‘Must keep you busy, Ted,’ said Dave, but I thought I detected a hint of sarcasm.
‘You can say that again,’ said Richie, ‘and they always want me to use my contacts to short-circuit the system if someone’s snuffed it in flight. You’d be surprised how many people die in transit; must be something to do with the cabin pressure. The powers-that-be want me to get in touch with the coroner’s officer and smooth the wheels.’ He sat down behind his desk. ‘I had a word around and if it’s of any interest, airport chit-chat suggests Sharon Gregory’s got a bit of a reputation for sleeping around, usually in Miami. It pays to keep your ear to the ground in this job. But like I said, I don’t know her personally.’
‘We’ve heard that much, Ted. The people we’ve spoken to so far have suggested that she might not be averse to having a fling.’
‘Anyway, to answer your question about her duties,’ said Richie, ‘first of all, I’ll have a look through my memos to check that they haven’t been changed. That’s if they bothered to tell me. These girls sometimes do a mutual swap and the duty room doesn’t always let me know.’
Having spent a few moments ploughing through the untidy pile of papers on his desk, he looked up. ‘They haven’t advised me of any change, Harry, not that that means a damned thing. As far as I know, what she told you still stands. The last I heard was that she should be flying out at fourteen thirty-three Zulu time this coming Wednesday bound for Miami. D’you want me to make a few enquiries?’
‘Yes, please, Ted. And perhaps you could get someone to check if her car is in the staff car park.’ Dave gave him the details of Sharon Gregory’s Mini Cooper.
Ted Richie made a couple of calls, one to a member of his staff and another to the duty room. Twenty minutes later he got the first reply. ‘The duty room guy said she hasn’t shown up there, Harry, which is where she has to report for duty, and her schedule remains the same: fourteen thirty-three Zulu departure on Wednesday. What’s more, no one in the duty room has seen her at any time today.’
The second reply came five minutes later.
‘My guy says that her car’s not where she usually parks it, Harry,’ said Richie, switching off his mobile and tossing it on to the desk.
‘Thanks, Ted. It looks like she’s done a runner.’
‘Anything else I can help you with, Harry?’
‘No thanks. I’ll get our port watch people to make some enquiries. Oh, there is one thing: where does Sharon Gregory usually stay in Miami?’
Richie delved into his pile of paperwork once again. ‘The crew always spends stopovers at the Shannon Hotel on Miami Beach,’ he said eventually.
‘I don’t know whether it’ll help us,’ said Dave, ‘but I suppose there’s an outside chance that she’s gone there, even off duty. D’you have a phone number for the Shannon?’
‘Sure.’ Richie scribbled the details on a memo bearing the airline’s crest and handed it to Dave. ‘If the crew room’s empty, and it should be, I could let you have a discreet look in her locker, Harry, if you think that would help?’ he suggested. ‘But for God’s sake don’t tell anyone that I let you have a gander without a warrant or I’ll have the union on my back like a ton of bricks. The next thing that’d happen would be a strike, and I could do without that sort of aggro.’
‘Thanks, Ted. A look in her locker might be useful.’
Richie picked up his personal radio, led us down a flight of stairs, along several passageways and through a door marked ‘Private’ until we reached the crew room. Fortunately it was deserted. Taking out a bunch of keys, the security chief opened a locker labelled ‘Sharon Gregory’. ‘Pays to have a skeleton key,’ he said, with a laugh. ‘Although if the shop steward found out he’d go ape.’ It seemed that he was in constant fear of the trade union .
There was little in the locker to excite our interest: some clothing, including a spare uniform, a couple of packets of tights and a pair of high-heeled shoes.
‘They wear high heels to greet the passengers,’ said Richie, offering a piece of useless information, ‘but they change into flats once they’re airborne.’
‘This might be useful, sir,’ said Dave, picking up a mobile phone. ‘I wonder why she didn’t take it with her?’ He picked up the phone and began to fiddle with it.
‘What are you up to now, Dave?’ I was always interested when Dave moved into his technical mode.
‘Copying her contact list, sir,’ said Dave, as he removed the SIM cards from his own phone and Sharon’s. Placing her card into his phone, he copied her contact list, and then returned Sharon’s card to her phone. ‘And she’ll never know we did it,’ he said, as he replaced his own SIM card and put Sharon’s phone back in her locker.