“I can´t believe he could fire me over something like that!’ Chris McConnell
lamented as he trudged through the front door of his sparsely-furnished,
run-down apartment.
“I agree with you, Chris, but don´t take it so hard,’ his friend Jared Durham
said, closing the door behind him, “You can always pick up another job
somewhere.’
“But this was my best chance, Jared!’ Chris protested, “and by the time I do
land another job, my family might be homeless! I don´t want that to happen to
them!’
He slumped halfway over the couch in misery. It had been tough for him for
years, his family being poverty-stricken for as long as he could remember, and
with his father dying when he´d been 11, he´d had to leave school, against his
better wishes to help his family—four sisters and two brothers beside himself.
Unfortunately for a variety of reasons, he´d never been able to hold down a
steady job, and he´d barely been able to keep them above water, let alone
himself. He was to have picked up a paycheck today from the restaurant, but
the manager had withheld it from him when he´d fired him due to clumsiness.
Now he wasn´t even sure if he´d be able to pay his rent for the month.
“What do I always say, Chris, there´s a silver lining to everything,’ Jared
said, flipping on the TV, “At least you met that girl.’
“Hey not too long; I want to keep the cable bill manageable this month!’
Chris snapped at him. Then he mellowed considerably and said, “Yeah, I´ll
admit that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, having a girl actually look at
me like that.’
She´d come into the Geigertown Diner with a friend that day at about 2
o´clock, the most beautiful person he´d ever seen. He´d almost fallen over in
surprise when she´d actually smiled at him when he gave her the menu. Later,
he´d fallen over for real when he´d found out the hard way he couldn´t take
his eyes off her and had crashed into another waiter, sounding about eight
dollars worth of food onto the floor and landing himself the pink slip. It
was while he was being berated that she actually came over, patted him on the
back, and said, “It´s okay, you did fine.’ He´d tried to get her name, but
she and her friend had left before he could, and now she was forever entombed
in his memory, to torment him forever of what might have been………
“Uh, Chris, speaking of that girl, she´s on the evening news!’ Jared
exclaimed suddenly. Chris jerked out of his stupor to see a blown-up photo of
the girl right behind the newscaster. “……….was officially reported missing by
the governor´s office a half hour ago,’ he was saying. “For those of you just
joining us now, Jennifer Quinn, the daughter of Governor James Quinn,
disappeared late this afternoon while driving with a friend somewhere in the
Adirondacks. The 19-year-old Ithaca sophomore was taking a drive to get away
from her father´s reelection campaign, we´re being told now, and was reported
missing just now when she failed to call home when she´d said she would. A
massive search is now underway throughout the Adirondacks, and we´ll give you
the latest information when it comes through to us. Jennifer Quinn is about
five foot seven inches tall, with long blond hair and blue eyes. When last
seen, she was wearing a blue and gold Ithaca jacket, blue sweater, blue jeans
with a white belt, and white Converse high top sneakers, and also wears
snowflake-shaped diamond earrings. Law enforcement officials are asking………..’
Chris sat stunned on the couch. “She was Governor Quinn´s daughter!?’ he
said aloud, amazed.
“Wow. She has to have been the most famous person to come through Geigertown
in at least sixty years,’ Jared said, impressed.
“Boy, I was way out of her league,’ Chris said to no one in particular.
“Hey look here, it says her car was last seen about ten miles north of here
on Route 87,’ Jared went on, “That must have happened right after she left the
diner.’ A crafty smiled crossed his face. He turned to his friend. “You
know what this means, Chris?’
“What?’
“It means we can go look for her come morning.’
“Why would we want to do that, Jared? The police can handle this without
us,’ Chris said pessimistically.
“But if we find her first, that´ll mean a big reward from the governor, and
your family will never have to worry about money again,’ Jared went on
doggedly.
“Number one, Jared, we´d never see a cent of that money before it goes
through all the tax screeners, and two, keep in mind that she´s a high society
girl and I´m a nobody. She´ll never accept me as her hero,’ Chris countered,
not enthused at all. “And besides, we don´t even know where to begin.’
“Well, if she was last seen at this point,’ Jared pointed to the red dot on
the screen denoting the last known sighting of Jennifer´s car, “and taking
into account the fact that she´d probably be found be now if she was on the
main highway still, that means that she either went somewhere down the Old
Turnpike Road or Pembroke Lane, which means she´s probably somewhere here or
here on the sides of Sharpton Mountain.’
“But the mountains go on forever, Jared, and you´re forgetting how thick the
woods are in these parts!’ Chris protested. “Forget it, it just won´t work
out!’
“What´s the matter, don´t you feel something for her!?’ Jared asked him.
Chris took this in and nodded slowly. “Yeah, of course I do; I want to know
for sure she´s safe,’ he said, resigned now.
“Well then, I´ll pick you up at nine tomorrow and we´ll go looking,’ Jared
said with a smile. He picked up his coat and headed for the door.
“See you then,’ Chris called after him. He lay back on the couch and focused
on Jennifer´s image on the screen. He truly did hope nothing bad had happened
to her……….
When Jennifer had been younger, she´d been an avid reader of the Hallie Frost
mystery series. Hallie had frequently been captured by the bad guys and left
tied up. Perhaps her favorite had been an adventure where Hallie had been
bound and gagged and locked in a trunk which the villains had thrown in a
river, leaving her to presumably drown. But that had all been fiction. What
Jennifer was going through now was the real thing……….and it was even more
frightening than any of Hallie´s predicaments.
She was struggling wildly with her bonds, jerking her chair from side to side
in her flailings. She was screaming as hard as she humanly could, pouring all
her energy into making at least some sound. But her efforts so far were all
for naught; her bonds remained as firmly bound as before. She could only make
the faintest of noises through the numerous layers of gags smothering her
mouth. And every time she leaned forward, her belt cut into her chest,
cutting off her breathing pattern and forcing her back upright so she could
inhale normally again. It was a nightmare that refused to let up.
Her initial wave of paralyzing fear had by now subsided, and she was now more
relaxed—as much as one could be considering the situation. The room was
almost pitch dark, but she was starting to adjust to the darkness now. The
outlines of the other girls being held prisoner with her were coming into
focus. Some of them were struggling mightily to free themselves as well,
while others seem silent, resigned to their fates. The sound of muffled cries
from all of them, ironically, drowned out the otherwise pitch silence of the
cellar.
Jennifer glanced to her right at Carol. Her friend was one of the quieter of
the hostages. She mmfffed softly and could be seen to strain somewhat with
her bonds, but was calmer than her companion as a whole. She turned her head
to look over at Jennifer. Although the two of them could only see each other
in silhouette, they could read each others´ thoughts perfectly: somehow we´ve
got to get out of this mess.
Jennifer´s hands and feet had no feeling. The ropes and tape binding them
felt like iron by now. Unable to shift about in her chair, she gritted her
teeth and tried to ignore the pain these bonds—as well as the others—were
inflicting on her.
“Well, at least they didn´t strip us naked,’ she conceded to herself in a
bright thought, “This whole situation would have been even worse without my
clothes.’
She had to stop trying to scream—her throat was dry now. She glanced upward
at the ceiling. Above the moaning of the gagged and their heavy breathing,
she could hear the kidnappers´ footsteps tramping on the wooden floor. She
could almost make out a couple of phrases: “………biggest paycheck we´ve ever
had………….talked to him, he says to make her as………..better have the backup area
set up just in case this leads to a dragnet………’ and a few other phrases she
couldn´t quite make out. Although she´d long since lost track of time, and
her watch was buried under mountains of rope and tape, she knew by now her
parents had to know something had happened to her and would send everybody out
to get her. “And please hurry, Dad, before I lose all feeling!’ she thought
to herself. The numbness was beginning to spread up her arms and legs.
The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs directly behind her caused
Jennifer to turn her head around as far as it would go. Now what was going
on? Could this possibly mean she and Carol were getting an early release?
The door out of the cellar was opened. “Well, Miss Quinn and Miss Haywood,’
came Larry´s voice, “It´s time we make the ransom videos to send to your
folks,’ (the light was turned back on, blinding Jennifer for a second) “but
before we do, we´d better lay down the guidelines about behavior without your
gags. First of all, there will be no screaming whatsoever. If you do, not
only do the gags go back on and stay on, but another layer will be added to
them, understood?’
Jennifer nodded firmly; anything to get all the gags off her mouth.
“Now once we film your ransom, we customarily give you ten minutes with a
fellow hostage to bring you up to speed on your condition, just to give you a
breather. One of our men will be right outside the door; if either one of you
gets frantic or starts talking about an escape plan with the hostages we
choose to let talk with you, you will be regagged instantly and tied more
tightly to your chair as punishment. Is that all clear?’
Jennifer nodded again. She saw a new kidnapper come into her view, armed
with a video camcorder.
“All right then, here we go, and remember, just look straight at the camera
and say exactly what you see on the sheet,’ Larry said. He strode forward and
began taking off Jennifer´s gags one by one. When the final part was free of
her mouth, Jennifer started taking big gasping breaths. At least the gag part
of the nightmare was over for now.
“We are now recording, look this way, sweetheart,’ the new kidnapper said,
pointing Jennifer´s eyes toward a piece of paper taped to the top of the
camcorder. She took a deep breath, her first in a long time.
“Dad, it´s me, Jennifer,’ she said in a low, raspy voice from all her
screaming, “I´m being held by—the Anonymous Avenger!?’ she looked up at the
kidnapper. “Is this supposed to be some kind of joke!?’
“Just keep reading!’ Dick snapped behind her, giving her hair a sharp tug to
get his point across.
“Ow!’ Jennifer protested this. Recollecting herself, she continued reading
off the paper, “If you want to see me alive, please pay one hundred million
dollars in unmarked bills by the end of the week, more instructions will come
later.’
“Good, you´re through,’ the man with the tape recorder walked over to Carol.
“Okay, now it´s your turn,’ he told her. As Carol started reading off a
different piece of paper that was now being held up next to the camcorder,
Jennifer noticed two other kidnappers now ungagging some other hostages. The
first was the brunette on her left that had given her the quizzical look when
she and Carol had first been brought in. The ropes binding her now upon
closer inspection looked frayed, as if she´d had a long time struggling with
them. The other lucky girl was the one to Carol´s right, another blond (now
with more light and time, Jennifer could see that the kidnappers were in many
ways picky; about half their hostages were girls with long blond hair like
herself) in the somewhat abnormal outfit of a pink sweater with white
diamonds, white shorts, and pink knee socks. As Carol finished her statement,
another kidnapper stepped into the middle of the circle of chairs. “And your
ten minutes begin now,’ he said, and he and his associates shuffled out.
Jennifer turned to Carol, her distress coming to the surfaced again. “A
hundred million!’ she exclaimed in as low a voice as she could, “That´ll
bankrupt the state if Dad pays that, Carol!’
“Well, if it gets us home, Jennifer, I´m all for that,’ Carol said, looking
far more relaxed than her friend. “Are you all right? They really seemed to
have gotten you frightened there.’
“Yeah, I´m fine, but I´m scared like you wouldn´t believe!’ Jennifer
admitted.
“It´s OK to be scared,’ the brunette next to her spoke for the first time,
“Everybody´s scared, including me, and this is after three and a half weeks of
this.’
“Three and a half weeks!’ Jennifer was horrified that there would be this
long of a wait for a hostage, “Why so long?’
“My parents are vacationing in Switzerland, and my ransom hasn´t reached them
yet,’ the girl said. “Hi, I´m Danielle Marshall from Cooperstown, Hartwick
University. It´s a pleasure to meet you, Jen.’
“Please, call me Jennifer,’ she told Danielle, “I don´t like any of the
nicknames associated with my name.’
“Okay then, Jennifer, I hope they weren´t too cruel on you,’ Danielle said,
apologetically, “Sometimes they rough up the girls they think are worth the
most when they bring them in.’
“So how´d you get here, Danielle,’ Carol asked her, her face showing she was
quite eager to find out the reason she and Jennifer were now tied up in this
lonely basement with the other girls.
“Well, it was three and a half weeks ago like I said,’ Danielle began, “And I
was just getting into my car after a night at a show with some of my friends
from college, and no sooner had I fastened my seatbelt than someone comes up
from behind the seat and covers my mouth! ‘Drive and don´t ask questions!´ he
ordered me. I was too scared to do otherwise, so I drive to one of the back
roads where he abruptly has me pulled over. He chloroformed me before I could
think up any escape plan, and when I woke up I was tied to this chair. Since
then, the number of hostages around me has changed, but until my parents get
back in a couple of days, I´ll still be here.’
“But what do they want with all of us!?’ Jennifer implored her.
“I think I can answer that better than Danielle,’ said the blond next to
Carol. “Hi, I´m Michelle Shaw from Cortland State, and I´ve been an amateur
detective for some time now,’ she went on. “My friend Allison and I (she
gestured toward the brunette tied up next to her in a ray Cortland State
sweatshirt and blue and pink striped shorts) came across on of the former
hostages here a couple of weeks ago……….’
“Amanda,’ Danielle said, “She was the first one released after I arrived
here.’
“Amanda told us of our ordeal, and we looked into it for her, since she had
no clue who´d kidnapped here,’ Michelle continued.
“I heard their names, Dick and Larry……..’ Jennifer began.
“They´re just the underlings, Jennifer; nobody knows who the head kidnapped
is,’ Michelle told her. “When Allison and I did our research into this we
found something even more interesting; for the past twelve years, there´s been
a wave of college girl kidnappings in this region every four years for
reason.’
“Every four years!?’ Carol was amazed.
“Exactly,’ Michelle told her, “And each time the girls were unable to say
much about where they were held or who their kidnappers were, except that it
was kind of in a place like this.
“Uh, is there a specific reason why they just snatch college girls off the
roads and bring them here?’ Carol asked, “Why don´t they take younger girls or
even older women who could be richer than half the girls they kidnap?’
“We discussed that, and we´re really not sure; probably that´s just how the
kidnapper´s become used to, Carol,’ Danielle piped up.
“Yeah,’ Michelle added, “They seem to have some sort of mobile unit staked
out here in the mountains at several locations, and whenever one of us girls
comes by that they think is either attractive enough or rich enough to garner
a big ransom, they grab them and bring them here.’
“So everybody here was taken in a carjacking of some sort?’ Jennifer asked.
“Not all of them,’ Danielle told her, “Sometimes it was simply being in the
wrong place at the wrong time. Caitlin over there (another blond in a jean
jacket) had run away from home and was hitchhiking when they picked her up and
brought her here. Beth and Mandy (two brunettes dressed for a hike) were
hiking in the woods and fell down an old mine shaft, and as fate would have
it, the kidnappers were the first ones to hear their cries for help. Donna
(the only blond with short hair rather than long, in a short-sleeved shirt and
blue pants) had gotten lost in the woods and stumbled upon here, wherever here
is, and saw the kidnappers bring in Lauren (another brunette in a white shirt
and red vest) and one of the kidnappers spotted her and caught her before she
could get away. But by and large, from what I heard, most of us were
carjacked.’
“And Allison and I just got careless when tailing them,’ Michelle said
gloomily.
“So how long is it between capture and release, usually?’ Jennifer asked,
concerned she´d be in for a long stay.
“It varies,’ Danielle told her, “Although normally it´s about a week and a
half. They seem to like to wait a few days before giving the actual ransom
tape to the families, and if the girl in question does have money behind her,
they normally wait even longer. I remember they kept Micki´s family in
suspense for almost a week before giving them the ransom…….’
“So who goes out next?’ Carol interrupted her.
“Well, Patty´s family´s paying her ransom today,’ Danielle gestured to the
pony-tailed blond to their right, “so she´ll probably be free with the next 24
hours or so. Rachel (the final blond in the room, in a maroon sweater) would
probably be next on the list; she was the last to be brought in before me.
Then it´s Stephanie (the final hostage whose name Jennifer hadn´t learned yet,
a brunette in a formal blue business suit and black heels) and me, if I
learned it right.’
“And before they let you go, they seem to inject you with something to cloud
your memory a little,’ Michelle said. “Amanda, when Allison and I talked to
her couldn´t remember all that many specific details.’
“But just what is this ransom game for, anyway?’ Jennifer wanted to know.
Before either Michelle or Danielle could answer this, though, the kidnappers
came back in. “Okay, time´s up,’ Dick said, “Time for the gags to go back
on.’
“Can´t this wait just a few more minutes,’ Jennifer pleaded with him. She
was desperate to be able to talk as long as she wanted.
“Sorry Miss Quinn, ten minutes is ten minutes,’ Larry said unsympathetically,
“And as for you in particular, the big guy just gave us orders to make sure
you´re made even more uncomfortable than before.’
“No, wait you don´t have to……….MMMMRRRFFFF, MMMRRRFFFFFFF!!!!!’ Jennifer´s
pleas were stifled as Larry advanced toward her and stuffed another piece of
waded-up cloth into her mouth. “And now, we´ll double your pleasure with
that,’ he said, producing a second cloth. He rolled this up into a tight ball
and rammed it in on top of the first cloth, completely filling Jennifer´s
mouth. She retched from the gagging, but it was only beginning.
“I´ve never seen them do this and then what we´re about to do,’ one of the
anonymous kidnappers said, pulling out a pink and purple silk scarf, “But then
again, there´s a first for everything.’ He wound it taut and forced the
middle between Jennifer´s teeth to hold the wads of cloth already in her mouth
in place, then tied it in a very tight triple knot at the back of her head
over her hair. Larry stepped back into sight, pulling a long strip of brown
packing tape off a roll. “Signed, sealed, and silenced,’ he joked as he
wrapped the taped around Jennifer´s head at least fifty times, completely
sealing shut her lips. Panicked again now, she jerked her head around
uselessly, screaming through the clothes, scarf, and tape as loud as she
could.
“Hold still now!’ demanded Dick, giving her hair another brutal yanking to
bring her back to earth. The sharp pain forced Jennifer to admit defeat, and
she sat still as first the white and then the blue cloth overgags were tied
back into place in painful triple knots behind her head. It now felt like a
steel clamp had been slapped across her mouth, and it hurt too.
“And now, our employer wishes for you to feel what absolute darkness is
like,’ Dick continued. Before Jennifer could react to this, some more of the
packing tape was wrapped around her eyes at least thirty times. The last
sight she saw was of Carol staring helplessly at her as she herself was being
regagged, her soft brown eyes saying sadly, “I wish I could help you here,
Jennifer, but I can´t.’ The shock of now being blindfolded paralyzed Jennifer
again, but she felt puzzled when, once the tape was set in place and fitted to
her head´s contours, a second, cloth blindfold was tied in place over the
tape. “Now why would they double-blindfold me?’ she thought to herself,
“There´s no way on earth I´ll be able to get this tape off my eyes, so why do
they need the cloth?’ One possible answer came to her as the cloth blindfold
was tied in a tight double knot at the back of her head, one that hurt her
head as a whole.
“And now dear ladies, we take leave of you again,’ Larry said to the group,
“And don´t feel worried, Miss Chambers, your time in here is almost done.
You´ll soon leave the rest of your friends here and be returned home safely,
we promise you that.’ Although she was now unable to see anything at all,
Jennifer assumed from what Danielle had told her a minute ago that it was
Patty, the next closest to freedom, who he was talking to now. She heard the
light being turned off again, and just before the door closed, she heard Larry
say to Dick, “That´s just the first thing he wants done with the Quinn girl,
blindfolding her. Some of what else he wants is……….’
The door slammed shut again before he could say anything, but the ambiguity
of what was to come sent shockwaves all through Jennifer´s nerves. From what
she´d interpreted, it wasn´t just money the kidnappers were after in her case,
it was something more. But what? And what else was going to happen to her?