Chapter 4
The police car skidded to a stop.
"What the hell you doing, Mac?"
Mac twisted on the seat and backed the car off the road. He was trying to see down into the darkness.
"I thought I saw something down there. Looked like a car."
"Shit, are you kidding? That's the river down there."
"Yeah. But it'll only take a second to check it out. Give me the light."
Dick pulled the heavy flashlight out of its holder and handed it to his partner. Mac opened the door and stood up, aimed the light across the roof of the car and swept the bright beam out over the water. Nothing but the sparkle of reflected light. He moved the beam along the shoreline, and there it was.
"I told you! There!"
He tossed the light to his buddy, and hopped back into the car. He backed the car onto the shoulder, until they were sitting just up the slope from the car in the water.
"Give it the beam and back me up. I'll check it out."
"Roger."
Mac got out and pulled his pistol out of its holster. Holding the gun carefully, he moved cautiously down the slippery hill toward the dark and silent automobile.
He flashed his pocket light through the window on the driver's side.
"Hey! There's a body here! Looks like there might have been somebody with him! He's half out of the car! Come on down!"
Dick pulled the keys and got out. He left his gun holstered.
"Trunk's open, too."
"Yeah, let's get this guy out and see who he is."
Mac and Dick quickly hauled the cold body out onto the grass, and rolled him over onto his back. Dick searched his pockets. "No wallet."
"Check the area. I'll get the registration."
While Dick walked a random search of the immediate area, Mac copied down the license number, and went back up to the car. He called for a registration check, and nodded sharply when the answer came back. He went back down to the site.
"Mason," he said.
"Wallet," Dick said, holding it up. "And a woman's shoes."
Mac took the wallet and ran through the contents.
"Mason. Photo driver's license."
He knelt and shined the light in the dead man's face while he held the I D close.
He straightened up.
"Mason. OK, the next question. Where's the kid?"
Dick was already sloshing into the water, shining the bright beam light into the trunk, sweeping it into every nook and cranny.
"Nothing. Wait," he said, reaching down to the floor of the trunk. He touched something and lifted the fingers to his nose. He sniffed and shook his head hard, making a face.
"Shit!"
"What is it, Dick?"
"Shit! It's shit! Somebody's been inside this trunk."
"Damn it! What'd this creep do to the kid anyway?"
"Don't forget the shoes."
"A passenger?"
Dick shrugged and shined the light on the shoes. They looked at them for a few moments. Nothing came to them.
"Well, let's call this in. It looks like somebody came along just about the time Mason took the deep six. They must have found the girl, and taken her with them. Hell, she's probably nice and safe at home, or maybe a hospital. Let's go."
As they sat in the car, waiting for the investigation team to arrive, Dick suggested they have somebody call the local hospitals and find out if the girl was all right.
"Yeah, good thought. Let me try the kid's home number first. What was her name?"
Dick read it off his notebook.
"Leslie Brown. Hell, must be a hundred Browns in the phone book."
"Call Billings. He should have the number he got the call from."
"Oh, you are hot tonight!"
The call was made. Billings gave them the number. They had Dispatch call it for them, but there was no answer.
"Well, if she was safe at home, they'd answer. Let's try the hospitals."
"Ah, why waste the time?"
"Time is all we've got, Buddy. Right?"
"Yeah, true. OK, but you do it."
"Fine."
In a few minutes it was obvious that the girl was not at any of the local hospitals. Both men were getting worried.
"Oh, God! You don't really think some other creeps got hold of her?"
"Damn! I don't know! But who the hell else'd be driving a road like this at night."
"Wearing shoes like those!"
"Shit! Remember that fucking van! It pulled out of this road, just as we turned onto it!"
"Fuck a duck! Right!"
Mac started the car, and whipped it around, scattering dust and stones for yards behind them.
"Against procedure to leave the scene!"
"What scene?"
"Yeah, well, I'll call it in, just to cover ourselves. We do have some special dispensations, I guess."
"I guess," Mac said sarcastically. It was the job of a React Team to react, wasn't it? But it was always such a fucking hassle. But he had a daughter about this Leslie Brown's age, and if he ever found out two available cops had been sitting on their rotten little assholes while they could have been picking up his kid, there's be more than a little hell to pay!
He pressed the accelerator to the floor, swerving wildly out onto the main highway, his heart racing as madly as the car's engine.
In the back of the Van, young Leslie came around. She felt sick to her stomach, and her arms and hands hurt like hell.
"Ohhhhhhh," she moaned quietly, but suddenly she sat bolt upright and screamed!
She remembered what was happening to her. She clawed wildly at her mouth, trying to find the cloth that filled her throat! But it was gone!
And her wrists were no longer bound behind her back.
She looked around, and saw the grinning lady.
"Welcome back, sweetheart."
Leslie gulped hard. She was completely free of thongs. Her legs ached horribly, though. And her hands throbbed. She made a face at the awful smell inside the van.
"Don't get too fussy, little girl. That smell is you!"
Leslie became aware of the awful truth of the woman's words. She blushed bright-red. The van lurched.
"Hey! Watch the fucking road, ass!" Doris shouted.
"Piss off, baby!" Frank shouted back. "Is the bitch awake, yet?"
"Yeah!"
"Great! We're getting near Paul's place, and I bet we can dump her for a good thousand bucks!"
"Oh, yeah! That much for a shitty kid?"
Leslie couldn't believe what she was hearing! She was going to be sold?
But her body was in too much pain, her mind too foggy to really comprehend, let alone fight off, these two people. And besides, they had saved her from that horrible old man.
Leslie simply slipped over onto her side and closed her eyes. There was nothing she could do. Whatever was going to happen to her, was going to happen, and she was too weak to fight back.
At least, she wasn't tied up anymore.
She felt the bouncing of the truck as it rounded a sharp corner. It drove on for a mile or so, then made another very sharp turn, and jerked to a stop.
"OK, Doris. Keep the little bitch quiet while I do the talking. Got it?"
"Got it. Just get it done. We're almost out of the good stuff, and it's getting late."
Leslie listened with half an ear while Frank knocked on a door. Somebody with a deep, gruff voice welcomed him and asked about Doris.
"Never mind old Doris, Paul. Listen. I've found a really fantastic little girl for you. She's free and clear, too. Man, you ain't gonna believe it, but she was already kidnapped when we picked her up. She was all tied up in the back of the guy's car, and the stupid fucker was dead. Heart attack, I reckon, but it don't matter a fuck. She's yours, Paul, if the price is right."
The gruff voice laughed.
"What price, Frankie boy?"
"Uh, say, a thousand smackers?"
"She'd have to be one hell of a pretty kid, for that kind of shit."
"Oh, she is, Paul. She is. Come and look for yourself."
Leslie kept still. She heard the footsteps move to the rear of the van. Frank clicked the doors and pulled them open.
"Doris, snap on the overhead light for Paul!"
The light was bright in the child's eyes. She winced and turned her face toward the floor, covering her eyes with her forearm.
"Hey, Doris!" the gruff voice said. "How you doing with old Frankie here?"
"Just peachy keen, Paul," Doris said, her voice cold.
"Well, when you get tired of this creep, you know where you can find a home, Doris."
"Yeah, yeah. How about the kid, Paul?" Doris said.
"Turn her over, let's get a look at her."
Leslie moaned as she felt the woman's hand on her arm, pulling her arm away from her face, forcing her to flip over onto her back.
"Sit up, kid!" Doris commanded.
Leslie sniffled, then pressed herself into a sitting position, her palms flat against the cold floor of the truck.
She finally looked at Paul.
He was grinning at her.
"Hot fucking shit, Frankie! Haul that little sweetie out of there, and get her downstairs!"
"You like her, huh, Paul? Worth a thousand, ain't she!"
Leslie cringed backward as Doris yanked her arm forward. Frank reached in and grabbed her wrist, easily pulling her light-weight little body out of the van.
She didn't struggle.
Frank set her down on the gravel drive between them. She felt a trickle of cold fluid run down her leg and a tiny lump of her shit drop from the leg hole of her panties.
"She stinks," Paul commented. He shoved his thumb under her chin, poked hard, making her lift her face. "What's the matter, kid? Crap your little panties?"
Leslie felt hot tears trickle down her cheeks.
"Oh, how pretty she cries."
"Worth a thousand, ain't she, Paul?" Frank repeated eagerly, rubbing his hands together.
Paul rubbed the back of his knuckles over Leslie's bare tits. Her nipples remained soft and unresponsive.
Her body was shaking like a leaf.
Paul suddenly patted Frank on the back, hard.
"Frank, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you a thousand dollars for this little pussycat, and another five hundred just because she's so fucking cute! How's that sound?"
"Fantastic, Paul!" Frank shouted. Doris gave both men a whithering glance. "He's just trying to impress me with his money, Frankie."
"Piss off, Doris!"
"OK, OK, you two. No fighting, now! Let's get our little kitten here downstairs, and you can pick up your money and be on your way."
"Great!"
"Shut up, Frank," Doris whispered. Paul fell in beside Doris, and Frank pushed Leslie ahead of him toward a side door. He shook his head.
"Doris, love. What do you see in that animal?"
"Animal?" Doris asked sarcastically. "Animal? Just what do you call yourself, Paul?" Paul grinned. "Extremely wealthy."
They went inside, and down a long flight of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs there was a very solid-looking door. Paul pushed by Leslie and Frank, and unlocked two different locks with two different keys.
It was dark in the room.
Leslie felt a hand on her bare shoulder, and she took a step into the darkness, her heart pounding hard.
Suddenly, the room was blasted into brilliant painful light! Leslie squinted, her eyes watering freely. She stood still, waiting for someone to shove her again, but she didn't even hear voices. She turned around.
She was utterly alone in the room.
She heard some clicking at the door, then silence. No, not complete silence. She began to be able to pick out the quiet whisper of an air-conditioning unit.
And she began to shiver.
God, it was freezing in here.
She could feel the cold air flowing in a strong steady stream from the register near the ceiling. It had the chill of winter. She shook hard, and stepped away from the direct line of the blowing air.
She looked around the room. It seemed quite normal. Even pleasant. There was a nice looking couch against one wall. The two other walls were lined with bookshelves, and the shelves were filled with thick volumes that looked to be very old. And there was even a fireplace.
A nice thick rug lay in front of the fireplace.
And in the other walls, there were maybe a dozen narrow doors, like those to a closet. Leslie took a hesitant step into the very center of the room. She was shivering hard, her teeth chattering loudly. She wrapped her arms about herself, covering her small tits.
The cold air was doing to her what the lips and tongue of her captor had been unable to do. Her nipples were growing hard. Very hard!
Oh, how Leslie wanted to take a bath. She smelled bad, and she felt just awful.
She must have been inside the bright white room for five minutes when a loudspeaker overhead blared to life.
"Do you see the door with the little window, my dear?"
Leslie squinted at several doors before she spotted the tiny window.
"Yes," she said aloud.
"It is a bathroom. Please go in and clean yourself. Take a long hot shower. Brush your teeth. Comb your hair, after you wash it thoroughly. Is that clear?"
Leslie nodded at the loudspeaker.
"Yes, sir!" she shouted. She almost felt joyful at the idea of taking a shower. She walked across the cold tiles of the floor and opened the narrow door. Inside, the bathroom was quite a lot bigger than she had expected. She sighed.
But it was still very cold.
Quickly, she discarded her soiled clothing, all of it, and turned on the hot water. She slipped under the stream of blasting water as it warmed up, then turned on the cold water to make the temperature just right.
"Mmmmmmmmm," she moaned. The water flowed over her. It felt wonderful. She spent almost a full hour under the rushing jets of hot water, soaping her whole body three times and washing her long blond hair twice.
She nearly felt like singing.
They picked up the van as it passed the City Limits sign. Frank and Doris were yelling at each other, even as Mac and Dick walked up on either side of the truck, guns drawn.
"Come out of there!" Mac ordered. He crouched back away from the side of the van, and aimed his gun, holding it with both hands, at Frank's head.
Dick jerked the door open and grabbed Doris, slamming her up against the side of the trunk, the business end of his .38 pressed against the back of her skull.
"What the fuck's goin' down, man!" Doris shouted, her cheek pressed firmly against the side of the truck.
"Shut up, bitch! You better hope nothing's coming down!"
Mac held his pistol steady as Frank very slowly got out of the truck, his hands held high.
"Hey! Hey! OK! We done nothing wrong, man! OK! OK! You got all the right cards, man!"
Frank took up a position facing the truck that told Mac he'd been through this routine many times before. Interesting.
Dick walked Doris around to the same side of the truck. Doris didn't even look at Mac, she just shook her head in disgust at Frank. More interesting.
"Check the back, Dick."
"Got 'em?"
"Yeah."
Dick opened the rear doors, and flashed the light around inside. He was disappointed! Damn! This had been about their only real hope!
"Shit!" he said aloud, then he shouted to Mac. "There's some shit on the floor in here! She's been in the truck!"
The look on Frank's face told Mac all he needed to know.
"They know it! They know what's going on!" he called to his partner. Hot damn! They were really moving it, now! The poor kid had to be somewhere between the car in the river, and right here where they were standing!
"Let's hear it, you mother-fucking creeps! What'd you do with the little girl?"
"Nothin', man!" Frank shouted. Then he gulped hard, and glanced at Doris. "Uh, I mean, what kid?"
"Frank," Doris said slowly, shaking her head. "If you had a brain in your head, it would get lonely and commit suicide!"