Chapter 58
Chapter 58
E sther landed, ran through the snow and ice, and boarded Air Force Two. Camp, Clay, and Gunner, along with all of Ashley’s staff, stood outside where we listened to the soul-gutting wails coming from inside the plane. Miriam, Ruth, and Sadie had been rescued, and they were safe, and they were headed home where these bad men could not hurt them anymore, but there was a second rescue yet to come. And it would take some time.
An hour after takeoff, Stackhouse walked to the rear of the plane and sat alongside me. He was sipping bourbon. Which surprised me because I knew he didn’t drink. “Aaron asked me to...” He cut himself short and then just said, “He can’t.”
I waited.
“Seven-man teams alternated every five days.” Stackhouse sipped. “They were allowed to do whatever they wanted, so long as they maintained the perimeter and patrol schedule. They thought their security was pretty good. Aaron saved his girls when he turned that Beaver into a glider.” Bill stared into his bourbon. “In between the rotation of men... the girls were secured hand, foot, and head to a series of highly sophisticated ropes and pulleys. Robotic arms controlled several cameras and...” Bill swallowed.
“A sadistic puppeteer and his marionettes.”
Bill nodded and finished off his bourbon. “All while a computer-altered voice came from the surround sound. ”
“A voyeur outside the cabin not only financed the abduction but participated in it from a distance.”
Bill nodded, then stood and returned to Aaron’s office, where he closed the door. As he did, I glimpsed Aaron crumpled on the floor, arms around Esther and his girls, his shoulders shaking. Aaron was breaking. Cracking down the middle.
Studying the pieces, trying to make sense of the picture, I dialed the number. He answered on the first ring. “Yeah.”
“How’d you know?”
“Prison grapevine.”
“Gotta give me more than that.”
“Couple operators I used to work with came to see me. Fed me a line. Asked me indirectly about you. I didn’t know where or when, only that they’d be waiting.” A pause. “Are they safe?”
“They’re alive.”
His silence told me he could read between the lines. “You good?”
“I’ll live.” As my anger bubbled, my tone changed. “If I find out that you know more than you’re telling me... your prison experience will not be a peaceful one.”
“I don’t expect you to believe me, but our orders were to deliver the girls to a private airport in rural Virginia. They’d be held a few days and released. Unharmed.”
“Do you hear yourself?”
“Yes, sir. I know what it sounds like.”
“You sure? Let me break it down for you. Somebody instructed you to enter the home of the vice president of the United States, kill all the members of his security detail along with his dogs, and then abduct his three daughters using pharmaceutical-grade drugs. You then haul them out of the house, drag them across their yard, strip them, shove them in the back of a vehicle, photograph them, and then jet them out of the state. Does that strike you as unharmed?”
“No, sir.”
“You want me to believe it was a harmless snatch and grab, no harm, no foul. That right?”
“Yes, sir.”
I walked to Aaron’s office door and held the phone up, capturing the wails emanating from the other side of the closed door. I let him listen for several seconds. “Does that sound unharmed?”
His voice dropped. “No, sir.” A pause. “It does not.”
I made sure. “That sound? That’s on you. You did that.”
A long pause. “Yes, sir. I did.” I could hear the tension in his voice. “I have no excuse. They trained me well. I followed orders.”
That didn’t sit well. I could have ripped his throat out. “Steve, some orders you don’t follow.”
His response was slow and weak. “They never taught me that, sir.”
“Nope. You don’t get to play that card. You’re not a victim of your training. You’re a product of who you chose to be on this side of it.”