“A Javier Castillo, out of San Francisco. I think I found his LinkedIn page.” Colcord turned his iPad to face Cash.
A handsome man with curly black hair, a trimmed beard, and ears that stuck out a little too far smiled from his LinkedIn profile picture. Underneath was a tagline that said, “Open to work.”
Colcord slid the iPad back in front of him. “His last employment was as professor of exobiology at San Francisco State University.”
“What’sexobiology?” asked Cash.
“According to this, it’s a branch of science that explores the possibility of life on other planets and a bunch of related subjects.”
Cash’s brows drew together in concentration as she typed something else into her computer. Her eyes skimmed the results. “Looks like Castillo was recently sacked from San Francisco State University.”
“What for?”
Cash began reading from the screen, “ ‘After an investigation, Javier Castillo, tenured professor of exobiology, has been terminated with cause by San Francisco State University. According to the provost, James Dalton, accusations of professional malfeasance against Castillo were levied after an investigation into his research revealed “negligence” and “scientific fraud.” In a report made public by the university, Mr. Dalton wrote that investigators from the university looked into allegations that Castillo doctored videos of purported UAP sightings. In a statement toSan Francisco Unmasked, Mr. Dalton said that as a result, San Francisco State University had retracted four scientific papers authored by Castillo and had called into question the validity of other papers of which Castillo was the principal author. Repeated attempts to reach Castillo were unsuccessful. However, in a letter to a journal that retracted one of his studies, Castillo denied the allegations, saying he had been the victim of fraud himself, of accepting as authentic videos that had been doctored by others. In a response to his termination, Castillo stated that the university had denied him due process and that he had been subjected to “a witch hunt to undermine exobiology as a multidisciplinary and respected scientific discipline.” ’ ”
“And look,” said Colcord. “He runs a blog. I’m emailing you the link.”
Cash clicked into it and started reading. “There’s some weird shit in here,” she said. “Listen to this: ‘The question is not whether extraterrestrial intelligent life-forms have made contact with planet Earth. We know that to be a fact. The question is: What are they doing here?What is their plan?To assume they are benign and well meaning is, in my view, a dangerous and unwarranted assumption.’ ”
Colcord chuckled. “Sounds like a nutjob.”
“Or eccentric. I mean, who knows, maybe there’s something to it.”
“Don’t start with me on this alien stuff.” Shaking his head, Colcord opened his desk drawer to fish out his cell phone.
Cash spied a flash of blue and purple ribbons. Her eyes widened. “Are those medals?”
Colcord shut the drawer with a thud. “It’s nothing.”
“That isn’t nothing. What are they for?”
Colcord shifted uncomfortably, saying nothing.
“Let me see.”
Colcord hesitated before opening the drawer and pulling out two loose medals, tossing them down on the pile of papers.
Cash immediately recognized one—a Purple Heart. The other one, a bronze cross with an eagle and scroll, she didn’t recognize. “Holy shit, Colcord. You got a Purple Heart! You were wounded?”
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
Colcord looked out the window, strips of sunlight from the window shade playing across his face. “A fire.”
Cash hesitated. She didn’t want to pry, but this was a side of Colcord she had no idea existed. “And the other medal? What’s that?”
“Distinguished Service Cross.” Colcord—face unreadable—swept up the medals and shoved them back in the drawer among a pile of rubber bands, paper clips, and other junk.
Cash wondered why she hadn’t heard about this in the news when Colcord had run for sheriff. That was the kind of thing most people running for office would trumpet.
“Don’t wanna talk about it?” she asked.
“No. Let’s get back to this guy Castillo. I think we should call him.”
“When?”
“Now.”
