Chapter 7
When they arrived at the airport, Amelia and George headed for the same building they had been in a little while before. They headed up the stairs and towards the chief of security's office. Once they got there, George knocked on the open door.
"'Ello," he greeted the chief and other officers in the room who he was talking to and shook the chief's hand. "What're you doin' back so soon? Did you already catch the guy?" the chief asked, perplexed as to why the two agents were there. "No, not just yet. We had a few follow up questions. Did you happen to have anyone come forward as witnesses? We're trying to figure out how he got the pressure cooker from point A to point B," he asked.
"Well now that you mention it, we did have a few come forward. Most of 'em were fibbin' about what they saw, didn't check out with what we already knew. There is one, however, that seemed like he was telling the truth. Have an officer in there talking to him right now. Can talk to him after if you'd like," the chief offered.
"That would be wonderful. Thank you," Amelia replied. "I'm going to make a phone call in the hall. Let us know when he's ready," George said as he walked out of the office and into the hallway.
George took out his phone and called Clyde, who was off doing other tasks in the office, separate from the team, "Hello? George? What do you need?" Clyde asked as he answered the phone. "Well sir, I have to admit, this is sort of embarrassing, but could you give me Agent Prentiss' phone number? Amelia and I are back at the airport and I have to call her to give her an update and I realized I don't have a number to call her on," he responded in his soft voice. "Oh, of course, I can. I'll send it to you right now," Clyde answered. "Thank you, sir, I appreciate it," George said before hanging up.
As soon as he received Agent Prentiss' number from Clyde, he dialed the number and placed the phone to his ear. "This is Prentiss," he heard from the other end of the line. "Hi, ma'am, it's me, George," he responded. "Oh hi, George," he heard her say, "what did you find?"
George explained to Emily what he and Amelia had been told by the head of security. He told her that anything that they found would be relayed to her as soon as they knew. After a brief conversation, he said goodbye and hung up the phone.
While he was speaking with Emily, Amelia spoke with the head of security to see what, if anything, else they knew or heard from others. He told her that this witness was the only one they heard from that had an accurate and reliable explanation as to what he saw and that what the rest told them was all hogwash.
When she finished speaking with the chief, she glanced over at George, who had taken a few steps down the hall away from the office, a few times while he was on the phone. She waited patiently until she saw him hang up the phone and head back in her direction.
George walked back towards Amelia who was leaning up against the door frame with her arms crossed, patiently waiting for him. He looked at Amelia who asked him, "What'd she say?" "She said just to let her know what we found, asked some questions about what the police knew," he listed. "I see. Well, we should see what this bloke knows so we can let her know ASAP," she replied and George nodded in agreement.
After their conversation, he and Amelia poked their heads back into the office where the chief was sitting. "All set?" the chief asked when he saw the two of them. "Yes sir, we are," Amelia responded. "This way, I'll show you to the room we have him in," the chief said as he got up and walked to the door.
He led them down the hallway and into a room on the left side of the hall. "Hiya, Barry, these are some agents from Interpol. They just have a few questions for ya, about what you saw," he said as he addressed the man sitting on the far side of the table. He was a younger man, mid-to-late twenties with dirty blond hair and green eyes. He wore a jumpsuit uniform that appeared to be either a janitor's or mechanic's uniform.
"Hi, My name's Agent Jones, and this is Agent Roberts," George introduced himself and Amelia as they sat down on the opposite side of the table. "We're just here to ask you a few questions about what you saw," Amelia said in a kind voice.
"Okay," Barry began to speak, "Well, usually I'm not in the airport where all the people are, I'm usually down below, with all the planes and machines, the hidden tunnels of the place. Anyways, I was sent to that terminal to get paperwork from maintenance because we were working on the gate doors and needed to have everything signed off. I was walking and I saw someone in an employee's uniform, I'm not sure which department, but he had a navy-blue airline backpack with him. I was far enough behind him that I saw him turn the corner with the bag on his back and by the time I saw him again, He didn't have the bag with him. I saw it up against a wall in the seating area for the British Airways terminal about five minutes before everything went crazy," he told them.
"So, that's how he got the pressure cooker out there without anyone seeing him," Amelia stated as she looked at George. "Aye. Airport's loaded with people with bags. No one's going to question an employee with a backpack. And if he put it down and plugged it in, he could've been charging his phone for all anyone else knew," he went on, explaining his theory.
"Did you see anything else? Anything that seemed a bit odd?" Amelia asked as she turned back to Barry. "No, not that I can think of," he responded. "What about his face did you see his face? Did you recognize him?" Amelia asked more questions. "I recognized him, yes, but I couldn't put a name to a face. I know him, but I just can't think of his bloody name," Barry responded as he appeared to be trying to think harder. Barry pointed at his face as he added, "He has a mark right here. Ya can't miss it."
"It's okay, we'll get him from the database, I just wasn't sure if you knew his name," Amelia said, reassuring him. "I'm going to go call Emily and let her know what we found," George told Amelia as he got up and exited the room.