PENALTY MINUTES
By
Norm E.
The van had been going in so many directions over the last half hour that Her fear had slowly subsided since her ordeal had begun, replaced with calm Overall, it wasn´t as bad as it could have been. The car seat she was tied It was then that the van suddenly braked to a stop. “OK, time to shack up The ropes holding Bonnie to the car seat were released, but the blanket was “Now turn left,’ the kidnapper instructed her, forcibly turning her to the Bonnie stumbled and fell down. Ropes were jerked around her midsection to “Just about,’ said one of the kidnappers who Bonnie could tell was just “Well then, let´s go and see what we can do at the office,’ the leader Although she had no knowledge of Bonnie´s specific predicament, Elizabeth Her captors had made sure she and Felicia would be unable to contact the The sounds of early evening traffic wafted in from outside rather Elizabeth heard a car braking nearby. She strained to hear, hoping it And then she heard the sounds of footsteps approaching from the rear. Elizabeth frowned; was the kidnapper selling out his partners or something? Elizabeth nodded her head. “OK,’ the kidnapper said, “I was sent here to Elizabeth nodded again; anything to get out of the painful ropes. She felt “Go get Felicia and help Bonnie,’ he said, his face shrouded in the room´s “Right,’ Elizabeth rushed to Felicia and untied her friend. When she “I have a feeling he got to know Bonnie better during this whole affair,’ “I don´t get it,’ Shawna said. She and Bonnie´s other friends were milling “Neither do I,’ Susan shook her head, “I´d´ve thought that the whole “Maybe they changed their mind at the last minute and went to a restaurant “Without telling us?’ Susan didn´t quite believe it, “They wouldn´t do Shawna pressed the intercom button on the gate. “Mrs. Gilbert, it´s us; “No, I´ll wait here; you and Annie go check the restaurants,’ Susan told “Sounds good,’ Annie agreed, “Call us if you see or here anything.’ “I will,’ Susan waved goodbye to her and Shawna as they drove up the The minutes dragged slowly onward. Only the traffic going both ways up the Finally, just as the hour she´d set as her deadline was almost up, Susan She waited until all four of the occupants of the car had gone inside She didn´t get much of a chance to think it over, as a hand smothered her Susan struggled to get away, but her captor was too powerful. He carried “Oh, the all-star goaltender,’ one of his associates looked Susan over, “We “Right,’ Susan´s abductor shoved her headfirst onto the couch. “Let me go, “Shut up, will you!!’ the man clapped his hand over her mouth again. Susan “I found a lot of rope down in the basement,’ another one of the burglars “Here´s some of Mrs. Gilbert´s scarves,’ said another. “Give me those,’ the man standing over Susan took two of them. He rolled The four of them began methodically binding Susan with the ropes from head And with that, they all left the room. Her heart pounding, Susan listened Bonnie´s arms and legs were already going numb. Sweat poured down her face Her movement was severely restricted. She could only inch like a worm on “Please, just realize you made a mistake taking me and let me go!’ she It was then she heard clunking above her. Almost as if someone was “Bonnie first,’ said another. Bonnie thumped on the floor in earnest. Blinking, she stared into the dark light of an old warehouse office. “It´s She pulled off the handkerchief covering Bonnie´s mouth and removed the “Yes, Felicia Graham, this is Elizabeth Ferrum,’ the shorter blonde said, “What are you talking about?’ Bonnie frowned, “You mean, I was the target “We´re sorry,’ Elizabeth ran over to Gail and started releasing her, “Our “So she hired professional kidnappers to get you out of the way,’ Felicia “Then why did they take me too?’ Gail asked now that she was free too. “They demanded a higher payment than Coach was offering at first,’ “That´s terrible,’ Gail commented, “Outright cheating like that. You´re “No Gail, I´m OK,’ Bonnie said, ignoring the pain the plastic ties had “That won´t be necessary,’ said a cold voice as the office door burst open,
TWO
Bonnie had completely lost track of where she and Gail might be headed. It
was getting very hot for her under the blanket tied over her, but there was
no way to take it off.
resolve. “I´ve got to stay in control if I want to get out of this,’ he´d
been telling herself mentally. Hopefully by now, her friends had realized
she was in trouble and called the authorities.
to was at least moderately comfortable--once she ignored the harshness of
the ropes. And the lost of feeling in her arms from being pressed up
against the back of the seat. With the blanket over her, breaths came
slowly.
for the night, ladies,’ came the voice of the head kidnapper, “We´ll be back
around at regular intervals to check up on you.’
kept over her. “Start walking,’ one of the younger-sounding kidnappers
ordered her, putting the knife to the back of her head. Bonnie stumbled out
and fell to the ground with her legs still heavily bound. The kidnapper
hauled her to her feet and grabbed her shoulder roughly. “Hop,’ he ordered
her. Bonnie hopped as best she could, but she fell twice more. Behind her,
she could sense Gail was having just as much trouble staying upright, as
there was the sound of crashing onto the pavement. There was no giveaway
sound as to where they could be, just the wind blowing and the faint rays of
the setting sun that managed to work their way through the blanket.
left as they entered a building of some sort (which Bonnie could tell, as
the wind stopped), “Now to the right. Okay, down on the ground.’
hold the blanket in place. More were added over her thighs, leaving her
cocooned inside the cotton prison. There were muffled cries to her right as
Gail collapsed down on the ground. “Don´t bother thinking of escaping,’ the
head kidnapper told them, “There´ll be no way in or out of this room once we
lock you in, and it´ll take you two an eternity to get loose from all this.
We´ll be back in an hour to check up on you--consider it room service. My
advice is try not to exhaust yourself; you´ll overheat very quickly. Are
you done there?´
about finished immobilizing Gail.
said. There was the shuffling of footsteps as everyone left the room.
Bonnie heard the door slam and a padlock snap shut. Car doors slammed shut,
and the van and several other vehicles drove away. All that was left was
Gail to her side and her thoughts. “It probably is impossible to break
these bonds,’ she conceded to herself, “But I have to try nevertheless!’
She started squirming around from side to side, praying that a miracle would
happen for her.
could sympathize completely with her on many levels. She´d woken up from
her chloroforming to find herself tied up equally tightly in an unknown
location. Several hours of intense struggling had been essentially
fruitless, and she was losing her strength.
authorities again. Lying on a cold stone floor, her wrists bound tightly
behind her back and hogtied to her equally well bound ankles, her elbows
bound painfully together, her knees tied above and below the ankles, her
mouth packed full of cloth, and her lips and eyes tightly wrapped in duct
tape, Elizabeth wasn´t going anywhere fast. She could barely move around in
one spot, managing only a few inches toward where she could tell Felicia lay
bound equally well. Her friend had been squirming and mmpphing to no end
--had her mouth not been taped, Felicia would likely be screaming the house
down. Elizabeth had been hoping to reach her, and together they could free
each other, but she could tell she still had a lot of squirming to do before
she´d be close enough to reach Felicia.
clearly--Elizabeth guessed a window was open or broken wherever they were.
Here was where she regretted being blindfolded; had she know where broken
glass was, she´d have done everything in her power to get over to it and saw
herself loose with a shard or two. There had been no contact with anyone
since she´d woken up. She figured they were off undertaking the kidnapping
she and Felicia had overheard being planned. The two of them had vowed to
stop it from happening, but, as evidenced by their predicament, hadn´t quite
been quick enough on the move. Now they were paying the penalty…
would be someone stopping for them, but a few minutes later, she heard the
engine gun and the car speed away. Sighing in resignation, she turned back
to the matter of her bonds. The kidnappers were ardent knot tiers. Not one
of the sets of ropes holding her still had loosened in the few hours they´d
been binding her. The knots to her wrist ropes were far out of the reach of
her fingertips, much to her detriment. The position she´d been tied in was
excruciatingly painful, and her arms and legs felt like they were going to
break off at the elbows and knees. She gritted her teeth and tried to
ignore the pain as she shook herself from side to side in one more attempt
to loosen the bonds…
“HELP!!!’ she tried to call out through the gagging tape, but only managed a
low, “MMMMMM!!!!’ Felicia was now moaning loudly as well. A key turned in a
lock, and a door creaking open. “Felicia, Elizabeth,’ said a low, familiar
voice, “I guess you´re rather uncomfortable all tied up like that. I think
it was very noble of the two of you to want to stop this kidnapping.’
She could hear him crouching down near her. “You want to save Bonnie
Marcliff?’ he said softly, “I want to too. Maybe you two could help in
that. You know where they‘re holding her, right?’
make sure you two were still nice and immobilized. I´m going to untie you
now. Go to her and let her and Gail Gilbert go. I´ll try to draw off my
associates long enough for you to get the two of them to the police and
safety. If anyone asks, though, I´m not here. As far as you´re concerned,
you managed to work yourselves free and escaped on your own. I´m not trying
to trap you two; I´m just concerned about Bonnie´s well-being. Agreed?’
her unexpected savior´s hands loosening her wrist ropes. In about a minute
they and her elbows were free. She tore the tape off her eyes and lips as
he released her legs. “Thank you,’ she breathed, looking up toward him.
dark shadows, “I´ll tell them I came here and found you both gone.’
turned back around, their friend was gone. “Why is he doing this?’ Felicia
asked, rubbing her chaffed wrists.
Elizabeth said. She looked around the cramped closet they´d been locked in.
Night was starting to fall out through the broken window. “They must have
taken her by now,’ she told Felicia, “We´d better hurry if we want to get
them before the first watch comes around to check on them.’
around outside Gail Gilbert´s spacious North Hollywood house. Normally, the
gates would have been open for them, but they´d arrived a half hour ago to
find the house dark and nobody home.
national team would be here by now.’
or something?’ Annie suggested.
that.’
we´re hear for Bonnie´s birthday party,’ she said into it. There was no
response on the other end. Shawna shook her head. “I don´t know, I´m going
to check the McDonalds on Woodman,’ she said, walking toward her car,
“Bonnie likes to go there a lot; maybe they stopped by there. Aren´t you
coming, Susan?’
her, “Maybe they´ll come back. If they´re not back here in an hour, I´ll go
back to the dorm and wait for you two.’
street. She sat down on the sidewalk and glanced both ways. Something, she
could sense, was amiss. Hopefully they could find out what it was.
street added any excitement to Susan´s vigil. She´d become attached to
Bonnie ever since the semester began. There was something about the shy,
out of place, homesick girl from New Jersey that had been endearing to
Susan. A Los Angeles native herself, she´d been quick to take Bonnie under
her wing and introduce her to the city. Their bond was now almost
unbreakable, and Susan would be able to bear it if something had happened to
her friend.
heard the sound of a familiar motor coming up the street. Smiling, she
rose up…but then saw in the glow of the streetlights that it was Gail
driving Gail´s car. Rather it was a mustached man. Susan was deeply
puzzled. She hid behind the bushes out front and watched as the man
activated the door with Gail´s keys. The gates swung open, and he drove the
car inside. Curious, Susan ran for the gate and slipped inside just in
time. She followed the car at a safe distance, jumping behind a tree as
they jumped out and entered Gail´s house. “Something is up,’ Susan told
herself, “But what´s going on here?’
before jogging toward the window. Crouching low, she peered inside.
Flashlights were indicating they were looking for something inside. Susan
heard the sound of drawers being thrown open. What were they looking for?
mouth all of a sudden. “Playing spy, aren´t we?’ said a rough voice, “Well
you may have come in here after us, but you won´t be going out any time
soon.’
her squirming into the house. “Look what I found,’ he told his friends as
they rushed into the foyer, “Marcliff´s friend´s trying to spy on us.’
might find use for her. Right now, though, let´s just put her out of harm´s
way.’
you ape!’ she shouted as he yanked her arms behind her back and slapped
handcuffs on her wrists, “What have you done with Bonnie!? If you´ve hurt
one hair on……….!!!!’
rolled her head around wildly to try and get her mouth free. “Go find some
handkerchiefs or scarves, quick,’ he told his friends, “I don´t know how
much longer I can keep her quiet.’
came running up with two armfuls of long rope.
one up into a large ball and forced it deep into Susan´s mouth. Then he
stretched out the second, forced the middle between her teeth, and tied it
in a tight double knot behind her head. “Here we go, now you´ll be good and
quiet,´ he said, jerking her belt off from her waist and fastening it around
her ankles, “Bring the rope over here, boys.’
to toe with all the rope. Soon she was practically cocooned in it--and
there was still a good six feet of it left. “In the rec room with her,’ the
head thief said. Susan was carried into the room, where the man who´d taken
her prisoner pulled a chair into the center of the room and climbed up on
it. Lowering out the rope so that Susan would be suspended in the air, he
tied the long end of the rope to the rafters. “And that should hold you
good,’ he said as he climbed down and took away the chair, “We´ll come back
for you later, so just stay still and don´t make trouble.’
as they went about searching through the other rooms of the house. After
about ten minutes, they all left, leaving her hanging up in the air.
Desperately she swung herself from side to side. She had to get out of this
predicament and find Bonnie. “What have they done to you, Bonnie?’ she
thought to herself. And what had the thieves been looking for that was so
important?
from the heat of being under the blanket. “Come on, please loosen, for the
love of God!!’ she begged her bonds. They had shown no sign of giving at
all since she´d been dumped in the room. She was starting to despair that
her friends wouldn´t find her.
the floor. None of the predicaments she read about Carrie being in over the
course of reading the book series compared to this crisis. Very few of the
scenes she saw on TV even compared to this. How much longer could it last,
she wondered.
thought toward her captors, “And then let Gail go too, once her family pays
whatever you ask for.’
climbing through vents. This was followed by the scraping of a vent
crashing open. “There,’ she heard a voice say, “Let´s get them loose.’
“Hold still Bonnie, we´ll get these off you in no time,’ said the first
voice. Bonnie obliged. The blanket was untied and pulled off her.
OK, Bonnie,’ said the slightly taller of the two blondes about her age that
had released her, “This is going to be over in a minute.’
packing. “I´ve seen you,’ Bonnie breathed as she and her friend starting
removing the ropes and plastic ties binding her, “You´re on Santa Ana
State´s team, aren´t you?’
“I´m sorry you had to be put through this, Bonnie.’
of this……crime?’
coach is crazy. She´s obsessed with winning, as are half of our teammates.
She´s seen how good a player you are, and she decided you had to be out of
the way if we´re to win another national title.’
added, “Elizabeth and I overheard her talking to one of them in the parking
lot the other day. They were planning to hold you prisoner until after the
national final.’
Elizabeth explained, “So once they learned of your plans to celebrate
Bonnie´s birthday at your place, they added you to the mix. They were
actually going to ransom you for a large amount of money, just to throw
suspicion away from the real crime.’
not hurt, are you Bonnie?’
caused her limbs, “Let´s just get out of here and tell the authorities.’
“You ladies aren´t going anywhere anytime soon. Jackson, get some more rope
and ties ready for all our guests.’