The discussion stopped when Payne and Jones walked into me lounge and closed the door.
“Shari,” Payne said as he took a seat next to the couch, “I have some photos that I’d like you to look at. Please tell me if you recognize anyone.”
He handed her a folder filled with pictures from Al-Jahani’s webcam. Harrington’s staff had decrypted the files and altered the brightness so the photographs were much clearer.
The instant she glanced at the first image, her face went pale. It was a reaction she couldn’t fake, a combination of fear and hatred.
“Oh my God! That’s the guard. The one who attacked me!”
She flipped to the next photo and nodded. And the one after that. She recognized them all.
“These are the guards. The ones from the tunnel.”
Payne smiled. “We had a hunch they were.”
“Wait. Does this mean you caught them?”
“Not yet, but we’re working on it. We’re running down some leads.”
“Then where did you get these photos?”
“Actually, we got them from you. They were inside your package.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, confused. “I had pictures of the guards?”
Payne told her the simplified version of the SD card, not wanting to overwhelm her with all the details. When he was done, he shifted her focus back to the photographs.
He said, “I know you’ve been through a lot, and I know the last thing you want to do is stare at the guys who attacked you. But if you could, I’d like you to take a closer look at them. Maybe their faces will jog your memory. Something from the tunnel or something they said. At this point, any information would be helpful. Sometimes the smallest things mean the most.”
“Sure,” Shari said. “Whatever you need.”
She took out the first picture and studied the face of the main guard. She stared at his eyes and mouth, trying to remember anything she could about the man who knocked her unconscious. “He talked on his phone a lot. The first day he arrived he made, like, twenty calls.”
“Did you hear anything?” Jones asked.
“To be honest, the guy spooked me from the very beginning, so I stayed away from him as much as I could. I spent half the day avoiding him.”
“This was when? On Saturday?”
She nodded. “Omar called them to remove the body.”
“What were they driving?” Kia wondered.
Payne looked at her and smiled. It was a good question.
Shari tried to remember. “It was a red van. Kind of new-looking. They backed it all the way to the tunnel entrance so they wouldn’t have to carry the body very far.”
“That’s good. Real good. Try the next picture.”
Shari handed the first photo to Kia, who looked at it closer while Shari took the next one out of the stack. “This guy searched the body. He frisked him for his wallet and keys.”
“Did he find anything?” Jones asked.
“Keys. He found his keys. After that, he ran off to move the guy’s car.”
Shari handed the photo to Kia, then moved on to the next one.
“This guy,” she said as she stared at his face, “helped move the body. He pulled out a big carpet from the back—”
“Jon,” Kia said, interrupting Shari, “where were these pictures taken?”
“What?” he asked.
“These photos. Where were they taken? Were they taken in Jeddah?”
Payne glanced at Jones, perplexed. Al-Jahani had mentioned the city during his video testimony, but neither of them had brought it up during this conversation. “Why do you ask?”
“Because of this photo,” Kia said. She pointed over the shoulder of the second guard and tapped the background. “All these crates. They say Jeddah.”
Payne leaned forward, hoping to see, but all he saw was a bunch of lines and squiggles.
“You won’t be able to read it,” Kia stressed. “It’s written in Arabic. But I’m telling you it says Jeddah.”
Shari took the photo from Kia and held it up to the light. She stared at it for several seconds before her lips curled into a huge grin. “Actually, it says a lot more than Jeddah. It’s stamped with the name of a business.”
“Which business?” Payne demanded.
Her grin grew wider. “One I know quite well. It’s owned by Omar Abdul-Khaliq.”
54
Jeddah Seaport, Saudi Arabia
With a population of more than three million people, Jeddah is the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia. According to legend, it was named after the Arabic word jaddah, which means grandmother, because the mythical tomb of Eve, the matriarch of all civilization, was there until 1928, when the Saudi government, fearing the perversion of Islam, had it destroyed.