Travis sat back then looked over at Jace, who was leaning against the wall. “Nothing about Jenna’s kidnapping felt right to me. It seemed obvious she was targeted for a ransom demand, but why kill everyone else in the village?”
“Because that’s what extremists do. They terrorize. They act without conscience,” Josh said.
“Yes, exactly. So why was this done so methodically? So coldly. They just went through and shot everyone. They didn’t burn the village, steal anythi
ng, or rape the women. I’ve got some photos.” He stared over at Lacey then Cady. “Lacey, out.”
His cousin sighed. “You’re not my boss, Travis.”
“You don’t need to see this.”
“I’ve seen bad shit before.”
“So have I.” Cady sent Hunter a look. “Don’t even think about it.”
He pointed a finger at her. “You get upset, you’re out of here.”
Travis snorted. “Seems getting into a relationship makes pussies out of Doms ’round here.”
Hunter leaned forward. “Funny how you can’t seem to find a woman to stick around more than five seconds.”
Travis just shook his head.
“Can we get on with it?” Gray asked.
Travis brought up the photos.
Curt had seen some of them before, others were new. “How come I haven’t seen some of these?”
Travis’s jaw tightened. “The local police held some back. Had to get a friend to grease some palms.”
“You have a friend?” Hunter asked. “That’s a surprise.”
“See that?” Travis ignored Hunter as he zoomed in on the hand of one of the doctors. A female. Jenna’s friend who’d been executed beside her.
His temper stirred as he thought of everything these bastards had put her through. Jenna should never have been there. She should have been safely at home, working, hanging out with friends, her biggest problem being what to wear out on Saturday night.
“Is that a gold bracelet?” he asked. “Weren’t they all told to leave jewelry at home?”
“According to her husband, this was an anniversary gift he gave her before she left. She meant to take it off and forgot. But wouldn’t extremists that were after cash loot the bodies?”
“But they thought they were getting millions from Jenna’s father,” Lacey pointed out. “They probably didn’t care about the small things.”
Travis nodded. “It’s a possibility. But that money could have taken a while to organize. Things like jewelry and the technology some of the doctors had could’ve been sold for fast cash. There were laptops, iPads, cash. None of it was touched.”
Curt frowned. He hadn’t really thought about any of that. His only thought had been to get to Jenna.
“For a band of extremists, they were well-organized and well-trained. They shot to kill. They didn’t stray from getting their target, Jenna. And they were in and out quickly. We were damn lucky we got that intel about where she was being held. If those villagers hadn’t heard the shots on their way back from a neighboring village and hidden there would be no witnesses.”
“So why are you bringing this all up now?” he asked.
“And why didn’t you tell us you were still looking into it?” Hunter added.
“I wasn’t. Not really. I sent out a few inquiries. That feeling in my gut just wouldn’t die. But I didn’t think anything would come of it. Until a friend who works for the feds contacted me to ask what I knew about David Jasons. I told him what I knew. He said they had suspicions that Jasons wasn’t on the up and up, although he didn’t tell me what they suspected him of until today. Still, it was enough for me to send a contact I have in Sudan to talk to the local police to see if they knew anything we didn’t. He came back with these photos.”
“I always wondered how they knew about Jenna,” Josh mused. “I mean, how did they know who she was? Who her father was? Someone had to have given them that info.”
Curt remembered the guy Jenna recalled who’d spoken such clear English. The leader maybe? She’d thought he’d sounded British. Could he have been?