Zeke (30 page)

“Did you get the feeling that Sue
was being held against her will?”

Dilly paused to consider the
question. “I’m not sure. She could have just walked away from him when they were
inside the building, but she didn’t. I think maybe she wants to be with him
even though she wasn’t all that thrilled with some of the stuff he wanted us
all to do.”

“Like what?”

“I’d rather not say, but he
definitely calls the shots. I could tell that.”

Will knew there was a lot more to
the story, but Dilly was finished talking.

“That’s really all I can tell you.
I just want to forget the whole thing, you know?” Before Will could ask any
more questions, Dilly had hung up.

Will handed the phone back to Candy.

“Thank you. That helped me a lot.”

“You’re welcome. I hope you find
her, and that she’s okay.”

“Me too,” Will stated as he wove
back through the filmy garments and left the boutique.

Once back in his car, Will smacked
the steering wheel with the palm of his hand in frustration. His gut feeling
had just been vindicated; he was now convinced Sue Cox’s situation was unstable
and that she could very well be in danger. He wondered if she knew it yet. He
shook his head. The things some people would do to feel loved and accepted
often appeared crazy to outsiders looking in. While he suspected the girl was
not as innocent as her parents believed, he also felt confident she had still
been fairly naive and that she was out of her league. Will slipped his cell phone
from his shirt pocket and punched in the number of his office.

“Hey. Got some news.” He updated
Roxie on the recent information and gave her the vehicle info. He waited while
she ran the plate through the computer and wasn’t surprised when she told him the
tag belonged to a 2004 Honda Civic. “Hasn’t been reported stolen. Owner
probably doesn’t even know his tag was switched out.”

“Try to contact the owner of the
Civic and find out what tag he has now. I doubt if it’ll help, but it’s
something to try.” Then he told her what he’d learned in town.

He heard her gasp when he told her
about the bite marks and Dilly’s experience. “Roxie, I think this case has gone
from important to urgent.”

“I agree. Let’s hope the bastard
doesn’t snap before you find them,” Roxie said.

“I hear that, but I’m not entirely
sure how to proceed from here.” He sighed. “Damn it. It looks like I just
missed them by a few hours. Good news is, I’m closing the gap. I guess I’ll
stay on the main highway and just keep checking gas stations and whatnot. They
seem to be paying cash everywhere they go, so that will narrow it down. Why
don’t you put Melvin on the motel angle? Have him call places ahead of my
location to see if he can get a handle on them.”

“Okay, Will,” Roxie replied. “You
want me to call her folks and update them?”

“Yeah, that’d be great. But don’t
mention the bite marks and stuff.”

“I know that, Will. I wasn’t born
yesterday.”

“Sorry. I’m just so damn worried.” He
paused, thinking about a contact he had at the local police department. “Why
don’t you get Jordan on the line and see if they’ve had any reports come
through on this vehicle. Someone might have seen it. In the meantime, I’ll just
struggle along, get back on the road.”

Roxie agreed and Will disconnected
the call. He rubbed his eyes. He had a bad feeling, really bad.

Tied to a Chair

Sue had fallen asleep in the back
of the van somewhere after Zeke apologized. When she awoke, she had no idea
where they were or what city they were in. Night was encroaching, the sky
darkening. Zeke had parked outside an apartment building slated for destruction
and crawling with shadowy homeless people, derelicts, and junkies. She had seen
a few of them as she and Zeke picked their way over the debris to the dark
doorway, and they frightened her even more than Zeke did.

“Oh, yea. This is gonna be fun,
Susie.” Zeke led her to an abandoned apartment on the second floor and told her
to strip.

“But Zeke! Anyone could walk in
here,” she said.

He turned a fierce gaze on her. “I
know. That’s part of the fun.”

Sue thought differently. Her hands
shook as she dropped her skirt and blouse to the floor, followed by her boots
and socks. Gooseflesh decorated her arms as the air painted them with a frigid
brush. Despite her discomfort, she didn’t want to anger Zeke. He had been
acting peculiar since they left the gas station, agitated and snappish though
she tried to placate him at every turn. She hoped by going along with his
newest fantasy, she could assuage his escalating discontent. Standing naked
before him, she trembled, awaiting further instructions.

“Tie your legs together.” Zeke
tossed her a rope. There were a couple more lengths hanging from his back
pocket.

When she looked aghast, he simply
said, “Do it.”

His tone told her he would tolerate
no argument. She fumbled with the rope and tried to wrap it around her ankles
loosely so it wouldn’t chafe, but her fingers were trembling when she made the
knot. When she stood, the rope fell away.

“I told you to tie your legs!” he
growled.

“I tried,” she sobbed. “It didn’t
stay.”

“Don’t you even know how to tie a
knot, you idiot?” He glowered at her. “You should have learned that in
kindergarten. If you weren’t so busy humping your dad like a little slut, maybe
you could have learned how to tie a simple knot!”

Sue stood in shock, unable to speak
as his words stabbed into her.

“Just forget it!” He yanked the
rope out of her hands and pushed her toward an old straight-backed chair.

“Now bend over that chair and grab
the legs.”

Sue picked her way carefully over
the dirt and debris, silent sobs racking her body. Crusty particles adhered to
the soles of her feet. Probably rat droppings. The disgusting thought pushed
through her despair. She bent over the grimy metal chair, its surface ice cold
against her bare flesh. The filth from the floor gouged into her knees. Zeke
knelt and tied each of her wrists to separate chair legs. She shivered
uncontrollably now.

“It’s your fault I have to do
this,” he told her. “Things would have been different if you hadn’t made that
phone call and spoiled everything. Now that I think about it, it’s not the
first time you’ve stabbed me in the back, is it? If you hadn’t messed things up
with Dilly, I’d already have this out of my system.” He went around behind her,
spread her legs, and tied each above the knee to separate chair legs, leaving
her exposed and vulnerable. “I wonder what other stunts you’ve pulled, things I
haven’t found out about yet.”

She wanted to resist, but knew if
she balked she would pay a price. It wasn’t like she’d really had any choice in
the matter. If she screamed here, she’d draw out all the weirdoes and sickoes,
and god only knew what would happen then.

He walked away where she couldn’t
see him. She heard him rummaging around on the other side of the room. His
voice lowered to a harsh whisper.

“I’m going to punish you now,
Susie, for being a lying little sneak,” he said. “I’m going to show you what
happens when trust is gone. I’m going to teach you not to ruin my plans ever
again. You need this. You have to learn the right way to do things. You have to
learn not to hold me back.”

“Zeke, honey, I’m so sorry.” Her
pleading carried a note of panic. “I never meant to hurt you; you’ve got to
believe me.”

“Hurt me? Is that what you think
this is about? Don’t flatter yourself, you
sanctimonious
little twat.
You don’t have the power to hurt me.”

“Okay, okay. Maybe I chose the
wrong word. But you know what I’m saying. I’m sorry I disappointed you. Please
give me another chance. Let me prove how much I love you.” She tried to sound
sincere.

“I’m not stupid, Sue. You don’t
love me.” She heard his zipper slide down, but still he didn’t approach her. When
the first slap hit her buttocks, she was shocked. He had crept up on her. Using
the flat of his palm, he smacked her again several times. Her skin burned. She
looked at the floor and watched her tears fall into the dust. She braced
herself for the next blow, but his footsteps receded. She shook with fear,
humiliation, and cold.

Zeke had placed a few flashlights
around the room; but they did nothing to dispel the gloom. When she raised her
head, she could see the gray sky growing darker through the broken windows, a
weak drizzle made light tapping sounds against the remaining panes.

Next, she felt the feathery touch
of Zeke’s hand on her skin. He had snuck up on her again. Something cold and
metallic slid down her back and made lazy circles over the skin of her
buttocks. She couldn’t tell what it was, but it didn’t hurt. She could hear him
breathing, but neither of them spoke. He withdrew the cold thing and walked
around to the other side of the chair. She saw his legs, his boots. Then he
squatted in front of her.

“Want to see what I have?” he
asked, a smile in his voice.

She shook her head and closed her
eyes. He grabbed her hair and forced her head up. “Open your eyes.”

It was Big Ben. Icy fear coiled in
her belly like a serpent. She hoped this really was just a game. She had never
felt so vulnerable in her life.

“I was using the handle on you,”
Zeke said, conversationally. “But next time, I might turn it around. You know,
I had planned to introduce Dilly to Big Ben, but it didn’t work out. You’re
lucky I’m in love with you. Know what I mean?”

Sue sucked in her breath, afraid to
answer. He made her nod her head like a puppet, still holding onto her hair.
“Here’s what I think. I think you tipped off Dilly somehow, spooked her. You
ruined my fun, Sue. You’re never going do that again, are you?”

He shook her head no and then
released her hair and walked to the doorway. She heard his footsteps in the
hall, the clump of his boots on the stairs. Then there was silence.

She exhaled and tried to take stock
of her circumstances, grappled with questions. What was in Zeke’s head? He had
left her, naked and tied to a chair in a crumbling tenement teeming with
derelicts and crack heads. Maybe he had tricked her. Maybe he hadn’t really
abandoned her. Maybe he’d come back.

Time passed and her senses became
acute. Trembling violently from cold and dread, she clinched her bare buttocks.
The shadows in the room hung heavy with menace. If she could only get free of
the ropes, she’d grab her clothes and sneak into a different room to dress.
Then she’d run from this place, flag down a cop, or beg some shop owner to call
the police. Just imagining her escape flooded her with relief.

Twisting her arms this way and
that, she struggled to loosen her bonds, but the ropes dug into her skin. Pain
forced her to stop. Defeated, she slumped against the chair and gave herself
over to quiet weeping.

Shadows formed outside the thin
beams of the flashlights. The thick silence surrounding her came alive with
furtive noises: creaking, whispering, skittering. Slowly, other sounds made
their way to her ears. She could hear the inhabitants calling out to each other
every so often from other floors, their voices echoing faintly along the
stairwell and bouncing off the walls. She could hear their shuffling movements
down the long hallways either downstairs or up, or maybe in other dark
apartments. She could smell their waste, taste their desperation.

She wondered if rats would come and
bite her, maybe chew off her fingers and toes. She now had serious doubts
whether Zeke would come back, and debated calling for help. But what if the
people who answered her cries were worse than Zeke? Then an idea slithered into
her mind. Maybe he was waiting in the hall, filled with silent mirth over her
predicament, the sadistic bastard. Maybe he was testing her loyalty in some
bizarre way. A steady trickle of fear dripped inside her. Toxic. Chilling.

Deep regret rolled through her.
What a fool she had been to up and run off with someone she hardly knew. She
suddenly missed her mother, her father, and her home. Helpless tears flowed.
She saw their faces in her mind, but it brought her shame and she pushed the
images away. She wasn’t their little girl anymore, a daughter they could be
proud of and cherish. She was soiled, ruined.

A thumping on the stairs drew her
attention. Footsteps. Coming closer. But, it sounded like more than one person.
Zeke burst into the room. “Honey, I’m home!”

Finally! He’ll untie me. Laugh
at the joke, even though it wasn’t funny.
She pushed out a weak chuckle as
she turned her head, trying to see, but he circled around and approached her
from behind.

“Okay fellas, she’s all yours.” He
patted her bottom. “She’s got a fine ass, doesn’t she?”

She turned her head toward the
doorway and made out a couple of figures in the dim light. They shuffled toward
her.

“You want to go first, man?” A
whisper issued from the dark.

“No, you go ahead.”

Sue felt strange hands on her hips,
stroking her, sliding down the sides of her legs, and over the rope binding her.
The man backed off quickly. “Dude, this woman’s tied up,” he called over his
shoulder. “What the hell’s wrong with you? I thought you said she wanted this.”

“She does,” Zeke said. “She likes
to be tied up. It’s a game. You don’t hear her complaining, do you?”

“I don’t know.” He was dubious now.

“If you’re not gonna do anything,
move outa the way.” The second guy dropped his pants to his knees.

“My man!” Zeke said merrily.

The willing stranger knelt behind
Sue and searched her backside with probing fingers. He found what he sought and
mounted her. “It’s okay, girly,” he said. “You’re gonna like this. The ladies
tell me I’m pretty good.”