The Imposter Page #6

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of the actual Nicholas Barclay.

And I could look at that picture

and look at him at the same time.

And as I looked at the picture, I noticed

that the boy had blue-grey-looking eyes

and this man had brown eyes.

Here was a moment where the hair

stood up on the back of your neck,

and, and er... there was

just something wrong about it.

I did what they wanted me to do.

Something was wrong. I said,

"Can you get me a picture of his ears?"

I need to get... get that.

And I had read about Scotland Yard

using that method to trace down a man,

James Earl Ray,

that had killed Martin Luther King.

They had caught him in Heathrow Airport

by identifying his ears.

And I knew the ears were a means of identity,

almost like fingerprints.

I put the picture in my pocket and took it...

When I got back to the office,

I put the pictures in Adobe Photoshop.

They, they were different ears.

And so I knew right away

that absolutely he was not Nicholas Barclay.

I thought I had a spy.

I thought I had real, honest to God spy.

Why else would a guy come here

and take the place of another person?

What would be his reason?

I phoned Nancy Fisher.

I said, "This guy's a fake. It's not him."

I said, "The ears don't match."

And my comment to him was,

"You need to be very careful

that you don't intrude

on the federal investigation."

People aren't used to hearing

you talk about somebody's ears

and I think she was taken aback by that.

She didn't know what I was talking about.

I thought I didn't have a right to question,

you know, their statement

that this was their family member

because how, how could they be wrong?

I mean, no-one would be wrong

about something like that.

What do they want? I've already got

the fact he doesn't have the same ears.

Why would you ever,

ever take in a stranger?

Not just a stranger from this country

but a stranger from another country

who speaks with a French accent.

This has to be Nicholas Barclay.

It was an outrageous thing.

I cannot have talked to anyone

that hasn't read about this

that has said, "Wait a minute.

I know my own kid. I know my own son.

I can look in his eyes and tell..."

It's like when you go to a class reunion

and you see the kids

you went to school with in 19...

It really began for me, the American dream,

when I took that big yellow bus

to go to school

with others, with other students.

How many French adults

go to American schools for kids,

into a yellow bus...

That was impossible. You could do that

in a movie, you could do that in a...

but you can't do that for real.

I finally succeeded to become a kid again,

officially, with a passport,

to have a second chance,

to be able this time to go to school

and to succeed this time.

Well, he started back to high school.

I really was worried.

I didn't know what he was going to do.

This was a case. I mean, a real case.

This guy was lying

about who he said he was

and here the family was accepting him.

I expected him any day to blow up

something at the airbase

or do something at the army base.

I was pulling teeth trying to determine

who had kidnapped Nicholas,

when and where

and under what circumstances.

I had almost no information

because all the information he gave us

was very, very general.

He couldn't give names,

he couldn't give places,

he couldn't give times,

he couldn't give anything.

The family was told that the reason

we were taking Nicholas to Houston

was because he'd been through trauma.

So he deserved to see a forensic expert

to deal with the trauma.

Initially I thought that this was

going to be a forensic interview,

er, with the intent of finding out

more information

about the people who abducted him.

Here was this pale white kid

and I introduced myself

and, as he spoke back, immediately my...

Something in me just said,

this is not right,

there's something wrong here.

I speak with him for a long time.

He asked me to repeat all the stories

I'd been telling everybody.

I remember people grabbing me

and putting me in the van.

I went to sleep and I woke up in a room.

There was other kids...

I didn't see the same physiological change

in his body posture,

in his pupil size, in his heart rate,

that I would normally see

with somebody who's talking about

a traumatic experience.

He couldn't speak English

without an accent.

That told me about the development of his brain,

and the development of language.

You just cannot be raised for

the first six, seven years of your life

in an English-speaking home

and later on, you know,

eight, nine years later,

even 10 years later,

not be able to speak English

without an accent.

I can guarantee you that this kid was

not raised in an English-speaking family.

You know, I don't know who he is

but the person who was... I was interviewing

could not have been Nicholas Barclay.

OK, the worst scenario

just showed up and I don't like that.

This investigation did a 90 degree.

It just went from one, one place

all the way up to another.

I immediately called Carey Gibson

and I said to her,

"Carey, Dr Perry has just stated

that this person cannot be your brother,

for the fact

that he cannot be an American.

This could be a very dangerous person."

She shrieked or screamed

and said, "Oh, my gosh!"

So I said, "Don't be at the airport," you know.

"I'll handle it. I will take care of this individual"

and that she did not have to take him home,

you know, back to her home to live with them

and she says, "OK, OK."

We fly back into San Antonio

and there's Carey standing there.

What?

She acted like we'd

never had that conversation.

And she acted excited to see him,

asked him how his trip was.

I think I just stared for a minute...

And I called the US Attorneys' Office

right then and there

and I said, "What do I do?"

And the Assistant US Attorney said,

"Let him return to her temporarily."

She welcomed this person home

just like he was her brother.

I didn't have any clue

as to why she behaved in this manner.

Because in my conversation with her,

I had said,

"This person is not your brother."

I don't think... I don't remember her

putting it in those words.

Well, maybe they wanted him so badly

to be their son

that they said he was their son,

but it was starting to get ridiculous.

I couldn't let it go. There was no way

in the world I could let it go.

I started going into the neighborhood,

and finding out about

the real Nicholas Barclay,

interviewing the neighbors,

trying to find out

what I could about that boy

and about that family.

And what's going on?

You know, why would Nicholas have left?

The police used to usually come

maybe like twice or three times a month.

Either it was argument with the kids

or with their boyfriend or with the other son.

I spoke to everyone and they all said

that Nicholas had caused trouble,

had come home late at night.

We've all had arguments in our family,

but it's rare that we call the police,

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