Behind the Facade

by Rebecca Heap

  She concentrated on simply putting as much distance between herself and the car as possible. Her breath came in short, harsh gasps and her bare feet protested as they found the hard tarmac and intermittently hit stones and other bits of debris on the road, but she forced herself on. It was still raining a little, but at least the storm hadn’t followed them and a sickly moon provided some light to see by. She thought about getting off the road but she could make out ditches on each side and she could not afford to let anything slow her down.

  She knew he’d be pursuing her but when she heard his shout she nearly tripped as a new surge of adrenalin and fear pumped through her. His pounding footsteps moved inexorably closer but she refused to contemplate failure. She pushed herself to go faster but was only able to increase her speed marginally and was already tiring. As she approached a bend in the road she risked a glance behind her and this was to be her undoing.

  The car appeared from nowhere and there was no time for her to do a thing to avoid it. The shocked face of the driver registered briefly and it flashed through her mind that it was ironic that in attempting to escape she had engineered her own doom. The heavy shove from her right, flinging her into the roadside ditch with a dead weight arriving on top of her in the form of her abductor, saved her from a fatal collision with the car but shattered any hope she’d had of escaping. Despite this, she refused to accept her bid for freedom had been thwarted and feebly struggled against him. He lifted his upper torso away from her, capturing her flailing arms and regarding her with unmitigated fury.

  Sean had been completely incensed when he’d heard the alarm go off and had seen her fleeing the car, though his wrath had been directed mainly at himself for being too complacent and giving her an opening no matter how small. It had clearly been a mistake to leave her out of sight. Hastily dropping his few purchases he’d deactivated the alarm and pursued her with vigour. He’d had no doubt he would catch her but was shocked at what had nearly taken place. Fortunately the car had not stopped and the driver had simply flashed his lights and tooted his horn long and loudly as he continued past.

  Shaking his head he stared down at her. “You mad lass!” he said to her “What the hell were you thinking?” This hardly required an answer. Tears began to course down her face as her stunned mind reasserted itself and the enormity of her close call, coupled with her aggravated situation, truly registered.

  They were both breathing hard, blood coursing furiously and his body was pressed down on hers. Sean’s fury abated and in its place, to his chagrin, his body decided to ambush him with feelings of arousal. He saw a flicker of fearful awareness enter her eyes as she recognised the intimacy of their situation and sudden heat in his gaze. She thrashed against him, which only served to heighten his sudden animal desire to overwhelm her. He was usually so self-controlled and was appalled by how much effort it took to clamp down on this. He quickly moved his body away from her before he lost the ability to control the feelings she had incited. Gritting his teeth he picked her up, slung her effortlessly over one shoulder, and made his way back to the parked car.

  Kate had been too relieved to fight when he had removed himself and lifted her onto his shoulder. Now he laid her roughly back in the passenger seat of the car. As after-shock set in she felt nausea rising in her throat.

  “I’m going to be sick!” she exclaimed. She leaned to the side and dispossessed her stomach of its meagre contents whilst he watched her without compassion.

  Once she was done and had retired body shaking back into the seat, he retrieved the bag of food and drinks he’d dumped in his rush to apprehend her. The other car had driven over it and the sandwiches he’d purchased were just a squashed mess. However, a bottle of water remained intact and he opened it and allowed her to take a swallow. This respite lasted mere seconds though.

  He soon reclaimed the bottle and then stood over her, his face sullen. He started to remove his belt. Her body tensed, rigid in shock. He clearly intended to punish her by acting on the urges she had inadvertently inspired in him. She hadn’t thought she could be more afraid of this man.

  Staring at him, her eyes blossoming with terror, she opened her mouth to scream when his next action surprised her, cutting off the scream that had already started whistling from her throat . He simply secured the belt under her breasts and then around her arms, pinning her firmly to the seat. He then leaned away from her to scrutinise his work. Satisfied she was completely immobilised he looked up into her face.

  Pale, with patches of mud on her face and neck from her encounter with the ditch, she was far from the blithe, immaculately groomed girl she had been. Her hair hung limply and was sticking in damp tendrils to her cheeks and her dress was twisted and dirty. His eyes were drawn to her mouth, which seemed swollen. A trickle of blood had escaped from a small lesion on her bottom lip. Even in such a state, in fact almost because of it, he was struck by how starkly beautiful she was.

  He hastily looked away and down at her hands, disconcerted by the effect she had on him. How had she possibly managed to free herself from her bonds? He lifted her hands to see if he could determine how she had liberated them. Weak, she still tried to pull away. He held firm and when she cried out in pain he turned them over to examine her wrists and swore.

  Contemplating the damage to them he clicked his tongue against his teeth, noting how sore and red her skin was. “Jaysus! You’re a piece of work,” he commented, the Irish burr strong in his voice.

  She looked up at him, tears welling in her frightened eyes. “Please,” she whispered, “please don’t hurt me.”

  He dropped her hands and regarded her. It must have taken some courage to attempt the escape. He was momentarily struck by admiration. However, he could not afford to take pity on her, especially when he found her unnervingly attractive and was in danger of letting this influence him.

  “Pull any more stunts like that last one and I won’t be responsible for my actions. Do you understand?”

  She raised her head at this and gave him a look of hollow hopelessness. “Why should I do as you say? If I don’t try and tell someone about that bomb before you set it off, who will?”

  She thought him some kind of psycho. He couldn’t bear the recrimination he saw in her face and the fictitious bomb threat was now fuelling her desire to escape.

  “There is no bomb,” he admitted suddenly.

  “You’re lying,” she countered immediately. But somehow the way he had announced this sounded sincere.

  “No,” he said “Really. I’m not. I had my own reasons for entering that building, none of which were to do with planting a bomb.”

  “Why… why lie?” she asked, puzzled and struggling to come to terms with this unexpected revelation and what it might mean.

  “What other means did I have at the time of making sure you’d co-operate? Besides, I’m Irish. It didn’t take much to convince you that I was a terrorist, did it?”

  She could not think of anything to say to this, accepting his logic but left wondering, if there was no bomb, why had he been there? Why had he kidnapped her? He was a dangerous man. He’d clearly been up to something in Robert’s building he wanted no-one to know about. She could only surmise that he had been committing some other crime.

  “What about Rob?” she asked. “What did you do to him? Is he OK?”

  He frowned, not immediately sure to whom she referred.

  "My fiancé," she pressed. "He went into the building. I thought it was him returning when..." she trailed off as comprehension dawned in his eyes, followed by a black look she translated as meaning bad news.

  "Is he dead?!" she cried, suddenly desperate.

  Sean looked at her, debating whether to be truthful on this point. In the end he simply pressed his lips together and shrugged. "He got in the way."

  She interpreted this as he intended her to and lunged for him, shrieking "You bastard!"

  She was inevitably hampered from getting to him by the opposing pull of her restra
int. “See, there’s no one left to save, so there’s no point in trying to run. You’ll only cause yourself more grief.”

  She sank dejectedly back against the seat, sobbing. “You should have just let that car hit me.”

  He could have hardly expected any other reaction and had to harden himself to her misery. Really it was a bonus that she now believed her fiancé dead. Now she should be less inclined to make any more foolhardy attempts to escape.

  Turning away from her he said heartlessly, “You’re right. It would have solved a lot of problems for both of us.”

  He stood and stepped out of the car and as he did so caught sight of the cigarette lighter and frayed cord on the passenger seat floor. He picked them up and flung them aside in disgust. He couldn’t really blame her for making a bid for freedom, though he had not expected her to attempt one so soon or one that had required such guts and initiative. Who’d have thought she‘d use the damn cigarette lighter, of all things, to free herself?

  He filled the car with the petrol he’d obtained, slammed the door and returned to his seat. He finished the water in one long, fortifying gulp, regretting it wasn’t something stronger. Wiping a hand across his mouth, he smothered an involuntary chuckle, on the verge of hysterical laughter after all that had happened. How in God’s name had things got so outrageously complicated?

  He glanced across at the girl. All the fight seemed to have left her now; her head was down and she appeared completely defeated. He felt an almost paralyzing pang of guilt. What the fuck are you doing! His brain screamed at him. He’d managed to talk himself out of getting arrested by the police, but at what cost? Breaking and entering was nothing in comparison with abduction.

  He started the car up again, hoping driving would give his thoughts some time to settle. The decision to keep the girl with him against her will was already beginning to feel like the worst decision he had ever made.

  Katherine felt sick at heart. The mental and physical energy she had invested in her escape, the shock of the near accident and the ruthlessness of her recapture had all combined to leave her feeling drained and exhausted. Her body was aching and sore but she felt detached from the pain. She had not allowed herself to contemplate failure. A slow tear slid down her cheek and a numbing despair crept over her mind, like a cloying winter fog.

  The sky had cleared and the moon was now a bright, baleful eye in the sky, providing more shadows than illumination. They had left the city behind and were travelling through wooded countryside. Sean studied where he was and pondered whether to take the motorway, which would risk his passenger getting a fix on the route they were taking. He could do something to rule out this problem.

  Before heading for the motorway he pulled over, delved about in the glove box and brought out a pair of sunglasses and some masking tape that would do the job. He blinded the glasses using the tape and then placed them on the girl’s face. Kate flinched slightly as he did so but was unable to remove them because of her restraints.

  Kate’s sight was now completely restricted. The darkness, on top of everything else, was unnerving but her mind insisted that she should not give up hope. Left in the dark with her own tumbling thoughts, it suddenly struck her that it may not be a vain hope; the only reason he would want her blind was if he was worried about what she would see. Surely this offered some promise that he might not kill her? She tried not to undermine this fragile hope by dwelling on what fate might await her instead.

  As it was very late at night the motorway proved relatively traffic free. However, he curtailed his usual tendency to exceed the speed limit, keeping within the 70mph restriction. He didn’t want to risk unwanted police attention merely by speeding. Soon enough, he’d arrived at the place he had been heading for and was pulling into a long, stony driveway flanked by sprawling vegetation and tall, tired-looking spruce trees. The drive led to a large, modern, glass-fronted building with a neat, compact garage attached to it which seemed incongruous in the wild, untamed surroundings. Sean drove around the back of the house and parked up. He climbed out of the car, locked it and headed towards the garage.

  He glanced through the side window, noticing with satisfaction that there was no vehicle occupying it. He then checked out the house. There were no lights or sounds emanating from it and it seemed completely deserted but he tried the doorbell just to be sure. Once he’d established there was no-one home, he used the key he still had to unlock the door and he disengaged the alarm. He was pleased to find that neither the alarm code nor the locks had been changed since he last visited. Something had gone his way at long last.

  Returning to the car, he released the belt that bound Kate to the car seat and scooped her into his arms. She wriggled in protest but the words, “I’ll happily drop you on your arse, if you don’t stay still,” put paid to this.

  He tried to minimise the physical contact by carrying her as he would carry some large, inanimate object and staring straight ahead. However, when he stumbled on a fallen tree branch she disarmed him by gripping hard on his neck and pulling her body closer to his. He grimaced inwardly. Why did she have to keep reminding him that she was not just a bloody troublesome complication but a human being as well?

  Sean carried her into the house along a short hallway and up a steep, spiralling flight of wooden stairs. He entered a bedroom containing twin beds and placed her down on one of them. With him looming over her she didn’t dare risk any attempt to vacate the bed. She simply crouched there shivering, waiting for his next move, eyes wide and skittish. She looked like a survivor of some catastrophe with her dirty, torn dress and bruised body. He couldn’t leave her like this. He made a decision. Pulling her towards him by her feet, despite her resistance, he forced her off the bed yanked her upright and shoved her into the bathroom.

  “Get cleaned up and I’ll get you something to wear.” He stalked out of the room, glancing at the door on his way out to ensure that there was no internal lock.

  Katie stood there trying to gather her confused thoughts and control her battered emotions. As adrenalin coursed through her, her mind cleared and her gaze travelled desperately around the bathroom, trying to take in her new surroundings and any opportunities it might offer. The bathroom was a true sanctuary to femininity. There was everything from pot pourri to soft fluffy towels but nothing that looked remotely useful.

  She jumped and nearly fell when he strode back into the bathroom and dropped some items of clothing on to the floor. He frowned at her. “What are you doing standing there in those rags? Can’t you obey a simple instruction?”

  She gaped at him. “Get your clothes off and get yourself showered...or do you need me to stay and help you?” he asked. He lifted an eyebrow and a smile played on his lips that prompted her to flinch backwards. He noted her reaction and said “I guess not....but I’ll be just outside the door if you change your mind.”

  He suddenly paused on his way back out and turned back to her, any trace of humour wiped from his face. “You have fifteen minutes and then I’m coming back in, ready or not.”

  Once he’d left again Katie collapsed against the wall, strung out and dejected. She glanced briefly round the bathroom again, more in hope than expectation, but there really was nothing it afforded that might help her situation and whilst she dawdled she was running out of time. She had no choice but to do as he said and as quickly as possible. Who knew what he might do if he came back and she wasn’t clothed? He hardly needed an excuse to terrorise her.

  With cold and shaking fingers she peeled off her bedraggled dress. It clung to her skin as if it was now part of her protesting at any attempt at removal but she finally dragged it down her torso and flung it at her feet. He’d already turned the shower on so she fiddled with the settings and got in the cubicle. As the water cascaded down her body, despite the throbbing from some of her injuries, it was very cathartic to have the hot, penetrating torrent rinse the aches and dirt away. Momentarily, she lost herself in the simple and familiar comfort of it. Howe
ver, she could not afford to take too long and, despite her reluctance to do so, she shook herself out of her transitory reverie and turned the shower off.

  Stepping quickly out, she hastily dried herself with one of the towels and donned the clothes her captor had provided. There was no bra, understandably, but she hardly needed one anyway and at least there was a t-shirt and knickers, albeit rather lacy ones. She had barely finished pulling the clothes on when he entered the room again.

  He grabbed her arm without ceremony marched her back into the bedroom and pushed her down onto the bed. Before she had time to even think of struggling he’d secured her to the metal bed frame with a pair of steel handcuffs. She cried out in dismay and instinctively pulled on the shackle but then yelped again, as this action aggravated the injury to her wrist that she had previously sustained.

  It was not simply an amazing piece of good fortune that he had found these. He had known they were in the house. He had remembered that the owner of the house, an ex-girlfriend, kept them ever handy for the games she liked to play in bed. Never truly intended to be used to restrain someone against their will but useful for that purpose nonetheless. Luckily, due to their design, the chain between the cuffs was easily extendable so he'd been able to allow the girl some freedom of movement.

  It intensified her fear of him that he had so easily produced the handcuffs. Was he used to restraining people? She scrambled backwards, raising her knees and clamping her free arm around them.

  Sean was struck by how young and fragile she looked with her face scrubbed clean and the slightly oversized t-shirt drifting off one shoulder. He angrily shrugged off the inappropriate feelings of protectiveness this stirred in him.

  He turned abruptly and left the bedroom, determined to put her from his mind and focus on his other acquisition. He walked down the landing and entered a small study room. A flat screen computer was set up on a sturdy black ash desk. He reached in his pocket for a memory stick loaded with the information he had downloaded from Charlie’s computer at the offices of Burbank and Beck. The sooner he found the answer he needed the sooner he could try and plan a safe end to this episode. He wanted to have a brief look through the data whilst he had the chance. He fired the computer up plugged the stick into an available port and began sifting through the files, his senses alert to any unexpected sounds from the bedroom.