In the fall of 2011, Jack returned to Salem with the real story of where he was for a year. He had been working on a case involving drug trafficking in Europe. He traced the source of the drugs to Afghanistan, lied to Jennifer, Abigail, and JJ Deveraux about where he was going, and snuck into the country. He was soon captured, held prisoner, and tortured. His contact made up the story about the "walk about" and kept up that image so that Jack's family would not know about the news story. When Jack was finally released, he returned to Salem to tell everyone the truth. However, Jennifer had already divorced Jack and moved on with Daniel, and Abigail was furious with Jack for lying to the family. Neither was ready to trust Jack again.