Honeymoon for Three (24 page)

“What are you doing?”

“Duct tape. Marvelous stuff. Don
thoughtfully left a lot of it in the storage box.”

“Who’s Don?”

“None of your damn business. Now if you’re
through trying to run away, I’m going to be nice to you and let you
lie on the bed instead of the floor. Get up there but be quick
about it.”

Or Gary would show up. Did she dare to
stall? It was difficult for her to get up from lying on her stomach
with her arms taped behind her. When she took too long, Alfred
grabbed her by the arms and jerked her to her knees. She rose
slowly to her feet under her own power, but then he picked her up
and threw her onto the bed.

“You’re hurting me.”

“We don’t have time for your games.” Alfred
captured her feet and taped them together at the ankles. The side
windows of the camper beside the bed had curtains over them so that
nobody could see inside. The rear window was uncovered, but she
doubted that anybody would be able to see her through it unless he
was close enough to press his nose against it.

“I won’t be able to walk.” Or run away.

“No kidding. And just to make sure, I’ll
take your shoes.”

He ripped the sneakers off her feet without
bothering to untie them, and threw them into the storage cabinet.
He took a couple of steps to the driver’s seat, plunked down in it,
and started the camper.

“Where’s your knife?”

Alfred laughed as he drove away. “I don’t
have a knife anymore.”

“You stuck it in my back.”

“That was just a sharp rock I picked up. It
fooled you, didn’t it?”

That bastard. She could have gotten away and
alerted Gary. Well, he wouldn’t fool her again. “You won’t get away
with this.”

Alfred braked hard and pulled the camper to
a stop. What now?

“You sound like a bad movie.”

He was standing over her again with the roll
of tape. He tore off a length, and she understood what he was going
to do.

“Not my mouth. I won’t scream.”

“Damn right you won’t scream. And I’m tired
of hearing you talk.”

When she turned her head away, he shoved it
into the bed hard so that she couldn’t move it and pressed the tape
over her mouth.

Penny felt like a calf that has been roped
and tied by a cowboy at a rodeo.

CHAPTER 26

He should go to whomever passed for the
police in this part of the world. Gary was certain that Alfred had
somehow found them again and kidnapped Penny. What would he do to
her? Would he kill her? Gary couldn’t bear that thought. If he were
going to kill her, she might already be dead.

He had to assume she was alive and act on
that assumption. Any other thoughts led to insanity. He had to find
out where a police station was located. He was standing beside the
Beetle, sweeping the highway with his eyes, from north to south.
All he saw were a few cars and lumber trucks. Alfred was long gone
with Penny.

He should look at the map. He got into the
car so that he could study his map of California without the wind
blowing it. Humboldt County was an unpopulated area. Any sheriff’s
station would be south of here, perhaps at Trinidad or
McKinleyville. He could drive to them in a few minutes.

Which way would Alfred be taking Penny? Gary
remembered that he had been living in Lomita, very close to her.
Would he head in that direction? What would a rational kidnapper
do? Was there any such thing as a rational kidnapper? Was Alfred
rational? How could he be? He had killed one person; he had tried
to kill them. He was obsessed with Penny. Rational was not a word
that applied to Alfred.

Gary started the VW and headed south. He was
moving at close to the top speed of the little car when he caught a
logging truck. He couldn’t safely pass it, so he rode in its
slipstream. These trucks really moved, and although he was anxious
and impatient, he realized he couldn’t do much better than to
cruise in its wake. He arrived at the village of Trinidad in fewer
than fifteen minutes.

He stopped at the first gas station he came
to and asked directions. He found out that the sheriff’s station
was in McKinleyville, a little farther south. Another ten minutes
and he was there. He parked in front of the building and went
inside. When the deputy on duty asked him what he wanted, he
blurted out, “I think my wife has been kidnapped.”

***

Alfred was determined not to get stopped for
speeding. He had been stopped for speeding in Montana, and, as a
result, he been forced to give up his car. If he were stopped now,
the police would see Penny with the tape over her mouth. There was
no way he could hide her completely, unless he placed her on the
top bunk and crammed her into the back of the camper where she
wouldn’t be visible from ground level. He would have to tape her so
securely that she couldn’t move at all.

He wouldn’t do that, even if he could
somehow get her up there. Not if he wanted her to love him. He
could put a blanket over her head while she was on the lower bunk,
but the shape of her body would be suspicious to a cop. He would
just have to drive carefully. At least he wasn’t driving a stolen
car. Mattie had been very kind to him. He would have to return the
camper to her when he was through with it. Or at least write her a
note and tell her where to find it.

Alfred decided not to try to drive all the
way home in one day. It would be too hard on him, since he had to
do all the driving. He had a camper. He would find a nice
campground, north of San Francisco. Camping wasn’t so bad when you
had a vehicle like this. He had food and water. Penny would enjoy
it. She liked camping. They could do it if he could trust her.

In addition, he needed time to win Penny
over. The sooner he could do that, the better life would be. Maybe
he could do it tonight. Tomorrow he would drive the rest of the way
home. He couldn’t actually go to his apartment, at least not until
he knew whether the police were still looking for him. She and Gary
were moving into a new apartment. He and Penny would go there.
Instead of Penny and Gary, it would be Penny and Alfred. That
sounded better.

He would get back his job at the grocery
store, or maybe work at another one. Penny would teach. Alfred
would become a checker and maybe even a store manager. Penny would
be proud of him. They would live happily ever after.

***

Penny couldn’t remember when she had ever
felt more uncomfortable. Her arms ached from being behind her back,
and she had no feeling in her hands. She couldn’t separate her
legs. She had cramps from lying in the same position. She had to go
to the bathroom.

There was one ray of light. The single piece
of tape over her mouth was not completely effective. She had
attempted to open her mouth as soon as Alfred’s back was turned and
partially succeeded. She could talk—indistinctly—or even scream.
With further effort, by working her lips and jaws, she could
probably free her mouth altogether.

She had to pick the right opportunity, since
she knew that Alfred was watching her in the rearview mirror of the
camper. She could tell because she could see his eyes in the mirror
when she lifted her head and looked forward. She kept her mouth
closed, making it look as though it were still securely taped. She
didn’t want Alfred to double- or triple-tape her mouth.

Her discomfort had drowned out her fear. If
he were going to kill her, wouldn’t he have already done so? No, he
wanted her alive. At least for the moment. He seemed to change his
mind more often than the tide changed. If Darren, the gentle
janitor at Fenwick High School, could kill Emily, Alfred could
certainly kill Penny. He hadn’t shown much gentleness so far, and
he had already killed one person.

Were all men secretly like this? Did Gary
have a mean streak inside him, waiting to come out? Alfred was
definitely unpredictable. The only constant was his obsession with
her. He was taking her someplace. Perhaps back to Los Angeles. In
his twisted world, he saw them as a couple. Well, maybe she could
use that. But she couldn’t do a damn thing while she was tied
up.

She didn’t really believe Gary could act
like this. She was worried about him. What did he do when he
couldn’t find her? He must be frantic. He would contact the police,
but what good would that do? She had vanished into thin air. The
last thing she wanted was to make trouble for Gary, but she had
been nothing but trouble for him all during their honeymoon. What
if he decided she wasn’t worth it—that he was better off without
her?

She became angry at Alfred. The longer she
lay there, the angrier she became. What right did he have to ruin
her honeymoon—to ruin her life? If she got the opportunity, she
would be hard pressed not to kill him—and she was not a violent
person.

Maybe she never should have left
Connecticut. Connecticut was safe. Safe because it was home. Home
was supposed to be safe. She certainly wouldn’t have been able to
avoid Alfred if she’d stayed in Connecticut, but maybe it would
have been easier to handle him there. Or was she deluding herself?
Her best friend had been murdered just before her wedding. Did that
sound like a safe place to live?

In Fenwick, everybody nosed into everybody
else’s business and made judgments. That was one reason she had
left. People erected facades, and some things remained largely
hidden. The alcoholism of her father, for example. Her mother lived
with him and put up with him, but she should have divorced him long
ago.

There were a few people who didn’t bother to
look respectable. One of them was Katharine Hepburn. She had a home
in Fenwick. Kate would drive through town in a powder-blue Cadillac
convertible with the top down, sitting beside her lover, Spencer
Tracy, their scarves and hair flying in the wind, even though
Spencer was married and would never divorce his wife. Flaunting
their love for each other, flouting convention and respectability.
Kate also did good deeds, such as buying a new fire engine for the
town.

Penny had been to Kate’s home once. Kate
invited her because Penny was a founder of an organization composed
of teenagers who helped others. They baby-sat during elections so
that people could vote. One cold January they collected $1,200
worth of recyclable bottles, and presented the proceeds to the
March of Dimes Polio Fund. Kate gave Penny a dozen autographs, and
she never gave autographs.

Penny had to learn to be more like Kate. To
pursue her dreams without worrying what the world thought about
her. First, she had to get out of this mess. She would do whatever
it took to escape from Alfred, even if she had to do things the
folks in Fenwick would frown on—things a good girl didn’t do.

Penny rolled over onto her back with her
arms underneath her. She knew she could sit up from that position,
especially if she could get her legs over the side of the bed. To
do that, she would have to rotate her whole body 180 degrees. She
could scoot around, but Alfred would see her do it.

Could she risk it? Would that make him mad
because she would be more visible through the windows of the
camper? What would he do to her? Would he tie her so thoroughly
that she couldn’t move at all?

How long had they been driving? It seemed
like hours. Just when she couldn’t stand it anymore and was about
to sit up, regardless of the consequences, Alfred slowed and pulled
off the highway and stopped. He picked up a map from the seat
beside him and looked at it.

Penny hummed to attract his attention. She
kept her mouth closed so he wouldn’t realize that she could open
it. He turned around and looked at her.

“How is my sweetheart doing?”

I’ll sweetheart you, she thought. Take the
damn tape off my mouth, and I’ll tell you how I’m doing.

He got up and walked back to her. As if he
had heard her thoughts, he peeled the tape quickly off her mouth.
She pretended that it stung, although the actual pain was
minimal.

“Owww.”

“Sorry. There’s blood on your pillow.”

He actually sounded concerned.

“I don’t know about that, but I have to go
to the bathroom.”

Alfred seemed taken aback. “Uh, can you hold
it?”

“I’ve been holding it. Now I’ve got to
go.”

“I’ll get one of the cooking pots.”

“I’m not going in any damn pot. I’ll go
outside in the trees.” It wasn’t her favorite thing to do, but she
would if she had to.

“But you can’t walk.”

“Okay, Alfred, it works like this. Untape my
hands and legs and give me my shoes. I’ll go in the trees. I’m not
going to run away. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Where would I
run to?”

That was true. Dark woods loomed on either
side of the road. Hansel and Gretel woods. If she ran into the
woods, she would get lost. Or the witch would get her. She would
have to come back to the road at some point. There was no way to
elude Alfred. He apparently saw the truth of this. He took the
blanket off her and untaped her hands. She brought them around to
her front and started rubbing them together to get some circulation
back into them. Then he untaped her legs.

Penny had a momentary urge to attack Alfred,
but her hands and feet were barely working, and he would quickly
overpower her. She put on her shoes. He opened the sliding door and
stepped outside with her. He told her to stay in sight. She walked
a few feet into the woods and went behind a tree, trying to
preserve a modicum of modesty.

When she came back, Alfred said, “I think
you cut your head. Let me look at it.”

For the first time, Penny noticed the ache
on the top of her head. She remembered that it had been worse right
after Alfred grabbed her, but she had ignored it as being the least
of her problems.

Now he sat her on the floor in the doorway
of the camper with her feet on the ground. She didn’t have any
choice in the matter. He stood on the ground beside her and parted
her hair with his fingers.