It was dark and the stench was terrible. The rocking was constant. The bathroom was a plastic bucket. The food was a bowl of slop with gritty water to drink. It was quite a contrast from just two days ago. She thought that was hell. Being tied to a bed and locked in a room was heaven compared to this. There was no bed. She shared the wooden floor with four other girls that had been here longer then her. All of their will to live seemed to be gone. They just existed and had given up hope. She had not given up yet, but hope was beginning to fade as she wondered how she had ended up here. Just a week ago, she was the happiest girl alive. She was in love. God had given her the gift of a new life which she had carried inside of her. She had all of this with Troy, who at 19 was wise beyond his years. He was kind, caring, and the father of her child. Now, just a week later, all of that was gone.
She agonized as she relived her ordeal. She knew surprisingly little about her captors or about her location. She went back to her last memory of freedom. She was at the retreat. Pastor Rick had been so inspiring that day. He had spoken about trust; trusting yourself, trusting your family, and trusting God. His talks inspired her and Troy to trust Pastor Rick and confide in him about their situation. They trusted him and wanted his guidance. They told him of their plans to talk to her parents and Troy's dad. Pastor Rick was supportive, but also concerned about their ages. She had known she was pregnant for a week after receiving a positive result on a test. As they left Pastor Rick, she and Troy decided to speak to Maggie's parents as soon as the retreat was over on Saturday morning. She was, at most, two months pregnant. It was early, but she did not want to hide this from her parents. She knew they would be supportive. Her talk with her sister, Missy, had confirmed this for her. Missy said that her biggest mistake as a rebellious teen was not telling her parents when she first had a problem she needed help with. This only made it worse later when she could no longer hide the problem from them. So Maggie returned to her dorm room at Christianity Today that Tuesday night feeling as if the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. Then, her world changed.
She remembered waking in the middle of the night. Two figures wearing black ski masks were standing over her bed. She remembered thinking it was a prank, but then she saw the syringe, felt a pinch, and then blackness. When she awoke she was in another bedroom. It was similar to the dorm at the retreat except for one key difference- the bed she was in had restraints that were now attached to her arms and legs. She must have been observed by a camera in the room because, as she began to move, a tall nurse wearing blue scrubs with a small gold cross around her neck came into the room with a giant smile and soft, reassuring words. She kept saying that Maggie was lucky and chosen and would receive top notch care for her and the baby.
As Maggie's mind cleared, she started to realize that her surroundings were not familiar. She asked for her parents. She asked for Troy. Instead, she was told that her parents knew where she was and that she was being well taken care of.
"Can I call them?" she asked.
"Not right now dear. Not until after your orientation later this morning."
The nurse smiled again and left the room.
Orientation? Where was she? She fought against the restraints and realized that struggling would do no good. She had to make the nurse believe she had calmed down so that the restraints would be removed. She knew the camera was on her so she did her best to appear calm and cooperative.
"I'm sorry," she said, assuming there was also a microphone in her room. "I was scared and not sure where I was. I didn't mean to be so difficult."
Within five minutes, the nurse returned.
"I understand. We restrained you for your own protection. We didn't want you to injure yourself or your special cargo when you woke up."
"I'm better now. I really want to hear all about this place. Right now, I really need to go to the bathroom if that's OK."
Maggie gave the most sincere smile she could muster. The nurse appeared to have fallen for it. She loosened Maggie's restraints.
"I'll be out at the nurses' station," she said. "Don't try anything silly. You may still be a bit woozy from the sedative. I'll be back in when you're done and we'll talk about your stay with us."
Maggie went off into the bathroom. She really did have to go. She was a bit unstable on her feet, but concentrated to steady herself. Once she was done, she quickly formulated a plan. The nurse had shut the door to the room and locked it from the outside. The room had a small wooden desk and a padded metal chair. Maggie worked quickly. She knew the camera would spot her every move. She left that bathroom and slid the desk in front of the door. She then picked up the metal chair and swung it toward the window. The chair did its job. The window shattered all over the bed and the floor. Unfortunately Maggie was only wearing the shorts and t-shirt she had worn to bed. She had no shoes. In her hurry to escape through the broken window, she cut her feet badly and scraped her arms and legs on the broken glass. Adrenaline, fear and urgency caused her to block out the pain. She found herself outside. It was early morning and the sun was just starting to peak through the trees. Maggie saw fencing all around her. The razor wire along the top of the fence made climbing a poor option. She ran away from the woods toward what looked like the front of the property. She could hear shouting now as others joined the nurse in the chase. She saw a gate that she might be able to squeeze through at the front of the property. If she could make it there, she might just have a chance. The gap between the chain link gate and the fence looked just big enough for her to fit through and work her way out. She could see a guard shack beyond the gate. Her pursuers were about fifty feet behind her. The gate was about 20 feet in front of her. The adrenaline surge that kept her ravaged feet from hurting was wearing off as she went from the soft St. Augustine grass to the gravel of the driveway that entered the property. She was almost to the gate. Her pursuers would not catch her. As she slid through the gap, she felt something hold fast to her t-shirt. She looked back. Her pursuers were still at least 25 feet away. Still, something had her shirt. She then realized it was caught on the gate. She pulled with her quickly diminishing strength, heard a tear, and broke free. The delay was almost enough to allow her pursuers, the nurse and her makeshift posse, to catch up. It was almost, but not quite enough. She was past the gate and ready to ignore the pain in her bloodied feet in order to reach freedom. As she began to sprint toward the road, she ran into the iron embrace of the guard who inhabited the shack on the night shift. In spite of her flailing arms and kicking legs, he was able to subdue her. He secured her wrists and ankles with plastic zip ties rendering her helpless. He then opened the gate and the nurse emerged with another syringe. Maggie felt that familiar pinch and then darkness.
Her next memory was of waking in a similar bedroom, but not the same one. She was restrained to the bed more tightly this time. As she stirred awake, a new nurse entered her room. This nurse, a muscular male, had no smile and did not look happy to see her. He checked the bandages now wrapped around her swollen feet and then left her. She realized she had been changed into a hospital type gown. She felt sweaty and dirty from her failed adventure.
The restraints rubbed painfully against her wrists and ankles. She abandoned hope of struggling against them after a couple of halfhearted tries. After what seemed like hours to her, but was only about 90 minutes, the male nurse returned with a tray that contained a cup of tomato soup and a carton of milk, both of which had flexible straws in them. He positioned the tray and raised the top half of the bed so that Maggie could drink her meal without having the restraints removed. She wanted to resist eating the food in protest, but the hunger and thirst her body was experiencing along with her concern for her baby won out over her convictions. She greedily finished the liquids and settled back down into the bed. The nurse came back in to remove the tray.
"I need to use the restroom," Maggie said to him.
The nurse smirked, left the room and returned with a silver metal bedpan. He unceremoniously pulled ba
ck the bed covers and said, "Lift" while placing the cold vessel under Maggie's bare bottom. So much for modesty, she thought.
Maggie lay there restrained for the remainder of the day with the only human contact consisting of silent visits from the nurse to remove her bed pan, give her medication, and bring her juice to drink.
Finally, dinner was brought in by the nurse that she had outsmarted the night before. She was not alone. She was accompanied by a man in his mid to late 30s who did not look like someone she would like to mess with. He was wiry, small, but muscular. He smiled, which made him look more menacing. The nurse uncovered the tray. It contained a cheeseburger, French fries, and a hot fudge sundae. Maggie could feel her mouthwatering as she smelled the food.
"Looks delicious, doesn't it?" the man said in a non-distinct accent. "It's all yours if you will just speak to me for a bit."
Maggie nodded her head.
"Please remove the restraints, Phyllis," he said to the nurse.
Once her hands were free, Maggie tore into the food.
"My name is Nico. I'm here to talk to you about your stay with us and about what happened last night. Is that OK?"
Maggie looked at him with a mix of determination and fear and again nodded her head.
"You probably have a number of questions."
"Just one. When can I go home?"
"First things first, my dear. We need to talk about your behavior last night which injured you and put the baby at risk. This is not acceptable and will not be tolerated during your stay here. Second, there is the behavior that resulted in your ending up here."
At this statement Maggie looked confused.
"You see, that is the problem with your generation. Your look tells me that you don't even realize that being pregnant at 16 resulted from bad behavior; behavior that could end a promising young man's career; behavior that could ruin a church. You have no idea."
"I don't understand. Troy and I love each other. We are going to make this work."
"No. You don't understand. Troy was being groomed for big things. These things are now jeopardized because of raging hormones and a young girl who couldn't control herself."
Maggie's eyes began to fill with tears. Could this be true? Had she hurt Troy and the church?
"I want to speak to my parents."
"You will in good time. First, I want you to know that our benefactor understands your predicament and wants to help you."
"You can help me by letting me go home to my parents. This is kidnapping!"
At this, a dark and foreboding look flashed across Nico's eyes.
"You have no idea who I work for. He is a very powerful man with even more powerful connections. You will be given the best of care throughout your pregnancy. The baby will be given a good home, and your family will remain safe. All of this in return for your cooperation."
The seriousness of what he had said sunk in for Maggie. She realized that she would not be leaving before the baby was born. She would not see Troy. They were planning on taking her baby and had just threatened her family. Her mind was reeling as she digested all of this. The meal she had just relished now churned in her stomach. She had to come up with a plan. Her mind told her to cooperate with Nico as he posed a threat to her. She forced her body to relax.
"The first thing you are going to do is speak with your parents."
Maggie's face brightened.
"You will tell them the following: You are fine. You have run away to sort things out for a while. Do you understand?"
"Yes, but they will ask why I ran away."
"They know about the baby. You can't hide such things from your parents."
Maggie's heart sank. She wanted to be the one to tell her parents. How did they find out? How did these people find out? She quickly recounted who she had told. Troy, Missy, and Pastor Rick. Had one of them called her parents? Also, her journal. Had Mom and Dad found her journal?
"I see by your expression that you still have a number of questions. When you complete this task, all of your questions will be answered."
Maggie thought about what she was being asked to do, lie to her parents. She had never really done that before. How could she now in this situation? Then she thought of Nico's threat to her family. She didn't know this man, but somehow she knew enough to take him seriously. It would be good to hear her parents' voices and maybe somehow she would devise a way to send them a message.
"OK. I'll talk to my parents and tell them what you said."
"A wise choice, my dear," Nico said as the menacing smile reappeared.
He retrieved a cell phone from the bag he was carrying. He dialed a number and handed it to her.
"Remember what you are to tell them. Nothing more."
The phone was going on to its fourth ring. Maggie was afraid there would be no answer.
"Hello"
It was her father's voice.
"Daddy," she said feeling six all of a sudden rather than sixteen. "It's me, Maggie."
"Maggie? Are you alright? Peg, it's Maggie. Where are you?"
"Dad, I'm OK. I just needed to get away for a while to sort things out."
"Maggie, it's OK sweetie. We know. Come home and we'll work out together as a family."
"Daddy," the tears were flowing now. "I can't come home right now. I'm OK. I really am." Then a quick thought. "And Daddy, tell Liam I said hello."
Nico grabbed the phone from her and disconnected. He then began leafing through a folder full of paper and pictures that he had retrieved from his bag.
"Maggie, who is Liam? There is no one in your house by that name. You don't have any known acquaintances by that name."
"He's, um...my dog"
Damn, she had hesitated just enough to be caught in a lie.
"Maggie, we know everything about you. You don't have a dog."
Maggie remained silent.
"Who is Liam? What did this mean?"
Still no answer. She was caught. What was going to happen to her now? What was going to happen to her family?
"You didn't play by the rules. Now it will be up to our benefactor to decide what fate you have brought upon yourself and your family."
Nico abruptly left the room. The nurse stayed behind and began to refasten Maggie's restraints.
"Please," Maggie sobbed. "Please let me go. I didn't do anything wrong."
"Now young lady, you brought this on yourself. The moment you opened your legs and tempted that young man, you took this evil road. Now you'll have to deal with the consequences. This place was your last chance for redemption for you and the baby. You may have just squandered that chance."
Maggie thrashed against the restraints sobbing uncontrollably. The nurse left her. Maggie's mind raced while she pondered what would happen next.
After 30 minutes, the nurse returned carrying the dreaded syringe. She had a grim look on her face as she moved toward Maggie. As the liquid was injected into her, blackness enveloped her once again.
When she awoke, darkness still surrounded her. It was night, but what night was it? She felt as if she had been sleeping for a while. How much time had passed? She was almost immediately aware that something about her body did not feel right. She saw an intravenous bag hanging above her connected to her arm with a tube. The severe abdominal cramps that she felt were like an extreme menstrual period, but that couldn't be the cause because she was...Oh dear God, she thought, don't let it be that. She was still restrained. What have they done to me? What have they done to my baby? She thought these questions even though she knew the answers. She could feel a void where life had once been. They had murdered her baby. She sank into the bed and tears flowed steadily and quietly. The nurse returned with a syringe which she injected into the IV drip. Maggie once again drifted off into artificial sleep.
As she began to stir sometime later, the door flew open and Nico, the nurse, and two other ominous-looking men burst into the room.
"You can't do this. It's too soon," the nurse sa
id.
"The boss said to do it now, so that's what we are doing, unless you want to tell him it's too soon."
"Just be careful. She may still be bleeding. Take some extra pads."
"OK. Let's get her dressed and out of here."
Maggie, still drowsy from the anesthetic, felt the restraints being removed only to be replaced by strong, muscular hands.
"Can she have some privacy while I get her dressed," the nurse asked.
"We don't have time for this, just do it."
The nurse shook her head and eased the hospital gown off of Maggie. As she lay there naked, she could feel the eyes of the terrible men on her body. The nurse quickly changed her bloody pad and dressed her in sweatpants and a t-shirt that were both a bit too big, but at least covered her.
"OK, you can leave now," Nico said to the nurse.
When she left, Nico nodded to the two men. One of them retrieved two rolls of duct tape and some scissors from his bag. They went to work securing Maggie's ankles and wrists together. They then stuffed a small rag in her mouth and covered it with duct tape. Her head was then covered with a black burlap sack with drawstrings that they tightened around her neck. The sack stank of vomit and sweat left over from previous wearers. Once this was done, she heard Nico say, "Let's go."
She was carried by the men who had little regard for gentleness making her pain increase. She could tell by the difference in the air that she was outside now. She could hear car doors open and felt herself being set down on a car seat. She then heard the engine roar and felt movement. She tried memorizing the turns and estimating the distance, but realized that this was futile due to the lack of knowing where she started. After a while, she could feel the car driving on a gravel surface. They had left the paved road. The car came to a stop and when the door opened and the men pulled her out, she could sense they were near water. She was carried a short distance and then set down again on something that felt like car upholstery, but she was still outside. Almost immediately, a powerful motor started up and she could tell by the sound that she was on some type of motor boat. As the boat moved, the movement of the air felt good on her body, but couldn't fully penetrate the smothering stench of the burlap sack on her head. After what seemed like a very long time, the boat motor slowed to an idle and the boat bobbed in the water. Were they going to dump her? That was her first thought. Then she heard voices in a language that sounded like a version of Spanish, but her three years of studying the language in high school were not helping her translate much of it. She was now being lifted again and being transferred to a new set of hands. She could feel the rumbling of the engine of a much larger boat. She heard a large door open and then the tape that bound her ankles was cut. She was being walked down stairs into a stuffy area that smelled of human perspiration, waste, and despair. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she heard murmuring around her. The tape binding her wrists was now cut. She heard a voice in the same non-distinct accent as Nico's say, "Ladies, I have a new playmate for you."
In two quick movements, the burlap sack was removed as well as the tape over Maggie's mouth. What she saw, illuminated by a single bare light bulb, were four girls around her same age in various stages of sleep or shock lying on large burlap sacks on the floor of a cargo hold. Her new captors wore black ski masks and shoved her toward an empty sack. They returned up the stairs. Maggie caught a glimpse of the stars as the cargo door opened and then it slammed shut. She could hear it lock on the other side and then the light abruptly went out.
That brought her to the present. She was locked in this filthy cargo hold and had been here for, God only knew, how long. She was trapped here with four other creatures who were once, like herself, teenage girls. She was quickly losing her own humanity.
Unknown to Maggie, while she was back at the clinic being taped by the benefactor's minions, three people were trudging through the woods toward a chain link fence that would be cut. Frank, Jonesy and Anita entered the property for their unsanctioned investigation just ten minutes after the car carrying Maggie pulled through the gate.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Frankly Speaking - A Frank Rozzani Detective Novel (#1) Page 26