Lulling the Kidnapper

by O. L. Gregory

  “After dinner,” he said, “I’ll go upstairs and double check your measurements and make sure your drafted design will work in there.”

  I gave him a serene expression, “Thank you, I wouldn’t want to miss anything important.”

  “You’re really looking forward to this, aren’t you?”

  “I am. It’ll be the first real step in truly marking this house as being ours. And the more I plan, the more I think I can do a good job with it.”

  “Well, I look forward to seeing your final result.”

  Quite awhile after dinner he came downstairs, having changed out of his business clothes into shorts and a t-shirt, and having taken the time to investigate my plans and such. He opened the sliding glass door, “Want to go on a little venture?”

  I looked up from my crocheting project, “Sure.”

  “Not far,” he cautioned, “just something different.”

  “All right.” I stood to go join him.

  He took my hand and led me outside, both of us barefooted. We proceeded down the porch steps and walked out onto the dock. He seated himself at the end of the pier and hung his legs over the edge. So I, too, sat down to dangle my feet in the water.

  “I’ve brought you down here to talk about something.”

  I looked down as I swirled the river water around with my toes, “What’s on your mind?”

  “Is there anything you wish to confess to?”

  Hell, no, but if you wish to play into my trap… I angled my head in his direction and sighed, “I wasn’t too confident in what your reaction would be and I didn’t wish to displease you.”

  “So you hid it from me.”

  He’d made a statement, so I didn’t feel the need to confirm it. I stared back into the water, waiting for him to lead the conversation. If only you knew how much I’m hiding from you…

  “Sometimes you’re determined to show just how young you are. This is the behavior of an errant teenager.”

  Well, duh, idiot, I am a teenager. I stirred up a few tears to brim around my eyes, “I’m sorry to have disappointed you.”

  It was his turn to sigh, “Amelia, this isn’t a matter of disappointment. This is a matter of your lack of trust.”

  I nodded my head, still looking down at the water.

  “I want to know. Is it yourself that you lack trust in, or me?”

  “Honestly?”

  “Yes, please.”

  There was only one thing that I had done that he could possibly have found any evidence of… “I’ve always been an excellent student. Coursework is easy for me.”

  “And you think that I cannot accept your intelligence?”

  “I was scared that you would view how quickly I could master the curriculum as a threat to how you see our life playing out.”

  “Mia, I saw today how content and focused you are when you have a project at hand that you are actually interested in. You spent the entire morning completely absorbed in your task. You tackled it with enthusiasm.

  “Frankly, I was ready to admonish you for not putting forth such effort into your studies, but when I took a few moments to go through your books I saw that just the opposite was true.”

  “I was afraid you would think that I might start bugging you about going to college, and that you weren’t ready to let me do anything like that, just yet. I worried that you would feel like I was trying to rush you in some way. I kept quiet about how quickly I was plowing through because I’m not attempting to move forward with anything until you’re ready to trust me.”

  “Mia, I know we got off to a rough beginning. But we are beyond that now. You have to trust me to trust you.”

  I looked at him, “You don’t trust me.” He opened his mouth to say something, but I kept going. “You’re making strides in trusting me, but it’s slow going. While I understand why you’re so hesitant, it makes it hard for me to know how much is too much.”

  He was silent for a moment.

  I used the time to look around the river from this new vantage point. How I wished the Coast Guard would drive by and one of the guardsmen would raise a gun. I’d dive under the water and reemerge under the pier while he and the idiot had a shootout.

  “I understand your viewpoint. My trust is slow to come, and when it does, it is in stages. And you are correct. My immediate thought was that you would grow impatient with your time here. I do not wish for your hands to be idle.”

  “Well, now that my studies are done, perhaps I could focus on the house.”

  “What is it that you were planning on doing with your life before you met me?”

  Lie, feed him the lie. “Photography.”

  His face lit up, “Why, Mia, this would be a wonderful place to begin to study photography. And it’s a career that you could become self-employed with.”

  I knew he’d only bite into an idea that could lead into my working from home, if I had to work at all. No way would he ever be accepting of a job that had me leaving the house every day.

  I gave him a shy and gentle smile, “That’s what I was thinking. I could study hundreds of angles of the sunset, right from the porch. If we get the boat, I could practice different kinds of shots from our rides together. We could get a couple of bird feeders and I could photograph them through the glass. I could document the changes in the house as we progress through each room.”

  He seemed pleased that I had offered him such an easy out. “How about this,” he said, “I can go online and search for a high school level photography curriculum… Did you already take a photography class in school?”

  I shook my head, “No, my high school didn’t offer one. I took Calligraphy to fulfill my Art requirement.”

  He beamed in confident relief, “Well, there we go, then. I’ll find you a couple photography courses, you can work on the projects you talked about and build your portfolio. I can get you a camera to get started with. Perhaps I can even pick up a laptop for you, with some beginner’s editing software.”

  “You’re going to allow me get my hands on a computer?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t let you get on the internet just yet. Your disappearance is still too fresh, I don’t want to risk anyone being able to track you down and try to separate us. But you could still use it for your pictures, without the internet connection.”

  “Oh, I see how it can work now! That sounds like a wonderful compromise!” I beamed a smile and gave him a hug.

  And he had beamed back, all proud to be able to offer me a solution that he could live with.

  The dolt had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

  He thought he had discovered something that I had been hiding. How could I really be hiding something like that when the schooling area was under full camera view? I knew that he’d see me just shuffling papers around, once I’d fully finished with the curriculum. The camera was mounted to the back wall, so that when seated at the desk, my back was to the camera and a certain amount of looking over my shoulder would still be possible. Shuffling papers, little writing, and staring out the window was bound to get noticed sooner, rather than later. Of course he was going to investigate.

  It had been a risk, yes. He may have reverted back to acting first and asking questions second. But he had kept insisting that his rash actions were behind us. So, as long as he adhered to his own new structure for responses, I knew he would ask why. And I’d delivered my fake excuse flawlessly. Thus, building his confidence in that I only wanted to please him, and to avoid him experiencing any disappointment, or pressure from me. And the whole photography thing was just a ruse that would lead him to think that I’d continue to be content to stay here, locked up in my gilded cage. My hope was that all of this would make him more confident in his ability to leave me in two days. I didn’t want him chickening out at the last minute.

  Secondly, he was always suspicious of me. Like our newfound ability to get along well together was too good to be true. - Which, of course, it was. - And now he was sure that he had discovere
d the thing that I had been hiding from him, thus giving him one more reason to feel that he was able to go off on his trip without having to be afraid that I was up to something else.

  Man, did it feel good to finally have a plan come together!

  “How were my plans and the materials list?” I asked as we walked back up the pier, towards the house.

  “Very thorough. I’ll pick up the materials and bring them home tomorrow.”

  “Excellent, thank you.”

  He put his arm around me, leaned down, and kissed the top of my head, “You’re quite welcome.”

  He had warned me that he would be late in coming home. There was no way that he could run the errands on his lunch break today. I had also let him know that I was craving hamburgers cooked out on the grill. So we had our last evening together all planned out.

  While I was waiting for him, I stuffed a baggie into my pants pocket and then gathered supplies to go clean the bathroom. I set about cleaning and scrubbing and wiping surfaces down. I didn’t do any deep-cleaning, but enough that he would notice and be able to account for the time that I had disappeared in here.

  When I picked up his comb, I took a good look at the hairs stuck in between the teeth… Perfect. I quickly pulled the bag out of my pocket, placed the hairs inside, zipped it back up, and stuffed it back into my pocket. Once I was finished in the bathroom, I ran the duster all over the master bedroom and closet…

  He walked in with two grocery bags, and nothing else. I stared up at him in confusion.

  “Don’t look so worried. Your materials are out in the trunk of the car. But I did stop at the grocery store and buy you some reinforcements for the weekend.” He managed to pull a pineapple out of a bag without dropping anything.

  “Oh, man, I’m a sucker for a ripe pineapple!”

  “I know, and there are some other goodies in here that I’ll leave for you to discover. They’re mostly things that are already prepared or that you can just eat as is, I thought you’d like a break from cooking while I’m away.”

  I let my eyes light up at the idea of being given that reprieve.

  “But when we cook the burgers, I want to grill some of this pineapple, as well.”

  “Grilled pineapple?”

  “If you’ve never had it, you’re in for a treat.” He put the bags and the pineapple down on the counter. “Now I’m going to go back out to start bringing in your supplies.”

  “Can I help you bring the stuff in?”

  He looked at me in question.

  “Partially, I’m just excited to get my hands on something. But mostly, I just want to grab as much sunshine as I can before you go.”

  “I’ll have to plan an outing for Sunday, in order to make up for not being here.”

  “You don’t have to. I’m plenty happy to have a project to work on.”

  He smiled, “All right, come on, let’s get it all inside.”

  We carried everything up to the spare bedroom and let it all sit in the bags and boxes for me to deal with later. We cooked and ate dinner, and then watched the sunset. Later on, we proceeded to pack his suitcase and double-check to make sure he had everything he would need for the trip. I did everything I needed to do in order for him to feel relaxed and confident about leaving me here, all by my lonesome self.

  That night, he handed a small box to me.

  I accepted it and looked up at him with surprise.

  “Open it,” he said.

  When I lifted the top off of the box, I saw a plain, gold-toned watch inside.

  “It’s not real gold,” he said. “But, it does have an alarm. I thought you might like to have a clock with an alarm of some sort in here for the mornings, since my phone will be with me.”

  I pretended to be a little speechless, “Thank you.”

  “It’s nothing.”

  You’re damned right it’s nothing. I shouldn’t have been without something as simple as a watch for so long. “Well, I’m grateful for it anyway.”

  “In that case,” he murmured as he pulled me in close, “you’re very welcome.” He leaned down for a leisurely kiss.

  Time had always been a part of his control over me. At the old house, I couldn’t find a clock anywhere. I didn’t know when he would be coming home, or leaving for work. He told me when I should be tired, and when I should feel rested enough to get up. Here, in this house, I had the two clocks in the kitchen. But he still dictated bedtime and the morning alarm.

  I tried to not read too much into the idea of him giving me my own watch with an alarm built in. I was sure that he was only doing it now because he was leaving. When he got back, he might very well ask for it back. But, it did solve a small problem that I was having with my grand plan of escape.

  Getting the watch had almost been worth having to kiss him. But I worried, in the back of my mind, what if someone who was looking for me had seen me earlier? Out on the dock, hugging him, painting the happy couple picture that he wanted others to see, would they wonder if I really wanted to be rescued?

  Early Thursday morning I was sitting across from him at the breakfast table, acting all sad and gloomy.

  “Maybe next week I’ll go over to the shelter and look for a pet.”

  I closed my eyes and laughed at my own faked forlornness, “I’m not a child. You do not have to buy a pet for me to make up for leaving. The trip is for your job. I may not like it, but I do accept it.”

  “No, we talked about a pet before. This probably won’t be my only trip. You’ll have company whenever I have to leave.”

  I shot him a resigned look, “This won’t be your only trip?”

  “Mia,” he started slowly, “the company I work for is a national one, like I said. It has branches all over the country. The most efficient way to accomplish trainings and mass meetings is to gather us all together. And they wish to start branches in other countries in the next couple of years, so there’re likely to be more trips as time goes on.”

  My spine straightened, “They’re expanding overseas?”

  “Actually, they’re looking into expanding their technological base into South America.” He sipped his coffee. “You mentioned taking Spanish in high school. And if you think it’s pretty around here, you should see the sights down there.”

  “You want to move to South America?” Mentally, my jaw had just hit the floor.

  “Think about it, Mia. The music, the dancing, the landscape, just think of the photographs you could take down there! No one would think to go looking for us that far away, either. And we’d still have the safety net of my working for an American company, with the option of returning to the states.”

  Huh, it didn’t take you long to begin using the photography thing to try and manipulate me, did it? “I’ve never pictured myself living outside of the United States.”

  “Well, try picturing us living there.”

  “Which country?”

  “They’re still working that out, they want to try for two countries and see how they compare.”

  “Wow.” I couldn’t think of anything more impressive to say. “This company certainly does seem to be providing opportunities, just like you said it would.”

  “Yes. And I’m working hard to get recognition, so that my name is on the top of the list to be offered those opportunities.”

  I nodded and waved a pointed finger around my head. My voice was a bit higher than I had intended when I responded, “I’m going to let South America marinate in my head while you’re gone, and give my mind a chance to wrap around it.”

  “All right, I’ll accept that for now.”

  I glanced around the room and sighed, looking for something, anything else to talk about. “A dog.”

  He gave his head a little shake as he caught up with the change in topics, “Why a dog?”

  “Because it can go out on a boat with us, and swim in the river.”

  He nodded, “I’ll take a look next week.” He stood and went to gather his luggage. “I’ll be lea
ving the car at the airport lot while I’m gone.”

  I put my sad face back on, “All right.”

  “I have to go,” he said, looking just as tortured as I pretended to be.

  “I know you do. I’ll be fine, you can go.”

  He gave me a quick peck on the lips and turned to leave.

  My eyes scanned all he held as he began to press the numbers into the keyboard. “Wait! You don’t have your laptop.” I wasn’t going to fall into any possible trap that he might be setting for me.

  “I’m not taking it. I’ve locked it up in my office.”

  I crinkled my forehead over trying to understand that one.

  “Security checks at the airport will go easier without it. I still have my phone, though. Everything I need is on it, and the company gave me a lapdock to go with it.”

  I gave him a teasing smile, “I’m not even going to pretend to know what that is.”

  “It means I’ve got it covered, but thank you for looking out for me. I’ll see you in three days, I love you.”

  I gritted my teeth and smiled. “Love you, too.”

  He hit the code, exited, waited outside in the barely risen sun for ten seconds, and then left.

  Okay, time to keep this show going. I moved to gather the dishes and clean up from breakfast. Laptop or not, he would still be keeping an eye on me with his cell phone.

  Didn’t want to chance security getting their hands on your laptop, eh? I wonder exactly what all security might find on that computer. That was certainly a handy-dandy little occurrence. If that computer really was locked up in the office, it would make gathering charges on him much easier with any evidence stored on that hard drive in the hands of the authorities. And, given that so much of his time would be spent in meetings and trainings surrounded by other people, not to mention his having to share a room with someone else, I imagined that he wouldn’t have very much time available to use his phone to snoop on me.

  And South America? So that’s why the little buggar was so gung-ho about this new job. Now he freaking wanted to take me out of the country! I’d been born and bred in the U.S.A. No offense to any other nation, but I fully intended to stay in the country that God had seen fit to put me in. My family was here, and I was content here. Although maybe in another country they would have caught him and executed him by now. Or, at the very least, have put him in a loony bin.