Free Fallen + Marli & Lalo (Fallen Invasion, #3) by Mia Mitns Page B

police this.  We couldn’t.  The psychic said they have “their people” in the force.  They would probably come and kill us.
    Please, find our friends.
    I lowered the letter, almost losing it to the ground.  There was nothing I could say.
    “We’re east of Dallas?” Lalo said.
    “Yes.”
    “How many small towns are there?” Lalo said.
    “Several,” I said.
    “But how many people have access to this?” Lalo asked, raising a piece of the meteorite like “rock” that we found.
    “Chances are I work with all of them,” I said.  “That type of meteorite is rare.  It’s a collector’s dream.  If any other person found it, I would think they would either sell it or have it cut to make jewelry.  This rock is untouched.  But what if a Masqysava landed in our area previously and someone, a human, found a rock like this?”
    “Search?” Lalo said.
    I retrieved my laptop.  No meteorites were found in our area within the last ten years.  Neither were there sightings of meteors that should have landed close by.  And the meteorites found were made of stone, no crystals.  The collectors lived in large cities.
    “So that’s a negative,” Lalo said.
    “Oh no,” I said.  Why didn’t I think of this before?   “Lalo.”
    “What?”
    I informed Lalo about Kallen’s alien interest and continued.  “I was over at Kallen’s house once.  He had this collection.  They were random things.  They were normal to me.  I thought nothing of it.  But there were a few small rocks.  He said they were meteorites.  They would be stony meteorites.”
    “I told you I didn’t trust him.”
    “But he didn’t have anything like that rock,” I said, pointing to our new meteorite.  “I know Kallen pretty well.  He opens up to me.  He would have showed me if he had something like that.”
    “You’ve only known him for a month,” Lalo said.
    “It’s not him,” I said.  It couldn’t be him.  The Kallen I knew didn’t do that to people.  He was too worried about what went on.  He and his people had to be investigating.
    “So it’s not him,” Lalo said.
    “There’s something else.  Dr. Stevenson,” I said.  “One day I overheard him and Kallen talking about meteors.  Dr. Stevenson said he was lucky to find some left over from a meteorite shower when he was younger.  That event sparked his interest in science.  Now, he likes following stories about meteor sightings his spare time.”
    “A shower,” Lalo said, “or a landing of an alien ship?”
    “This is when he was younger,” I said.  “I doubt that he happened to find pieces from an alien ship.  Meteorite showers happen.  Meteors land on Earth every year.”
    “And wouldn’t this life changing event make him want to collect meteorites?” Lalo asked.  “He does follow meteor sightings.”
    “I’ve been to his house,” I said.  “He had those two pebble sized rocks in a case.  If he had something like your meteorite, it would be on display.”
    “Mhum.”
    How would Lalo understand?  He didn’t know these people.
    “It’s hard to consider it being Dr. Stevenson,” I said.  “He’s a leader in the field.  He has been honored several times over.  What would he want with a bunch of people?”
    “Don’t know, so what about your other coworkers?  Does anything stand out?”
    I shook my head.  “Other than Ashley up in everyone’s business and Ren, who takes trips every once in a while to Dallas to visit his brother’s family, no.”
    “It’s back to the letter then,” Lalo said.
    “Wait,” I said.  “How do we really know it’s true?  How can we trust this letter?”
    “It did come exactly at the time we were there,” Lalo said. “And—”
    I cut him off.  “What if they, the people who did this, are setting us up?”
    “They’re not.  Look at the letter again.  It doesn’t say ‘a psychic.’  It says ‘a. psychic.’  Why is there a period there?”
    “A clue?” I