Jackson looked up and said, “He ate something that didn’t agree with him.” Then Jackson looked at Allmand. “What do we do with him? The doctor is going to ask too many questions.”

Allmand motioned for Jackson to pick up the makeshift stretcher. They carried the man into the back room, by the sound of it. I was pretty sure the room was empty, but the monitor covering that room was at an angle where I couldn’t see. My head snapped up when I heard a single, muffled gunshot.

The other prisoners heard it, too, and started to shout and bang against the cages.

After a while, Allmand and Jackson dragged a heavy garbage bag out to the carport. I knew what was inside the bag. Before the outer door closed, I also heard Jackson say, “What are we going to tell our Pakistani friends?”

Allmand sounded agitated. “We tell them he must’ve gotten intercepted after he made the delivery. This whole place is the Wild West. We can’t be responsible for everyone.”

That was the best intelligence I’d received since I’d been locked up. The man they had just murdered was working with them. That’s why he didn’t get treated like a normal prisoner. Now I had to figure out what it meant.

Chapter 42

Chapter 42

I had not made much progress on escaping, even though I spent half the night checking to see how soundly Jackson, Allmand, and their assistant slept. I couldn’t figure out how they slept with all the security monitors and various lights flickering. I could look into most of the rooms via the monitors and I now knew there were sixteen prisoners in the house counting me, assuming the room where they murdered Parwez was empty.

I dozed off and woke up the next morning to the sound of someone pounding on the front door. It was fun watching my captors race around trying to get a clear view on the security monitor of who was at the door.

I could tell it was a woman. She was small and her burqa covered her face. She knocked again and called out something. I couldn’t hear what she said.

Jackson said, “It’s Jamal Hasadi’s mother. The one that hired a lawyer.”

Allmand said, “How the hell did she figure out we were here?”

“The family has some money. Enough to hire an attorney. Plus, they know the guy we let go after his family paid the ransom. Maybe he told them.”

I was starting to see how these guys made so much money. It’s not hard when you have no ethics whatsoever.

My captors had a discussion about if they should confront the woman. But Allmand read the situation and was clear on his intentions. “We sit here and keep quiet. We don’t add any ammunition to her arguments. We’ll be out of here in a few days anyway.”