The Rage Colony (The Colony Book 2) by Shanon Hunt

Author:Shanon Hunt [Hunt, Shanon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Narrow Ledge Publishing
Published: 2020-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

***

Amadi Aroyo had been James’s hire to head up the security team. Nigerian-born but raised in Guatemala, Aroyo was well over six and a half feet tall with an imposing appearance and an unshakable expression of stone. Yet he didn’t rule with an iron fist. He was thoughtful and judicious, which James thought was a good fit for the Colony.

Stewart took a seat at the conference table but James remained standing, his hands clasped behind his back. It allowed him to put some distance between himself and Stewart.

“As you requested, I asked my team to check up on Sister Layla on Thursday evening,” Aroyo said. “Mr. Ortiz volunteered to stop by your shared cabin after his shift ended and ensure the cabin was secure. He radioed back affirming that was the case. Since his next shift wasn’t until Sunday morning, he wasn’t identified as missing until he didn’t show up for his shift. I sent a team to his room and asked them to check the campus boundary walls for signs of a breach. Only then, late yesterday, were his remains discovered at the bottom of the ravine.”

“So you didn’t ask Layla about the guard?” Stewart asked, his brow furrowed. “Why wouldn’t you have started there?”

Aroyo glanced nervously at James, who nodded. “Brother James preferred we didn’t upset Sister Layla during her difficult pregnancy.”

James shrugged. “As I told you, I had no reason to suspect Layla had anything to do with the missing guard. I wasn’t about to saddle her with such a shocking accusation.”

Aroyo continued. “The mistake I made was allowing Sister Layla to access our backup files in the surveillance control room. She’d woven a story about a potential harassment issue and said she wanted to verify the claims. Given her relationship with you, sir, I allowed her to look at the tapes. Of course, that occurred Saturday evening, before we realized Mr. Ortiz was missing. I had no reason to be suspicious.”

The deletion of the tapes had been an unexpected and regrettable setback. Video footage of Layla leaving the cabin with Eric Ortiz would have been proof of a rational state of mind. James had considered secretly restoring the deleted files with his own copies, but that would’ve left a digital trail leading right back to him.

“You didn’t accompany her inside the surveillance control room?” Stewart’s tone was accusatory, and James wished he’d stay quiet. If Aroyo felt under fire, he might hold back important information that Stewart needed to hear.

But Aroyo didn’t seem bothered by the tone. “No, sir. She was in the room with one of my staff for about twenty minutes and left without filing a harassment claim.”

James leaned against the edge of Aroyo’s desk.

“In the absence of the security footage, we questioned the residents of the neighboring units,” Aroyo said. “A young woman spotted two people leaving your cabin and walking down the path toward the ravine. It was dark, and she wasn’t able to identify Sister Layla, but she described a woman with long hair walking with a wide gait, as pregnant women often do.

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