AUTHOR’S NOTE: I always enjoyed the tales where a rich girl gets kidnapped and held for ransom and gets rescued by a poor boy. This is my ode to that.
“Oh great, look at this!’ Jennifer Quinn exclaimed unhappily as she lifted up
the hood to her car. Thick smoke bellowed out from under it.
“So what does it look like happened?’ her friend Carol Haywood asked, peering
over her shoulder.
“I can´t quite tell, Carol; maybe the piston blew or something,’ Jennifer
said, kicking the front bumper in frustration. She glanced up at the sky.
“And only an hour before sunset too; what a day for our cell phones to be
out!’
“Well, there´s no need to get upset just yet, Jennifer; somebody´ll come by
and give us a hand,’ Carol said encouragingly.
“I sure hope so, Carol,’ Jennifer said. She´d been hoping to take a nice
quite ride through the Adirondacks for the last few weeks—anything to get away
from the hectic rush of her father´s reelection campaign as governor. So many
public appearance, stopping to wave to every camera and reporter—it was enough
to wear any nineteen-year-old down. She´d always enjoyed the mountains as a
child and wanted to return to them to gain some inner peace. Now, however, it
was looking like she´d be there longer than she´d hoped; the nearest repair
shop—the nearest TOWN, for that matter—was fifteen miles to the south, too far
to walk only an hour before sunset. And this had had to be the weekend both
she and Carol, whose friendship had been a boon to her through these long
reelection times, had their cell phone minutes being replenished.
Jennifer slumped half over the passenger door, the wind blowing her long
blond hair briskly. Hopefully Carol was right that someone would come along
to………
A car horn honked, interrupting her thoughts. “I think we´re in luck,
Jennifer!’ Carol exclaimed, waving down a blue pickup truck towing a camper.
It pulled over to where their car had broken down. “Can I help you ladies?’
asked a man with a beard sitting in the passenger seat.
“Yeah, our car broke down, and we need to get to a phone and call for a tow
truck,’ Jennifer called over to him, her spirits raised.
The bearded man whispered something over to the driver, who nodded. “Sure,
come on in,’ he said, opening the door.
“Great,’ Carol smiled and climbed in. Jennifer squeezed in next to her. She
was glad they wouldn´t have to be stuck by the side of the road after dark,
but still there was this nagging feeling at the back of her head that
something wasn´t quite right. She turned to tell this to Carol, but before
she could say a word, the bearded man held a coffee cup up in front of her.
“How about a drink; the two of you look a little thirsty,’ he said gently.
“Sure, why not?’ Jennifer shrugged. She took the cup and examined its
contents—apple cider. Satisfied, she took a big drink of it. Next to her,
Carol did the same.
“So what was wrong with your car?’ asked the driver, a tall, thin man who
looked like a backwoods hillbilly.
“Oh, uh, we´re not really sure,’ Carol admitted.
“Probably something with the pistons; we´ll just have to see what the guys at
the garage say when we get the car towed in,“ Jennifer added. She suddenly
felt rather strange; she´d slept quite well last night, but now she was
feeling an abrupt burst of drowsiness.
“Where do you want us to drop you two off?’ the driver asked.
“Nelsonville, that´s the closest to here,’ Jennifer felt her eyelids start to
droop. She turned to her friend. “Carol, are you feeling sleepy?’
“Now that you mention it Jennifer, yeah,’ Carol looked suddenly exhausted as
well. “What´s going on?’
“It´s probably the country air, honey, it gets a lot………’ Jennifer heard no
more, for at that moment she slumped forward in the seat and lost
consciousness.
Jennifer felt very groggy when she came to. Her head throbbed with some kind
of drugged feeling. “They must have slipped some kind of drug into that
cider!’ she thought to herself. Then a worse realization hit her: “They
weren´t there to help, they were there to kidnap us!’
Terrified now, she tried to scream, but no sound came out. Her mouth had
been stuffed full with some kind of cloth, and to hold it in place, tape had
been wrapped around her head at least twenty times. More tape, and lots of
it, had been used to bind her securely: at least fifteen layers around her
wrists, far too much to count had been used to completely bind her arms up
against her back, from her shoulders all the way down to her waist, about
eight layers above her knees, five layers just below them, ten layers over her
thighs, and another fifteen around her ankles. She´d been covered with a
blanket and found herself lying up against a wall—probably in the trailer
behind the pickup truck, which was moving at a fast clip. Her jacket, she
noticed, had been taken off before she´d been bound.
She was frozen with horror throughout her body. This didn´t happen in real
life; people didn´t just get kidnapped right off the streets! But yet, here
she was hopelessly tied up. Did they know she was the governor´s daughter?
What were they planning to do to her?
A loud “Mmmmmmmmph!’ next to Jennifer indicated Carol had been bound
similarly. She squirmed around as best the tape binding her would allow until
the blanket dropped off from over her. She turned to her right to look at her
friend. Carol´s normally tranquil brown eyes were bulging out of her head in
horror, and Jennifer knew she was as horrified by this ordeal as she was. She
couldn´t however, think of anything comforting to say had she not been gagged
at the moment.
She looked up at where she knew from memory there was a window in the camper.
The drapes had been closed—perhaps intentionally—but she could tell it was
already dark outside. Where they were going and how long they´d been
unconscious was a mystery to her.
The camper made a wide turn to the left. Jennifer rolled over onto her side
with a loud “Mmmmmmmm!’ The road now seemed rather bumpy. Where were they
being taken? It certainly wasn´t anywhere near civilization, that was for
sure. Although it probably wasn´t more than a few hours since she and Carol
had jumped in her car and sped off for a quick cruise through the Adirondacks,
that time now seemed years ago………
The camper slowly rolled to a stop. Jennifer struggled back up into an
upright position as she heard footsteps walking around to the camper door.
She and Carol exchanged very uneasy glances. What was going to happen now;
burial underground, rape, or even—she couldn´t bear to think of it—death?
A key turned in the lock and the door was opened. The beams of two
flashlights hit the girls, causing them to blink hard against them. “Okay,
let´s see what we got here,’ said the bearded man. “You take the brunette,
Larry, I´ll take the blond.’
“Right, Dick,’ said his associate as they climbed into the camper. The
bearded man sat down next to Jennifer and shone his light right in her face.
She moaned and closed her eyes hard against the glare. “Frightened, I see,’
he asked emotionlessly. “That´s natural. Okay, let´s see who we make out the
note to.’
He dug deep into Jennifer´s pocket and pulled out her wallet. After taking
out all her money and putting it in his own pocket, much to her disliking, he
aimed his flashlight at her driver´s liscence. It abruptly hit the floor.
“Hey Larry, you won´t believe who we just picked up today!?’ he exclaimed to
his partner.
“Who?’ Larry asked, pocketing Carol´s money.
“Governor Quinn´s daughter!’
“Let me see that!’ Larry scrambled over and looked at Jennifer´s picture.
“Oh my God, you´re right!’ he exclaimed. “This is really going to be a big
payday!’ He picked up Carol´s wallet from where he´d dropped it and looked
with keen interest at her picture. “Haywood. Isn´t that like Arthur Haywood,
the guy who makes all the shaving cream up in Albany?’
“I think so,’ Dick said, pleased. He looked over both girls with a satisfied
look. “You know, you two are a gift from heaven,’ he told them, “We can get
close to a quarter of a billion dollars off you two!’
“Quarter of a billion?’ Jennifer thought to herself, horrified, “Nobody asks
for a quarter of a billion dollars in a ransom note; that´s way too much!!
Not even the president could afford that much of a ransom; my dad and Carol´s
dad´ll go broke trying to pay that!’
“Larry, go down and tell them to get all the rope they can find; we´ve got to
make real sure these two don´t get away,’ Dick told his partner. “I´ll have
them down in no time.’
“Sure you won´t need a hand, Dick?’
“I´ll manage.’
Carol leaned into Jennifer and mumbled something through her gag that sounded
like, “What do they need to tie us up with rope for? I can´t even move
against this tape!’
“Okay you two, it´s time we get you nice and comfortable while we decide how
much to ask your folks for,’ Dick said, picking the girls up and throwing them
over his shoulders. Jennifer managed to get a brief glimpse of their
surroundings as they were taken out of the camper; they were deep in the woods
somewhere, so deep that no light could be seen in any direction through the
trees. They were being taken toward a low-slung cabin with a lone light
gleaming from inside the window to the right of the door.
The door was opened by a wizened old man. “How many?’ he asked.
“Two; didn´t Larry tell you?’ Dick asked him.
“Yes, I was just checking,’ the old man nodded to four men behind him, whom
Jennifer could see held at least fourteen heavy lengths of white clothesline
rope. She and Carol were carried over to the corner where a trapdoor lay
open, and then down a long dark set of stairs. She felt that horrified
feeling coming again; now what was going to happen. Larry the first kidnapper
stood holding the door at the bottom open. “The chairs are all set up,’ he
told Dick and the others.
“Good,’ Dick brushed by him into what was a small storage room lit by a
single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. The first thing Jennifer noticed,
however, was that it was filled with about a dozen other girls her age all
tied to chairs and gagged arranged in a circle around the room. They looked
at Carol and herself with pity in their eyes, disappointed that this mass
kidnapping operation was continuing.
Jennifer was quickly dumped into a hard wooden chair not far from the door.
“Okay guys, this is the governor´s daughter and Haywood the shaving cream
king´s daughter, so they get special treatment,’ Dick announced to the men
with the ropes. “Make sure they can´t even move.’
“Right,’ the others said at once. And for Jennifer, it was a tying up she
wouldn´t forget. First her captors sought to further immobilize her hands; a
heavy rope was lashed over the tape binding her wrists and tied in three
knots, and then more tape was wrapped tightly over this rope. The same
procedure—rope then more tape—was repeated on her ankles. Then they began
actually tying her to her chair. First ropes were applied just under her
shoulders. A second batch went across the middle of her chest. A third bunch
bound her waist to the back of the chair. Ropes then were jerked around her
already overtied ankles and then tied to the chair´s left leg, bending her
legs uncomfortably to one side. Her legs were then securely fastened from the
knees to the lower thighs to both of the chair´s front legs. Her upper legs
were then secured to the seat of the chair. Next, excess rope was used to
further bind her back to the back of the chair, until her upper body was
practically covered completely by the ropes. Finally, as a capping gesture,
her belt was unfastened, tugged off from around her waist, pulled around the
chair at her midsection, and rebuckled at its tightest setting, sending a
sharp pain into Jennifer´s chest that for a moment cut off her breath.
Throughout all this, the tape that had bound her initially was left in place,
leaving her even more restrained. On top of this, the kidnappers gagged her
further; a white cloth was pulled over the tape over her mouth and tied in a
tight knot behind her head over her hair. Every other girl in the room had
this, but Jennifer knew she was getting the special treatment when a second,
blue gag was then tied overtop of this one. She now could not make any sound
at all.
She glanced sideways at Carol, tied to a chair to the right of her. Her
friend, overgagged with a red cloth, looked like she´d recovered decently from
the initial shock of being kidnapped, but was still quite shaken, and Jennifer
couldn´t blame her. She glanced to her left. Her other neighbor, a girl with
curly brown hair—light brown compared to Carol´s dark brown—was giving her a
curious look, as if to ask, “Are you really the governor´s daughter?’
“Yes, I really am,’ Jennifer answered back with her eyes. The other girl
looked awed.
The last knots were cinched. “Okay you two,’ Dick addressed Jennifer and
Carol, “Just sit back and take it easy now. There´s no way you can get out of
those bonds. Don´t even think about escaping; this room is underground, there
are no windows, and we´re going to lock the door. Plus, we have four
closed-circuit cameras trained around the room at you; in the unlikely event
you would start to get loose, we´d know right away and be down here in an
instant to tie you up even tighter. Don´t worry, we´ll have your ransom notes
out in due time. Until we meet again.’
He flicked off the light in the center of the room. “No, don´t leave us in
the dark!’ Jennifer screamed at him thorough the multiple layers of gags
smothering her mouth. She couldn´t hear herself making a sound at all. At
any rate, her cries were moot; the men walked out and locked the door behind
them, leaving the girls in pitch darkness. Moments later, Jennifer heard the
trapdoor slam shut and a heavy object be wheeled over it. The terror overtook
her again; now what would she do??’