Page 86 of Identity Unknown

“Dana Diletti and her people were in and out of here a lot,” Tron replies. “So what you’re telling us is it was business as usual this morning?”

“That’s right. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except it wasn’t the pilot she flies with most of the time.”

“Do you have any idea why Bret Jones was picked for this particular flight?” Tron asks. “Did he mention anything?”

“I already told them.” Glaring at the investigators again.

“And now we’re asking.” Tron will keep reminding her.

“He said that the usual pilot called him at four o’clock in the morning to say she wasn’t feeling up to flying,” Wilma tells us.

“What does that mean exactly?” I ask.

“She had a scratchy throat. It started during the night and she was hoping it would get better. But it didn’t. That’s what Bret Jones told me. And I don’t know anything else.”

“You’re aware that there are cameras everywhere.” Tron points out one directly over Wilma Gaither’s desk as my attention wanders around the lobby.

I spot other cameras, and when I notice the bins of candy on the wall, I see flashes of Luna Briley on her bedroom floor. I see her on my table.

“The cameras aren’t always working,” Wilma answers with a hint of smugness. “Sometimes people turn them off.”

“Who?” Tron asks, and she already knows the answer.

“Security has to do it.”

“Were the cameras on when Bret Jones was here?” Tron knows the answer to that too.

Lucy has made sure the cameras can’t be turned off even if it appears that they are. Wilma Gaither wouldn’t know that.

“I have no way of telling unless I’m notified.” She continues to evade.

“And were you notified about them this morning at any point?”

“Not that I recall.”

“Which security officers were here when Bret Jones was?” Tron asks.

“I’m not sure.”

“Did that person turn off the cameras?”

“I wouldn’t necessarily know.”

“Okay. That’s fine. There are ways to find out what’s true and what isn’t,” Tron then says with a shrug.

“I’ve told the truth.” Wilma stares at me as she says this.

“Not to us, you haven’t,” Tron replies, watching her comrades walking around the flight service as they continue searching for evidence. “But here’s a word of advice, Wilma. Now that your boss and his wife are facing criminal charges and possible prison time? Now that other people connected to them arebeing looked at very carefully? You might want to think twice about making false statements. Which security officers were here when Dana Diletti was?”

“It might have been Mira Tang. She’s not here now but your colleagues were talking to her earlier.” Wilma doesn’t hesitate to throw someone under the bus when it’s in her best interest. “Mira got here at seven o’clock this morning. An hour before her shift.”

“Why was she early?”

“She didn’t say. But she was here at the same time Dana Diletti and her people were. That’s my point.”

“Thank you for that,” Tron replies. “Isn’t it so much easier when people cooperate with each other? And it seems foolish to lose everything because someone else is in trouble. And you feel you have to protect them.”

“Even though they might not do the same for you,” I add as Wilma’s cold face is touched by fear.