Captured at Home
“This wasn’t in the job description,” Annie thought as the armed man stood in front of her.
As the PA to Dyane L’Eson, a well known fashion designer, Annie had expected to establish contacts in the industry as the first step to finding her own niche to work within. It was hard work – Dyane was a notoriously hard taskmaster – but Annie was enjoying the work.
When she drove up to Dyane’s house this particular morning, the only thing on her mind was the lunchtime meeting with clients that she had to help Dyane prepare for. What she was not expecting, as she climbed out of her silver Porsche, was to be confronted by two men armed with small pistols, and telling her to put her hands in the air and say nothing.
Annie was dressed for the warm summer weather – a silk sundress, made with a blue and silver pattern that shimmered in the sunshine and black waistband and v-shaped trim, with a halter neck and brown sandals, which showed off her tanned body. She watched the man in front of her looking at her body, as his partner felt her body to ensure she was hiding nothing.
“She’s clean,” the man said as he came round and stood in front of her. The other man pushed the pistol into the waistband of his trousers, and pulled a skein of white rope from his pocket,
“Hands in front of you, with your wrists crossed.”
Annie did as she was asked, and he began to wrap the unravelled rope around her wrists, pulling tightly with each pass, and cinching the rope between her wrists before tying it off.
“Right – you lead the way into the house, and say nothing.”
The two men pushed Annie in front of her towards the door, and opened the door to let her in.
“Is that you, Annie?” a voice called out and Dyane came into the hallway. She was wearing a short sleeveless black cocktail dress and strapped high heels, and a string of pearls was around her neck.
“Good morning, Ms L’Eson,” the man said as she stopped in her tracks. “Do nothing, say nothing, and we will all get through this in one piece.”
“What do you want,” she said.
“I’ll talk to you about it in there,” the man said as he pointed to the door Dyane had just come out of. “My colleague is going to make sure your assistant is well taken care of. Move.”
As he took Dyane by the arm and led her back into the room, the other man took Annie into the dining room. He pushed her into a wicker chair, and she stared at him through her long dark hair.
“Put your feet up on the chair,” he said taking a second length of rope from his pocket. Annie watched as he unravelled and doubled the rope over, and proceeded to tie her ankles together in front of her. She rested her arms on her raised knees, and bowed her head as tears started to come down her cheeks.
Cinching the ropes between her ankles, the man left the end lengths of rope dangling as he stood up and started to unravel more rope.
“Sit up and keep quiet.”
Annie sat up; placing her feet on the floor, and the man took the trailing lengths of rope and secured them to the metal leg of the chair. Taking a third of length of rope, he wrapped it around Annie’s thighs, pulling the hem of her dress up slightly to get a better view, and lashed her legs tightly together. With her bound wrists resting on her lap, Annie was in no position to say anything, even when she heard the other man saying “Sit down and don’t move” to her boss in the other room.
“What are you doing to her?” she asked as the man pulled her wrists forward onto her legs and secured them to the rope around her legs.
“Business – that’s all,” the intruder said as he stood up and looked over his bound victim. “Now sit back and make yourself as comfortable as you can.”
Annie allowed herself to slide back into the chair as far as her bonds would allow her. She was about to speak when the man pushed a rolled up cloth into her mouth and smoother a length of sticky plaster over her mouth. She tried to call out, with little success, as the man left her in the room.
In the front room, Dyane was sitting on a red couch, looking at her legs. Her arms had been pulled behind her back when the man took her into the room, and then sat her down before tying her ankles together with rope, cinching it between her ankles. Similar bindings were around her legs below her knees, and a further length of rope used to tie her feet together over her shoes, wrapped around the heels with the final ends.
Dyane tried to move her legs and twist them round, to no avail, as the other man came back into the room.
“What do you want?” She asked as she watched the two men talk to each other.
“We want the designs for your next collection, that’s all,” the first man said as his partner walked out of the room. “We already know where they are, so we just need to make sure you and your assistant are kept secure and out of the way. So, the question is, can we trust you to keep quiet while we go about our work?”
Dyane stared defiantly at the man. “What do you think?”
The man looked closely at Dyane, and nodded. “I guess not – open wide then.” From his pocket, he produced a black ball gag with leather straps that he waved in front of Dyane.
“As you can see, we tried to match your outfit,” he said as he gently pushed the rubber ball into Dyane’s mouth, and secured the straps behind her head. She closed her eyes and turned her head to the side as he stood beck up, wondering what she could do next to try and escape.
“You’re wondering if you can escape – allow me to disabuse you of that notion,” he said as he unravelled yet another skein of rope, and began to tie her legs together above her knees. She tried to twist her legs as he did this, only to force him to pull tighter and force the legs more tightly together.
Taking another length, he passed the rope behind Dyane’s back before passing the ends under her arms, and passed them through the ropes around her thighs before looping it again and again in front of her around the two lengths, like a noose. This not only pulled the two lengths together, but pulled her legs more tightly together and made it impossible for Dyane to move her chest without moving her legs as well.
“Uff,” she grunted as the last knot was tied and she looked up at him.
The second man came back into the room, carrying a portfolio case that Dyane recognised as the one with all her new designs in there. She tried to call out “Stop” to him, but all that came out again was “Nommmpph!”
“You don’t mind if we pass these onto our clients, do you? I know it means your exclusive range may be in the high street before you are ready, but it does make us fairly well off.”
Anger and frustration flared in her eyes as she watched the men carry the portfolio out of her house, and heard the front door closing. Shutting her eyes, she tried to scream out for help, and try to twist her legs and body to loosen the ropes around them, but to no avail. Stamping her feet on the ground, she tried to call out to Annie.
“Nnie? Cn u hr m?”
“Hlp m, Dn – I cnt mv.”
“Hld n.”
Sliding forward on the couch, Dyane allowed her bottom to drop onto the wooden floor, which gave a little bit of slack to her legs. She slowly shuffled across the floor and out to the corridor, where through the open door she could see Annie secured to the chair, mascara stains down her face and her eyes looking wildly at Dyane through her long hair.
Dyane shuffled over to where Annie was sat, and truing round started to pick at the rope holding her ankles to the chair. An hour passed as she worked at the knot with her fingers, until finally she managed to get Annie’s ankles free and the woman was able to slide off the seat and join her on the floor.
Turning her back to Annie, Dyane looked over her shoulder and indicated her bound wrists to Annie. The assistant shuffled forward, and rolling onto her side she began to pluck at the ropes around her boss’ wrists, slowly picking away at the loose ends to undo the tight binding.
Dusk was starting to settle when Dyane’s wrists were finally freed by Annie, and she was able to free herself from the constricting binding around her legs, and then free her assistant.
The collection was lost, but the women were free at last.