Many of the characters within this story, and the universe they inhabit, are the intellectual property of Jason Katims Productions.
Roswell: Re-Imagined
Written by Horatio Jaxx
Chapter 55: Parents United
It was a quarter past one in the afternoon when a plainclothes Deputy Sheriff in an unmarked car, drove up to the home of the Evans family. The Deputy walked up to the front door of the home and rang the bell. When Diane opened it, the Deputy politely asked if he was talking to Diane Evans and then gave her an envelope when she said yes. He then promptly turned about and left as he arrived.
Diane noticed that the envelope was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Evans. She quickly brought it to the attention of Phillip, and he opened it straightaway. The letter was brief and direct. It was a request for a meeting at three p.m. that day in the office of the Sheriff of Chaves County. It was signed by Jim Valenti. The letter gave no indication of what the meeting would be about, and it was in no way insistent that they come. The request was polite. It suggested that they both attend, and it promised that the meeting would be brief.
The immediate suspicion of Phillip and Diane was that it had something to do with Max. They needed no more motivation than that to attend the meeting. However, they would have done so anyway. They had no reason to want to offend the Chaves County Sheriff, and the fact that he requested their presence was enough to pique their curiosity. An hour and a half later they were readied for the meet with Sheriff Jim Valenti. They left a note on the refrigerator in case Max and Isabel came home before their return, and then they left their home for the city's center.
Diane and Phillip approached the outer office of the County Sheriff of Chaves County with two minutes to spare. They identified themselves to the Deputy behind the desk there and she directed them into Valenti's office without the slightest hesitation. Once inside they found Jim standing behind his desk encouraging them to have a seat. That was as they expected. What they noticed an instant later was not what they expected. Sitting in two of the four chairs in front of Sheriff Valenti's desk were Jeff and Nancy Parker. If the Evans had to guess who else might be at this meeting, the Parkers would have been at the top of the list, but they were still surprised that Jim had brought the four of them together. In past situations it was the presence of both their children that necessitated that they be in the same room with each other. That situation did not exist with his meeting.
The Parkers were equally surprised by the presence of Diane and Phillip. They had only arrived a minute earlier and were told nothing about why they were there. But they were advised that the Evans were coming. That explained the two pair of chairs separated by a small end table. Despite the forewarning, they were still a little mystified by the need for the presence of the Evans. The two pairs of parents gave each other short stern looks and then they turned their attentions back to Sheriff Valenti. After the Evans took their seats in the second pair of chairs, Jim began explaining why the Evans and the Parkers were there.
"I'm sorry to disrupt your Sunday afternoons."
"What has their son gotten my daughter into now?" Jeff interrupted angrily.
Diane was eager to respond to that, but Jim beat her to it.
"Your children haven't done anything—at least, nothing that I know of."
The Parkers and the Evans turned their attentions back to Jim and resigned themselves to wait on the rest of his explanation.
"I have a rather delicate situation that I need your help with," Jim continued tactfully.
"Our help," Phillip quickly retorted. "What's this about Sheriff Valenti?"
"That's the delicate part," Jim answered with a wave of his hand. "I can't tell you that."
Jim was under strict orders from the Governor to not interfere with the surveillance operation that the OSI was conducting in his city. His greatest concern at that moment was that the Parkers or the Evans or both would go public with what they learned here. He suspected that would bring about severe consequences for him. Despite that fear, Jim's conversation with his son during the night just past put him in a desperate need for answers.
"I need to know what, if any, contact you may have had with the Air Force or the Federal Government," Jim queried after a pause.
"The Air Force passed on filing any charges," Phillip quickly reported. "That issue is dead and buried."
"Have you had any other contact, regarding anything, since then?" Jim quickly questioned back.
"I don't understand this," Jeff announced vociferously. "What's going on?"
Jim noted that the Parkers and the Evans were looking at him as if he had gone mad. He knew in that moment he would have to give them something if he was to get anything in return. He formulated his next sentence carefully and expressed it with equal deference.
"The Air Force has been conducting a surveillance operation in Roswell and I'm trying to find out what's behind it."
"Surveillance? Who are they looking at?" Jeff quickly asked with a confused look.
"I can't tell you that," Jim responded with a gentle nod.
"Can they do that?" Nancy questioned with a perplexed expression. "I mean Roswell isn't Air Force property."
"They can if the offense involves Air Force property or personnel," Jim explained.
"Why don't you just ask them?" Diane questioned with a curious inflection.
"I have," Jim answered with a look of resignation. "They're not talking to me. That is why I'm talking to you."
"So, you think they might be watching our children?" Nancy questioned with a stern expression.
"Your children are the only individuals I know who have had a run in with the Air Force," Jim explained with a shake of his head.
"I don't buy that, Sheriff Valenti," Phillip countered with a stern look. "There's something more to this … something that you're not telling us."
"You're right," Jim responded with a look and a quick nod. "And I can't tell you anymore than this."
"So, that's what this is all about. You want to know if we've been in contact with the Air Force for any reason" Jeff questioned gruffly. "Well, the answer to your question is no. I can't speak for them, but we haven't had any communication with anyone on any level in the Federal Government."
Jim accepted that answer stoically and watched as Jeff stood up to leave. Nancy got up from her seat a second behind her husband.
"We haven't either," Diane quickly reported.
After a pause, Diane stood up with the expectation that she would be following the Parkers to the door. Philip, however, did not move and continued to hold his stare on Jim. Diane, Nancy and Jeff took notice of that and became intrigued. They paused from their exit to see if the meeting was over.
"Are they investigating our children?" Phillip asked Jim in a very direct tone.
Jim gave no response other than to lean back in his chair and return Phillip's stare. The full attentions of Jeff, Nancy and Diane turned back towards Jim. His hesitation was all Nancy needed to become fully invested in the discussion again.
"Why would they be investigating our children?" Nancy questioned with a startled look.
Jim continued to study Phillip as he pondered what he should say next.
"Can't the Mayor or the Governor tell you what's going on?" Jeff stridently asked.
"I've tried that," Jim quickly returned with a pensive look to Jeff. "I'm under strict orders from the Governor to stay out of it."
"Stay out of what?" Diane challenged as she returned to her seat.
"I've already told you too much," Jim responded with a shake of his head.
The four parents looked at Jim with stunned expression. All thoughts of leaving were gone. They were all desperate to learn what was not being said. After several seconds, Phillip announced what had surmised from all that he heard.
"You're afraid that we'll go public with this."
A look of resignation took shape on Jim's face. He sat forward in his chair, stared directly into Phillip's eyes, and began to speak gruffly.
"I cannot do anything that interferes with their operation. My hands are tied."
Jeff and Nancy quickly retook their seats with confused expressions. No sooner had they done that did Phillip fire back with a question.
"Then why risk it? Why bring us here and alert us to this phantom surveillance operation?"
"Because it's not just your kids," Jim grumbled back.
The Parkers and the Evans were stunned into silence. They said nothing as they watched Jim lean forward on his desk and add a confession to his last remark.
"I think they might be watching my son too, and I don't know why."
The Parkers and Evans suddenly understood the motivation here. Jim Valenti was not acting as the County Sheriff. He was acting as a parent. After several seconds of stunned silence, Nancy annunciated her confusion.
"Why would they be investigating Kyle? He wasn't with Liz and Max that day."
Jim knew that he was effectively all in and that hiding the rest from the Evans and the Parkers would make no difference. He hesitated only long enough to come to that realization, and then he answered Nancy's question.
"It's not just your kids and mine that they're watching," Jim confessed with a solemn expression. "They're following early a dozen kids … all high school seniors. Some are students at Roswell High. The others go to Goddard and University. … Your daughter Isabel included."
"What?" Diane almost shouted.
"Wait," Jeff spoke up with an inflection of incredulity. "How can you know this is about our kids? There are more than a hundred students in those schools."
Jim looked down at his desktop, took a deep breath and paused long enough to recollect what he wanted to say. He then looked up into the faces of the Parkers and the Evans and began his explanation.
"The Saturday before last, two of my Deputies followed some of these Air Force OSI officers to the old soap factory building on the edge of town," Jim began solemnly. "When they got there, they said there were at least half a dozen of them there staking out that building with cameras that had telescopic lenses and long-range microphones. Inside the building there was at least a dozen teenagers … your children …and my son were among them."
"Liz?" Nancy called out with a shocked expression. "You're saying Liz was there."
"That can't be right," Diane spoke up at almost the same instant with a look of astonishment. "Isabel would never go into a place like that."
Jim pulled open a side drawer of his desk and pulled out a thin stack of pictures that showed high schoolers leaving the premises of the abandoned soap factory. Max, Liz, Isabel and Kyle were in several of the pictures.
"There's no mistake," Jim replied as he laid the picture on his desk.
Diane and Nancy almost raced to pick up a picture. All four parents began examining the pictures as they quickly moved back and forth between them. After nearly a minute of this, they all looked back to Jim with a new respect for his intelligence.
"I don't know why," Jim continued with vociferous frustration. "But they're tracking their movements. They're photographing them. Hell, as far as I know, they could be listening to their conversations. I need to know what you know about your children's activities, where they go, who they see, what they do."
"Isabel and Max are good kids," Diane insisted fervently.
"So is Liz," Nancy followed behind with equal fervor.
"There has to be a mistake," Diane tagged on behind Nancy's assertion.
"I've been telling myself that for weeks now," Jim reported solemnly.
"How long has this been going on?" Jeff questioned suspiciously.
"As far as I can tell," Jim answered with a brief shake of his head, "since the start of this school year."
"That's a pretty long investigation," Phillip pondered out to no one in particular.
"Too long," Jim supported as he stared at the top of his desk. "And it's not an investigation. It's purely a surveillance operation."
"Surveillance?" Jeff questioned with a stern look. "You think they have cameras and bugs in our homes?"
"I doubt they've bugged your homes," Jim responded softly. "My deputies tell me that they haven't gone beyond what they're legally allowed to do."
"And what does that mean?" Jeff questioned angrily.
"They've been using city maintenance vehicles to attach cameras on street-lamps and telephone poles outside your homes and on every intersection around your houses for half a mile. Your houses are under twenty-four-hour surveillance. Your children are being watched every time they go outside."
"And that's legal?" Jeff roared in frustration.
Jim gave no response to the question. He knew that Jeff was simply blowing off steam. He also knew that the Evans and Parkers would come to their own decisions, and he waited for them to express it.
"Sheriff Valenti, what are you doing about this?" Diane asked in a voice laced with worry.
"Jim," Sheriff Valenti quickly corrected. "I'm not acting as an officer of the law right now. I'm a father worried about his son. Please, call me Jim."
"Jim," Diane continued. "What are you doing about this?"
"There is nothing I can do until I know what's going on," Jim answered defeatedly.
Jim paused to note the concerned faces staring back at him. He then relented to their worries and gave them all he had.
"Look, last Tuesday, I called someone I know. He's a federal agent," Jim began in a manner that said he could not believe what he was doing. "He works in Washington, and he's in a position to see things."
Jim paused for a moment to gather his fortitude to finish what he decided to say.
"He told me that something big is happening here, but he doesn't know what," Jim continued. "He did promise to get back to me when he had something he could tell me."
"And how long is that going to take?" Jeff questioned with a heavy inflection of frustration.
"He promised to get back to me, one way or the other, by the end of the month," Jim confessed.
"And you believe this person is going to tell you what this is all about," Phillip asked at a measured pace.
"He will get back to me," Jim answered with a look to Phillip. "What he finds out, and what he's prepared to say, I can't guarantee."
"Phillip," Diane called out in a voice laced with fear.
Jeff and Nancy followed her lead and turned their attentions to Phillip. Jim held his look on Phillip as he held his stare on him. After a pause, Phillip acted on his wife's concern.
"You took a big gamble telling us this," Phillip acknowledged with a nod to Jim.
"Kyle's my son," Jim retorted.
Phillip held his stare with Jim for a few seconds before speaking again.
"I can't help my children if I don't know what to protect them from," Phillip insisted in a grave tone.
"I know," Jim acknowledged without deviating from his stare.
Phillip paused again before speaking in a solemn tone.
"So, going public with this would probably generate some negative repercussions for you," Phillip announced suggestively.
"Probably," Jim answered.
"And I suppose warning our children about the surveillance would have the same effect," Phillip carefully annunciated, once again, in a suggestive tone.
"That would be my guess," Jim concurred softly.
Phillip took a moment to ponder that and then spoke his adjudication in a non-suggestive tone.
"If I'm going to sit on this until the end of the month, then I'm going to need something from you."
Jim said nothing as he waited on the terms of his silence.
"I'm going to need to know everything you know," Phillip declared with a stare. "And I'm going to want it as soon as you know it."
Jim paused, more for effect than thought, and then he gave Phillip his reply.
"Done," Jim agreed. "But I'm going to need that to work both ways."
"Okay," Phillip agreed.
Jim then turned his attention to Jeff.
"Is that okay with you?" Jim questioned Jeff with an earnest look.
Jeff took a moment to ponder the request before responding with an "okay, I'll play ball … until the end of the month."
There was a moment of silence, and then the Evans, followed by the Parkers, got up onto their feet. Jim got to his feet as well. Phillip reached across the desk and offered Jim his hand. Jim hesitated for just an instant before taking it. Jeff followed Phillip's lead and shook Jim's hand too.
"This is all probably one great big mistake that's going to blow over just as soon as they figure that out," Jim declared to all present.
"I hope you're right," Phillip responded with a nod.
Jim then escorted them all to the door and bade them a good afternoon.