“I was just joking,” Danny said.
Alison glared at him. “Now might not be the right time.”
The lieutenant put his hand on Wes’s back. “Sir, if you’ll please step into the helicopter.”
“Are you taking me somewhere?”
“No, sir. Just more privacy inside.”
“They just want to know what you saw,” Dione said. “They’ve talked to the rest of us already. The guy inside said once they finish with you, we can get out of here.”
The lieutenant stopped at the open door of the helicopter and motioned for Wes to pass through.
Inside, another man sat on the bench seat that ran along the back of the passenger space, glancing at the top page of a notepad. He, too, was dressed in khakis, but he was older than the lieutenant, probably in his mid- forties. On the collar of his uniform were the silver leaves denoting a commander.
The commander set the pad down as he rose from the bench, his back hunched slightly to compensate for the limited space. “Hello, Mr. Stewart. My name is Thomas Forman.”
Wes shook his hand. “Good to meet you, sir.”
“Have a seat.” Forman settled back on the bench, motioning to a spot near him. As Wes sat, the commander glanced toward the door. “That’ll be all for the moment, Lieutenant.”
Lieutenant Miller saluted, then closed the helicopter door, leaving the two of them alone.
Forman gave Wes a smile. “First of all, I want to thank you for reacting as quickly as you did. Your colleagues told me you didn’t hesitate to rush to the scene. Not many people would do that.”
Wes shook his head dismissively. “I don’t know about that, Commander. It didn’t end up helping, anyway.”
“I think you’re undervaluing your efforts, Mr. Stewart.” Forman picked up his notepad. “As much as I wish it wasn’t, my job is to investigate this accident, and try to find out what happened. Part of that means interviewing witnesses such as yourself and your colleagues.”
“I’ll help however I can,” Wes said.
“Thank you, I’m sure you will.” Forman smiled briefly, then turned serious. “As you can imagine, what you witnessed here is an event we consider very sensitive. It’s always a matter of national security when one of our planes goes down, but today we’ve also lost a member of our family.”
“Of course,” Wes said. “I understand completely.”
“Thank you. I promise I won’t take up much of your time. Just a couple of questions and you can go.” The commander glanced down at his pad. “Mr. Stewart, why don’t you start by describing what you saw?”
“You can call me Wes, sir.”
“All right.” Forman paused, his eyes seeming to assess Wes anew. “You’re a Navy brat, aren’t you?”
Wes looked surprised. “Yes, sir. How’d you know?”
“You called me Commander. Then the ‘sir,’ ” Forman said. “One of your colleagues, Miss Li, I believe, mentioned you’re actually from around here.”
“That’s right,” Wes said. “I grew up on the base, then moved to Ridgecrest during high school.”
“Hell of a homecoming,” Forman said.
“You can say that again.”
“Were your parents in the Navy?”
“My dad made lieutenant commander.” Wes hesitated. “Retired when I was fourteen and took a job with one of the defense contractors in town.”
“Was he a pilot?”
Wes shook his head. “No. He did something out at the airfield, I think, but he never really talked about it.”
“He still in town?”
“He’s dead,” Wes said matter-of-factly.
“I’m sorry,” Forman said.
“Thanks. It … happened a long time ago.”
Forman gave him a sympathetic nod, then said, “The crash. Tell me about it.”
With a deep breath, Wes did just that, telling the commander about the noise, Danny’s initial reaction, running down the hill to see what was happening, then the realization that the plane was heading right for them.
“You’re sure about that?”
“I’m not an expert,” Wes said, “but I think he must have seen us.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, it seemed like at first he was going to hit us, then I’m pretty sure the engine flared, and he pushed past us and angled out here. At least that’s what it looked like to me.”
The commander took this in for a moment. “And then what happened?”
“I knew he was going down, so I ran for the car. But he hit before I got there. He skidded across the ground, then I took off to see if there was anything I could do to save him.”
“I applaud your courage, Wes,” Commander Forman said. “Your father would be proud of you. But you should know the chances of surviving a crash like that are basically zero. There was little you could have done. The pilot most likely died the moment he hit the ground.”
“Actually, that’s not true, sir,” Wes said.
“I’m sorry?”
“The pilot wasn’t dead. When I reached the cockpit, he was still alive. But his harness was stuck, so I went to get a knife. Before I could get back to him, the cockpit caught fire.”
The commander stared at him for a moment. “Was he conscious?”
Wes shook his head. “Not when I first got there. But he had a pulse, so I did what I could to bring him around, and he eventually came to.”
“Did he say anything?”
Wes struggled to remember. “Told me his harness was jammed. Then he was muttered some other things, but nothing clear.”
“He was alive,” the commander said. Not really a question.
“Yes,” Wes said. “I think Danny even recorded it.”
“Recorded what?” The commander checked his notebook. “Danny DeLeon?”
“Yeah. He’s our second cameraman. He shot everything.”
The commander leaned back, his head nearly touching the wall of the helicopter as he stared past Wes. Then he suddenly sat forward again.
“It would be a huge benefit to me and my team if we could see what was shot.”
“Of course,” Wes said. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
The commander stood up. “Maybe we should take care of that now.”
“Sure. No problem.”
Forman opened the door, then let Wes exit first. Once they were both outside, the commander motioned to Lieutenant Miller. “Come with us.”
Wes and the two officers headed toward the far corner of the awning, where Danny was standing with Dione and Alison.
“Mr. DeLeon?” the commander asked.
“Yes?”
“Your colleague tells me you have footage of the plane from right after the crash.”
“Um, yeah,” Danny said. “I’ve … uh … also got some from while it was still in the air, too.”
“We’d really like to see that,” Forman said. “It could help the investigation.”
“I can show it to you if you want,” Danny offered.
“I was hoping we could take it with us,” Forman said. “I’d like some of our experts to take a look at it and see if it might help determine what went wrong.”
Danny looked uncertain. “We don’t have any way to make you a copy right now. We could do it on one of the laptops back at the hotel.”
“Copying’s not a problem. If you’ll just give
