Katie was walking home from an evening out with friends in her local pub. She hadn’t seen the man earlier. He was watching her from the other side of the bar and was close enough to hear the conversation between her and her friends. He was alone, slowly drinking a pint of Guinness. The man with short, black hair was wearing a white shirt, denim jeans and a black leather jacket. So, when he stepped out from a pathway on her left, she didn’t recognise him.
“Hi, it’s Katie, isn’t it?”
She looked bewildered.
“Oh, I was at the bar earlier with some of my friends, and we were next to you and your friends. One of them knew my mate Greg; I think his name was Damon. You know the one who just spoke non-stop about saving the oceans.”
“Yes, his name’s Damon. I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you being there at all.”
“That’s okay, I’m a bit quiet and tend to blend into the background. Truth is I’m a bit shy really. Anyway, fancy bumping into you here. Do you live near here?”
“Yes, just over the road. And you, do you live here?”
“I’m renting a room just around the corner in Blenheim Court.”
He’d planned his legend well and was convincing.
“That’s nice; it’s a nice street, that is. Nice and quiet being a cul-de-sac and all.”
“That’s good to know. I’ve only been there a week. So I don’t know much about the area. Anyway, I’ll let you go home and say goodnight.”
“Okay, goodnight. Nice to meet you. Sorry, what’s your name?”
“Tony, call me Tony.”
She smiled, more relaxed now, “Okay, goodnight then Tony. I’ll see you around.”
“Yes, goodnight Katie.”
As she stood on the kerbside, she watched him walk away towards Blenheim Court. She crossed the road, walking the ten metres before opening a gate, and walked up a garden pathway to her three-storey block of flats. She took out her keys to enter the communal doorway but found, unusually, that the door was ajar. She pressed the button for the light which was usually on a thirty-second timer, but the light didn’t come on. She looked up and saw that the light had been smashed, with glass littering the floor. She hesitated and then entered, glass splinters crunching underfoot. She climbed the first few steps, then heard a banging noise and froze. And then she heard nothing. She continued warily up the stairs, knowing that she only had a single corner to turn and eight more stairs climb. She would then have a mere three feet to the door of her flat to cover, but something was holding her back … and she didn’t know what.
As she turned and ascended a couple of the eight stairs, she heard the main entrance door open behind her. She thought this unusual as all of her five neighbours were elderly and didn’t venture out at night. She dared not look back and rushed up the remaining stairs before reaching her front door. It was open, halfway, but it was open. And then she heard footsteps ascending the staircase at speed and Tony came into view.
“How did you get in here?”
At that very moment, a hand grabbed her by the neck and dragged her back into her flat. She was kicking and clawing at the figure, but Tony had caught up with them and had grasped her legs in a powerful grip. She was lightheaded from the grip around her neck, and they deliberately dropped her on the floor to knock the stuffing out of her. Her shocked body slowly writhed in agony for a few seconds before they hauled her up onto a prepared chair. The men tied her wrists with gold braided curtain cord so that her arms were at her side, at seat level of the chair. Then they were connected underneath the chair. Her ankles were bound to the chair legs by a couple of her belts, and a gag placed in her mouth. They added a binding of electrical cord, cut from her vacuum cleaner, around her throat, down the back of the chair, and attached it to the horizontal support underneath. They were ready to question her.
Tony stood at her front, and the other man, whose face she hadn’t yet seen, stood behind.
“Katie, do yourself a favour and listen to what we ask. We want clear, full answers to all of our questions. If we don’t get answers, my friend here is a little bit sadistic, and he loves to play with household appliances and design new uses for them. He’s very creative. Oh, and the way he uses them is to inflict pain. So please do understand that he will not hesitate to give you unbearable pain if you don’t cooperate. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Tony wanted to make sure that she was not entering a catatonic state and duly slapped her hard across the face a couple of times. She screamed through her gag.
“I asked if you understood me?”
She nodded, tears streaming down her face, finally absorbed by the gag tied around her mouth and face. Katie could hear the other man behind her going through her kitchen drawers. Tony sat in silence staring at Katie. After a few minutes, the more substantial man of the two put her iron, coffee grinder and hand blender on the table with an electrical extension cable. He plugged all the appliances in. He then disappeared, she thought, into her bedroom, and returned shortly afterwards with a pair of hair straighteners and a razor. She was uncontrollably perspiring, crying and shaking all over.
Meanwhile, Tony had set up a video recorder on a tripod. It was facing Katie.
Tony faced the other man. “Mick, we’ll be recording in a couple of minutes. Cover your face. Are we ready then?”
As Mick tied a bandana around his face and mouth like a cowboy in a wild west hold-up, he replied, “We sure are, this might just be a bit of fun.”
Tony covered his face in the same fashion and put his face close to Katie’s. “Shall we begin?”
Katie stared, wide-eyed and fearful.
“Katie, you’re friends with Kim, aren’t you? Nod if you agree.”
She nodded in compliance.
“Good start. Did Kim tell you what happened in the port?”
Katie nodded again.
“Did she tell the police?”
Katie shook her head.
“Are you sure?”
Confused, Katie started to shake her head and then changed it for a nod.
“You don’t seem sure. I’ll ask again. Did Kim tell the police?”
Katie shook her head.
“Did she tell anyone else?”
She shook her head again.
“Okay, I’ll believe you. Do you have a computer?”
She nodded and indicated a direction to the corner of the room with her head.
“It’s over there, is it?”
She nodded.
Mick opened the cupboard in the corner of the room and found her laptop.
He switched on the laptop.
“No password then.”
“How do you communicate with Kim? Facebook?”
She nodded and then swayed her head from side to side.
“What does that mean? Do you mean that you use something else too?”
She nodded, and her eyes took him to her handbag that lay in the passageway.
“On your mobile phone?”
She nodded.
Tony picked up her handbag and opened her mobile phone. He searched her phone with a gloved hand and discovered that she used a chat application with Kim. He scanned the messages and found nothing of interest.
Mick finished his check. “There’s nothing on the laptop either. And we won’t need passwords either.”
Katie looked towards him, wondering what he meant by that. Her eyes rapidly focused on Tony as he drew close again.
“Now Katie, the big question is, where is Kim? And I know that to answer this that I’m going to have to remove your gag. But, I don’t want you to scream. I’ve also been in this game long enough to know that if I remove that gag, you probably will unless you have an incentive not to. So, Mick here is going to provide you with a little sample of what’s to come if you do scream. Away you go Mick; she’s all yours.”
Mick stared at the items on the table and picked up the hair straighteners. He bent down beside her and held her hand, fingers extended, and slowly placed the hot straighteners over her fingers and clasped it shut. Katie’s muffled screams couldn’t be heard outside of the room. Her whole body tensed, her eyes scrunched up tightly closed, as she shook and perspiration poured out of her. She couldn't comprehend the pain that she was feeling.
Mick had removed the appliance and placed back on the table. Katie opened her eyes wide and, in seeing him, couldn’t reconcile the fact that her body continued to be in agony.
Tony spoke gently to her. “Now do you understand what will happen if you do scream?”
She nodded repeatedly.
“Okay, good girl. I’m going to remove the gag now.”
She gasped for air; her mouth was dry and saliva had dried at the corners.
“Here’s a drink of water,” said Tony, bringing a cup to her lips, gently tipping it.
“I really don’t know where she is. It’s like she’s disappeared off the planet. I thought that the people who killed Ian had her.”
“Why do you think that they would have her?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps they thought she knew something … but she didn’t.”
“But what about all of the photos that Ian sent her?”
“They were strange. Kim thought that he was a bit simple and keen on her. She thought it was his way of giving her something.”
“With whom did she share the photos?”
“She showed me a couple now and then. They were of nothing, sometimes the sea, other times rubbish, other times boxes. And food, he sent photos of his food. Like I said, they were strange but meant nothing to either of us.”
“Did she show them to anyone in the group you go to?”
“I don’t know, not that I’d seen.”
“Liar!” came Tony’s angry response as he punched her face and then her stomach. She reeled back in pain, almost toppling the chair which Mick steadied. The right side of her face felt as if she’d been hit by a train. It started swelling immediately, and she could taste blood. Her stomach knotted, stifling her breathing.
Mick replaced the gag at Tony’s instruction.
“Katie, can you hear me? Because you need to know what’s going to happen now. I don’t believe a word you’re telling me, so here’s what we’re going to do.” He paused, letting his words sink in. Katie's head started to shake from side to side.
“Mick here is going to give you his undivided attention while I use your social media to connect with Kim.”
Tony gathered the laptop and mobile phone and headed to her bedroom, and Mick drew close at her front with a knife. He pulled her sweater forward at the neck and, with the blade close to her throat, cut downwards, exposing her bare front and bra. He pulled the bra outwards and cut it in between the cups.
“You won’t be needing this,” he said, looking at her bare breasts.
He then went behind her, cut off the remains of the sweater and ripped the bra from her slender body. He bunched her long, flowing hair in his hand and, with a tight grip, pulled it tight and then cut it from the nape of her neck. After placing the cut hair on the table in front of her, he selected the coffee grinder and removed the top plus another inner piece, thus exposing the mechanism.
“There, we’re ready to begin. Are you sitting comfortably?”