We were all shocked by it. What possibly could have happened? We just sat there, looking at the door for about a minute. It was Max who would make the connection.
"We have to go," he said, and jumped out of the booth, running towards the door. We all followed, but were not sure what Max was getting at.
Outside, Max looked both ways. Down the street, we saw Valenti kneeling on the sidewalk with a stranger standing over him.
"What's going on here?" Max demanded.
"It's okay," said Valenti getting up, "I was crossing the street when a car came blazing by. Thing must have been going a hundred miles an hour! I would never have made it if this guy hadn't pulled me off the road. Sir, I owe you my life."
"I was glad I could help," said the stranger, and he walked off.
"You're all right?" Max asked him. My brother, he was always concerned for his people. Although Valenti wasn't technically one of his people, many times I have gotten the impression that Max has forgotten this.
"I'm fine," said Valenti, "but what caused you all to come running out here? It's as if you knew I was in some sort of trouble."
"That's because we did know," Max told him.
Valenti stared at my brother with a look that begged more. So, I continued with what Max was saying, "We saw you in the Crashdown. You walked in, and seconds later, just disappeared. You looked a lot like the other people who we spotted as dead."
"Well then" Valenti said, "I think we may have a lead. In this near crash right now I saw a guy, a guy I saw when I saw Dave too. Even if these strange things weren't going on, he'd still look like a suspicious character."
I racked my brain trying to think back to my encounter with Alex. I tried to remember all the people around us, and then it came to me. "A man," I said, "with black trousers, a brown trench coat, and a gray hat. Wearing sunglasses too. He's the one isn't he?"
"That was my thought," Valenti said, "it seems he was present at all three incidents."
"Always distant," I said, "he was there, but not too close."
"Yes," said Valenti, "exactly. I think we are talking about the same guy."
"So," said Max, "then how do we find him, and how is he connected to the sightings of dead people walking the streets of Roswell?"
"Woah!" said Valenti, "let's take this one step at a time. The first thing we should do, is head down to the Police Station. Isabel and I will both have artists draw up the man we think we saw. Let's make sure it really is the same person, the last thing we need is to hunt down an innocent man who has nothing to do with this. If and when we confirm that we've seen the same man in all 3 mysterious incidents, we will make an attempt to locate him, and ask him a few questions." Valenti was a great person for us to have as an ally. When things would come up, we teenagers would have the tendency to become frightened and panic, but Valenti was always calm on the exterior, and was able to always act rationally.
At the police station, I emerged with the sketch of the man I saw. I went into over to Max, Valenti, Maria, and Liz.
I handed my sketch to Max who was holding Valenti's already. "They look the same," he said, "almost identical."
Part of me didn't like having anything to do with this strange character. Only a small part though. I was more happy, happy that we were finally doing something, taking the action I was longing to take.
"Now how do we track him down?" I asked. Naturally, we all looked to Valenti for the answers.
"I don't know," he said plainly, "if I were still Sheriff then maybe I could get a search going for this guy, but…"
"…But your not Sheriff anymore," Max told him. Max didn't like to talk to Valenti, to me, to anybody about what happened. He always felt that it was his fault that the Sheriff was fired. I have to admit; I still feel the guilt over the Sheriff losing his job. That's what he'll always be to us, the Sheriff of Roswell – it didn't matter what anyone else told us because we knew he wasn't a bad police officer. He was the best. He never blamed us for what happened, but even if I don't accept blame myself, and if Max doesn't accept full blame, the fact is that the Sheriff would still be the Sheriff if we were never here.
"No," said Valenti, "I'm not the Sheriff anymore."
"I have an idea," said Maria, drawing everyone's attention, "what if you set the guy up? You could get Michael to help you and then you three aliens as well as Valenti could wait on all four sides of an intersection while Liz and I walk through."
"What makes you think something like this will happen to you?" I asked Maria, the skepticism obvious in my voice.
"Liz and I were just as close to Alex as Isabel. I'm sure we'll see him on the street," Maria told us.
Valenti put in his input, "We don't know if the sightings correlate in anyway to how well we know the person. For all you know, you've seen 10 people on the street today that should be dead, but you never knew them. There's no guarantees here."
"It's the only idea we have," said Liz, "besides, you wouldn't have to be looking for the dead guy, only this person," she said holding up one of the sketches, "what else can we do?"
"It's worth a try," Max decided.
The first thing we had to do was fill Michael in on the situation. He was briefed and Maria's plan was put into action. Every morning at 8:00 Maria and Liz would cross a four-way intersection with Max, Michael, Valenti and myself positioned on all four sides, waiting to see the strange man. The first day we tried it, it didn't work. Max said that we would have to give it time. A week went by and we still didn't get any activity.
Then, one Tuesday morning, our 10th try, we made some progress.
"Liz," I had heard Maria say, "isn't that Mr. Clark?"
"Yeah, I think so," Liz had told her, "what's your point?"
"Mr. Clark the nice old guy who owns the candy shop, Mr. Clark who had a heart attack and died last month!" Maria exclaimed.
I looked around frantically, and then I spotted him, the strangely dressed man. I looked at Michael and nodded, he nodded back, signaling that he saw him too. Michael nodded to Max who nodded to Valenti. Then, all four of us ran to the stranger. We aliens held out our hands, ready to attack; Valenti aimed his gun at him.
"Let's go some place a little more private and have a talk," Valenti told the mysterious figure.
He looked doubtful that any of us were dangerous holding out are hands. Michael shattered the bulb in a streetlight with his powers. That got him to go with us to an alleyway where there weren't too many people around.
"We need to ask you a few questions," Valenti explained. The man did not speak.
Max took over from there, "There have been sightings of dead people walking the streets looking very much alive, but not quite themselves. Each of these sightings has one thing in common; you've been there – every time. How can you explain that?"
The man just stood there, not attempting to speak. We had him cornered; he wasn't going anywhere.
After a few moments, Michael stepped forward, holding his hand at the man, ready to use his powers again, "Answer the question!" he demanded.
Finally, the strange man who was wearing sunglasses as well as black trousers, a brown trench coat, and a gray hat inhaled. His mouth opened and Michael stepped back; ready to hear what this strange looking character had to say.
To Be Continued
