Page 100 of All Along The Watchtower

With the notion of fingerprints fresh in my own mind, I grabbed a pair of the latex gloves I kept in the kitchen for cutting jalapenos. Then I carefully extracted the drive and plugged it in. There was a single folder with only two video files inside.

“You go to your room for a few minutes while we screen whatever is on here. If it’s okay for you to see, we’ll call you back.”

With an epic teenage huff, she turned on heel. “Fine.”

We waited until we heard her bedroom door shut. Bree went to check to make sure she was there just in case.

Then she returned to stand beside me. “What do you think this is?”

“I have no fucking clue.”

I clicked on the first video file. The footage was grainy, obviously captured on an old cell phone. My breath caught as I recognized a much younger Miles Busby wearing a faded t-shirt with the logo of his family’s old marina.

“Have you considered my offer?” The question came from a male voice off-screen.

Miles shifted his weight. “I can’t do it.”

“Come on now. We both know your family is struggling. This would provide a much needed influx of cash.”

Miles glanced around nervously, as if checking for witnesses. “It’s dirty money, and I’m not gonna use my family’s business to launder it for you.”

A fist shot into frame, catching Miles in the gut. He doubled over with a grunt. The attacker’s tone remained casual, almost conversational. “I don’t think you understand the situation here. I was being nice, giving you the illusion of a choice. But either you say yes and take the deal, or someone you care about is going to pay the price.”

Miles straightened, wiping blood from his split lip. He spat on the ground. “Fuck you.”

“You’re going to regret that, Busby.”

“Oh, my God.” Bree’s fingers dug into my shoulder. “This has to be about Gwen.”

My stomach churned as I processed the implications. This video had to be from right before Gwen disappeared. Someone had been blackmailing Miles, threatening his family. And now, over a decade later, people were willing to kill to keep this evidence buried.

Without a word, I clicked over to the second video file. The footage was even grainier than the first, but there was nomistaking the terrified face of fifteen-year-old Gwen Busby. Her dark hair hung in tangles around her face, duct tape covered her mouth, and her wrists were bound behind her. She huddled in what looked like the hold of a boat, metal walls visible behind her.

Bree’s fingers dug deeper into my shoulder as a voice spoke from off-screen. “You were warned, Busby. We own you now.”

The camera panned across Gwen’s trembling form before cutting to black.

My heart thundered against my ribs. That video had to have been taken right after Gwen disappeared. She hadn’t run away or been killed on the beach like everyone assumed. She’d been kidnapped to force her brother’s compliance.

“Jesus Christ.” I scrubbed a hand down my face. “This was why Galef was killed. Peyton was right. Whoever did all those break-ins was looking for this. It proves there’s been some kind of human trafficking going on, probably all this time.”

“Ford...” Bree’s voice shook. “What it proves is that Miles was somehow involved. Coerced certainly, but involved. No one else is specifically implicated.”

I stared at her. “What are you saying?”

“What if Galef was blackmailing Miles? What if Miles saw getting rid of him as a way of finally getting out from under this?”

If that was true, then there was still a very desperate man out there who’d already killed once to try to get his hands on this information.

“We have to get this to Chief Carson immediately.” I started to reach for the laptop but froze as I heard the sound of a gun cocking behind me.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

CHAPTER 45

BREE

I was dreaming. I had to be. Because Miles Busby, the mayor of Sutter’s Ferry, was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, a gun aimed at Ford’s back. But the smell of burning toast from the oven told a different story. I was very much awake, and we were all still in danger.

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