The woman was still glaring at me, but she eventually answered. “She likes to collect Dumbo figurines. You know, the flying elephant. She must have a hundred of them. And she wants to be a policewoman.”
That’s one you didn’t hear every day. “Tiffany wants to be a cop?”
“Yes. Especially after nine-eleven. She always has been very respectful, even worshipful, around our public servants. Heroes, she calls them. Police, firefighters. All that.”
A cheerleading policewoman. Couldn’t hurt. “Is she friendly? Outgoing? Would she talk to strangers?”
“Very friendly. But I would hope she has the sense not to talk to someone she doesn’t know. Especially in Las Vegas.”
I folded up my notepad. This was getting nowhere. Time to search the girls’ room. They would protest-I might even have to sit through a phone call to Dick Conners-but eventually they would relent. Because whatever their faults or foibles, they wanted their little girl back. And they knew the longer she was gone, the less likely that became. As did I.
It was nice being with Susan again. She’s almost like she used to be before the Bad Man took her but sometimes her hands shake and I can tell her stomach hurts and she looks like she’s going to cry but her smell is better and she’s back and she let me read to her while she drove the car. I wish I could drive the car but they wouldn’t let me get a license and I know I could do it but not unless they let me try and maybe Susan would let me after we catch the Bad Man and her hands don’t shake so much anymore. I know she likes me. I know she likes me.
Next time I’m going to ask her about babies.
Tiffany was the strongest, as it turned out. Who would have guessed that the spoiled rich girl would be the most resilient of the threesome? Hidden depths, he supposed. Dark secrets such as the prophet often saw lurking just beneath the surface. But those depths held dangers. They had to be eliminated.
He’d taken her through the entire “Pit and the Pendulum” scenario, just as he had the other two. But whereas Judy and JJ had disintegrated into hysteria, Tiffany had kept hold of her senses, even after the blade gave her a few rather significant slices. She had remained defiant, even through her pain.
Additional measures were required.
When Tiffany awoke, she found herself strapped to the table, still naked. It was amazing, he noted, how nakedness and physical discomfort increased their vulnerability. He had made the room positively frigorific, so much so that her body was covered with goose pimples.
“Good morning, Tiffany.”
“You can’t hurt me,” she said through dry and cracked lips.
“I’m glad to hear that, my dear. It will make what I have to do next so much less trying. Are my hands cold?”
He pressed the palms of both hands down on her abdomen. She flinched.
“I feared they might be. Hard to keep warm this time of year. The temperature is having a rather remarkable effect on your body.”
“I don’t know why you’re doing this, you sick fuck, but it isn’t going to work! I’ll never do what you want. If you’re going to rape me, then go ahead and do it. Get your filthy rocks off so I can get out of here!”
“My dear Tiffany, you mistake my intentions altogether. And you have a mouth like a sewer.”
“You’re a disgusting little creep. I bet your thing is just as short as you are. That’s probably why you have to get your thrills hurting teenage girls.”
“My darling-”
“Where’re Judy and JJ? What have you done to them?”
“They’re in another room.”
“Are you torturing them, too?”
“Not at all. They’re being quite compliant. Only you are-”
“Then let me see them!”
“I’m afraid that isn’t possible yet. But in time-”
She twisted and strained against the straps, trying with all her might to get free.
He laid a hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back to the table. “You’ve cut yourself.” He pointed to an abrasion across her left breast, just above the nipple.
“It was your damned pendulum, you-”
“Looks nasty. Could be infected. Needs attention.”
“Leave me alone!”
“Fear not, I know just the thing.” He lifted a bucket and placed it on the edge of the table where she could just see it. “Heavy. Needs to be stirred.” He took a large wooden ladle and swirled it through what appeared to be a thick gray muck. “There. That’s better.”
“What is that? What are you going to do with it? Are you going to put that on me?”
“Of course not. This is not the salve. This is but the living environment.” He dipped the ladle into the bucket, this time just skimming the surface.
It came back with something.
He brought the ladle around so that she could see it, letting a splotch of gray goo splash down on her neck. It was small, thin, and writhing, greenish black in color. As he held it close to her face, the putrid smell made her turn away.
“What the hell is that?”
“Don’t you know, Tiffany? It’s the best thing for an infection. In the prophet’s time, all the best physicians used them, a practice that has sadly fallen out of favor.” He leaned in closer, pressing the lip of the ladle against her cheek. “It’s a leech.”
“Get it away from me!”
“No, no, you don’t understand. It’s a good little creature. It’ll clean your wounds. Suck out the poison.”
“I said, get it away!”
“Don’t be silly. You’ll hurt his feelings. Now where was that wound? Oh, yes.” He tilted the ladle until the leech slowly oozed out and plopped onto her left breast.
“Get it off me! Get it off!”
“Don’t fuss so. Let it do its work.”
“Get it off!” Her voice screeched, panic rising. She squirmed as the slimy creature oozed its way across her. “Get-it-off!”
“Many hardy souls such as yourself are quite resilient when it comes to physical torment or fear, yet still have a weakness. Spiders, perhaps. Loud noises. But I suspected that you might have a touch of tactile defensiveness. We all do, of course, to varying degrees. But your case might be more extreme.” He smiled. “Oh, look. The little beastie has found the wound. Engaging suckers.”
“Please make it stop.” She was sobbing, her voice bubbling, tears streaking. “Please make it stop.”