Page 78 of Last Chance

“We already know Vatos Locos were the hijackers.”

“Appears that way.”

“But you’re not convinced?”

“Nope. Makes little sense for them to pull off the hijacking without a hitch and leave with hostages yet still not claim credit for it. Why didn’t they send ransom demands? They could have made a bundle of money on each hostage. Instead, they killed all the hostages except you.”

“Texas Team arrived before they could make ransom demands.”

“Maybe.” He still didn’t buy it, though. “Why not send ransom demands, wait until the money was paid, then kill the hostages?”

“Perhaps they never planned to demand ransom. It’s risky. Wouldn’t it make more sense to sell the hostages into sex slavery?”

Sawyer stiffened. “Did they threaten to sell you?”

“Not directly.” Her face flushed. “The few hours I stayed in that cell made it obvious the women across the hall were being trafficked to local men and gang members. Scar Face visited the women from the plane when he accidentally killed one of my fellow passengers. Then you and your team arrived, and the gang killed hostages as fast as possible.” She shuddered in his arms. “I thought I was going to die, Sawyer. My cell was the last one.”

“Shh. You’re safe now,” he murmured. “I won’t let anyone hurt you again, sweetheart.”

“I wish you had arrived ten minutes sooner,” she whispered. “Maybe the other men and women would still be alive.”

He circled back to something she’d said a minute earlier. “The hijackers killed the trafficked women first?”

She nodded. “I don’t know why.”

They were likely in rough shape and would have been eliminated soon, anyway. None of the trafficking victims last long in the trade. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, Janie. But I’m so grateful Scar Face and his buddies hadn’t visited you.”

“So am I.”

His phone signaled an incoming text. Sawyer glanced at the screen, satisfaction filling him. “Zane sent the security footage from the inn for us to watch. He says he doesn’t have time to dig through it himself.”

“I didn’t think about security footage. That’s great, Sawyer. Perhaps we’ll see who hurt David.”

“Let’s find out.” He didn’t have a problem showing her hours of recordings. Janie wouldn’t see anything except people coming and going from the inn. No chance of seeing her brother with the two people who worked him over. The boring video feed would also keep her mind occupied and give her something to do to help her brother.

He logged into his email and pulled up the message from Z. His friend had sent the footage in one- hour increments.

Sawyer glanced at Janie. “This will probably be as boring as watching grass grow.”

She laughed. “Bring it on. At least I’ll be helping. If we find anything, will we send it to the police?”

“Anything to help the boys in blue.”

“Ha. Somehow, I don’t believe that statement was sincere.”

He chuckled. “Caught me.”

Sawyer tapped the screen and started the footage from the first hour Zane had sent. Since it was likely the footage wouldn’t show anything, he sped it up.

Fifteen minutes in, Janie glanced at him. “You’re right. This is boring.”

“Told you. A lot of police work is like this. You trace leads that often go nowhere. You kick over rocks to see what crawls out. Boring police work leads to clues, which leads to the solution to your puzzle.”

“And you enjoyed it, didn’t you?”

“I did. I didn’t enjoy the red tape and rules I had to follow. All the work we did could be for nothing if he or she pleaded down to a lesser charge or turned state’s evidence against a bigger fish. When the law worked for you, it felt great. When it didn’t, we felt as though we had wasted many hours of work.”

When the hour of security footage ended, he queued up the next hour.

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