“We both at airport today.”
“I’m talking about the people who came in on the small plane. With the girl who was sick.”
The man looked even more nervous now.
“Was that you?” Daeng asked.
“Ye…yes. Was me.”
“Good. I want to know where you took them.”
“I…I…”
“Is there a problem? You had to take them somewhere, didn’t you? Where was it?”
The man’s gaze shot back and forth between Daeng and Logan, then he began speaking rapidly in Thai. At the end he seemed to be repeating himself, pleading.
“What’s he saying?” Logan asked.
“He says the people he gave the ride to made him promise to say nothing about them or where they went. They said if they found out he did, they would kill him and his family.”
“Yes, yes!” the owner said. “Please. Cannot say. Please understand. Have family.”
Logan could see that Daeng was about to start in again, so he quickly said, “Let me.”
He crouched down in front of the owner of the van, lowering himself so that they were eye-to-eye. “No one wants to hurt you or your family. Okay?”
The man just stared at him, his eyes full of terror.
“The sick girl who was with the people you picked up, they kidnapped her.” Logan could instantly see the man didn’t understand. “Took her. Against her will.” There was still incomprehension in the man’s eyes.
Logan looked back at Daeng, who then said something very quickly in Thai.
The man’s eyes widened as he realized what Logan had meant.
“I need to find her. I need to bring her home to
The man nodded.
“We need to know where you took them. You have to tell us.”
The man began shaking his head violently. “No. No. My family. Cannot.”
“But the girl has a family, too.”
The man closed his eyes and continued to shake his head.
Logan stood back up. He’d thought for sure he’d been getting through to him. “There’s got to be some way to get him to tell us,” he said to Daeng.
Daeng turned so that his back was to the man. “We could rough up his wife and kid.”
“Absolutely not!” Logan said. That was one road he would never go down.
“I was actually kidding. This guy’s done nothing but get hired by the people you’re looking for. I don’t hurt the innocent.”
Logan relaxed a little. “Sorry.”
“My fault, not yours,” he said. “I may have an idea that might work, though.”
Daeng turned back, then began speaking to the man in Thai. Logan could see some of the tension that had gripped the man fade. The van owner asked a few questions. Daeng answered two of them, then looked at Logan after the third.
“I’ve offered to put them someplace where I can guarantee their safety until this is over. He’s open to that, but…”
“Yes?”
“The vans are his only means of income. If he’s not working, he’s not making any money.”
Logan nodded. Here was a problem he could solve. “I can cover the rental fees.”
“I thought you might be able to.” Daeng turned back to the man and relayed the information.
For the first time the guy smiled and began to look like he was no longer worried he was about to die. He spoke with Daeng for another minute, then got up and went into the back room.
“Come on,” Daeng said, then headed for the front door.
“He told you where they are?”
“He told me where he took them.”
“Great.”
Daeng hesitated, then said, “Maybe.”
27
Logan and Daeng spent another twenty minutes traveling through
