film, he broke down and admitted to committing the murder. He said he had lost control of himself and killed Dianne Gillis in a fit of rage and jealousy.

  When TXB aired the article, it won huge ratings, which came close to the viewership of the broadcast that portrayed the Gonzales incident.

  Chapter 13

  McPherson and Hensley

  Investigative reporter Stewart McPherson had made himself a name as an honest journalist who knew how to methodically, and without bias, examine the facts in front of him. He was endowed with an analytical capability, and knew how to filter and separate the important details from the insignificant ones.

  He gained national recognition in 2008 when he investigated the well-publicized Mayfield story. Residents of Mayfield, a small town in the state of Tennessee, reported that during a period of about three years, many of them were subjected to abduction by unfriendly aliens. The reported events sounded very similar to one another, and a few of them were accompanied by partial documentation of somewhat blurred photos and video clips, which looked like they were hastily taken with a cell phone camera.

  The typical report was of people who drove their car at night, when suddenly the car was engulfed by a strong, blinding light and the engine shut down. Subsequently, they found themselves inside a mysterious spaceship, lying on a strange apparatus, paralyzed, unable to move their limbs, while strange-looking aliens examined them and conducted painful and humiliating experiments on their bodies.

  After hours of going through chilling and horrendous experiences, they were returned to their cars, while according to their clocks, the event lasted only a few minutes. The victims were checked into local hospitals, and it was found that they had indeed undergone a traumatic mental and emotional experience, but with the exception of relatively shallow cuts and bruises, no problem was detected in their physical body.

  The story received a great deal of media coverage, and the outlying Mayfield district started to see a stream of enthusiastic UFO pursuers from all over the US. While normally such reports would be confronted by skepticism, not to say laughed at and considered ridiculous, this time,
despite the bizarre nature of the reports, they gained unusual credibility by the media and the public. The accounts were considered reliable because they didn’t come from fringe people and UFO fanatics, but from respected community members, conservatives, law-abiding citizens headed by the mayor himself, who also reported a particularly frightening experience.

  Stewart McPherson investigated the matter. He sent assistant researchers to the town disguised as enthusiastic UFO seekers in order to gather information from the residents. He also transferred the out-of-focus photos and videos to professional crime scene investigators. After a few weeks of thorough investigation, he arrived at a clear-cut and unequivocal conclusion: the whole story was a fraud. He had found that due to a change in the route of a major highway, which used to pass through the town and thus provide livelihood to many of the residents—whether in hotels and restaurants, gas stations, or retail commerce—many of the county’s people ran into financial difficulties and bankruptcies.

  They had concocted the plot with the intention of luring alien seekers and curious tourists, and later they would publish a book and a movie, so they could create a new income for the district and fill their dwindling pockets. “It started as a practical joke,” one city council member would later reflect, “but quite rapidly it grew into something beyond our expectations.”

  The investigative journalist published his findings and consequently gained national recognition as a methodical investigator who adheres to the facts and diligently finds creative ways to obtain proof for his premises.