Flying Too Close to the Sun, George Jehn [freda ebook reader txt] 📗

at headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. weren’t much help either. The 727 was pulled out of service the following day over Shuttle Air’s objection, and they went over the forward cargo bin with a fine tooth comb. But no fingerprints, blood, fibers or other material that couldn’t be accounted for was found. Although human hairs were discovered, no matches were in the FBI’s criminal DNA data base. The same was true for the duffels, which turned out to be unnumbered, imitation army surplus sold in thousands of outlets throughout the US, Europe and Asia. The same held true for the locks, two of which were so old as to be untraceable. The newer ones were eventually tracked to auto-supply stores in Dedham and Newton, Massachusetts. There were no surveillance cameras in either store and interrogations of the cashiers were no help. None recalled the purchases nor could they could identify any suspects from snapshots provided by police, including the crewmembers’ photos. A list of potential suspects, including government workers, passengers and other airline workers was drawn up. Some were grilled at length, but this also came up empty handed.

A routine credit check uncovered Erik’s financial dilemma and showed Christina’s credit card was borrowed to the max. So the possibility of flight crew involvement raised some eyebrows. The two men met at Daly’s office, where the first split between the locals and FBI surfaced when Morganthaler said, “Let’s bring ‘em in and lean on ‘em.”

“Who?”

“The kid and the broad. Let’s tell the kid she implicated him. He would probably lose his nerve after ten minutes alone and the Stockholm syndrome would kick in. He’d work with us.”

“That’s fucking asinine,” an unyielding Daly replied. “You’re overreaching out of frustration. You think if he planned out some complex plot, he’d just cave? So, he owes some money and Shepard’s credit card is maxed out. We’ve got to come up with better evidence, so let’s wait for Preis’ bank deadline and see what happens.”

No doubt the suits would fuck things up, again. “If it was up to me I’d lock the kid in a room for as long as it took to get some answers,” Morganthaler replied.

“Well, it’s not your call.” To appease him somewhat, after re-reading the tower’s transcribed conversation tapes, Daly suggested they again interrogate each pilot separately to discuss the particulars of the aircraft’s generator problem in greater detail. “Just don’t let on we know about the money Preis owes or Shepard’s debts.”

Morganthaler reluctantly agreed, but nothing new came from these interrogations. They then reconfirmed with Boeing there was no possible way to access the cargo compartment from the cockpit, in the process verifying the generator problem was almost an everyday occurrence for a jet of that age. But a subsequent check of the aircraft’s maintenance log revealed it had no previous history of this malfunction, which raised a tiny red flag. The delay had been slightly less than four minutes. Was it long enough to pull off a well-executed robbery? It also came to light Shepard had reported to her chief pilot about Montgomery’s questionable performance during a previous flight emergency, strongly recommending he be sent to alcohol rehab or if he refused, his employment be terminated. This was certainly not the action of a partner in crime. Montgomery remained the odd man out, so he was also re-interviewed.

Daly and Morganthaler arrived at his chic suburban New Jersey home early in the evening. His wife, Ingrid answered the door and ushered them into the den where Woody was watching TV. He clicked it off and invited them to be seated.

“We won’t take much of your time,” Daly told him, “but want to ask you some additional inquiries about the ground delay in question.”

Woody nodded his head.

“In your opinion, could someone have opened and removed anything from the forward cargo bin while the crew was busy resolving the electrical malfunction and if so, could the cockpit crew have missed it?”

Montgomery put on a pensive expression. “I don’t believe it would have been possible. Shepard had given me specific instructions to keep my attention focused on cockpit communications and the surrounding area because she didn’t want anything to happen...”

“Like what?”

“Conflicting traffic or a crucial missed communication with the tower would be the two best examples. There have been a number of near misses in Boston involving aircraft taxiing while others were landing or taking off.”

“Can you be more specific?”

“Sure. I worked the radios, informed the passengers about our short delay and kept an eye peeled outside. If the forward cargo door had been opened, I almost certainly would have seen or heard something.”

“Are you saying it would have been impossible?”

“Probably. Plus, there’s a door light that would illuminate on Preis’ panel if the door were opened.” Woody then added, “Our delay was only a few minutes. There just wouldn’t have been enough time to do anything.”

The lawmen thanked Woody and left. Other policemen interviewed every passenger once again, attempting to establish any potential link between one and any crewmember, airline or government personnel, a time-consuming task, which again came up empty. Next, Daly and Morganthaler went over all of the written interview summaries, along with a computerized spreadsheet on which all possible witnesses and suspects were placed at different, case-important times and places. The Time and Location, or T and L sheets are used to identify and possibly come up with a list of suspects with the highest probability of involvement. They were able to track with a large degree of certainty the movement of the bags from beginning to the end of the journey with the exception being from the time the plane began taxiing until it landed and parked at the gate. Although there was no hard evidence implicating them, Shepard and Preis remained high on the suspect list because of the T and L sheets.

After speaking with Transportation Security Administration officials, Daly and Morganthaler learned infrared motion detectors that sensed heat and-or motion had been installed along