Honeymoon for Three (25 page)

“You cut yourself. That’s what caused the
blood on the pillow. It’s stopped bleeding, but I want to clean it
up.”

Alfred stepped inside the camper and wet his
handkerchief at the tap of the sink. He started working on the cut.
Penny was surprised at how gentle he was. She thought she
remembered hitting her head on the trunk cover of the VW when he
grabbed her from behind and jerked her upright. It stung when the
water touched it, but she didn’t say anything.

How could she be angry with him when he was
taking such good care of her? That was a stupid question. He had
kidnapped her. He had hurt her. He might kill her. She had to stop
feeling sorry for him. Or whatever her feeling was.

“What do you want with me?” Penny asked.

Alfred didn’t answer immediately. She
couldn’t see his face because it was above her as he concentrated
on her head, being careful not to hurt her any more than
necessary.

After a pause, he said, “I thought we could
be happy together.”

In one way that was laugh-out-loud funny,
but she didn’t dare laugh. She had to set him straight, though. No
false pretences.

“Alfred, I’ve always liked you.” That wasn’t
really a lie. At least she hadn’t actively disliked him. But when
she didn’t see him, she never thought about him. If he had
disappeared, she wouldn’t have noticed. In her life he was a
nonentity. She couldn’t tell him that.

“I’m married now. I belong to Gary. I’ll
tell you what I’ll do. When we get back to L.A., I’ll fix you up
with some girls. I know some nice schoolteachers.”

Alfred didn’t say anything. He kept working
on her head. She suspected that he had completed cleaning the
wound. Maybe he just wanted to touch her. She was no psychologist,
but she realized that what she had said about fixing him up didn’t
register with him. For whatever reason, he didn’t want other girls;
he wanted her.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have lived near her
and spied on her. He wouldn’t have followed her on her honeymoon.
He wouldn’t have tracked her down again after he had lost her,
against great odds. He wouldn’t have killed a man. God, was she
responsible for that? That was more than she could handle right
now. It was time to try another tack.

“I’ll make you a deal, Alfred. I’ll stay
with you until we get back to L.A. Then you have to let me go back
to Gary.”

A rational person would see through this,
but Alfred had not been acting in a rational manner, as defined by
the norms of the human race. Would he accept half a loaf? She
wanted to create an atmosphere of trust so that he wouldn’t tape
her again, but she also didn’t want him to get his hopes up too
high. Why not? Why should she care what he felt?

If he accepted her terms, she could watch
for an opportunity to escape. Escape back to Gary’s arms.

Alfred stopped working on her head and
showed her the handkerchief. It had the yellow and black stains of
clotted blood on it. He washed it with water from the faucet. She
sat and looked at the trees while several minutes went by. When he
didn’t speak, she tried again.

“We might go by the coast.”

The coast road, Route 1, was the long way,
farther and slower than heading straight down 101. They would have
more time together. Prolonging the trip could work to her
advantage.

It would give Gary and the police more of a
chance to find her, on the relatively unpopulated coast, rather
than in Los Angeles where, in spite of any promises Alfred might
make, he could easily decide not to release her. People could get
lost in the wilds of L.A. Gary might never find her there.

Penny went to the front seat and looked at
the California map. She knew approximately where they were.

“Route One cuts off at Leggett. We can
follow Route One to just north of San Francisco. After we cross the
Golden Gate Bridge, we can follow Route One again to San Luis
Obispo. This is such a beautiful part of the country; we should
take our time going through it.”

Baiting the hook, dangling the lure. Would
he bite?

Alfred sat in the driver’s seat and followed
her finger on the map. He looked into her eyes—a look that showed
he wanted to believe her. Wanted to believe that she cared a
little. She gazed back at him with as much sincerity as she could
muster. She might be able to escape at a campground. Or at a gas
station. If not, she would face the problem of what Alfred wanted
to do with her at night. She would worry about that later. One
problem at a time.

“I have food, but I need to get gas.”

“I’ll be your navigator.”

Alfred looked almost apologetic. “I can’t
take that chance. Please get back on the bed.”

“Are you going to tape me again?”

He nodded, looking miserable.

“Okay, but tape my hands in front. My
shoulders are killing me.”

There was no use trying to fight him. He was
bigger, stronger. She had to pick her opportunity. She lay on the
bed. First he taped her legs. Any hope she might have had of him
taking it easy on her evaporated when he made her place her arms
behind her back. He taped her wrists together. Then he bent her
legs behind her and pulled them up toward her hands.

“What are you doing?”

“Taping your hands and feet together.”

“No, absolutely not. I’ll…get cramps in my
legs.” She was flexible from her days as a cheerleader, but this
was probably a true statement.

Nevertheless, Alfred insisted on doing it.
He had seen her turn over when she was taped before. She would
barely be able to move with her arms and legs taped together. He
obviously didn’t want her to attract any attention when he got gas.
When he had finished, he taped her mouth, in spite of her protests,
and placed a blanket completely over her. She felt even more
helpless than she had before. Would she ever see Gary again?

CHAPTER 27

The sheriff’s deputy, Officer Radziwill,
didn’t seem to believe Gary’s story at first, and Gary couldn’t
blame him. It sounded like something out of the Brothers Grimm. A
phantom spiriting his wife away. The officer thought that perhaps
Penny had wandered off somewhere. She might be lost in the woods.
Gary persisted. He didn’t want a search effort to be misdirected.
He asked the deputy to call Detective Landon in Montana to confirm
that Alfred had pictures of Penny and was probably a killer.

After the call, the officer treated Gary
with more respect. In fact, because Alfred was undoubtedly on the
move, he called in the California Highway Patrol, which had an
office a short distance away, and they sent an officer over. The
representatives of these two agencies didn’t think it was a case
for the F.B.I. yet. They wanted proof that a kidnapping had
actually occurred and that it might cross state borders.

Unfortunately, Gary couldn’t tell them what
kind of vehicle Alfred might be driving. They agreed to check for
stolen cars. One thing that Detective Landon had done was to
coordinate with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and ask
them to keep an eye on Alfred’s apartment in Lomita. They had
alerted his landlord, who would call them in case he returned to
it.

He might never return to his apartment.
There was a lot of space between here and Lomita where he might be.
He had Penny with him. What was he doing to her?

After Gary had told the law enforcement
people all he knew, he left the sheriff’s office, bereft and
discouraged. He couldn’t expect much help from them. He agreed to
stay in touch with them and let them know how they could contact
him, but he had to do something on his own.

He thought about calling Penny’s parents.
That would scare the hell out of them, and what would it
accomplish? They couldn’t do anything. He thought about calling his
parents—or his aunt and uncle, since his parents were in Europe.
Same problem. What he needed most was support, which they couldn’t
give him from across the country. Maybe he and Penny should have
waited and had a traditional wedding back east.

Was he the one who had wanted to elope or
was it both of them? If something happened to Penny, would it haunt
him for the rest of his life? Yes.

He drove south slowly on Route 101, trying
to look at the passengers in all the vehicles that passed him in
either direction. A lot of good that did. He came to Leggett where
Route 1 started (or ended if you were heading north) and went to
the coast while 101 continued south in more of a straight line.

He stopped for gas while a new fear seized
him. Up to now, he had assumed without really putting words to it
that he was following the route Alfred and Penny were taking, and
that, therefore, at least a chance existed that he might spot them.
Now he had to make a choice. Which way would they go?

After his gas tank was filled, Gary parked
in a corner of the station and tried to block out his fear for
Penny long enough to think rationally about what he should do. It
wasn’t easy, but with effort he gained some semblance of control
over his mind. Alfred wanted Penny all to himself. He would like to
live with her in L.A., but he must realize by now that L.A. was a
dangerous place for him, especially if he returned to his
apartment.

Penny would be trying her darndest to escape
from Alfred. She might feel that it would be easier to escape from
him in L.A. than up here, especially since escaping where there
weren’t any people around to help her might not gain her
anything.

On the other hand, she would want to stay as
close to Gary as possible. If she had any control over Alfred at
all, she might try to influence him to go somewhere Gary might find
them, such as a campground.

Gary made his choice. He headed toward the
coast. He would drive through every campground between here and San
Francisco on Route 1. There were a lot of them, but it would keep
him busy.

***

When Alfred stopped the camper, Penny heard
him get out and close the door. She assumed he had stopped for gas.
She couldn’t see anything because the blanket was still over her
head. She had worked the tape partially loose from her mouth again,
but she doubted that screaming would help her situation, and it
would certainly bring his wrath down upon her. Anyway, she didn’t
think that she could open her mouth wide enough to scream loudly so
that she could be heard outside the camper. The blanket would
muffle any noise she made. She couldn’t get the blanket off her; in
fact, she could hardly move at all.

She waited for Alfred to reenter the camper,
screaming internally from the pain of the cramps in her muscles.
She needed him to untape her and agree to a new set of rules
immediately, before the pain completely destroyed her.

After half an eternity, she heard him get in
and close the door. He started the engine and pulled away from the
gas station. She started humming as loudly as she could. Humming
was the only noise she could make without giving away the fact that
her mouth was not securely taped, and she didn’t know whether he
would hear her over the noise of the engine.

Alfred drove for several minutes. If he
didn’t react soon, Penny was prepared to risk giving away her
secret by screaming out loud. Then he slowed down. Maybe he was
looking for a place to pull over. After another minute, he stopped
the camper and came back to her. First he took the blanket off her.
She looked at him, her eyes wide, grateful to be able to see again,
but humming loudly to tell him to rip the tape off her before her
limbs froze in their current position.

Moving in what seemed to Penny like slow
motion, he pulled the tape off her mouth, and she blurted, “Damn
it, Alfred. My legs are killing me.”

This had an effect on him. He set to work
immediately, tearing the tape off. When he had her arms and legs
separated, Penny straightened her legs with a cry.

“The backs of my thighs are tied in
knots.”

Alfred looked contrite. He rolled her onto
her stomach and started massaging her upper thighs through her
slacks while Penny directed him. Gradually he kneaded the knots out
of her muscles. Although his hands came close to her genital area,
he made no effort to touch her there, even though it would be easy
for him since her wrists were still taped together.

This surprised Penny. What kind of a man was
he? She still didn’t have him figured out.

When the pain finally stopped, she said,
“Now take off the rest of the tape. And never do that again.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you. We won’t have to get
gas again until somewhere south of San Francisco.”

She wasn’t ever going to let him tape her
that securely again. She would die first.

“Are you going to let me sit in front and be
your navigator now?”

Alfred hesitated. “If you start signaling to
people or yelling out the window…”

“I won’t. I promise.”

She didn’t promise she wouldn’t jump out of
the camper if they stopped in one of the villages along the way.
She went forward and sat in the passenger seat and looked at the
map. Fort Bragg would be a good place to make her escape. A center
of population meant people. People meant protection.

Alfred must have read her mind. He was about
to drive away when he glanced sideways at her. Maybe she looked too
happy. He shut off the engine and got the duct tape.

“You said you weren’t going to tape me.”

“Just your legs. So you don’t jump out.”

Aarrgg. She argued with him. He was adamant.
If she wanted to ride in front she had to have her legs taped. The
alternative was for her to lie on the bed. She couldn’t take the
bed anymore. She let him tape her legs, but she didn’t give in
easily. He did it in such a way that it would be time consuming for
her to untape them. Then he taped her legs to the seat. He also
took her shoes.

Alfred got out of the camper, walked around
the front, and opened her door. What was he up to now? He made sure
her window was rolled up all the way. He securely taped the window
crank so that she couldn’t open it. She had told him she wouldn’t
shout out the window. He still didn’t trust her. He also taped the
door lock in the locked position. He’d thought of everything.