we thought how are we going to move this forward. how are we going to gather evidence. because ultimately that s our goal. gathering the evidence and maybe one day bringing him to justice. money, fame, to amanda, it was just the kind of bait that could trap her kidnapper. it totally fits in line with what i knew of this man. he struck me as the kind of guy whose ego was so big. of course if somebody told him he s capable of writing a book, he would think that. the hail mary play was in motion. but investigators knew they needed more than phone calls and emails. their next move, get adam to meet in person. coming up. we need to see him. we need to see him to identify him fully. a meeting in a perfect island paradise. undercover agent and kidnapper dangerously face to face. can you believe he s saying all of this? it was amazing.
one objective. definitely we had one objective. the objective was to see him, confirm that adam was indeed the man who had terrorized amanda and lorinda. next, they wanted him to admit his involvement in the kidnapping. that s where the phony book deal came in. we knew that he was interested in writing a book. we brought props and one of them was a book cover that we had designed. and i was going to sign a contract with him that laid out his and my relationship vis-a-vis the publisher. the contract had a trap buried in it. adam would have to disclose any wrongdoing in his past. we had a special paragraph in it that we had inserted, a disclosure paragraph to encourage him to tell us his story. he signed and incredibly he told his story including details of his involvement in the kidnapping. can you believe he s saying all of this? in my head i was dancing. it was amazing. you couldn t ask for better evidence.
about this. and he says, yeah, i ve sent you the letters, i don t need any money for them. our relationship evolved to the point where he trust me enough now. and then adam shared a new idea. he told a.k. he was a scholar and wanted to write a book, a history of somalia. as implausible as that sounds to investigators, it was an unexpected gift, a way to get adam on the hook. you re telling a kidnapper yes. who you believe was involved in this really major kidnapping and a lot of crimes that you re going to help him publish a book? yes. it sounds like something out of a movie. it does. we almost refer to this operation as the hail mary play. we didn t think it would work. and as it was continuing we surprised ourselves. you didn t actually think, yeah, i really want to write a book? no. and i want to pursue this with you? no. he convinced himself that he wanted to write this book and that he was able to write this book. that s our in.