“I’ve got her,” she said when Clyde answered.
“Where are you?”
“I’m heading north on Las Vegas Boulevard.”
“Okay, I’m about five blocks behind you. Don’t lose her. I’m getting tired of chasing this wench!”
Nadine only grunted in reply.
They followed her all through the night, always keeping their distance, stopping in the shadows when she pulled over for gas, all the time expecting her to turn back toward L.A., or check into some hotel. But she didn’t. Instead she headed north, toward central California. By early morning, she was passing through the town of Lone Pine. Nadine followed her as she turned off the main highway and onto a small dirt road that headed off into the pine-covered foot hills that lay at the base of the Inyo mountains. Once Jesse turned off the main highway, Nadine didn’t follow her any further. She didn’t need to. She knew the road couldn’t go very far back into the forest. She knew what Jesse was driving. She knew they could find her.
FOURTEEN
The night after she got back to the cabin, Jesse stayed up and read until after midnight, then finally forced herself to bed. Several hours later, she awoke with a start. It was very dark. The cabin floors creaked and moaned from the wind. She glanced at the digital clock next to her bed. It was blank. The power must be out, she thought. Funny, there hadn’t been a storm. She rolled off the mattress and set her feet onto the bare floor. It was very cold. The gas furnace needed starting.
Then she heard it.
Her heart jumped into her throat. Every muscle in her body grew tense. Her heart beat like a hammer as she peered desperately into the darkness.
Then she heard it again.
Voices.
The hushed sound of whispering voices. And footsteps. Muffled footsteps. Very close. From inside the cabin! From outside her door! Her hands involuntarily shot to her mouth as she stifled a scream. The footsteps tapped once again. Measured, careful footsteps. Then silence. The only sound was the blood pumping in her head. It beat in her ears. It smashed in her brain.
The footsteps were right outside her door!
A gentle night breeze blew outside the cabin window as the mountain air raced to the valley floor. Her window shuddered against the breeze. A pine cone dropped on the cabin’s roof and rolled down the eaves, pattering lightly as it fell.
Someone was there! She could hear them! They were right outside her door!
Jesse looked to the window. Twelve feet away. Maybe she could make it. Slowly, carefully, she lifted herself off of the bed.
The door burst open. Flying backward, it slammed against the wall. Jesse screamed in the darkness. At what, she didn’t know. She couldn’t see. It was so dark!
A bright flashlight beamed through the open doorway. The man from the gray Toyota stormed into the room. Jesse screamed again and pushed herself up against the bedroom wall, the rough logs cutting into the soft skin of her back. The man walked toward her, rope in hand, gun in his belt. The flashlight beamed directly on Jesse, spotlighting her like some kind of trapped animal. She pushed herself away from the wall and tried to run, but tripped and fell to her knees. The man was on top of her in less than an instant, his hands wrapping tightly around her thin neck. Jesse closed her eyes and started to cry.
Clyde pinned her against the wood floor while he pulled both of her arms behind her back and shoved them up toward her neck. Jesse felt a tearing pain which sucked the air from her lungs. She knew he would kill her. She thought she was dead.
Jesse felt the rope twist around her wrists and fingers. Nadine held the flashlight so that Clyde could see what he was doing. He circled her wrists and knotted the rope, then sat back with a huff.
“Go out and turn the power back on,” Clyde directed Nadine as he stood up and pulled Jesse to her feet. “And bring the extra rope from the car.” Nadine turned and walked out of the room.
Within half an hour, they had unloaded the car and hidden it in back of the cabin. Clyde made certain the place was secure, then after some discussion, they decided to leave Jesse in the second bedroom. Clyde threw her onto the bed and tied her up, then nailed the shutters closed and draped a thick quilt over the window to block out the light. He knew that the constant darkness would leave her disoriented and confused and make it that much more difficult to think of escape.
Then he and Nadine settled in for the wait. They would stay up here in the cabin, keeping a watch on the girl. They would wait until they heard from their client. Then they would do what he told them to do.
Jesse lay in the darkness, listening, her eyes tightly closed. Though she wasn’t tied up anymore, she didn’t dare move. She hardly even dared breathe. A thin blanket had been stretched across her body, but it left her bare feet exposed, and she was icy cold. Time went by. The cabin was very quiet. Perhaps it was night, and they were asleep. After what seemed like a very long time, Jesse pulled her feet inside the blanket, then curled up into a little ball.
The skin around her ankles and wrists had been rubbed raw from the rough nylon ropes. The tender flesh burned and the nerves flashed in pain. Her wrists, which had taken the. worst abuse, oozed tiny drops of blood and clear moisture from the open sores. Purple blotches covered the tops of her feet from the broken blood vessels, a result of the blood flow having been cut off by the tightly cinched ropes.
She shivered again under the thin cotton blanket and tried to think. How long had it been since she had been taken captive? She did not know. Five or six days. Maybe less. Maybe more. She had lost all sense of time. As she lay in the darkness, she was only aware of two things-the terrible pain and the fear.
The door opened a crack. Light filtered into the room. Jesse nearly quit breathing. Despite a violent shiver that ran down her spine, she lay perfectly still. The footsteps moved ever closer. She wanted to cry-cry like a little girl.
“How’s the girl?” came the voice from the bathroom.
The man studied her face for a few seconds before he answered. “She hasn’t moved in the past ten hours,” he finally said.
The man paused as he hovered over the bed. He bent down toward her, studying her closed eyes, watching her breathing. He glanced at the open sores around her wrists.
“She’s awake though,” he called out after a while. “I guess she wants to ignore me.” He reached into his pocket and produced a shiny gold lighter and unfiltered cigarette which he lit with a flip of his wrist.
He walked to the window and studied the thick wooden shutters that covered the double-paned glass. He had used three two-by-fours to nail the shutters closed. He grabbed the thick boards and pulled at them, checking to make sure they were still secure.
Turning back toward Jesse, he took several long drags on his cigarette and held the smoke in his chest. What was wrong with the girl? She had been laying there for almost two days. She wouldn’t eat. She didn’t move. She hardly even opened her eyes. Stupid wench. What was she going to do? Just lie there and die?
He took another drag on his cigarette. The glow burned down to his lips, and he tossed the smoldering white stub on the floor and stomped it out, smearing the highly polished wood floor with ashes and spit.
He was bored and tired of the cabin. He was tired of the forest and trees. He missed the noise of the city. He missed his friends and his girl. He was tired of his wife. He was tired of guarding this stupid woman who just lay there and slept. It had been too long. He needed more beer.