With Sam on one side of Bethany and Kristen on the other, they helped her across the parking lot to the passenger side of her car. The cold night air hit them all in the face. By now, Kristen wasn’t much help. The Rohypnol had begun to affect her too. Sam scanned his surroundings as they neared Bethany’s car. The parking lot, packed with vehicles, was dead quiet. The bar’s patrons were still inside chugging down their last drinks of the night. Maybe it wouldn’t be hard grabbing both girls after all.
They propped Bethany against the car door as Kristen dug through Bethany’s purse to locate her keys. Sam’s mind was in overdrive. He’d unlock the car, Kristen would help Bethany in, and then he would strike. He’d knock Kristen out, toss her in the backseat, and quickly leave, but he wouldn’t go far. His van and Kristen’s car couldn’t be left behind. The last thing he wanted was to raise suspicion. He needed to act before people began spilling out of the bar.
With Bethany’s car keys in hand, Kristen clicked the fob. The door locks popped up. Sam pulled the door open, and Bethany nearly fell inside.
“Get that seat belt around her,” he said as he kept a watchful eye on the front door of Paul’s Tap.
Kristen fumbled far too long. Sam grasped the back of her neck and smashed her head against the doorframe, knocking her out cold. With his arm around her waist, he opened the back door and tossed her in. He had to move the van and her car several blocks away so they couldn’t be seen from the Paul’s Tap parking lot. It would take only a minute. With both girls fastened in with seat belts and unconscious, he rummaged through Kristen’s purse and found her keys. He clicked the fob twice and saw headlights blink four cars away.
Not too bad. This is doable.
After a double-check of both girls, still lying silently, Sam ran to Kristen’s car and climbed in behind the wheel. He sped out of the parking lot and drove three blocks south, turned left, and parked along the curb near the next intersection. Instead of returning along the street, he realized that cutting across lawns was faster. At that time of night, most homeowners were asleep, anyway. Sam climbed into his van, drove to the same street, but turned right that time. He parked the van halfway up the street. The cold air he sucked in made him ache, and his lungs burned like fire as he ran for the last time back to Paul’s Tap. People had just begun exiting the building. The timing couldn’t have been better. He opened the driver’s side door of Bethany’s car and drove away with two girls added to his donor list.
He calculated the driving distance and time it would take to make several back-and-forth trips from car to house, along with the time he needed in order to secure both women. It would be daybreak before he’d be able to sleep for a few hours.
When he pulled into his driveway a half hour later, Sam slammed his open hand against the steering wheel. The garage door remote was in the van. Just one more delay before he could get everything accomplished. He shifted into Park and looked over his shoulder at Kristen. He killed the engine. With Bethany’s car keys tucked in his left hand, he pulled his own keys out of his pants pocket and ran up the sidewalk. He slid the key into the front doorknob and turned it to his right. Quietly, he tiptoed through the house so he wouldn’t wake Adeline and entered the garage. He slapped at the wall until he made contact with the button. He pressed it, and the overhead lifted. Back in the driver’s seat, Sam pulled Bethany’s car in, got out, and closed the garage door. He didn’t have time for finesse. As long as the girls were secure for the moment, he’d worry about the details tomorrow. He dragged Kristen to the back room, unlocked the door, and continued on to one of the chairs. He propped her up in it. Molly woke and began crying.
“Shut up or I’ll shut you up permanently,” he yelled.
She went quiet. Sam secured a length of rope around the right chair leg, then five times around Kristen’s body and, finally, around the opposite chair leg before he knotted the ends together. He noticed a cut on Kristen’s head that must have come when he smashed her into the doorframe of Bethany’s car. He shrugged it off—she’d have other things to worry about once she regained consciousness. Sam tore duct tape off the roll and placed it over Kristen’s mouth. He wound a length of tape around each of her hands and legs. He ran back and heaved Bethany out of the car. He dragged her to the back room and repeated the process. Now he’d return Bethany’s car to the area where he’d abducted the girls, but he’d leave it on a different block. He was careful to wear gloves at all times except when in his own house. That was one less thing to worry about—wiping prints off the cars.
Thirty minutes later, with Bethany’s car parked against a random street curb and her wallet emptied of cash, Sam ran to Kristen’s car. He moved it several blocks farther from Paul’s Tap, emptied the contents of her wallet too, and threw both sets of keys in a gutter drain. He returned to his van. After he climbed in, he took a deep breath. He sat and thought for a minute, not wanting to overlook anything. With a clear head and cash in his pocket, he checked his surroundings then pulled out onto the street. The clock showed it was four forty-five a.m.