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“He said your name?” Joe launched from the bed and stuffed his feet back into his shoes. He had to see this video for himself.
“He asked me for help.” She sobbed. “It was terrible. I’m sick to my stomach.”
“I’m coming right over.”
“Y-you are? I can forward the video to you.”
“I want to see the original email.” Did that sound like a good enough excuse? He didn’t need an excuse. “You shouldn’t be alone right now, Hailey, not after everything that happened tonight.”
“If it’s not any trouble, I’d appreciate your input.”
“Did you set the alarm system on the house?”
“I did.”
“Okay. I’m going to download that car app right now and grab a ride over. Fifteen minutes? Don’t open the door to anyone else.”
“Do you think I’m crazy? I wouldn’t open my door to the police chief himself right now.”
“Stay in that frame of mind.”
Twenty minutes later, Joe bolted from the car and ran up the steps to Hailey’s house. He’d texted her from the car, and she must’ve been watching from the upstairs window. Seconds after he rang the bell, the door swung open.
Hailey grabbed his arm and practically yanked him across the threshold. “Thank you so much. I’m jumping at every little squeak in the house.”
He shut the door behind him. “Arm the system.”
She reached past him to punch in the code, and he inhaled the fresh scent that matched her fresh face. Devoid of makeup, her hair pulled back, Hailey looked like a college girl—a scared college girl.
“Show me this email and video.”
“My laptop’s upstairs. I was just going to do a little work on a fund-raiser that my foundation is sponsoring when I tripped across the email.” She hugged herself and hunched her shoulders. “I don’t know how I’m going to go to sleep with the image of Andrew’s poor face in my mind.”
She said all of this while climbing the stairs with her head twisted over her shoulder. In her agitation, she tripped a few times, and he put out his hand to steady her so she wouldn’t take him with her as she tumbled down the stairs.
He followed her into her bedroom, his gaze riveted by the sway of her hips beneath a very nonsexy pair of flannel pajamas with pink clouds on them.
She turned at the door and pointed to the laptop on the bed as if gesturing toward a rattlesnake ready to strike.
The computer sat at an angle, probably where it landed after she’d pushed it from her lap.
He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled the laptop toward him. “Is the video up?”
“It should be. I didn’t close it out or turn it off.” She crept up and hovered over his shoulder, one bare foot on top of the other.
Joe tapped the keyboard, and the still of a dark hallway appeared on the monitor. He clicked the arrow in the lower-left corner and watched the sickening display with a dry mouth.
Hailey had backed up and turned away before the video ended and stood across the room twisting her fingers in front of her. “What do you think?”
“These are some seriously sick people.” He didn’t tell Hailey he’d seen a lot worse. Of course, she’d been at that refugee center when it had been bombed. She’d seen a lot worse, too.
“Can we report this to someone?”
“The police aren’t going to know what to do with it, but you can call the FBI. Do you still have the contact info of the agents who interviewed you when you got back?”
“I have their cards. I’ll call them tomorrow. Do you think they can do anything?”
“They can at least touch base with their British counterparts if Andrew is in England and this occurred there. They may be able to do some computer forensics and find out where this came from.”
“And why?” She crossed her arms over her midsection. “I have to know why this is happening. Why Marten? Why Andrew? Why me?”
“You all have one thing in common.”
“We were all kidnapped by the terrorist group that bombed the refugee camp and destroyed the peace talks.”
“And in one way or another, you all called out Major Denver as being one of them.” Joe closed the video and shut the lid of the laptop, as if that could keep the horror away from Hailey. “What about the other two? Have you had any contact with Naraj and Ayala since the incident?”
