CHAPTER 27
SETBACK
Jodie got right on her project of finding some camera footage of a P-38 Lightning in action. Within a few days she'd found a documentary on World War II aircraft that included a little over a minute of footage of the P-38. Out of that there was about 13 seconds showing the plane flying overhead.
Carl Loftus, our accident reconstruction expert, was excited about the project and promised us something in about a week. When he called and said it was ready, I arranged with the Palo Pinto County Sheriff to allow Steven to come watch the video with us. He agreed, but only if we found a place in Mineral Wells for the showing. Paul Thayer, Jodie, and Paula also had told me they wanted to see it, so I invited them all to the Mineral Wells Holiday Inn where I’d arranged for the showing. Carl set up his video equipment in the conference room and when he was ready he asked for our attention.
"Now I've recreated this flyover in several weather and light conditions," Carl said. "First I'll show you the raw footage so you'll have a little perspective."
Carl turned on his video player and pushed a button. In the footage, which appeared to be in Great Britain, the P-38 was sitting on the ground with a pilot climbing aboard. The scene changed to a shot of the plane taking off. It was a big plane but even with the double fuselage, it clearly was an airplane. My hopes started to dim. The scene changed again to the overhead flyby. It was an odd-looking bird, but still clearly an airplane. I smiled, trying to hide my disappointment.
Carl said, "Now, I'll show you the same plane at twilight."
This time the plane looked different. The clarity of the double fuselage was more difficult to see and at first glance it looked like a square object in the sky. But I wondered what a teenager driving too fast on a mountain might think of it. I looked at Steven and saw a glimmer of recognition.
"Steven," I said. "What do you think?"
"I don't know," Steven replied "I don't think that's what I saw."
"Don't be hasty now," Carl said. "Let's take a look at it in a thunderstorm. I've taken actual footage of the site during a thunderstorm and spliced in the P-38 flyby. Take a look at this."
Carl pushed a button and the scene changed to the road to Possum Kingdom Lake. The camera panned the road and the cliff where the Jeep had catapulted over the side. The camera moved upward and the P-38 came into few. There were flashes of lightning and rain was falling. The P-38 looked even less distinct and more difficult to see.
"That's not it," Steven said. "That's not what I saw."
"Not at all?" I asked.
"It looks a little like it, but it was traveling slower and it was a rectangular object. I can still tell that it's an airplane."
We all watched the videos several more times, but unanimously agreed the P-38 didn't quite look like a spaceship. I thanked Carl for his efforts as he was packing up and he left. The rest of us lingered in the conference room for a while, trying to figure out where our failure had left us.
"It was still a great idea, Stan," Paula said. "We can still use it since Steven isn't going to testify. Even if one juror buys it, we could hang the jury."
"No, I want to figure this thing out. Steven saw something and we need to find out what it was. That's the only sure way to get him acquitted. If we throw a bunch of garbage at the jury, it could just make them angry."
"So, what now?" Steven asked.
I shook my head. "If the P-38 isn't what Steven saw that night, then why did everyone get all uptight when I asked about it out at the airport in Weatherford? They're hiding something. I just know it."
"Then go with your instincts," Paula said. "Keep digging until you find what they don't want you to know."
"I plan to do just that," I said. "Paul, I want to know everything about that airport and the people who run it."
"No problem. I'll get right on it," he replied.
"You haven't talked to the other pilot yet, have you?" Jodie asked.
"No, I need to do that," I said.
"Why don't you let me talk to him? He's expecting you to contact him so he'll be ready for you. If I happen to bump into him, who knows what he'll tell me if I turn on my charm."
"Hmm. I like that idea," Paula said. "You should let her do that, Stan."
"Okay. You're probably right. I feel sorry for the guy already."
Everyone laughed. Jodie smiled and said she'd do a background check first to help her develop a good approach. She was obviously very excited about the assignment and left immediately to start working on it.
"Stan, what are you going to do while Paul and Jodie are out doing their investigation?" Paula asked.
"I'm going out to the airport again to see if I can talk to Rose. She seemed anxious to talk to me but we were interrupted by the pilot. Maybe I can get her alone or catch her at lunch or something."
"Be careful. If the pilot doesn't want you to talk to her, he might hurt you if you try."
"I can't let that possibility deter me."
"I know, just be careful."
The following day I went back to the airport to see if I could make contact with Rose. I got there before noon and waited in the parking lot hoping to see her leave for lunch. My plan was to follow her and try to make contact when she was alone. Around 12:20 p.m. she left the office alone and got into her dark-blue Chevy Malibu. As she drove off, I followed her at a safe distance. She took the road that led into Weatherford and stopped at the local Dairy Queen. I watched her through the window to be sure she wasn't meeting anybody and then parked next to her car. She was ordering when I walked up beside her. She turned to me and did a double-take.
"Mr. Turner?"she said.
"Oh, hi . . . ah . . . Rose, isn't it?"
She frowned a moment. "What are you doing back in town?"
I smiled. "Well, I must confess I'm here to see you. I would have called and asked if I could take you to lunch, but I didn't want anyone to know we were meeting."
After we had ordered, we found a booth in the corner and sat down to eat. Her face was brimming with excitement."Is this social or business?"
That question threw me a little. She was a cute young lady but couldn't have been a day over twenty-one. I studied her a moment trying to determine if she was sincere. "Business, but if I were fifteen years younger, well—who knows?"
She smiled broadly. "But I like a mature man, particularly one who leads an exciting life like you."
I laughed. "Okay, quit teasing me. A girl as pretty as you must have a dozen young guys tripping over each other trying to get her attention."
She rolled her eyes. "Now you're teasing me."
"Not really."
She took a deep breath. "Okay, what can I do for you? It must be something very important for you to sneak out here to meet me."
"Yes, it is. I sensed you had something to tell me the other day when I was out at the airport, but we were interrupted and I never got an opportunity to find out what it was."
"Gee. I can't remember what that would have been."
"It was right after you discovered the missing page in your log book and Adam Peterson showed up."
"Oh, right. You were talking about the P-38 crash."
"Uh huh."
"Well, I'm not so sure that it actually did crash."
Rose told me that Adam and Carl, his copilot, had reported that the plane had crashed and been destroyed, but that she'd not seen an accident report even though she'd asked for it several times. When she'd called the NTSB to ask them for a copy of their report, they didn't have a record of the crash. She later confronted Adam about it, but he claimed it was just a paperwork snafu and said not to worry about it. As I listened to this bizarre story, I wondered where the P-38 was and why Adam and Carl didn't want me to see it.