The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.)

by Marnie Perry

  She forced herself to look at him even though it was getting more and more difficult not to show the relief she felt that he seemed to have believed her lie.

  He contemplated her thoughtfully for a few moments then said, ‘Llewellyn? That’s an unusual name for a person from the eastern block.’

  Adela prayed again for the strength to lie convincingly, ‘she had read it somewhere she said, in a book, apparently he was a hero of some kind, she liked the name. That’s all I know.’ She finished she hoped wearily as though she had given up and told him what he wanted to know and now wanted to be left alone, she looked down at her feet to add emphasis to this.

  He studied her some more then stood up and she watched his feet move towards her steeling herself for the blow or the electric currant or even the bullet. She felt his eyes burning a hole in the top of her head. He put the stun gun on the table and picked up the knife he had put there earlier after cutting the tape that held her to the chair. She sucked in her breath, so it was to be a knife was it, he had lied even about a quick death for her. Then to her surprise he bent down and cut the tape securing her ankles together.

  Again she gritted her teeth in pain as the blood once more flowed back into her feet.

  He said, ‘you’d better take that bathroom break now before there’s an accident.’

  Even with all that had happened and was happening to her right now she still found it in herself to blush at the personal content of his remark.

  She looked at him expecting to see him grinning at her embarrassment but his face was expressionless.

  She stood up but fell back into the chair unable to stand on her numb feet. It felt like a hundred wasps stinging her. He said, ‘wiggle your toes.’ She did and the numbness began to recede leaving her with pins and needles but she was able to stand. He took her arm and walked her slowly to the other room she had seen earlier. He opened the door and guided her inside the darkened room. For a moment she panicked thinking he was going to lock her in there, or worse. He let go of her arm and she heard a match being struck then the room was illuminated with a soft light from a small oil lamp. She blinked bringing her surroundings into focus and saw a small dirty room with cobwebs in the corners and hanging from the ceiling, it had dingy once white walls and a small bedside table but no bed, only a sleeping bag that had seen better days.

  He picked up the lamp and taking her arm again led her towards another door at the far side of the room; he opened it and put the lamp on a chair standing by an old rusted bath which someone had tried to clean, not too successfully. To her surprise apart from the window the room was relatively clean and smelt nice. The flooring was old tiles which were broken but also clean, or as clean as they could be, as was the sink. The mirror above although cracked had been polished to a shine. It was as if someone had suddenly decided to do a spring clean, not to her standard of course, but they had made an effort, of course she knew who that person was.

  She turned to him and asked, ‘will you untie my hands please?’

  To her dismay he shook his head, ‘no, sorry, I don’t want you getting any ideas about escaping.’ She followed his gaze to the window which was not boarded up but cracked and stained. Even now she felt the urge to get some cleaning equipment and wash it. But it was very small, maybe too small for an adult to squeeze through if it could be opened, which judging by the rust around it would be an almost impossible feat.

  She turned back to him, ‘I would never get through there, and anyway you said we were miles from anywhere surrounded by swamps, I wouldn’t get far before you caught me again.’ She indicated her bound hands, ‘this is unnecessary.’

  He shrugged, ‘still, I prefer to take no chances, it’s for your safety as much as anything else.’

  Again that word “safe.”

  He seemed to read her thoughts because he said, ‘being eaten alive by alligators is a very slow and painful death I should imagine, although not as slow or as painful as dying of thirst perhaps.’

  Her eyes widened but she tried another tack, ‘I would like to wash my face.’

  He said, ‘maybe later.’

  Later, she thought, what did that mean? She said, ‘I won’t be able to…’ she looked down at her jeans and the button and zip at the front.

  He took a step towards her and without speaking began to unfasten the button she jerked back and he raised his hands saying, ‘okay, but as you so rightly said you won’t be able to…’ He also left the sentence unfinished.

  The anger and hatred beginning to grow in her frightened her, he was doing this deliberately to humiliate her. But why, he had what he wanted why didn’t he just get it over with and kill her? The answer that came to her turned her blood from hot to cold in an instant causing a shiver to pass through her entire body. Maybe that was why he let her use the bathroom, and why he wouldn’t untie her, he didn’t want her to fight him when he took what he could have taken days ago but didn’t. Maybe he didn’t want a willing partner in his bed, maybe a frightened woman struggling helplessly beneath him turned him on.

  They stood like this for a few more seconds until he said unconcernedly, ‘you can either let me help you or try to do it yourself, and good luck with that, unless you’re a contortionist of course, or you can pee in your pants, you decide. You have five seconds.’

  She stared at him stunned and embarrassed then nodded her head once. He finished unfastening the button then pulled down the zip. Unbidden there came to her mind the last time he had done this by the lake at Silver Run, and despite herself she felt that same tingle she had felt then. She hated herself and him for making her recall those sensations. She stood tense and still and thoroughly humiliated expecting him to do it slowly, teasing her but he didn’t. He said, ‘do you need any more help.’

  She looked sharply at him expecting him to be smiling complacently but he surprised her again when his face registered no pleasure in her acquiescence or embarrassment. She lowered her head and shook it. He said, ‘all right, I’ll leave you to it, I’ll even close the door but don’t try anything stupid like barricading yourself in.’

  Her head snapped up, she had indeed thought of that but only fleetingly. What would she barricade it with except the chair and it looked so old it would probably snap like a twig. And anyway how long could she keep it up, it had been as he had said a stupid thought.

  She turned from him really desperate now to use the toilet; he seemed to sense her urgency because he turned swiftly and left the room closing the door behind him.

  She wouldn’t have been surprised if he had come back in once she sat down but she was so desperate now she didn’t care. She pulled down her jeans with difficulty and sat down she sighed with relief as she relieved herself.

  As she sat she looked around, her taking in everything, which didn’t take long. She looked at the sink just to the left of the toilet, there was a new tube of toothpaste and two toothbrushes in a narrow brown jar, one blue and one pink, they also looked new. There was an unused bar of soap on the sink, it was pink and smelled nice, it sat next to a new flannel also pink. There was a big fluffy white towel hanging from a hook at the other side of the sink, and a brush and comb on the window ledge.

  She frowned, why would he need these things, and why two toothbrushes if he intended to kill her, if he did not even intend to untie her hands?

  She finished what she was doing and looked at the new roll of toilet paper attached to string tied to the sink just within her reach if she really stretched over. She just about managed to pull off some strips of paper. She stood up and again with difficulty pulled up her panties and jeans. Her stomach turned over when she realised he would have to fasten her jeans again.

  She turned her back to the sink and picked up the soap then turned on one of the taps not knowing which was hot or cold, but then this place didn’t look as if it supplied hot water. She would have given anything right then for a shower and change of clothes, she would give anything she owned to be back in her cabin
in Mississippi or better yet at home in Cornwall. That thought made her think about her money, what if she offered him more money than Glissando had not to kill her. But then he might take the money and kill her anyway, that might even be why he hadn’t killed her yet. Maybe he wanted her bank account numbers; he had said that money and personal satisfaction were his main motivations for what he did. The thought made her feel cold yet sweaty at the same time like the onset of a fever. What lengths would he go to to extract them from her?

  She dried her hands on the towel and looked at the toothbrushes, two of them side by side in the brown jar. She knew that one of them was for her, but why, buying her a toothbrush meant he expected her to stay a while, but for what purpose. And, apart from the small bedroom, he had cleaned the place and bought soap and a towel and even a hairbrush. At this rate he wouldn’t have to kill her, her curiosity would do the job for him.

  Her eyes once again were drawn to the toothbrushes and a seed of an idea began to grow in her, a very small seed but then from small seeds big ideas grew. It would probably never work; a lot would depend on what happened next, what his plans were for her. But she had to do something and she couldn’t get out of the window with her hands tied behind her and she had dismissed the idea of barricading herself in.

  She could see nothing to use as a weapon, besides, he would probably search her. But it gave her something to focus on, something that gave her a little bit of hope in an otherwise hopeless situation.

  She turned her back to the sink and reached for the pink toothbrush, hoping that pink was not his favourite colour and the blue one was for her. She got it between her fists and at the thinnest point which was about a third of the way up then never taking her eyes off the door gritted her teeth and bent it as hard as she could and eventually the plastic snapped. The noise it made sounded to her as loud as a firecracker going off, she remained still staring at the door willing him not to have heard it, hoping that the sound of the cistern still working would cover any sound.

  She jumped a foot in the air when a knock came on the door and his voice came to her, ‘are you all right in there?’

  She swallowed hard and trying to sound impatient snapped, ‘yes, I’m having trouble getting my jeans up.’ She immediately regretted saying this he might take it that she meant for him to come in and do it for her. ‘I’ll be out in a moment.’ She added hurriedly.

  ‘Do you want me to come in and help you?’ He asked.

  She said just as quickly, ‘no, no I can manage,’ She was relieved he had asked instead of just barging in and in her relief almost said "thank you" but caught herself in time, it would sound false and he might be suspicious. She knew he would search her for a weapon or something to cut herself lose so she had to hide it somewhere she hoped and prayed he wouldn’t look. She put it down the back of her panties thanking God she was not the sort of woman who preferred a thong. She pushed it down into the crack of her cheeks hoping it would not slip out and fall on the floor at his feet. The rough edges scratched her skin but she was glad of it, it proved that it was sharp. She checked that she could reach it again if she had the opportunity too, she could.

  She jumped again when he once more knocked on the door this time with more impatience, ‘you’ve had more than enough time to do what you’ve had to do, so come out now or I’ll come in.’

  She said quickly, ‘I’m just coming. ’She realised that the pink toothbrush would now be shorter in the jar than the blue one, so very quickly she bent down and pulled a thick wad of paper from the toilet roll and shoved it into the jar then put the toothbrush back in. She sighed with relief when she looked and saw that there was no difference in the size of either brush and that the toilet paper could not be seen.

  She was still standing looking at it when he came into the bathroom, for the third time she jumped and he looked at her suspiciously.

  She said, ‘I was just drying my hands.’ Luckily the towel was next to the sink and where she was standing.

  He continued to look at her with narrowed eyes, she kept his gaze hoping and praying her guilt would not show in her eyes. He walked towards her and taking her elbow turned her around and opened her hands which were clenched. He seemed relieved when he found nothing there. She said quietly, ‘I’ve washed them.’

  His head came up and she could feel his eyes on the back of her head and there sounded like a smile in his voice as he asked ‘did you manage all right?’

  She said, ‘with a struggle, but yes, I managed. Apart from…’ She looked down at her jeans as she had before.

  ‘I’ll see to that in a moment, but first…’ he broke off as he began to pat her down, her back and sides, chest and stomach. She wondered how she could possibly have put something down her front, maybe he thought she had picked up something with her teeth and dropped it down her bra. She stood stiff and tense as he moved down her stomach to her thighs then the tension increased as he moved around to the back.

  She never thought she would be happy to have been hurt but as he patted her hips she gave an involuntary gasp and his hands paused. There was definite suspicion in his brusque tone as he said, ‘something wrong, Miss. Faraday?’

  She said, ‘my hip hurts a little from… it’s a little painful that’s all.’

  He stayed still for a few moments then moved to the side of her and pulled down her jeans just the slightest. She said hurriedly, ‘it’s nothing, really.’

  He glanced up at her looking for deceit in her face she knew, then he continued to pull down her jeans until the top of her hip and the bruise was exposed. He studied it for a moment then looked back at her. She twisted round trying to see the damage, but saw only the edge of a black and blue mark on her hip.

  He said, ‘from when you fell at your cabin?’

  She felt that now familiar anger and said caustically, ‘yes, that’s right, where I fell in my cabin.’

  His eyes narrowed again, not with suspicion this time but with annoyance, however she did not shiver at his expression. Somehow the knowledge that she was to die gave her courage to face him down, what more could he do to her? Rape her? Well she would be dead soon after so she wouldn’t have to live with it. Torture her? What for, more information, she knew nothing else, and anyway he would have done that earlier if he had not believed her lie. Keep her here forever? No, not with the police and the FBI after him.

  So she would defy him when she could, she would portray in words, in looks and in attitude how much contempt and loathing she felt for him.

  But again he surprised her by looking her in the eyes and saying quite softly, ‘I never meant that to happen, but if you hadn’t fought me it wouldn’t have.’

  ‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ she returned sarcastically, ‘next time I’m kidnapped by a killer for hire I’ll try to go quietly.’

  Again to her surprise he laughed, ‘you can still do that, still make me laugh even when you’re insulting me.’ Then he turned her around and she thought he was going to pat down her bottom but instead from behind he pulled up the zip of her jeans and fastened the button. Again she felt a “thank you” coming on but swallowed it. He cast his eyes around the bathroom looking for something amiss, or missing. Apparently he saw nothing because he took her arm and led her to the door, he paused to pick up the lamp then they were back in the dirty room again.

  As they approached the door to the main room she felt the plastic piece of the toothbrush begin to slip sideways in her panties, any minute now it would fall through the thin elastic and down her leg. She stiffened and paused in her stride. He said, ‘what, what is it?’

  She had to think fast so bowing her head and staggering just the slightest she gave a little moan and leaned her head on the doorframe. He repeated, ‘what’s the matter.’

  He didn’t sound impatient or annoyed just concerned and this gave her confidence. She said, ‘I’m just…just dizzy suddenly.’

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ he said sympathetically, ‘what with everything that’s happened to
night,’ he put an arm around her, ‘and you’re probably hungry, I’ll guess you haven’t eaten for some time.’

  She said nothing but moaned again and leaning her left side against the wall managed to push the plastic back between her buttocks. She lifted her head and took a deep breath saying, ‘I just felt a little faint, but I’m all right now.’

  He said, ‘sure?’

  She nodded and let him lead her into the living room, it was with great relief that she sat down in the chair she had vacated earlier. He didn’t this time tie her feet.

  He said, ‘I’ll get you some water and see to that cut lip then I’ll make something to eat.’

  She said quietly, ‘why?’

  He frowned, ‘as I said, you probably felt faint because you haven’t eaten for a while.’

  ‘And you don’t want me to go to my death hungry? Or is this my last meal? If so doesn’t the condemned man…or woman…get to pick that for themselves?’

  He said nothing just smiled and went into the small kitchen and picked up a bottle of water. He came back to where she was sitting and picked up the bag he had dragged to the floor earlier and fishing inside brought out a small first aid kit. He threw the bag on the table opened the kit and took out a small bottle of solution similar to the kind he had used once before on her lip.

  He poured the solution into a cotton wool ball leaned over her and put the solution to her lip but she averted her head. He sighed, ‘your stand against me is impressive, Miss. Faraday and I’m tolerating it for the sake of the friendship we shared. I’m giving you more leeway than I would anyone else for old time’s sake, but that could so easily and very quickly change.’ His tone was almost courteous but there was no mistaking the stark warning in his words.