by L C Lang
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SUNDAY MORNING
CANADA
Matt walked out of the plane. He glanced at his watch. It was now five thirty in the morning, New York time. He wasn’t sure what time it was here. They had worked on the plane late into the night. What they had found, or mostly the lack of it, bothered him. The only thing of significance they found on the plane was the two bodies.
Two bodies with no identification. They would have to fingerprint them once the plane got back to New York to find out who they are. The one thing he didn’t understand was why they were on the plane. There was half a dozen boxes in the cargo hold, half were empty, half had shredded newspaper inside. Two of the empty boxes were larger, so he figured the bodies had been in there. One of the passengers had to have taken them out, but he had no idea why they would do that. Damon had dusted for fingerprints, but didn’t find any. There was a small smear of blood in one box, but he wasn’t sure if the man was still alive when he was in the box, or if it was just residual blood from the head wound. They had also dusted the hatch, inside and out, but again found nothing. Matt shook his head. The situation was getting more confusing by the minute.
Damon had bagged the shredded newspaper and Matt would have someone piece them together once they got back. While it was possible there was a clue in them, somehow he doubted it. The two larger boxes were in bags and he would have forensics do a further check to see if there was any other trace evidence on them. At the rate they were going, he doubted they would find anything. But, they had to try.
They had found no fingerprints on the plane, anywhere. No latent’s or even partials. Matt figured the passengers had wiped everything clean. There was no trace evidence of blood anywhere either. Not in the cockpit, the crew area, the meal prep area, nowhere. Which meant it was a non-violent takeover. All of the luggage and the food was gone. Except for the two bodies, the plane was completely clean. Whoever had been on the plane knew what they were doing.
They had finally finished around midnight. Because it was too late to take the flight out, they cleaned the dust off several seats so they could all stretch out and sleep for a few hours. Now, as he looked around the surrounding area, it was as bleak as he remembered yesterday afternoon when they got here.
The surrounding hills were barren, with only patches of scrub grass scattered among the rocks. There were pockets of water and small lakes. One of which was just north of where flight 3351 was parked. There was a town of the same name as the airport, but to get there you had to take a long road that wound through the hills. The town only had a few homes. Because of the distance, he knew there was no point going there and asking if anyone had seen or heard the plane come in. If anyone in the town had heard a plane, he was sure they wouldn’t question since they were used to various sizes of planes landing on the airstrip.
As Matt looked at the airport, it seemed to be an unusual place for an airport, but it also looked to be the only area that was flat in the area. He thought the 4,000-foot long runway was a bit much for this location as it seemed that smaller planes were what most people used around here. The airport manager had said a larger plane was going to be coming in, but did enough of them come in to warrant such a long runway?
He shook his head. Whoever had set this up, knew about this airport. Knew about its remoteness, and knew it had a long runway. Who are we dealing with, he wondered. Someone on the plane, or someone else? The question left him with a bitter taste in his throat.
Now that the sun was coming up, it was time to take the plane back to New York. First, though, the pilots need to see if there is enough gas in both planes to make it back to Montreal. Matt and the other agents were going back with flight 3351 to keep control of the bodies and the plane.
Matt turned to see the other three men coming out the door of the plane. Colin was the last one out. He closed the door of the plane, and then walked down the stairs. Once they had caught up with Matt, they headed for the other plane.
Damon walked beside Matt.
“You know,” Damon said, “the media is going to have a heyday with this when it comes out.”
“Yeah, no kidding. I would rather keep it quiet for a while. We need to get more equipment on the plane and get it checked out again. I would also rather that no one sees the coroner taking off the two bodies. I am going to talk to the airlines about them hiding the plane for a while. I know it is inevitable, but I’d rather the media didn’t know about this for a couple more days.”
Damon sighed. “Think you can get this solved in a couple of days?”
“I can only hope. We need to have time to run down the passengers and go to their residences. There has got to be a clue somewhere.”
“How could someone know about this airport? I have never heard of it before.”
“Me either. Someone went to a lot of trouble. Getting six passengers on the plane by themselves. Overtake the plane and land it at a remote airport.”
“They can’t smuggle anything on the planes anymore, so how did they take over the plane?”
Matt shook his head. “I have no idea. At least we found nothing obvious. There were more crew members than passengers, so it had to be something major that took them all down fast.”
Damon nodded. “This is really suspicious. So, what are we going to do now?”
“Well, first of all, we are going to back to the other plane, get something to eat and then have the pilots check to make sure they have enough gas. If not, we are going to have to get some from the airport.”
“We aren’t going to be doing any interviewing?”
“No. The town is too far away and no one was at the airport office. I have a feeling people around here are used to hearing planes come in, so they may not have paid attention, even if it was a bigger plane than they are used to seeing.”
Damon nodded. “Yeah, I noticed that too when we flew in.”
“Well, let’s go back and get something to eat and get out of here.”
Damon laughed. “Oh good. Airline food again.”
Matt laughed too. “At least it is free.”
“That’s true. But after the last twelve hours, I’m getting a thick steak when I get home today.”
“Sounds good.” Matt looked at the others. “Let’s go home.”
Seven hours later Matt walked into his office. It had been a long two days. The only good thing was that they now had the missing plane. The bad thing was the bodies of the two men and the missing evidence. Too many questions still bothered him. Specifically, where are the passengers and flight crew? How did they leave the area? Did they fly out in a smaller plane or had they driven out? And where did they go? Matt had no idea. Nothing made sense to him.
Matt had called Peterson from the Canadian air strip and told him what they had and hadn’t found. He had also called Boyer and arranged to have the plane hidden for a few days. The coroner’s office was waiting on them when they arrived back in New York, and so was a forensics crew. He doubted they would find anything more, but it was worth a try. The forensics crew had more equipment than they could have taken with them. Now it was just a matter of time until they found out who the two dead men are and see if there was any further evidence.
Matt sat down at his desk, and then looked at his watch. It was now three o’clock in the afternoon. He had gone back to his house and the others left for their homes. He was restless, so he took a shower, changed clothes and came back to the office. He returned the packs, gave the plastic bags of shredded paper to a couple of bored agents. He wasn’t sure what they could do with them, but at least they would have something to do for a while.
Right now, Matt wanted to get the report written. Boyer had promised him they would keep the plane secure and out of sight, parked in an empty DAC hangar with security watching over it. Boyer said only five people knew about the plane, and they were all upper management. Matt hoped they kept their word. They didn’t need the media to get wind of this. At least not yet.
“Sorry to bother you again Mr. Boyer, but I just thought of something you can do for me.”
“Of course. What is it?”
“We need the security tape from Heathrow on when the crew and passengers boarded flight 3351.”
“Okay, I will contact them.”
“We need it ASAP. Let me know when they will be sending it. We need to see who the passengers are.”
“Okay, I’ll get right on it.”
They said goodbye and hung up. Matt turned back to his report. Half an hour later, he was finished. He printed out the report and placed it in a file folder for now. A few minutes later Colin walked in. Matt had called him before he had left home.
“How come I had to come back to the office?” Colin asked as he walked to his desk and sat down. “The day is pretty much shot.”
“Yeah, I know. I got the report written, so that’s over with. However, we need to take a little trip. Should only be a couple of hours, if that much.”
“Where are we going?”
Matt looked at Colin. “We are going to pay a visit to the residences of the passengers.”
Colin nodded. “Think we’ll get any answers?”
Matt shrugged. “I don’t know, but we’ve got to try. At some point, something has to go right. There has to be a clue out there, somewhere.”
An hour later, Matt and Colin entered East Brunswick, New Jersey. The traffic was light, at least for New York City, and they made good time. Matt was driving a silver Chevy Impala with flashers on the grille. He left them on the entire trip, which helped to get them here faster.
The first house was a two-story Colonial house located at the end of a cul-de-sac. He pulled into the driveway, parked the car in front of the garage and they got out. They walked the sidewalk to the steps leading up to the twenty-foot long porch along the front of the house. A swing attached to the ceiling was on one end of the porch. Four comfortable looking lounge chairs were leaning against the front of the house.
Matt knocked on the door. While he waited, he turned and looked at the view from the porch. A large kidney shaped area held trees, shrubs and large rocks. Because of its location, it gave a bit of privacy to the house.
No one had answered, so Matt turned and knocked again. Then he heard the sound of footsteps slowly coming towards the door. A few moments later, the door opened a crack. Through the opening, Matt could see the woman was old. The red front door contrasted her white hair.
“Can I help you?” the woman asked through the chain across the door.
Matt pulled his badge up and showed her. Colin did too. “I’m Special Agent Palmer with the FBI, and this is my partner, Special Agent McWilliams. We’d like to talk to you for a few minutes.”
“Okay. Just a moment.” The woman closed the door. Matt heard the slide of the chain, and then she opened the door again, this time a bit wider.
“Did I do something wrong?” the woman asked, her eyes nervously darting between the two men standing in front of her.
The woman was in her early eighties. She was a petite five foot four and wore a black silky looking pantsuit. It set off her very white hair. And now she was visibly upset.
“No ma’am. We just want to talk to you about your husband, John Carter.”
The woman put her hand over her mouth and shook her head. “Oh no, you must have the wrong John Carter. He didn’t do anything wrong. Never. He was an upstanding man and treated everyone very well. He was a businessman, you know. He owned his own finance business for fifty years. He always treated his customers and staff fairly and with respect.”
Matt shook his head. “He’s not in trouble, Mrs. Carter. All I need to know if he went on a trip recently?”
Mrs. Carter’s mouth dropped open. Matt looked at the shocked look on her face. His gut feeling told him this wasn’t going to end well. Then he wondered if she was going to answer him.
“Mrs. Carter?” he asked.
She took a deep breath, as tears began welling in her eyes. “My husband died three years ago.”
Now it was Matt’s turn to go silent for a few seconds, as his mouth dropped open. Finally, he collected himself.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Carter. Apparently, we do have the wrong John Carter. I’m sorry to have bothered you.” The woman nodded and shut the door.
Colin and Matt turned and quickly walked off the porch, silently going back to their car. When they got in, Matt looked back at the house a moment, and then backed the car out of the driveway. He started driving to the next location.
“What do you think?” Colin asked, looking at Matt.
“Maybe this one was just a fluke.”
Colin shrugged. “Maybe it wasn’t.”
Matt nodded. “Yeah, maybe it wasn’t.”
Half an hour later, they got to the next house. The house was located in Sayerville, New Jersey. The homes here were close together, sitting about ten feet off the street. Matt pulled into the driveway that led along the side of the house. The house was a small one-story yellow house. The garage was at the end of the driveway, at the far end of the house. A chain link fence surrounded the house on three sides.
Matt glanced at the house and then took a deep breath. After how the encounter went at the last house, he wondered what they were going to find this time. He wasn’t hopeful. They got out of the car and walked up the sidewalk to the front door. Taking another deep breath, Matt knocked on the door. A young man, who looked to be eighteen, opened the door.
“Yes, can I help you?”
Matt showed his badge. “I’m Special Agent Palmer of the FBI. Is your mother here?”
The young man narrowed his eyes at him. “I’m sorry, but my mother doesn’t live here. My wife and I do. Is there a problem?”
This is starting off good, Matt thought. “I’m sorry. Alright then, I need to talk to you about Edward Compton.”
A baby laughed from somewhere inside the house.
The young man glanced back inside the house, and then looked back at Matt again. “What do you need to talk to him about?”
Matt hesitated a moment. He wasn’t getting a good feeling about this. Again. “Is he here?”
The young man nodded, backed up, opening the door wider. He swept his arm backwards. Matt and Colin looked through the open doorway. In the living room, sitting in a walker, was a little boy, laughing, as the young woman sitting on the floor in front of him was playing peek-a-boo.
“That’s Edward Compton?” Matt asked.
“Yep, that’s our Eddy. He is six months old.”
Matt took a deep breath. “My apologies. We’ve obviously gotten the wrong Edward Compton.”
As the man closed the door, Matt could hear the man laughing inside the house as they walked back to the car.
“Still think this is a fluke?” Colin asked.
Matt shook his head. “No, I don’t, but we’ll try one more.”
This time, they headed off to Newark, New Jersey. It was a quiet forty-five minute drive as Matt picked up Interstate 95 and headed back north. According to the passenger list they had gotten, there were two women among the group of six passengers. While he hoped to have better luck with this next one, he was already beginning to believe the names were bogus. No, actually, the names aren’t bogus. They were real. Real people with the correct addresses.
As they drove the downtown area, Matt got a deepening sense of dread in the pit of his stomach. Driving down University Avenue, he slowed down long enough to verify the address they had for Susan Malcolm. The sign on the front lawn of the building told the rest of the story. It was Rutgers University School of Nursing.
“Well, I guess this confirms it,” Matt said as he decided it was time to forget this and get back to the office. “The passenger’s names are bogus. Now all we can do is to wait for the
tape to come in from Heathrow and then see if we can identify who we are dealing with.”
“This doesn’t look good.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Colin held up his hand and began counting off fingers. “So, let me see if I’ve got this straight. We’ve got seven missing crew members, six missing passengers, one commercial plane that gets parked in Canada, two dead bodies on the plane, there is no indication where the flight crew and passengers are and passengers names who aren’t who they are supposed to be.”
“Yep, that pretty much sums it up.”
“Are we dealing with terrorists?”
Matt shook his head. “I don’t think so. There weren’t enough people on-board and it was too far out to hit a U.S. site. I know we should consider some sort of attack. They obviously hid behind other people’s names. There is no way of knowing if they are even in the U.S. Until we get the security tape, we have no way of knowing who we are dealing with.”
“Even with the security tape, how are we going to find who they are?”
“We might be able to do a visual recognition. I am sure the guys in the computer department will be able to do something with the pictures. We may also have to put the pictures out and see who knows them. Anyone going to all this trouble to hide themselves is up to no good.” Matt paused a moment. “You know, I hadn’t thought anything about checking the passenger list before now, but, if I had, we might have picked up on the discrepancies.”
“Would it have made any difference?” Colin asked.
Matt shook his head. “Probably not. But, after what we didn’t find on the plane, we are going to have to look closer at who the passengers really are.”
Just then, Matt’s cell phone rang. It was Boyer. He had contacted Heathrow’s security office, and a copy of the tape from flight 3351’s boarding will be on a late flight tonight. Matt thanked him, and then hung up.
“The security tape will be here late tonight. We will get it tomorrow morning,” Matt said.
“That’s good. We can also see who the missing crew is too.”