“There’s something I want to ask you.” She stroked his beard with gentle fingers. “It’s about Sunita, but it will keep for now.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I chewed her out for not keeping her promise, but Akbar chasing down Aziza helped us.” Ryan glanced at the men in the room and those linked by satellite. “Things could have turned out differently for her if he had a mind to harm her in that room.”
This Monday morning found them deep in a brainstorming and wrap-up session inside Khalil’s headquarters. They sat around a horseshoe conference table that faced the massive screen, which was segmented among the Kings participating via satellite.
“True.” Daron spun his hat before setting it on the table. “He was the last piece to the puzzle that none of the other guys spoke about, although he was the cornerstone of their business.”
Dro grinned, “I guess you could say there is indeed some kind of honor among thieves.”
“Not when you dig deeper under the surface.” Khalil chuckled. “Nobody mentioned him because they felt they had a leg up on you by withholding information.”
“That sounds right,” Bashir said. “They knew it was possible that you wouldn’t make the connection since his role wasn’t obvious.”
“Right.” Ryan tapped his notes. “If women were missing from the hotel willy-nilly, someone would have eventually made the connection.”
Bashir stroked his beard, frowning. “I do not understand this term willy-nilly.”
“It means random or haphazard.”
He raised one brow. “Haphazard?”
“Oh, boy,” Ryan said, “Think about it like—”
“The way Ryan wanted to forget the niceties and beat up the bartender because he knew the location of the women and chose not to tell us,” Dro explained.
“You’re wrong for that,” Ryan said, as the others, including Bashir, laughed.
When Shaz stopped grinning, he said, “My cousin has always been a hot-blooded rabble-rouser. I remember the time when—”
Ryan cut him off with a glare. “This meeting is not the forum for family jokes.”
Still grinning, Shaz held up both hands. “You win, but at some point we will adjourn this meeting. At that time … ”
Ryan gave him another quelling look. “So like I was saying, Akbar had a hand in selecting victims from among the hotel staff and guests. He was smart, too.” After a glance at the file in front of him, Ryan continued, “In the five years he’s been at the hotel, just under fifty women have gone missing. Calvin, Daron, and Nicco have been through the surveillance tapes provided by the hotel, which covered the timelines in which they disappeared. He was in contact with all of them, and every one disappeared from Encounters.”
The tapes, which Daron had cut and spooled together, played on one side of the screen. Each slide supported Ryan’s statement.
Sheikh Kamran broke his silence. “Does this mean that the police have all the parties involved in custody?”
“Most of them. Aside from submitting a report on the arrests that resulted from our efforts, the police haven’t done much of anything. Ryan shot an amused glance in Dro’s direction. “They picked up Akbar this morning, as well as the man who invaded my room.”
The police chief and his assistant had been invited to this meeting and entered the room at the Sheik’s bidding. They approached as if walking on eggshells and stopped shy of the table.
The Sheikh did not invite them to sit.
Ryan’s gaze went to the assistant commissioner. “I have my suspicious about who sent him, but anyway, the bartender and his partner in crime are under arrest. We established that the container driver and his assistant were not involved, but the owner of the plant has been held without bail.”
The police commissioner cleared his throat and shifted from one foot to the other. “Greetings. We owe you gentlemen for your help in bringing two sets of criminals to justice.”
The Sheikh held up one hand and growled, “Silence. From the beginning, the two of you were given the opportunity to carry out the roles you were entrusted with, but you failed miserably. Aside from the loss of your pension, you can be sure charges will be brought against you for negligence.”
The men quailed under his words.
Then Sheikh Kamran turned his attention to Jai. “Who are we missing in this equation?”
Ryan focused on Jai, who sipped from a glass of water, then said, “The business of organ harvesting and human trafficking is lucrative. It extends from the lowest levels of society to the highest. There’s a little girl under Aziza and Ryan’s care who inadvertently helped us crack this case.”
No one moved as they waited for him to continue.
He recounted Sunita’s history and as his words dropped, Ryan thought the term ‘deafening silence’ was apt. Not even the men attending the meeting via The Castle’s secure satellite system moved a muscle.
Jai explained the role of El Zalaam and added that despite the nationals’ protest, the place had been shuttered.
The two officers shifted on their feet, as if they thought the other men would blame them for El Zalaam’s existence, but everyone understood it was an unsavoury and long-standing part of Durabia’s culture that needed to change.
“Sunita was hysterical when she saw a certain doctor at the clinic,” Ryan said. He scanned the men’s faces, then added, “You know the rest of that story.”
Chaz and Jai exchanged an uncomfortable glance that Ryan understood. Jai still felt some kind of way about being associated in any way with that deviant, through no fault of his own.
“Although I fired Dr. Butala on the spot, we kept tabs on him, knowing that in his panic he would try to cover his ass.” Jai tipped his head toward Daron. “Not only did he like little girls, he was one of two masterminds involved in organ harvesting. His surgery was set up in the belly of that
