The Case History
“As you know, we are here to review the history of your actions during the recent case. Perhaps you can start by telling us about the first person you visited.”
“Of course – this would have been last Saturday in the morning…..”
The sun was dawning as Kiera walked down the street towards her flat. She had spent most of the night sitting up with Mark after her date, and all she was thinking of now was getting back to her own bed for a few hours sleep.
The cool morning air was giving her a chill on her back – the black top she was wearing had only thin straps across her rear, and although it was a fashion statement it ill suited the spring weather. Her knee length white skirt was a bit warmer, but not much as she swung her handbag. With her light brown hair done up in a bun and her steel rimmed glasses, she could have passed for a secretary or a librarian if she had remembered to bring her coat, but as it was….
Arriving at the front entrance to her flat, she rummaged for her keys when a slurred voice beside her said “Ish this where Mandy liveshh?”
Looking round, she saw a girl with long blonde hair, wearing a red top which hung low at the front to reveal her breasts, and a short black skirt. She looked a little the worse for wear – just the sort of person her next door neighbour would expect to see at this hour.
“Yes, it is – I’ll let you in,” Kiera said as she unlocked the door and held it wide.
“Thanksh,” the other girl replied as the door swung shut behind them. “Top of the stairs,” Kiera mentioned as she found her own door key and opened the flat. As she pushed open the door, she got the surprise of her life as the blonde girl tightly clamped her hand over Kiera’s mouth, and holding a knife to her throat she whispered “Shut up and say nothing – just come into your flat and close the door.”
Nodding, Kiera walked in with the girl as the flat door swung shut behind them. “Into your bedroom,” the intruder whispered, and Kiera led the way to where her black sheeted bad was. Pushing the frightened girl face down onto the mattress, the blonde girl pulled a length of white rope out of her bag and held Kiera’s wrists together behind her back.
“Is this a robbery? If so, you can take it all,” Kiera said as her wrists were lashed together, the rope digging into her bare skin.
“Yes – and no,” the intruder replied as she put her knife down where Kiera could see it, and pulled a long length of white rope out of the bag she was carrying. Forcing the girl to sit up, she doubled the rope and passed it around her arms and chest below her breasts, pulling tightly and passing the rope several more times around Kiera’s body above and below her breasts.
Tying the rope off in the small of her back, the intruder then passed the rope over Kiera’s shoulder, through the lower of the tow rope bands and back over the other shoulder, before pulling it again around her wrist and wrapping the rope in a hitch knot of great complexity.
“Back on your face,” the girl said as Kiera was pushed back over. Looking over her shoulder, she could see her wrists were held parallel in the small of her back, and with little movement.
“Please tell me what’s going on,” she said as the intruder returned with a pair of her panties and a white belt from a short dressing gown she owned.
“Time to be quiet,” the girl said as she pushed the panties into Kiera’s mouth, then pulled the belt tightly between her lips and started to knot it at the base of her neck. Kiera grunted as the belt was tied tightly, keeping the cloth gag in place and preventing her complaining as the intruder proceeded to cross her ankles and tie them together with rope. As she pulled her ankles back and placed Kiera in a hogtie, she leant over and whispered into her ear “I’m going to have a look round, and then I’m going to call your daddy.”
Rolling onto her side, the bound and gagged girl watched as the intruder searched through her drawers, pocketing some things, before taking out a mobile phone and dialling a number.
“Hello? Here’s the deal – we have your daughter hostage as we warned you we would. You have one hour to do as we asked, or we kill her.”
Kiera squealed as the girl ended the call, picked up the knife and sat down, looking at her captive all the time.
“So after one hour, you received the call and left?”
“That’s right – at which point the other associate had moved on to the second target.”
“So,” the woman said turning to the red haired girl sat opposite, “tell me about your visit….”
“Can I help you?”
Anna looked at the woman standing on her doorstep, dressed in a red top and jeans.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, but my car has broken down and me phone battery is flat. Can I make a call from your phone for someone to pick me up?”
Thinking for a moment, Anna said “Sure” and held the door open. The visitor thanked her as she came in, and Anna went back into the kitchen to finish fixing her breakfast. She was wearing a dark blue vest top with a red floral print, a denim skirt and brown sandals, which made a soft noise on the floor as the visitor made her call.
“Everything all right,” she called as she heard the receiver being replaced.
“Yes, thank you,” the red haired woman replied as she clamped the damp cloth over Anna’s nose and mouth. She instinctively reached up to pull the cloth off, but the chloroform soon got to work and she fell into a deep sleep.
“Wh…. What happened?” Anna said as she slowly came round to find herself sitting in a kitchen chair. She tried to bring her hands round to rub her eyes, but found something was preventing her from doing that. Looking down, she saw a length of rope around her midriff, and feeling with her fingers she could sense the rope that was around her wrists as well.
She then tried to bring her feet up, but realised they were also tied to the legs of the chair. Screaming “HELP ME!!” at the top of her voice, she was surprised to feel a woman’s hand over her mouth and a female voice whispering in her ear “Just keep quiet and you will be all right.”
Looking to her side, she saw the woman from earlier holding a roll of red tape that she had used for wrapping parcels.
“You need to stay quiet for a while until I make some phone calls – are you going to resist me?”
“NNnnn” Anna whimpered.
“Good”, the intruder said as she released her grip over Anna’s mouth, tore a strip of tape off the roll and stuck it over her lips. The blonde haired captive sat helplessly as more and more tape was torn off and pressed on until her lower jaw resembled a red flag. Satisfied, the intruder picked up a mobile phone and Anan heard the following conversation.
“Hello? Here’s the deal – we have your daughter hostage as we warned you we would. You have one hour to do as we asked, or we kill her.”
“Don’t worry,” the red haired girl said as she ended the call, “I’m sure Daddy will do the right thing.”
The hour passed slowly, with Anna trying not to cry and the intruder flipping through one of her magazines, until a call came through. Listening to the other side, Anna’s captor nodded before saying “Time to move you.”
Releasing the ropes around her waist and ankles, and gathering them up, she took Anna by the arm and led her to her bedroom. Lying her face down on the bed, she proceeded to lash her ankles together and place Anna in a tight hogtie. Blowing her a kiss, she left the frightened girl struggling no the bed as she closed the door behind her.
“Very effective. At any rate,” the woman said turning back to the first girl, “you then proceeded as planned to your next target.”
“I did,” she replied nodding, “and reached there about two o’clock that afternoon.”
Madeline placed the shopping bag on her table and wiped the sweat from her brow. “I hate the weekly shop,” she muttered to herself as she started to unpack the items, unaware of the fact the kitchen door was opening quietly behind her.
The first hint she got was the cool breeze on the back of her neck. The second was the cold feel of the metal gun barrel in her back, and the voice saying “Don’t move.”
Madeline looked over her shoulder and saw a blonde haired woman standing behind her, a smile playing over her lips. “Very slowly, walk over to hat kitchen chair, sit down and put your hands by your side where I can see them,” the woman said as she placed a holdall onto the table beside the shopping bag.
“What is this and who are you?” Madeline asked as she did what the woman commanded.
“This is a robbery and I am a robber – now shut up and don’t move,” the intruder said as she opened the bag with her free hand and pulled out several skeins of white rope. Placing the gun where Madeline could see it, she unravelled a length of rope before kneeling down behind the girl and pulling her wrists together behind the chair back.
As she felt the rope tightening around her wrists, Madeline tried to memorise as much as she could about her attacker, as her father had taught her. About five foot ten, slim build but strong (as the tightness of the ropes was confirming), long blonde hair with dark roots, wearing a short black backless dress and heels.
Another length of rope was passed around her chest below her breasts and used to secure her to the chair back, before her wrists were pulled up behind the chair and secured to the second length of rope. A further length was then passed over her shoulders, through the band at the front of her chest, and back again before it was secured to the chair back.
“Look, if this is a robbery just take what you want. I’m not going anywhere – you don’t have to tie me up any more,” Madeline pleaded as yet another length of rope was unravelled.
“I know, but I like tying people up,” the intruder relied as she placed Madeline’s ankles together and started to lash the rope around them. Satisfied with the binding, she then pulled her feet back and secured the rope to the crossbeam at the back of the chair. She then tied her legs together above her knees with a final length, which was secured to the rope holding Madeline’s ankles in place. As a final touch, the intruder removed her captive’s shoes and placed them under the chair.
The woman looked at Madeline sat there. As she was wearing a sleeveless white blouse and a short floral print skirt, her clothing offered little or no protection from abrasion due to the ropes, so Madeline sat perfectly still as her captor examined her.
“I just need you to be quiet for a while now,” she said as she picked up a white napkin from the table, rolled it into a band and pulled it between Madeline’s lips, securing it in place at the base of her neck under her long red hair. The gagged girl then watched as her captor made a phone call.
“Hello? Here’s the deal – we have your daughter hostage as we warned you we would. You have one hour to do as we asked, or we kill her.”
Tears started to roll down Madeline’s cheeks as she realised what the woman was saying. She looked up again at her with a pleading expression and a soft whimper.
An hour passed wordlessly before another call came over the mobile phone. The blonde woman listened, nodded and then picked up her bag without saying another word. Madeline looked on as the door was closed on her.
“So, you had one more stop to make if I read this correctly”
“That’s right – one last stop to make, after a quick change of clothing, and then I was able to return here.”
“Thank god that’s over with,” Suzie mumbled as she went downstairs in her house. Algebra revision was done, and she could relax. She’d had to spend the morning at school, and had not changed out of her blue dress with thin straps and white short sleeved blouse that was the uniform.
Entering the room, she was rather perplexed to find someone else there. She was a tall woman, with straight jet black hair, with her upper body crammed into a black leather basque and a short black skirt. She was wearing fishnet stocking, black heavy shoes and a gem necklace around her neck, and was looking intently at Suzie.
“Good afternoon, Suzie – I’m glad you came down now,” she said with a smile.
“Who are you?” Suzie asked as she peered at the woman through her glasses. “Are you one of Daddy’s friends?”
“Sort of,” the Goth said as she stood up. “I have some business to do with your father, but I need your help first.”
“Well, he’s not here now, but if you come back later…. How did you get in anyway?”
“I forced the back door with this,” she said as she pulled a large knife out of the back of her skirt. “You would be amazed what I can do with this, Suzie, but I strongly recommend you don’t find out. Don’t scream, either, or you will discover how this can be applied….”
“Oh god, oh god, oh god….” Suzie whimpered as she stood there. “Please, don’t hurt me; I’ll do whatever you want……”
“I know you will, Suzie – come and sit on this couch in front of me, and keep looking forward.”
Suzie walked over to where the intruder was patting the cushion, and sat staring straight ahead, her left leg tucked under her bottom. The Goth smiled, then pulled Suzie’s wrists behind her back and started to wrap a length of cord around and between them.
“You’re hurting me,” Suzie whimpered as the rope was pulled tighter and tighter.
“Just relax – think of this as a learning experience,” the other woman said as she tied the last knot out of reach of Suzie’s fingers. “Now, I need you to be quiet for a little while. Just breathe naturally and you’ll be fine.”
Suzie watched as a large red bandana, folded into a cloth band, was placed in front of her and then pulled back over her mouth. She closed her eyes as the cloth was tightly knotted at the base of her neck, imaging herself in one of her Nancy Drew mystery novels as a way of allaying the fear.
That lasted for all of two minutes as she heard the intruder make a phone call.
“Hello? Here’s the deal – we have your daughter hostage as we warned you we would. You have one hour to do as we asked, or we kill her.”
“N – pls dnt klm,” Suzie mumbled through her gag.
“Relax – your father will do as we ask,” her captor said. “Now, lie back and lay your heads on this cushion.”
As Suzie tried to get comfortable, she watched the intruder place her black shoed feet together and rope being tied around her white socks. She lay there, watching her captor, for an hour until the telephone rang and the Goth sat there, nodding as she listened to the conversation. Standing up, she leaned over and kissed Suzie on the forehead before leaving the room, closing the door behind her.
The dark haired woman smiled and closed the case files.
“I must say, you did a remarkably good job. The idea of disguising yourself before your last visit was a master stroke.”
The blonde haired girl smiled. “I thought it would make it look more like random attacks rather than a co-ordinated effort. The help of this woman here with the second visit was also a master stroke – thank you for that idea.”
The red haired woman turned. “Do you think any of them will figure out the truth?”
“That we deliberately targeted the daughters of four of the directors to cover up the fact we’ve kidnapped the fifth and replaced her with a double?” The dark haired woman stood up, the warmth of her voice filling the room. “I do not think so.
“So, Penelope, do you think young Lilian here merits her uncle’s confidence?”
“I do, Madame. Welcome to our corporation, Lily,” Penelope said extending her hand.
“Thank you, Penny, Madame – I hope I will be of service to you.”
Lily smiled – she knew her uncle George had made the right move in sending her here.