“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.”
Hutched hated this too, but not as much.
“So we might have an idea of what’s going on,” Hutch said, “but we still have no cause to get warrants to get more information or go in and have a look around.”
“We don’t,” Cade agreed.“And it sucks, but we also might have another problem.”
“I don’t wanna be, but I’m all ears, Cade,” Hutch told him.
Cade took control of the mouse and found a picture of Sammy walking with her hair down.
He left that on screen a few beats before he clicked through to Enstrom and Taylor making out, one of them where Enstrom had his hand on her ass.
Cade let go of the mouse and turned to Hutch.
“Those held down too long find ways to rise up,” he said.“Those deprived find ways to get what they need.You’re not gonna live long in a castle with no defenses, downing roast pork and guzzling wine while your serfs starve in squalor all around you.In a community, you have common, often indelible goals and understandings.In a community, you might have mild levels of inequality, but you don’t have disparity.In a community, you pull your weight.What you don’t do in a community, one like that, is flaunt anything.”
With that, it clicked.
“The note to Mabel.”
Cade nodded.“The note to Mabel and the message to Lug are key to many of my theories.The men have freedom and transport.They go in and out.It stands to reason, for resources, protection, a change of scenery, they’ll walk their perimeter.It could just be a fluke one of them saw you leave that morning, Hutch.And I’d guess it was.They weren’t watching her.Those men don’t give a shit about the outside world and its heathen ways.Unless it’s in their face.”
“So, if they’re not watching her, how did they know I wasn’t her husband?”Hutch asked.
