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137 PURPLE JUSTICE twenty-four hours after Franck's reappearance. In their very first meeting with law enforcement officials they discov- ered a number of arguments against the idea of a hoax: the three young men were already known to the police as "marginal elements." They were driving without a license and without insurance, said the gen- darmes. And they often got help from friends who were on disability insurance or were collecting welfare. All these actions showed blatant disregard for the law, even if they were not actual felonies. In other words, in the eyes of the authorities, the three witnesses were small-time crooks, the last persons in the world one would expect to call the police for help at five o'clock in the morning. Convinced that the young men, marginal or not, were telling the truth about their adventure, Guieu and Huguet went ahead with a very thorough investigation. Jimmy Guieu describes the events of the next few days in his book, written in a clear and pleasant style that conveys very well both the atmosphere and the characters. He interviewed Franck's mother in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumone, a suburb of Pontoise located across the river. She had obviously been very shaken by recent events. And on that same Tuesday in the afternoon, he interviewed the three principals, who were assembled in Cergy with Corinne (a friend of Prevost), Mamina (Franck's girlfriend) and Jean-Luc, one of their buddies. Concentrating on Franck, Guieu learned that he had been born in Pontoise in 1961, that he was the eldest of four children, and that he had attended the Parc-aux-Charettes school. He had never read a whole book, he said laughingly, except for comic books, and he had never had any interest in UFOs, in politics, or in religion. He had never worked seriously until he met Mamina, a charming young woman with whom he had a son. He confirmed the facts as he remembered them, telling Guieu and Huguet the same story he had already given the authorities. He did add a few details that were not previously known. First, he now thought he had been telepathically guided to the site where the car was engulfed in the strange fog. Second, the vehicle seemed to glide along by itself while he was drifting into sleep. Would hypnosis help recover Franck's missing time? Daniel Huguet proposed a demonstra- tion. He placed Prevost under a trance. Upon awakening, the young