Sky vs. Spies

Fiction by Frank Knebel

Chapter 6

Julie Atkins turned off the water in the shower and slid the green plastic shower curtain open far enough to reach out for the towel she had left on the edge of the sink. Her fingers touched the top of the little counter beside the sink but found no towel. She pulled the curtain open a bit farther and looked out. The towel was not on the counter nor had it dropped to the floor directly below. The underclothes and lightweight dress she had left hanging on the back of the bathroom door were gone as well.

     “Connie,” called Julie. “This is no time to be playful!”

     There was no response.

     The only dry towel left in the bathroom was a hand towel hanging on a rack by the sink. With a sigh, Julie took it and began to dry herself as best she could.

     “Maybe those stripes on your sleeve have warped your sense of humor,” Julie said good-naturedly. “If that’s the case, there’s something I can do about it.”

     She held the little towel at her waist so that it hung down over the area between her legs and opened the bathroom door. A towel was thrown over her head and shoulders. She dropped the one she was holding and pulled the larger one from around her head. The sight that greeted her made her gasp.

     The wide-eyed and tape gagged faces of Sergeant Connie Wade and Officer Sue Kendall looked at her over their shoulders. Both women were seated at the foot of one of the beds with their bare backs to the bathroom door. Both women had their hands bound behind them with inch or inch and a half wide white adhesive tape, and both women had identical wide bands of tape bound around their bodies and arms passing just above their elbows. Though their buttocks were partly hidden by their bound hands, it was quite obvious from the expanse of the bare skin of their backs that they were both naked. And standing in front of the two was a lovely brunette about twenty years old in a maid’s uniform pointing a pistol at them. A sweet-faced blonde of the same age had thrown the towel in her face. She also held a pistol.

     “Nice to see you this morning, Captain,” the blonde said as she stuffed a washcloth into Julie’s mouth. “You can dry yourself with that towel before you join in the game with us. And play nice if you know what’s good for you and them.”

     Julie looked at the fearful faces of Connie and Sue. As the blonde packed the gag wadding into her mouth, Julie turned to her and nodded. Quickly, she toweled herself dry as best she could.

     “Good girl, Captain. Lose the towel now.”

     Julie dropped the towel. The brunette put her pistol in her uniform pocket and picked up a roll of tape from a tray on the table. As she walked around the bed she started tearing a long piece of tape from the roll. The blonde took up a roll of tape and plastered a piece over Julie’s mouth, sealing the washcloth inside.

     “Turn around, Captain,” said the brunette. “Hands behind your back.”

     Julie crossed her wrists and held them together in the small of her back. The brunette circled them a number of times with the tape. Once her hands were secure, both girls looped tape about Julie’s arms and body, the blonde just below Julie’s breasts and the brunette just above her waist. They circled her arms and torso several times. Julie grunted as the pressure from the upper loops squeezed her tightly enough to make breathing a bit uncomfortable.

     “Okay, Captain,” said the blonde, smiling pleasantly. “Over to the chair and sit down.”

     Julie did as she was ordered. The chair was near the foot of the bed, so as Julie went to it and sat down she could see Connie and Sue much more clearly. The women were indeed naked, Sue slender and graceful, Connie quite voluptuously so. Their legs were also tape bound just above their knees and at their ankles, and their cheeks bulged slightly from packing in their mouths just behind the tape. The blonde turned to her partner.

     “I’ll take care of the Captain’s legs. You finish the work on her two friends.”

     The blonde knelt in front of Julie’s chair and went to work winding more loops of tape around her legs just above the knees. The brunette hauled Officer Sue Kendall to her feet and forced her to hop from the foot of the bed around to the side, then had her sit. Without ceremony, the brunette picked up the pretty dispatcher’s bound feet and yanked them up the surface of the bed. Sue nearly fell over backward, crying out into her gag.

     “Come on, sweetie,” snapped the brunette. “Up to your knees.”

     She helped Sue struggle to a kneeling position. As she sat on her haunches trying to catch her breath from her bound exertions, the brunette gave the nude officer a loud slap on her bare backside. Sue yelped into the gag and turned to look daggers at her tormentor.

     As the blonde finished with Julie’s knees and turned her attention to her ankles, the brunette returned to the foot of the bed and repeated her routine with Connie, eyeing the sergeant’s bouncing breasts as she hopped to the side of the bed. This time the brunette gave her prisoner a loud swat on the buttocks before having her sit. She then forced the shapely blonde to kneel facing Officer Kendall.

     “Ready,” the brunette announced.

     The blonde made one more circle of tape around Julie’s ankles then tore the roll off. She crossed to the bed on Sue Kendall’s side.

     “All right, ladies,” she said. “Straighten up and get real close now.”

     The brunette stood behind Connie, the blonde behind Sue. They pushed and urged the two captives toward each other. Sue and Connie tried to scoot themselves closer together. The blonde nodded to the brunette, and they gave both women another ringing slap on their posteriors.

     “Come on, girls,” the smiling blonde ordered. “I want to see those boobies all smushed together.”

     The two women did their best. The brunette climbed up on the bed beside them and helped pass more tape around the two of them at the shoulders, waists, and thighs. Sue and Connie grunted in discomfort as they were pressed closer to one another. When she reached the end of the roll of tape she was using, the blonde reached for another roll and said:

     “All right. Let’s blindfold ‘em and lay ‘em down.”

     She joined her partner on the bed to wind more tape around their captives’ eyes. They then lowered the helpless women onto their sides. The brunette took more tape and, by forcing the two to point their toes toward the foot of the bed, bound their lower legs together. The two women were stretched out full length and tightly bound face to face. The blonde turned to Julie.

     “Pretty sexy huh, Captain?’ she asked, still with the same innocent smile on her soft features. “Don’t worry though. We’ve got some very hot ideas for you too.”

     She looked into one of the drawers of the low dresser and found a handkerchief. She folded it into a rectangle and pressed it over Julie’s eyes as her brunette partner wound tape around the airwoman’s head. When the blindfold was secure, they forced Julie to sit on the floor with her knees up almost against her breasts. More tape was run around her from behind her back around her and under her thighs, effectively binding her into a ball. The two women stripped the sheets from the other bed and wrapped their prisoner inside them. Then they covered Connie and Sue with the bedclothes of the bed on which they lay.

     “Have fun in there, you two,” cooed the blonde as she covered the two. “Julie’s going on a little trip now, and I’m afraid she won’t be coming back. You’ll just have to console each other as best you can.”

     “All we have to do now,” said the brunette, “is wait.”

Rowlands looked at his watch. He turned to the two men in the back seat of the car.

     “All right, you two,” he said. “Get ready.”

     The sedan in which they sat was parked across the street from a filling station six blocks from Amzie’s Motel. The two men in the back seat checked their pistols. One of them was Bradford; the other man was blond haired, with a pale, sad, and somewhat dissipated face. Tied around both their necks were black scarves ready to serve as masks. Klee was at the wheel. He turned to Rowlands.

     “You think this is really gonna work?” he asked. “What kind of outfit is this going along with some plan made up by those two girls?”

     The blond man gave a leering smile.

     “I think that we oughta spend some time getting’ t’ know those two,” he said. “I think they could convince me this idea was all right, if they went about it the right way.”

     Bradford looked at him coolly.

     “You’d better not try layin’ a hand on either of them, Duncan. I gotta feeling that they’d stick a knife in you if you tried.”

     Duncan looked offended.

     “I think I could handle them.”

     “Then you think wrong,” said Rowlands. He kept his eyes on the station across the street.

     The other men said nothing. Rowlands looked at his watch again. He turned to Klee and nodded.

     “Let’s go.”

     Klee started the car. The men in the back pulled the masks up over their noses. Klee pulled out to the street then turned immediately into the gas station. There was an unoccupied car at one of the pumps, but otherwise the station was quiet. Rowlands pulled a mask over his face too. When they were opposite the office, Bradford and Duncan jumped out of the back seat and ran inside. A uniformed young station attendant was at the counter poring over a map with the lone customer, a middle-aged man in an ill-fitting suit.

     “Everybody reach!” yelled Duncan. “This is a stickup!”

     For emphasis he pointed his revolver at the ceiling and pulled the trigger.

     Rowlands looked around. Just a little way behind the parking space from which they had come, a man had just strolled out of a diner. The sound of the shot caused the man to duck. He turned and looked directly at the station.

     “Get away from that register, you two!” Duncan ordered the attendant and customer. He fired into the ceiling again.

     When the man Rowlands was watching saw what was happening and heard the second shot, he dashed back into the diner. Rowlands turned to Klee.

     “It’s going fine,” he said.

Deputy Andy Rivera looked uncertainly at Harry Tyler.

     “What should we do, Harry?”

     Tyler frowned as he thought. It took him less than five seconds.

     “There’s no one else even close,” he said. “Let’s go. I’ll call it in.”

     Rivera started the car. They were only six blocks from the gas station that was being robbed and everything was quiet and normal at the motel.

     “This is Car Five,” Tyler said into his radio microphone. “We are proceeding to Canby and Lowell unless you want us to hold here, Sheriff. Over.”

     Sheriff Winchell took the microphone from the duty deputy.

     “Negative Car Five,” he said decisively. “Proceed to Canby and Lowell. We’ll meet you there.”

     He handed the microphone back. Deputy Amy Cole stood a few feet away holding a coffee cup and watching him expectantly. Aside from her and the deputy manning the radio the room was empty.

     “Dang,” he said softly. “With that accident out to the northwest and the shift changing they’re the only ones who can get there fast.”

     He looked at Amy.

     “Come on, Deputy. Let’s see who’s shooting up the town.”

     She put down her cup.

     “Ready when you are, Sheriff.”

     They both walked quickly to the front door.

Deputy Bob Falk sat at the counter in Jeb’s Café thoughtfully sipping a cup of steaming coffee. Something was sticking in his mind; a remark so inconsequential he had not even noticed it at the time it was said. But now it occupied him so fully that he did not even react when the waitress put a plate of eggs and bacon in front of him. She noticed.

     “Are you all right, Bob?” she asked.

     The tall, sad faced looked blankly back at her for a second. Before he could reply, the door swung open and Deputy Charlie Barnes put one foot inside. He looked around and spotted Falk.

     “Bob,” he called. “Come on, quick! Someone’s shooting up Jim Lester’s gas station!”

     Falk put down his coffee and turned back to the waitress.

     “Tell Jeb to keep it warm, Sally,” he said.

     He slid off his stool and trotted out after Barnes.

Hammer watched the Sheriff’s car pull out of the motel parking lot, its red rotating beacon light flashing. When it turned the corner and disappeared he opened the door of the laundry truck. Two other men sat in the front seat. Both were big, solid looking men. The one at the wheel had dark hair and a very strong, dangerous and unattractive face. The man in the middle was fair with a friendly, open countenance. He would have been ideal for the role of Lennie in a summer stock production of Of Mice and Men.

     “Okay, Gordon,” said Hammer, sliding in and closing the door behind him. “Let’s go.”

     The driver started the truck. He waited for a car to pass, then pulled onto the street. When he reached the entrance to the motel lot he turned in.

Rowlands turned to Klee.

     “Time to play my part,” he said.

     He threw open the car door and took several quick steps to the office doorway.

     “Cops!” he yelled and returned to the car.

     Bradford and Duncan were still pointing their pistols at the attendant and his customer. The attendant pushed a button on the register and the cash door came open.

     “Here,” he said. “Take everything---“

     “Never mind that now!” said Bradford. He turned to Duncan. “Let’s get out of here.”

     The two masked men ran from the office and got into their car. The driver hit the accelerator hard and the vehicle sped away. The attendant and customer gaped in surprise for a moment, then looked at one another.

Gordon backed the laundry truck toward the door of Julie and Connie’s motel room. When the vehicle was in place all three men got out. Gordon opened the double cargo doors at the back while the other two went to the room. Hammer knocked on the door.

     “Who is it?” asked a female voice.

     “Hammer.”

     The door opened. Donna, now dressed in a form fitting skirt and short sleeved, button-style blouse admitted the three men. The dark wig was gone. Her blond hair was now combed in the same general way as Sergeant Wade’s. Myra stood before a mirror by the closet. The maid’s uniform and ponytail had disappeared, and she now wore the summer dress that Julie had left on the bathroom door. A maid’s uniform and a floral print dress lay on the floor. Myra was pinning up her long hair to resemble Julie’s shorter style.

     Hammer glanced at the squirming bundle of sheets by the foot of the bed.

     “That her?” he asked, pointing.

     Donna nodded.

     “All done up bright and clean for the trip,” she said with a kittenish smile. “Very fitting, don’t you think? Her friends are still in bed.”

     Big Gordon grinned. Remarkably, the expression of delight failed to make his features any less unattractive or sinister.

     “Let’s have a look, Harvey.”

     He and the big, lighter haired man went to the bed. Gordon pulled the covers away to reveal the two naked, tightly trussed women. Both men grinned wider.

     “You really fixed ‘em up good, didn’t you?” said Gordon.

     Harvey reached out his right hand and stroked Connie Wade’s bare hip. The woman mewed a gagged protest.

     “Be gentle with the rabbits there, Lennie,” said Donna with a smirk.

     Harvey looked up quickly.

     “I’m not some kind of half-wit,” he said. His tone was crisp and intelligent, but the expression on his face still appeared simple and friendly.

     “Enough of that!” Hammer said sharply. “Cover ‘em up and get the Captain out to the truck. The others aren’t going to keep the cops away very long.”

     At his direction, Gordon and Harvey lifted the bundled Julie and carried her out. They placed her gently inside on a pile of laundry. Hammer climbed in with her and Gordon closed the doors. Donna watched from the room door.

     “Get going,” she ordered.

     Gordon and Harvey got in the truck’s cab. The engine started and the truck pulled away.

     Donna closed the door. Myra had finished with her hair.

     “How do I look, cousin? Good enough to be a Captain?”

     A muffled protest came from under the bedclothes nearby. Donna whacked the covered form a couple times on the backside with her open hand.

     “No comments needed from you.” She turned back to Myra. “You look just right. All we have to do is wait.”

Copper Ryder sat at the stoplight nearby. Since she was not allowed to take part in the aerial searches and it was boring to sit at the ranch and wait, she had decided to take the station wagon in for a lube job and oil change. Maybe there would be some excitement in town.

     Sure enough, the girl looked in her rearview mirror in time to see a Sheriff’s car coming toward her, its rotating beacon flashing. As it neared the intersection it slowed and pulled into the oncoming lane to avoid the several cars waiting with Copper. The siren sounded briefly, stopping two cars that were about to cross the intersection from Copper’s right. Once through the crossing, the car accelerated again.

     Oh boy!” thought Copper. “Here’s something exciting! I wonder what’s happened?”

     As she waited for the light to change, she heard the sound of a horn to her left. The cars that had stopped for the Sheriff had continued on only to nearly collide with a laundry truck that was pulling out of Amzie’s motel. Copper looked at the truck. The legend ‘Brite and Kleen’ was on the truck sides.

     “I hate those cutesy names,” thought Copper. “Just shows that people who like them aren’t very good drivers.”

     The light changed. Copper put the car in gear and went in search of adventure.

Estrelita Verdugo squirmed uselessly. The ropes were just too secure for her to slip out of. Hogtied as she was, there was no chance that she could summon help in usual ways, since she could not open doors or reach any of the office telephones which were all on desk or table tops. And the same went for Amzie Noland who was tied securely to a chair. The only thing Estrelita might be able to do would be to locate a telephone cord and pull it so that the instrument fell from its place onto the floor with her. But being blindfolded made the problem of finding a phone difficult. Then there would be the problem of dialing without the use of her hands or eyes. But it was their only chance.

     The girl was in front of Amzie’s office desk, and the telephone was connected behind it. Somehow the helpless girl would have to get all the way around the desk to find the cord. One end of the desk was against the wall and the chair with the bound Mrs. Noland was at the other, open end. It would be a long crawl for bare skin along the rug, but it had to be tried.

     Estrelita took a deep breath.

Copper Ryder pulled the station wagon into a parking space and walked fifty or so yards to the scene of the excitement. Sheriff Winchell was standing outside the filling station office talking to Jim Lester, a stocky man in his mid forties with wiry, graying hair. Other deputies were trying to keep back the curious and talking to two men inside the office.

     “Like I say, Sheriff,” Lester was saying, “I wasn’t here. I was having breakfast at Jeb’s. But from what Gary told me it was the danged strangest robbery you ever saw.”

     Winchell nodded.

     “I’ve already talked to Gary and the customer, Jim. They seem to have been a couple of real nervous Nellies all right.” He turned and grinned when he saw Copper approaching. “Well, good morning young lady! What brings a pretty girl like you into town at this hour of the day?”

     “Looks like I picked a bad day to have the car serviced,” the girl replied. “What happened here?”

     “Two fellows came in here about ten minutes ago and announced a stick-up. They shot two holes in the ceiling of Jim’s office, but before they could get around to taking anything they were scared off.”

     “Well that was sure lucky,” said Copper.

     Winchell nodded. He was about to say more when another Sheriff’s car arrived. Deputies MacKeever and Norris got out. MacKeever reported to Winchell.

     “What do you want us top do, Sheriff?” asked the deputy.

     “Right now, you and Ben can relieve Tyler and Rivera on keeping the crowd away. Tell Harry to go back to the motel.”

     MacKeever touched the brim of his hat in salute.

     “Right, Sheriff.”

     Copper looked at Winchell.

     “You mean that they had to leave the motel for this?” asked Copper. “What about Julie and Connie?”

     “Don’t worry about them. My men have only been away for ten minutes or so and Sue’s still in the room with them.”

     He looked about uneasily.

     “Still, there’s something not quite right about this.”

     The car containing Tyler and Rivera pulled past Deputies Amy Cole and Bob Falk, who were leaning on the Sheriff’s car, out of the station and headed back for the motel.

Myra peered out between the curtains.

     “They’re coming back.”

     “All right,” said Donna. “We’ll wait until they’re busy parking. Did you put our clothes in the Captain’s car?”

     “I sure did.”

     Myra kept watching. A minute later she turned and let go of the curtain.

     “Let’s go.”

     The two headed for the door, Donna stopping briefly to lift the bed covers and give Sergeant Connie Wade another swat on her bare behind as they left the room.

Deputy Harry Tyler looked up from the clipboard on which he was writing to see two familiar looking figures leave the motel room.

     “No reason to make a neat job, Andy,” he said to Rivera. “They’re ready to leave.”

     Rivera had been looking over his shoulder as he backed the car into a parking space. He turned to look ahead and saw the two women, a blonde and a brunette, close the motel room door and get into a white car parked nearby.

     “Well,” he muttered. “It’s a lot less boring than just sitting here.”

     Tyler waved to the two. The blonde waved in return. Rivera put the car in gear and drove to the lot entrance, the women’s car following.

Klee pulled the car into an alley near the outskirts of town where two other cars, one black and one green, waited. A short, broad-shouldered man stood with his back against one of the cars. The four men got out of the robbery car. Rowlands addressed the waiting man.

     “You got the plan, Gentry?” asked Rowlands.

     The short man nodded. He took off his hat to mop his brow, revealing thinning gray hair.

     “Yeah. I take Bradford and Duncan back to the hideout, but I don’t go anywhere near the route that they’re going with the truck.”

     Rowlands nodded.

     “Good. We’ll see you there in a couple hours.”

     Bradford and Duncan got into the green sedan with Gentry driving. Rowlands and Klee took the black car. They left the robbery car in the alley. The green car headed out of town. The black one went back in the direction from which the robbery car had come.

Copper Ryder strolled over to Deputy Cole.

     “Hi, Amy,” said Copper eagerly. “Lots of excitement, huh?”

     The beautiful brunette smiled at her slightly younger friend.

     “Well not nearly as much as I thought there would be. We’d hoped to catch a couple guys robbing the place, but they beat a hasty retreat.”

     “So I heard,” said Copper. “And they left so fast that they didn’t get any money.”

     Amy nodded.

     “The boy on duty even opened the cash drawer for them, but they didn’t stop long enough to take anything out. It’s kinda strange, isn’t it?”

     “Yeah, it is,” agreed the girl. She looked at Deputy Falk, who was staring thoughtfully at the sidewalk. “Bob must think it is too.”

     The deputy made no response. Amy smiled. Copper giggled.

     “He must be working it all out in his head,” said Amy, keeping an eye on the tall deputy for some sign of response.

     “Yeah, like Sherlock Holmes used to do,” added Copper, warming into the little game. “In a few minutes he’ll insist that you have to find a short, red-haired, left handed man carrying a pocketknife and a yo-yo.”

     Falk furrowed his brow, apparently oblivious.

     Sheriff Winchell walked over. He had overheard the last remark and was smiling.

     “What’s going on here now?” he asked.

     “We’re trying to get the attention of Deputy Falk, Sheriff,” said Copper, giving Falk a sideways look. “And not having much luck, I’m afraid.”

     “It’s a sad comment when a member of the force doesn’t notice two pretty girls.”

     Falk looked up suddenly.

     “I always notice pretty girls, Sheriff. But if there’s a guy I know who’s faster than I am to notice a pretty girl it’s young Willard. And today he noticed something different about Amzie Noland, something he’d never seen before.”

     The three looked quizzically at him.

     “He said he’d never noticed what a good figure she had,” he continued.

     “What’s so odd about that?” asked Copper.

     “I think Amzie’s got a pretty good figure myself,” said Winchell.

     “I do too,” Falk went on. “But you see, Sheriff, a guy his age means something different than we do when we say that. And I didn’t really think about it at the time, but there was something different about the way she and Estrelita walked when they brought breakfast to the Captain and the others.”

     Amy was beginning to understand.

     “And now this happens to draw the guards away from their room, even though only for a little while.”

     The Sheriff was now alert. He pointed to Amy and Falk.

     “You two get over to Amzie’s Motel right away and check things out. Let me know what you find.”

     The two deputies hurried to the car.

     “I’m coming too!” yelled Copper grabbing the back door handle.

     Falk started the engine as Copper tumbled in.

Myra pointed. Traffic was collecting behind a slow moving cattle truck a hundred yards or so ahead of them.

     “Here’s our chance,” she said.

     “I see it,” Donna said. “I think I can work this right.”

     She waited until several cars came abreast of the Sheriff’s car behind them, trapping it in the right lane. Donna swung the sedan into the left lane to pass the truck, then returned to the right lane. The truck blocked all sight of the Sheriff’s car. Donna made a right turn at the next intersection just as the light turned red.

     “Nice work, cousin,” said Myra with a smile.

     “Easy as pie.”

The Brite and Kleen laundry truck passed the last few buildings lining the two-lane road at the north edge of town. The driver accelerated leaving Kermit behind. Gordon called back over his shoulder:

     “We’re out of town. Looks like clear sailing.”

     “Nix with that!” snapped Hammer. “I’m superstitious. Just keep your eyes open.”

     He unwrapped some of the sheets that bundled up Julie Atkins, and looked at his naked, helpless prisoner.

     “She’s quite a sight. Too bad you two have to watch the road.”

     Though the woman was bound with her knees almost touching her chest, he managed to reach in and tweak one of her nipples. Julie squirmed and mewed into the tape gag.

     “You’re a real honey all right, Captain,” he said softly. “And the boss lady’s gonna know just what to do with you.”