I think his panic mode set in either sometime in the afternoon on the 9th or most definitely after his visit with LE on the morning of the 10th. It was the visit from LE that prompted DM to fire AJ IMO.
I'm thinking 'panic mode' must have set in at some point, for some reason, on the 9th, since that is when TB's truck was transported OUT of the hangar, plans for repainting were cancelled, he started texting 'Dubien' at 10:23am that morning.
I believe that on May 8th a meeting was held at the hangar including DM, the Hussey fellow who testified this past Thursday, at which time he also gave a 'tour' to whomever else was at the meeting... I have to look back to see if it was stated who was at that meeting that day, because there was another meeting on the 10th as well. Hussey said he hadn't known at the time, about TB's case. Did anyone else in the meeting know? I know at one of the meetings there was the accountant (I don't think by accountant, that it meant 'LW'), the fellow who owned (was it Bearskin Airlines?), I believe SS, and perhaps some others, but can't remember offhand which meeting it was stated that those people were at.
Is it possible that on the 8th, after returning to work after the day off due to 'hangar politics', AJ sees the truck.. it bothers him all day (apparently), he stays away from it.. but that evening he discussed it with his wife (IIRC). Is it possible that his wife then contacted their daughter, and their daughter asked SS about it.. and then we see SS texting DM at 7:35pm the evening of the 8th.... was this to give DM a heads up that AJ was already potentially onto the situation?
Then if that were the case, it is possible that DM could secretly have been keeping his eye on AJ on the 9th, got the vibe from him, etc. Or even just listened to the news.. I'm not sure at which point the news started saying how someone recognized his wrist tattoo? He surely would have by then known that his time was up? So then... all of these things happened the evening of the 9th, the moving of the truck to his mother's, the moving of the toolbox to his friend's, the moving of the incinerator to the trees, and potentially also the retrieval of the 'incinerator purchase' file.
Then by the time LE arrived at the hangar on the 10th... DM said 'I thought you would', when they said they wanted to have a look around.. and 'the suits are here'... (who did he say that to though??) At one point, I thought he could have said it to SS, which would have made sense, since SS probably knew full well what had happened.. I think I recall reading both ways, that SS HAD accompanied AJ to Home Depot, and also that he had NOT accompanied him.
So from all of that, I am feeling like SS must have alerted DM on the evening of the 8th that AJ was onto him.. and the next day tasks started to be undertaken, and plans started to be made, etc. for the coverup part, which up until that time, it seems like he actually thought he was going to get away with everything, including having the truck painted... even with all of those people having seen it in the hangar.
All MOO