by Robert Brown
Including Jan’s.
Damn.
Biniam had boasted about how easy it was to bypass the password on an average laptop. Easy for a hacker like Biniam, anyway. How easy was it, really? Would these guys have the knowhow?
“Where are we?” Heinrich asked.
His captor only chuckled.
“This place looks strange,” Heinrich went on. “This isn’t a normal cellar. Are we in an old mansion or something?”
“Not quite. We are in the basement of a castle. I will not give you the name, but we are standing on historic ground. It makes for a nice background for my pictures—not that you will see the exterior. No, you will see only the dungeon.”
“What did you do with Arizona?”
“The child? Nothing.”
“Bullshit.”
“What? You think we are putting her in pornographic scenes? Of course not. Child pornography is illegal. What I make is not. Besides, there is little money in child porn. The Internet has a vast network of pedophiles who make and trade pornographic pictures and videos for free. How could I compete with that? But BDSM, that’s a real money maker. Oh, there are amateur producers, of course, but they can’t match my quality.”
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“With you? Yeah, right.”
“She is safe because that keeps Casey under control. Casey came to us willingly, but it is always good to ensure loyalty among my employees.”
“If you’ve hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
The producer cocked his head and smiled. “Who? Casey or Arizona?”
“Arizona. I don’t give a shit about Casey. She stole one kid, abandoned another, robbed her husband, and stabbed me in the back when I tried to set it right.”
His interrogator inclined his head. “I must admit, she’s quite the handful.”
“I notice you don’t use her preferred pronoun. I’m surprised she lets you get away with that.”
The producer rolled his eyes and groaned. “I do when she’s in the room. She never shuts up about it. In any case, Mr. Müller, you will not have to worry about what pronoun to use on her when you have a ball gag in your mouth. Now you get some sleep. You’ll need it for tomorrow.”
He strolled away and up the stairs, followed by the twins. A heavy door slammed, a large bolt thudded, and the lights switched off.
Heinrich was left alone in the cold, dark cellar, soaked and shivering.
As soon as the door slammed, he started working on the ropes. Carefully, he felt around the knots with his fingertips, trying to figure out how they had been tied. Then he pulled on the most likely parts of the rope, trying to loosen them. The problem was, he couldn’t get enough grip with his fingers, which he had already twisted at an unnatural angle simply to touch the ropes.
He rested. Tried again. It was no use. He was trapped.
Despite the cold and fear, he tried to rest. He’d need his strength when they came back.
But of course he couldn’t sleep, so once again he tried to untie his bonds. All that earned him was rope burns on his fingers, a cracked nail, and sore wrists.
He gave up a second time and tried to relax. If he couldn’t sleep, couldn’t get away, he should at least not be exhausted when they came for him. Maybe he’d see an opening, a chance.
For long hours he sat there. He didn’t know that he had dozed off until he jerked awake at the sound of the bolt snapping open.
The unseen door creaked on its hinges, and a light appeared at the top of the stairway.
Heinrich blinked when he saw a little girl wearing a nightgown and carrying a candle. She was tiptoeing down the stairs in her bare feet.
As she got to the bottom and turned to him, he recognized her.
Arizona.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Heinrich glanced at the staircase. Was this some sort of trick? He didn’t see any other light and heard nothing. The girl approached, obviously nervous and shy.
“Hey, Arizona.” His voice came out as a croak. He cleared his throat so he wouldn’t sound like Gollum. Not the best way to gain a little girl’s confidence. “Hey, Arizona. My name is Heinrich. Your daddy sent me to get you.”
Her eyes widened. “Daddy! Is he here?”
“Shh. Please keep your voice down, honey. Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
Arizona shook her head. “This place is scary. I want to go home.”
“So do I, Arizona. If I can get untied, I’ll take you home.”
“I heard Mommy talking about how they tied you up. I figured you were from Daddy. Here. I brought you something so you can get free.”
The girl held out a tiny pair of scissors, the kind with the curved tips for cutting nails.
Heinrich tried to hide his disappointment. It would take years to cut through his ropes with that little thing, and the kid was too small to untie him herself. Plus he judged that he didn’t have much time. The kid didn’t look sleepy, so it was probably early morning. The adults in the castle would wake up soon enough.
“Those will be a big help, Arizona,” he lied. “Thank you very much. Can you go around behind me and put them in my hand?”
She did as she was told. Heinrich opened them up and started sawing at the ropes. The blade was less than an inch long and kept slipping. After a few minutes, with the girl anxiously moving around the room and clutching herself because of the cold, Heinrich ended up dropping the scissors.
“Damn it!”
Arizona leaped back, startled.
“Oh sorry, honey. I’m not angry at you.” The kid was trembling. Heinrich hurried to add. “This is a big help. It’s just going to take a little time. Can you hand them back to me? That’s a good girl.”
She gave the staircase a nervous glance, then did as he asked.
Once the scissors were in his hands again, he had a better idea. Closing the scissors, he tried to work the curved, pointed end into the knot. He soon had it stuck in, and slowly worked at it. To his utter joy, the knot began to loosen.
He pried harder, impatient, and once again he dropped it. This time Arizona didn’t have to be asked; she picked it up and handed it to him.
“You’re a very brave girl,” Heinrich said, and meant it.
“Mommy says I’ll never see Daddy again,” she said, looking glum.
“I’ll make sure you do. Can you tell me what’s upstairs?” Heinrich asked as he continued working on the knot. He almost had it.
“A big castle. There’s a movie studio too but I’m not allowed in there.”
“Are we in a town or the countryside?”
“The countryside. There’s cows. I’m cold.”
“I’m cold, too.”
“Why are you wet?”
“Some guy threw a bucket of water on me.”
“That’s Anders.”
“Tall skinny guy who directs the movies?”
“He’s weird.”
Heinrich paused. “How is he weird?”
“He dresses me up and makes me not tell Mommy.”
“Dresses you up how?” Heinrich started working on the knot again.
“He bought me a leather suit and boots like Mommy wears for her movies. He makes me play with a whip in front of a big green blanket and films it. It’s really cold; can we go now?”
With a gasp, Heinrich freed one of his hands. Arizona cheered and clapped. He sat there a moment, flexing his fingers to get some life back into them. Then he started on the other hand.
“When he films you, does he film you with other people?” Heinrich asked, a cold knot tightening in his stomach.
“No. He tells me to pretend other people are there. Makes me say stuff to them.”
“Like what?”
Arizona frowned, looking at a spot on the floor. She made a whipping noise as she flicked her wrist and shouted, “Kneel, slave! You’re our bitch. You have to do whatever me and my mommy say.” She flicked her wrist and made the whipping noise again. Heinrich thought he was
going to be sick.
“And no one is in the picture with you?” he asked, freeing his other hand and getting to work on his legs.
“No. Anders says it’s just pretend. Don’t tell Mommy. He said I should never tell Mommy.”
Heinrich freed his legs. When he got up, he nearly toppled over. His feet were almost numb. He started stomping them to regain some circulation.
“OK, kid. We’re going to get out of here. Now, I need you to be very brave and do exactly as I say, all right?”
Arizona nodded.
“Do you know how to get to the door that leads outside?”
She nodded again.
“They must have a car or two here, right?”
“And a big van, too.”
Why do perverts always have vans? Heinrich wondered. Out loud he asked, “Do you know where they keep the keys?”
“No. Oh wait, Anders has some keys in his bedroom.”
Heinrich tensed. “You’ve been in his bedroom?”
“Once when I was thirsty and wanted a drink of water and couldn’t sleep I went in there because that’s where Mommy sleeps.”
“Of course she does,” Heinrich sighed.
Nothing pissed him off more than bad parenting. He’d had a pair of bad parents himself, so he knew. Compared to this idiot Casey, his drunken, absent father and drunken, hypochondriac mother were starting to look like model parents.
Heinrich put a finger to his lips. “Shh. Be very quiet, all right?”
“All right,” Arizona whispered.
Heinrich took her hand, which was cold and trembling, and led her to the staircase. He let her carry the candle. He had a feeling he’d need his hands free.
He saw nothing but darkness at the top of the stairs.
They climbed the stone steps and reached an arched doorway. A thick wooden door reinforced with metal bands stood open. Heinrich gave Arizona’s hand a reassuring squeeze. Good thing she had come along. Even if he had gotten out of the ropes, he would never have been able to bust down this door.
The feeble light of the candle didn’t penetrate far into the darkness of the stone hallway in which they found themselves. Heinrich saw a light switch by the door, and another farther down the hall, but he didn’t dare flick them on. The kid hadn’t, either. This place had taught her that children shouldn’t be seen or heard. He wondered what else Anders had done to her but decided to not press the issue. He wasn’t a child psychologist, and his priority was getting her the hell out of there.
Arizona tugged on his hand, leading him to the left. They passed through a long stone hallway with the heads of stags and wild boar mounted on the walls. Arizona shivered a little. Heinrich couldn’t imagine how creepy this must seem to her. He realized she must be really desperate if she dared to come down by herself in the darkness and risk punishment to free a complete stranger.
Good thing for bad parents, Heinrich mused. Casey doesn’t know where she is and the kid is so needy for a decent adult in her life, she’s banking on someone she’s never met before.
The hallway ended in an arched doorway. Beyond it he saw what looked like a banquet hall. A huge oaken table took up much of the space. It was surrounded by high-backed wooden chairs with medieval crests carved on them. At each corner of the room stood a suit of armor clutching a spear. The ceiling was high, with a surrounding gallery on the second floor. No lights shone up there.
Heinrich moved over to the table, picked up an immense silver candelabra, and used Arizona’s candle, which had burned down almost to a stub, to light the candles on it.
“Are any houses nearby?” he asked in a whisper.
Arizona shrugged.
Heinrich bit his lip. Try to find keys to a car or simply get out and take their chances in the countryside?
Better to get out as soon as possible. If he had been alone, he would have done some more exploring, but his main priority was getting the kid to safety.
Main priority? Hell, only priority. Casey can take care of her damn self.
“Where’s the front door?” he asked.
“This way.”
Arizona led him to an open doorway opposite the one through which they had entered. They passed through another room full of trophies and came to a large front hallway. A grand staircase curved up to the second floor. Shields and weapons hung on the wall. Flanking the bottom of the staircase stood two suits of armor carrying halberds. At the front of the room, opposite the stairs, two stained glass windows sat high in the wall, faintly illuminated by the light of early dawn. They flanked a door secured by a heavy bolt.
Heinrich hurried over, slid the bolt as quietly as he could, and turned the large iron key in the lock.
To his relief, the door didn’t creak when he opened it. However, his relief quickly turned to disappointment when he opened the door.
Fresh, cool air blew on his face. He stood on a thin strip of grass. A few yards before him ran a moat. Beyond that was a forest.
“You got to be fucking kidding me,” Heinrich grumbled.
Arizona giggled. “You swore.”
Before him stood a gatehouse, no doubt supplied with a drawbridge. He hurried over there and found that its door was unlocked. Heinrich glanced back at the castle. It looked dark and forbidding under a sky that was only just beginning to grow pink in the east. The main structure rose three stories, with tall towers at each corner. A light burned in the window of one of the towers.
“Are we going to get out of here?” Arizona asked. She was shivering. Heinrich, still damp from the night before, felt cold in the early morning air, too.
“Of course we are. Don’t worry.”
He opened the door to the gatehouse and entered a small stone room. The drawbridge took up much of the opposite wall. An old winch system with a frayed and mildewed rope was attached to the wall on one side. Heinrich lifted the candelabra so he could see better and spotted an electric switch. He approached it and flicked it on. A low electric hum came from somewhere and the drawbridge began to lower.
“Thank God for modern technology,” Heinrich said, setting the candelabra on the floor.
The drawbridge lowered far too slowly for his liking, and made too much noise. He went to the back door of the gatehouse and looked at the castle. A light switched on in the upper floor. He hurried back to Arizona.
“OK, kiddo. When this drawbridge gets all the way down, we’re going to run for that line of trees. Can I carry you? We’ll go quicker.”
“What about Mommy?”
Fuck Mommy.
“She’ll come later. The important thing is to get you back to your father.”
“But I want Mommy to come too,” she whined.
Heinrich tried to control his impatience. “She will. She wants you to be safe, so I need to get you out of here, all right?”
“I won’t have to see Anders again?”
“No.”
“He’s creepy.”
The drawbridge was halfway down. Heinrich glanced out the back door and saw that several lights were on in the castle. He scooped up Arizona, who felt small and feather-light in his arms, and waited impatiently for the drawbridge to fully open.
It hit the opposite bank with a loud thud. Before them a gravel road led into the woods about a hundred yards away.
Heinrich ran.
Once he got to the cover of the trees, he looked back at the castle. Several more lights were burning now and he heard faint shouting.
He wasted no time. He figured he’d have a couple of minutes before they could get organized and set out, so he ran along the side of the gravel road for several hundred yards, making good progress before cutting into the woods and getting out of sight of the road. He tried to guess the route of the road and then travelled parallel to it. At times he strayed too close and caught sight of the road before he moved deeper into the woods again. The trees were young and not very thick, and there was little underbrush. Once it became fully light, the woods wouldn’t give them much cover
unless they stayed well inside them.
How long before he found some civilization? All he needed was a public telephone or a sympathetic passerby. Sooner or later, that gravel road would lead to a paved road. That meant cars and maybe a village.
“I’m scared,” Arizona said, clutching his neck.
“Don’t worry, honey. We’re almost out of it.”
The faint sound of barking came from behind them. Heinrich froze. He heard the barking again. It sounded like it came from at least two dogs—and like it was coming closer.
“Those are the dogs,” Arizona said. “Big dogs. Anders keeps them and uses them in some of his movies.”
Oh great, kid. You could have told me there were dogs.
Heinrich ran faster.
CHAPTER NINE
The sound of barking grew louder. Heinrich picked up speed, weaving through the trees and holding Arizona close to protect her from low branches. He reached an opening in the trees and saw the gravel road cutting in front of him. Had it turned or had he lost his sense of direction? No, the sky was still brightening to his right, meaning he was still headed north.
Glancing each way, he noticed that the road ran straight as far as he could see to his right and curved away to his left. He heard an engine coming from that direction.
Heinrich sprinted across the road and entered the woods as quickly as he could. By the time he heard the vehicle pass, the road was well out of sight. The sound of the engine faded away.
But the barking grew louder and was headed straight for them. Heinrich looked behind them and saw three dark shapes loping between the trees.
Cursing, he set Arizona on a branch, as high as he could reach.
“Hold on tight, kiddo. Do not move.”
Arizona nodded, her face pale in the morning light.
The dogs were almost on them. Heinrich looked around, saw a heavy stick, and grabbed it.
They were Doberman Pinschers, three of them running at him in a tight group, teeth bared. Arizona screamed.
Heinrich swiped at the group with the stick, knocking the right-hand one upside the head and slamming him into the other two. The one that had gotten hit yelped and fell to the ground. The other two stumbled back a bit, giving Heinrich time to bring the stick down on another one with a loud crack.