Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“And what they have going on there?” Hutch asked.
Cade looked to Harry again. “Can you pull up the diagram of the compound, Harry?”
A few clicks of the mouse, and a well-drawn map of the basics of the compound came on screen.
Jesus.
Irrefutable proof that Harry and Rus had not been sitting on their hands.
Cade leaned in and said, “What’s gonna interest you is gonna be here,”—he tapped a finger on the fortified shed at the southeast property—“or here.” Another tap on the pole barn. Cade sat back. “As you know, Flannery’s money, nor those people’s jam, built that outfit. I’d surmise that the deputies Harry sent out will definitely find some landowners have discovered there’s been illegal logging on their land. But it’ll amount to what built the totality of that fence, and the firewood that warms their homes. That isn’t their game. It’s a rush, but not a big enough one. Their game is either warehousing drugs coming up from Mexico meant for Canada, and/or the same coming through Canada meant for the US. Or it could be guns. It won’t be human trafficking because that’s harder to hide and a whole lot messier. But whatever it is, it’ll be lucrative and illegal.”
“So what the fuck is he doing with those other women?” Hutch asked.
“Again, a theory, but I don’t think you’ll find any of them have been reported missing. Enstrom and Buress started a pattern. Those women were either girlfriends, fiancées or wives of the other men. Another facet of control, playing puppet master. He controls the men in a way he teaches them, grooms them, and they in turn control their women. Those women either got talked into it, or conned into it, but in the end, had no real idea what they were getting into. The needles and dirt on those stumps?”
Hutch nodded.
“And Enstrom going to Lug to follow up,” Cade carried on. “The pie and bread selling. Everything is built around covering their tracks. Gives him space to do whatever he wants. But people look for missing women. Many of them go unfound. Most of those are dead. Live ones are harder to hide. Onward from that, those women might be coerced, or straight up forced, to write, or even call their families to check in, keep in touch, this sharing they’re okay.”
“So at the very least, they’re holding them against their will,” Hutch said.
“From the pictures you took, outside Taylor and Sammy, those women don’t want to be there. But they’re walled in. You’re a SEAL, and I’d bet, if you had no gear, you’d struggle with climbing a tarred log fence. That fence wasn’t only built to hide what’s going on inside, it’s built to keep what’s inside right where they want them.”
“The front part of that fence is open, Cade,” Hutch pointed out.
“And I’ll bet, it’s also guarded,” Cade replied.
Hutch took that in, then stated, “So they may be making a lot of money and still living relatively rough. I don’t get it.”
“Can I?” Cade asked Harry, indicating Harry’s mouse with a nod of his head.
Harry shifted it over to him.
Cade took control and started clicking through pictures Hutch had taken.
Since Hutch had taken them, he’d seen them all before. They were all of men strolling or chatting.
Cade again sat back. “You didn’t notice, and I don’t blame you. I didn’t pick up on it at first either.”
“And neither did Harry or I,” Rus added.
Back to Cade. “But although you have photos of Enstrom and Burress, they’re either alone or together. None of the other men were snapped standing around talking to those two. Have you noticed any interactions like that?”
Hutch had to think on it and said, “Can’t be sure. But if I saw it, I snapped it. So if it isn’t there, good bet it wasn’t to be had.”
“Right,” Cade replied. “So another theory, the rest of the men are true believers. Enstrom, maybe with Burress as his wingmen, fed them a line. The others are on that compound to serve God and live off the land. They might have been convinced, or brainwashed, into essentially kidnapping and imprisoning their women in their community. But this wouldn’t be hard. Men who can be that deeply led will want to believe, as to what they think is a man, they have some form of power and control. And usually, those types of men turn to women to exert their power and control. She wants to go, you’re the man. You know what’s right. She stays. She’s a woman, she doesn’t know what’s good for her. But you do.”
Hutch hated it, but he knew this was true and therefore possible.
Cade had more.
“I suspect the other men have no idea they’re warehousing or gun smuggling. They worship in that church. They go out and fell trees because that’s God’s bounty, or Enstrom told them they had permission, and they aren’t asking themselves hard questions about how they got decent houses and electricity. Or they were lied to and told it was underwritten. But you need wheat to make bread and glass jars to set jam. They’re conveniently forgetting shit costs money in the outside world, and what’s coming in more than likely isn’t covering what’s going out. And they’re forgetting that because they want to.”