This interview was undertaken with Edward Pelletier, Canadian graduate student at the University of Leyden, on September 23, 1996. The interviewer is Officer Claes Keesander of the Dutch police. Pelletier is being interviewed in the Leyden police station, where he came forward after recognizing a picture of Peter Wisdom in a newspaper. Int: Can you identify the people that you saw in these photographs? EP: Him. [Points to picture of Peter Wisdom]. I definitely saw him. Only he was calling himself Charles Monroe. I only saw him for a brief time, but I'm sure it was him. I'm not sure about the woman, but it could be her [points to a picture of Katherine Pryde]. She was calling herself Illyana Monroe. Didn't have a ring, though. Int: Now you spotted him in a newspaper? EP: Yeah. In the Berliner Zietung. I'm in the Chemistry Department at Leyden, and one of the professors spends his weekends in Berlin, and always brings back newspapers and leaves them in the Common area. There was an article with pictures, and I recognized the man. I had to get someone else to read it to me, but when I found out that they were wanted for plutonium smuggling, I was obliged to come forward. Int: When did you meet them? EP: Last Saturday, at about 21h, at the Blue Cockerel. It's a pub near where I live. I had some reading to do in Quantum Physics, but I wasn't really into it, so I went to the pub. Int: Do you usually study in pubs? EP: No. You don't bring a book to a pub unless you're trying to meet someone and show them what a big intellectual stud you are. So I brought the wrong book. I knew I had to read up on it, but I also wanted to pick someone up. So I compromised, and I almost got lucky. Int: How do you mean? EP: Well, if you want to pick up women, you normally need to bring a novel, or an art book; something soft. I was sitting there in this loud room, trying to read a book that identified me as a geek. If you tell people that you are studying quantum mechanics, they either go blank, repeat some New Age drivel at you, or assume that you are a genius just because you're attempting to learn the stuff, and if nothing else, its told me that I'm no genius. Almost no-one knows what it is, and certainly not many women. Int: I don't see... EP: I'm getting to it. So, I'm sitting there feeling like an ass when I see someone staring at me from a booth in the corner of the pub. Its kind of dark back there, so I couldn't see her clearly, but I gave her a smile anyways. Then she got up and came over to where I was sitting, very hesitantly. Like she was afraid of me. But she never took her eyes off the book. Int: So she was staring at the book, not you? EP: Yeah. It was weird. Like she was mesmerized. Int: What book was it? EP: Quantum Mechanics Volume 1 by Cohen-Tannoudji, Diu, and Laloe. Int: Sorry? EP: I'll write it down. [writes] So she comes up to me, and she never takes her eyes off the book. She says "That's a really lousy book". I don't know what to say. I mean she looks like she's about 16 or so. So I come up with "Oh yeah?" Int: Smooth. EP: Well, it was the best I could do. Then she says "You should try Messiah. Its much better". So I'm thinking, oh no another new age idiot, and then she quotes another book that I did know, and launches into this 15 minute diatribe about how badly Quantum Mechanics is described in the basic texts, and how annoying it is that the treatment is not mathematically rigorous. Then she recommends another book by Prugovecki, and I'm just sitting there with nothing to say. She goes to leave and I ask her to sit down. Int: It sounds like you were quite taken with her. EP: Yeah. When I first saw her, I didn't think she was all that attractive. I mean I've never been attracted to dyed blonde hair at all, but as she talked, I just couldn't stop looking at her face. Her eyes.... Int: What about her eyes? EP: They were very large... Int: And? EP: And it was very odd. At first, she didn't look me in the eyes at all, but as she talked, her eyes grew more and more alive, until I couldn't take my eyes off them. They were just so alive. She knew all of this stuff backwards, and she could explain it better than any prof I've ever had, and you could just see the fire back there driving it on. By the end of it, I thought I had never seen a more beautiful woman in all my life. Int: Did she tell you anything about herself? EP: No. We just talked about QM. Int: QM? EP: Quantum mechanics. And general relativity. For about two hours. She kept growing more and more animated as we went on. But she didn't say anything about herself. Int: When did the man arrive? EP: I had gone to the bar to get her a Black Russian and to get a beer for myself, and when I got back there was this man sitting next to her. She was clinging to him and whispering, and looking at me very fearfully, as if she was afraid of me all of a sudden. He was looking at me in this mean sort of way, and then she just says "he's harmless" and shuts up. Then I tried to make conversation, but she wouldn't say anything and he just answered in single words. She was clinging to him the whole time. Int: How did you react? EP: I kept talking, it was all I could do to keep from crying. Then I left, went to another pub, and got very very drunk. I lost the book on the way home. I did buy the books she recommended and they were much better. Int: You can't identify her, for certain in these pictures? EP: No. If this is her, it doesn't capture that fire in her eyes. If you could capture that in a picture, I could tell you for sure. Int: It sounds like you were quite overcome. EP: Yeah [Pauses]. When I saw that article, I couldn't help thinking that a connection between her and a plutonium smuggler was possible, but I can't believe it somehow. [Pauses] Can I ask you a favour? Int: You may ask. EP: If you find her, and she isn't really involved in all this, could you give her my telephone number?