Missing (13 page)

“
Yes.”

“
Since you said yesterday we would only be here for a couple of days, could we order a special lunch or dinner tomorrow?”

The man thought for a moment. Finally, he shrugged. “I don’t see why not. When I bring your dinner in tonight, I’ll take your order.”

“
You will also offer this to my crew as well?”

The man nodded. “Yes, I will. Although, I must explain something to you. I know I told you a couple of days, but it looks like it will still be another two days. It should be sometime in the morning, either before or after breakfast.”

John thought for a moment. “So, you are talking Tuesday morning?”

“
Yes.”

“
And can you tell me what is going to happen between now and Tuesday morning?”

The man seemed flustered by the question. John figured the man hadn’t expected that kind of question. Quickly the man recovered.

“
Sorry, I can’t say. But, I’m sure you will hear about it eventually.”

John stood up, book in hand. He was now concerned. “You said we would be safe.”

“
And you will be. This isn’t about you or your crew.”

“
Then why are we here?” he said, his voice raising.

The man sighed deeply. “Okay. I can only tell you this. Your plane carried some people we needed to get here. That is the only reason you and your crew are involved. You will be released on Tuesday.”

“
Do I have your word on that?” John knew no matter what the man said, he couldn’t be sure the man was really telling him the truth. He wasn’t getting a good feeling about this.

“
Of course. As I said, this has nothing to do with your crew.”

John nodded. What else could he say? Or do.

The man picked up this morning’s plate, then turned and walked out the door, locking it behind him. John stood for a few moments looking at the door before he finally walked over to the table and sat down at the small table. On the plate was a sub sandwich, potato chips, a small plastic cup of baked beans, a can of Pepsi, and an apple. At least we get good food, John thought.

When he finished eating, he leaned back in the chair. It bothered him that something was going to be happening. Something that he and his crew had inadvertently been involved in. Why hadn’t he gone back to see the passengers? He had often done that before. He wished he could talk to Mary McGill. She would be able to tell him what she had seen when things changed. Were the flight attendants subdued first? What about the backup pilots? As much as he tried to remember, he couldn’t remember what happened after they had flown above the storm. How far had they gotten? Just then, he remembered something.

The storm was coming, but they had just gotten above it. He had gotten the plane almost to the altitude they needed to be at when he remembered hearing the door to the cockpit open. He knew it was too early for Mary to bring in the coffee she had told them she would bring in. John got up from the table, and then sat down on the bed. He reached inside of his suitcase, pulled out the small legal pad, and wrote down the things he now remembered.

Suddenly, he remembered something else. When he heard the cockpit door opening, there was a smell. He couldn’t put his finger on what the smell was. After the smell, his mind went blank. This had to be when he lost control over the plane. But, who had flown the plane and where did it land? Mary had told them that there were only six passengers on the plane. Were two of them responsible for flying the plane? If that were the case, why are the other four here? He shook his head. Too many questions he had no answers for. He vaguely remembered being in a bus, but where is his plane? And exactly where were they right now?

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.

He turned on his computer, then got out his notepad and looked over his notes. Suddenly, he thought of something. He opened his cell phone and called Boyer. He answered after three rings.

“
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.”