“Of course not,” Gillian said, “but—”
“Right, so we have to ask some uncomfortable questions sometimes,” Gary went on deftly. “Not that we think you’re the unknown hijacker…but you could be. I mean, it would be pretty smart of Luis to put someone he’s in cahoots with on the phone to talk with the negotiators.”
Gillian could only stare at the other man in astonishment. “I’m not a terrorist,” she insisted.
“Isn’t that what the seventh hijacker would say?” Gary asked reasonably.
A headache was beginning to form behind her eyes.
“For the record, we don’t think you’re who we’re looking for,” Gary said, obviously expecting her to blow off the fact that he’d pretty much accused her of partnering with murderers. “But you can understand where we’re coming from, I’m sure.”
“We need to go over the passenger manifest person by person. We’d like for you to tell us everything you can remember about each person. What they were wearing, any conversation you might’ve had with them, and your personal thoughts about them. The smallest thing you recall could be the difference between catching this person and them going free. Understand?”
Yeah, Gillian understood. She understood that this was going to be a hell of a long day. Much longer than she’d anticipated. She had a quick thought about Walker sitting outside the door in that tiny, uncomfortable chair, and she felt bad. Then she had no time to think about anything other than her fellow hostages.
Gary and Calum started off by showing her pictures of the first-class passengers. They wanted to know what she remembered about them during the first part of the flight. Did they ask for a lot of drinks? Did they get up to use the restroom?
Gillian tried to tell the investigators that she hadn’t paid any attention to anyone beyond her row, but they kept pressing. They wanted to know about the flight attendants; did any of them look suspicious, had she noticed anything odd with them, were they extra friendly with any of the passengers?
The questions went on and on, and for the most part, Gillian’s answers were “I don’t know” or “not that I noticed.”
Then the interview got harder.
They showed her picture after picture of her fellow coach passengers, and wanted to know her thoughts on each person. They wanted her to talk about their personalities, how they dealt with captivity, and anything she could remember them saying. In detail.
“How about Janet Cagle?” Gary asked, showing Gillian a picture of the young mother.
“She was scared out of her mind,” Gillian told them. “The hijackers kept threatening her and her daughter, Renee. Most of the time they sat on the floor between the seats and tried to be invisible.”
“Which one of the hijackers used the girl as a shield when they were trying to escape to the Beechcraft?” Calum asked.
“I’m not sure…Isaac? Carlos? In the chaos, I wasn’t paying attention. They were forcing pairs of men and women out onto the slide and until Alberto grabbed me, I didn’t realize what they were doing.”
“What were they doing?” Gary asked.
Gillian sighed. She had a feeling he knew the answer to his own question, but wanted to hear what she was going to say. “They were trying to create uncertainty for our rescuers. With one woman and one man paired up, and everyone running toward the smaller plane, it would be hard at first glance to know who was a hijacker and who was a hostage.”
Both men nodded. “What about Maria Gomez?” Gary put another picture in front of her.
And so it went. The pictures kept coming, one after another. Camile Millan, Rebecca Crawford, Reed Stonegate, Charles Wayman. Their faces swam as Gillian did her best to recall every little detail about each person. It was hard because most of the men she’d just seen at a distance and hadn’t had any real contact with. But of course, Gary and Calum weren’t satisfied with that. They pressed for more.
“Leyton Morales,” Gary said, putting another picture in front of her.
Taking a sip of water, Gillian stalled a bit. She didn’t want to say anything bad about anyone. Didn’t want to finger anyone as the hijacker if they weren’t. She’d feel terrible if they were unfairly accused. “He…um…I thought he was a bit weird,” she said at last.
“Weird how?” Calum asked.
“Just…weird. He stared at the women intently. He also paid a lot of attention to the hijackers. Maybe he was in shock though. I know I was having a hard time processing everything that was happening. He didn’t seem to be quite as scared as the rest of us. I mean, I don’t know him at all, so maybe he had a horrible life and being held at gunpoint and threatened wasn’t a big deal for him, and that’s why he wasn’t as scared.” Gillian knew she was talking really fast and making excuses for Leyton, but she couldn’t help it.
“Give us an example,” Gary ordered.
Sighing, Gillian nodded. “When the hijackers inflated the slide and started pushing people out, he kinda just stood there watching. When Alberto grabbed me, Leyton told him that he’d go out the slide with me. But, to be fair, Wade also volunteered to go with me. I think they were both trying to get me away from Alberto, which was really brave of them. Alberto refused, and then Leyton actually reached out and grabbed my free arm. He and Alberto kinda had a tug-of-war with me for a second. Eventually, Alberto shoved him away from me with a hand to his chest, but Leyton didn’t back off very far. He just kept staring at us. Then I noticed, when I was struggling and trying not to be pushed inside the smaller plane, that Leyton was once again standing nearby, just watching. Or maybe he was staring off into space.”
“Did you see Wade?” Gary asked.
“No.”
“Hmmm,” Gary said.
He didn’t say anything more than that. Just Hmmm. It was maddening.
“How about Andrea Vilmer? We understand she had a hard time of it on the plane.”
That was the understatement of the century. Gillian nodded.
“What can you tell us about that?”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything you can remember,” Gary said without any emotion.
Her frustration piqued again. “You want to know about her expression of revulsion when Luis licked her neck obscenely? How scared she was when he decided to assault her? How she whimpered in fright when he dragged her down the aisle of the plane? Maybe you want to know how long it took for him to get off as he forced her to suck his dick right there in the exit row? What exactly do you want to know?”
She was breathing fast when she was done, but she took a deep breath and continued in a more even tone. “I don’t know why Luis decided to single her out. Probably just because she’s pretty. I’m ashamed to admit that at the time, I was just relieved it wasn’t me…but that didn’t mean I wasn’t horrified on her behalf. There was nothing anyone could do, and we knew it. If we tried to interfere, he would’ve killed us without blinking. He was that coldhearted. I think Luis was the first one to say he was taking her with him, and that’s probably why Alberto tried to drag me onto that plane too.”
“You’ve been in touch with Andrea,” Gary said. It wasn’t a question.