If I still had my research I would happily let you read it, but I, ah, threw it into a bottomless pit.

It was very cathartic at the time.

[And it wasn't like his brother didn't have the journals photocopied cover to cover anyway. If he really needed to cross-reference something from thirty-year-old research it wasn't completely lost.]

The point is, I wouldn't lie about this. Truth is far stranger than any bullshit I could possibly make up.