As John Lennon lies wounded and bleeding inside the Dakota, Philip Michael, a maintenance man for the building, stands outside, watching in horror and trying to piece together everything that has happened.

Suddenly, he sees an object in motion. He approaches a decorative stone flower urn sculpted into the building entryway.

What’s fallen out is a record—John Lennon’s Double Fantasy album.

And it’s signed.

This belongs to someone, Michael thinks, putting the album back inside the urn.

The damn thing keeps falling out, no matter how many times he replaces it. He decides to take it home with him for safekeeping.

On the way, he hears someone mention that the police are looking for a signed album. It’s a piece of evidence from the crime scene. Michael contacts the police and gives them the album.

The following year, after Chapman’s trial, Michael fills out paperwork in an effort to have the album returned to him. His request is granted. The district attorney thanks him in writing for turning in this crucial piece of evidence.

The album he gets back is a bit worse for wear. It’s been handled throughout the police investigation. The killer’s forensically enhanced fingerprints are visible, as are notations from the crime lab.

He now has in his possession the last autograph John Lennon ever signed.

Michael puts the album away.

“It’s the most valuable artifact in rock and roll history,” a gallerist later tells the New York Daily News.

*  *  *

Jay Dubin, the videographer who filmed the Double Fantasy sessions, is with his fiancée. They are waiting for a table at a restaurant when the news of John’s murder breaks.

“I was just with him,” Dubin says to her, stunned.

Later, Dubin realizes there was a cassette player recording the whole session. He puts the audiotape in his closet, eventually digitizing it for safekeeping, but otherwise leaving it be.

If ever he wants to hear John’s voice, it will always be near.

*  *  *

Jack Douglas is at the Hit Factory continuing work on Yoko’s “Walking on Thin Ice.” At 11:35 p.m., his wife gets through to him. Though the news she shares plunges Douglas into shock, the producer’s sharp mind jumps back to the moment when Yoko, toward the end of the session, asked John what was wrong. Douglas recalls that John was acting strangely, and the producer feels compelled to act. He wipes clean the session tapes dated December 8.

*  *  *

It’s after midnight when the chief of Manhattan detectives, Richard Nicastro, sits down with Yoko at the Dakota. With producer David Geffen nearby, the detective tries to question Yoko about the events of the day.

“The shock is too great!” is all she can say. “I can’t, I can’t do this right now.”

Chapter 66

Chapter 66

All I want is the truth.

—“Gimme Some Truth”

Officer Tony Palma returns to the Twentieth Precinct.