Jill Salomon is an old friend of Claire from Rice days. She had an apartment only two blocks from the World Trade Center. Claire said that from the roof of the building you felt as if you could touch the twin towers. On 9/11, Jill heard a loud noise as she was preparing to leave for work, but didn't think too much of it. A few minutes later, as she walked out of the building, she saw the second plane hit the second tower. Jill says that she ran as fast as she could, not really thinking about where she was going. She wound up at an ex-boyfriend's place in the Village, where she camped out for several days. She wasn't able to go back to her apartment for weeks, and still has no idea of what happened to the car her company had provided for her use.

It seems clear now, particularly with the evidence from the "smoking gun" video, that the attacks were planned with a short interval between them. That ensured that every TV camera in NYC would be trained at the burning tower in time to catch the second one slicing through the other tower like a sharp knife.

We had gone to Windows on the World during our Thanksgiving trip to New York in 2000, less than a year before the attack. It was a wonderful experience looking out at the city spread out, with the Statue of Liberty standing watch in the harbor.