Stolen (18 page)

Dale looked in her bag and found one right at the bottom. ‘But you’ll need more,’ she said. ‘I’d better nip out and buy you some.’

‘You’re an angel,’ Lotte said. ‘I wouldn’t like to have to ask Simon to get them.’

‘It’s nothing, I need some deodorant anyway.’

As soon as Dale was gone Lotte found she was a little unsteady on her feet, and realized she really shouldn’t have drunk wine on top of the pills she was taking. But she felt good, much less anxious about everything. It was great to have Dale around and to look back on all the fun they’d had together.

When the five rings came at the door bell she went straight to the front door and opened it, forgetting to look first at the small CCTV screen.

The moment she saw the two tough-looking men on the balcony she sensed they meant her harm and she tried to shut the door again. But she was too late – the older one had his hand on it, jamming it back.

‘You’re coming with us, sweetheart,’ he said. His voice was as rough as sandpaper. ‘We can do it the nice way or the nasty way, the choice is yours.’

Chapter Eight

The younger of the two men grabbed Lotte before she could even scream. He was holding her so tightly she couldn’t free her arms to fight him and he pushed a wad of cloth into her mouth. Then he spun her around and fastened her hands behind her back with what felt like a noose of thick string.

‘Right, down to the van now,’ the older man said.

Lotte glanced up to where the camera was fixed on the wall above the door, and saw to her horror that they’d covered the lens with something. She wouldn’t even have the security of knowing the police could identify the men.

‘Hold her like she’s drunk,’ the older man ordered the younger one. ‘Keep her face against your shoulder. I’ll go ahead and open the van door.’

Realizing these instructions were to prevent anyone passing though the lane becoming aware she was being taken against her will, Lotte was determined to make it as obvious as possible. Unfortunately the lane was a backwater; few people came through and as luck would have it there was absolutely no one about as the men took her down the spiral staircase. But she struggled anyway, pulling back on each step, butting her head against the man’s shoulder and kicking out at the banisters to make as much noise as she could.

‘Stop that or I’ll hurt you,’ her captor hissed at her, holding her even closer to his side and pinching her cheek hard. ‘I’ve got a knife and I’ll use it if I have to.’

They reached the bottom of the stairs and the older man had the door of the blue van open in readiness. Just as Lotte was being bundled in, she heard Dale’s voice.

‘What are you doing? Let her go!’ she yelled and although Lotte couldn’t turn to see her, she could hear her friend running towards the van.

Lotte wished she could yell out for her to take down the van number plate and run to ring the police, but she couldn’t speak with the cloth in her mouth. Sadly she realized that wouldn’t be Dale’s way anyway, she would fight to try to save her friend.

Lotte had been shoved into the van face down, and although she could hear Dale screaming loud enough to alert everyone in the surrounding buildings, suddenly it went quiet.

‘Quick, Alex, gag her and tie her hands before she comes round,’ the rough-voiced older man said, proving he’d knocked Dale out. ‘And let’s get the hell out of here.’

‘But we can’t take her too,’ the younger one gasped out.

‘We’ve no choice, she saw us.’

Lotte rolled over on to her side as the van door was slammed shut. The engine turned over and revved up but it was plain the driver was rattled for the van kangarooed forward in the wrong gear. It was dark in the back for there was a solid partition behind the driving seat and no windows in the back door, but there was just enough light coming through a ventilator in the roof for her to see Dale motionless beside her.

Lotte’s first thought was that Dale might not be able to breathe properly with a gag in her mouth, so she rolled herself over, then wriggled until her secured hands were by Dale’s face and pulled the cloth out of her mouth.

A low moan came from her, and Lotte wished she could get her gag out of her own mouth as apart from preventing her from speaking, it was making her feel sick.

‘Are you OK?’ Dale asked, her voice quavering through either pain or fear.

Lotte made a grunting noise in her throat and drew up her knees to prod her friend with her feet, hoping that would make her realize she needed her gag taken out too. Dale didn’t react, so Lotte turned over again and wriggled close enough so she could pinch her friend with her tied fingers, hoping that would give her the idea.

‘I think he’s broken my jaw, it hurts like hell and a back tooth is loose,’ Dale whimpered. ‘I shouldn’t have gone out and left you.’

Lotte grunted furiously, turning yet again so Dale could see her face.

‘Oh right, you’re gagged so you can’t answer me!’ Dale said.

Lotte couldn’t understand why Dale didn’t seem to understand that she’d got to remove the gag. Lotte grunted again, shook her head and wriggled closer, and at last Dale caught on. But instead of turning over to remove it with her fingers, she put her face on Lotte’s and pulled the cotton material out with her teeth. Lotte breathed a sigh of relief.

‘That’s the closest I’m ever getting to snogging you,’ Dale whispered. She was terrified but she felt she’d got to try to lighten the mood.

The two girls lay face to face with their hands tied behind their backs.

‘This van stinks of fish,’ Dale whispered.

‘Maybe it belongs to a fishmonger,’ Lotte said. ‘I wonder if it was these men who took me out to sea? Neither of them is the man who came to the hospital.’

Dale couldn’t imagine what the men could possibly want Lotte for, but their desperate measures implied it was something very serious. ‘That means there’s quite a few people involved in this, so we should make a plan,’ she urged. ‘They thought they were only going to have you to cope with; two of us will make it harder. When they get to wherever it is we’re going, I think we should play dumb and dazed, that way they won’t be on their guard. I’ll keep falling over and stuff, and that might give you the chance to leg it.’

‘I’m not going without you!’ Lotte said.

‘Don’t be a drip. It’s unlikely we can both get away. But one stands a chance and can get help. It’s best it’s you that goes. That punch I got really hurt and the shock might make me useless at running.’

‘But I’ve got bare feet,’ Lotte said. ‘I won’t be able to run unless it’s sand or grass, so it’ll have to be you.’

Dale sighed.

‘Besides, it’s me they really want, so they aren’t as likely to chase you,’ Lotte added.

‘Don’t be thick,’ Dale hissed. ‘I can identify them. They aren’t going to let either of us go easily. But you’re right, you can’t run with bare feet, so I guess it’ll have to be me. Hell, this must be something very serious for them to risk snatching us in broad daylight. I wonder how they knew where you were.’

The van was tossing them about, and with their hands tied they couldn’t prevent it. Lotte was so scared she was finding it hard to catch her breath.

‘I’m sorry I got you into this,’ she whispered, tears filling her eyes. ‘Do you think they intend to kill us?’

Dale didn’t answer immediately for she was weighing everything up. Although her heart was racing with fear, she felt the two men were just hired thugs, paid simply to capture Lotte. If that was the case they weren’t likely to be willing to kill, not unless they were offered more money. And that would take time for them to negotiate.

Dale whispered what she was thinking to Lotte. The van was too noisy for the men to hear anything over it, but it was as well to be cautious. ‘We’ve wrongfooted them, and we must make the most of it. We can play the girlie card, dumb and tearful, but we must keep our wits about us, take in everything about our surroundings.’

‘Did you take your mobile with you when you left the flat?’ Lotte asked, her heart leaping with hope.

‘No, I left it there with you.’

‘Oh.’ Lotte sighed in disappointment. ‘I suppose that would’ve been too much to hope for.’

‘Just a bit,’ Dale retorted. ‘What did they do with my bag? Is it in here with us? There might be something useful to us in it.’

Lotte managed to sit up and looked around in the gloom. ‘I think that’s it,’ she whispered, nodding towards the doors. She shuffled over on her bottom, then grasped the bag with her feet and shuffled back to Dale. ‘Sit up, turn your back to me and rummage through it. You should know by the feel of the stuff what it is.’

‘There’s a pair of nail scissors,’ Dale whispered as she thrust her tied hands into her bag behind her back.

‘Great, lift them out,’ Lotte said. ‘We’ll have to hide them on me, but feel for anything else first.’

A nail file was next, a pen, a small notepad and a lighter. Dale had a lot more things in there, including a bar of chocolate, the Tampax she’d gone to buy, even a condom, but none of this was stuff they felt the men would confiscate.

The girls almost saw the funny side of it as Dale with her hands tied behind her back attempted to slide the scissors into Lotte’s bra. ‘Shit!’ she exclaimed. ‘This is worse than Pin the Tail on the Donkey.’

The lighter went in her bra too, but the nail file, pen and notepad had to go in her jeans pocket for their shape made them impossible to hide anywhere else.

‘If we keep our mouths shut and don’t speak, they may not realize immediately that we’ve got the gags out,’ Lotte said as they tried to make themselves more comfortable by sitting up with their backs against the wooden partition. ‘Then if there’s anyone around we can yell our heads off.’

‘I wonder where we’re going,’ Dale mused. ‘In films people can work it out by the turns in the road, the steepness of the hills, but I haven’t got a clue.’

‘I feel we’ve gone west out of Brighton,’ Lotte said. ‘But that’s only because I was found near Chichester before. The fishy-smelling van suggests the coast, but that’s a needle-in-a- haystack scenario.’

‘Once the police see the men on the CCTV they’ll track them down,’ Dale said confidently.

‘They’d put something over the camera,’ Lotte recalled. ‘They did five rings, you see, so I thought it was you and opened the door without looking at the screen. I’m so sorry.’

‘Five rings?’ Dale said thoughtfully. ‘No one would do that just by chance. They must’ve been there this morning and heard me do it. That means they probably found you by following me.’

‘How did they know about you?’

‘Well, I was in the papers. I think the local one even said where I worked. But it’s really creepy to think someone’s been checking up on me, or hanging around to see where I go.’

‘I wish I knew what these people want with me,’ Lotte said fearfully. ‘I’m so sorry you’ve been dragged into it too. And Simon and Adam are going to be frantic when they find me gone.’

‘It’s better I was with you than you being alone,’ Dale said stoutly. ‘Together we can outwit them.’

Neither of the girls could see their watches to find out what the time was, and in the darkness it seemed as if they were travelling for hours. When the van slowed right down and turned sharp left, they guessed that they had left the main road. While there were a lot of bends and junctions, it was obviously still a very busy road because they could hear many other vehicles. But all at once there was no other sound but the van’s engine, and they concluded they were on a country lane.

‘Get ready, it can’t be far now,’ Dale said, wriggling down on to her side. ‘If I manage to make a break for it, try tripping up the one who goes to follow me – anything to give me a few extra seconds.’

They didn’t speak again, just lay side by side, their tied hands behind them, both immersed in their own thoughts and private fears. The van made a sharp right-hand turn, then continued on much slower than before, and they heard branches scrape its sides.

‘A remote place,’ Dale said, her voice trembling. ‘But if I can’t get away, at least we’ll have one another.’

The van turned right again and this time it practically had to squeeze between trees or hedges because these squeaked in protest on both sides of the van. Then it came to a stop.

‘This is it,’ Dale said when the ignition was turned off and they heard the men get out of the van. ‘Don’t forget, act dumb and dazed, stagger about like you don’t know what day of the week it is.’

The girls strained their ears to hear what was going on when the van doors weren’t opened immediately.

‘I think they must have gone to speak to someone,’ Dale said after a few minutes of complete silence. They could hear birdsong but nothing else, and it became hotter in the van as if it was standing in sunshine.

‘I might not be able to get away if there’s other people here,’ Dale whispered.

Lotte sensed that Dale was terrified she’d fail her and for some reason that made her feel stronger. ‘I’ll try and make some kind of distraction so you can,’ she said. ‘But if you can’t, then it doesn’t matter.’

It was some twenty long, uncomfortable minutes before they heard the men again.

‘What the fuck were we supposed to do?’ they heard the older one with the rough voice grumbling. ‘If we’d left her there that would be wrong too. He can sort this out, I’ve done my bit and I don’t wanna go no further.’

The girls had to assume he was talking to the younger man, but he didn’t answer. Suddenly the van doors were opened and bright sunshine flooded in, blinding the girls momentarily.

‘Come on out,’ the older man said, grabbing Lotte’s feet and pulling her towards the door.

Lotte didn’t open her mouth or struggle, just allowed herself to be manhandled as if she were a rag doll, and when her feet touched the ground she slumped against the man.

‘Is she OK?’ the younger one asked, pausing in hauling Dale out.

Lotte didn’t feel able to look around as that would confirm she was fit and well, but to her shock, some kind of thick cloth was suddenly slipped over her head, blotting out everything. Unable to see if Dale was now upright, or if she’d had her eyes covered too, all Lotte could do was scream and kick. Kicking with bare feet made little impression on her burly captor and he punched her in the stomach, which winded her and stopped her screaming.