by J. S. Cooper
“I need to try to brush the shell off of the paper.” I spoke determinedly. “Try to relax your body as I attempt to move forward and shift it, okay?”
“Okay,” he answered quickly, and I leaned forward, moving my arms to the right, attempting to shift the shell.
A part of me was pleased that we seemed to be working so well together. I almost yelled out loud in happiness as the shell rolled off the paper, but then I read the note. I read it silently at first and then aloud, my ears alert to hear how he responded.
“ ‘Without the truth, there is no answer,’ ” I said softly.
“That’s it?” He sounded as perplexed as I felt.
“No.” My voice was low. “There’s another line.”
“What does it say?”
“ ‘In pain, there is darkness. In light, there is nothing.’ ”
The words seemed to carry in the wind, and we sat there in silence. I watched as the wind picked up the piece of paper and carried it down the shore. I closed my eyes as I thought about what the third line had said—the line I had been too scared to read aloud. My body felt tense, and I no longer trusted Jakob as much as I had earlier. The line flashed again in my mind. Your bodies are now one, but not as united as they will be by the time I’m done.
“I don’t really know what that means. What do you think?”
“I don’t know.” I chewed on my lower lip. “I can’t figure it out. Obviously, it’s some sort of clue, but I have no idea what it means. Maybe something will happen in the dark?” Maybe Jakob was going to try to do something to me? I tried not to panic.
“I guess, though that doesn’t make sense. In pain, there is darkness isn’t the same as if the note had read In darkness, there is pain.” His tone was odd. “Though, the day is still young.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked quietly, but he didn’t answer.
“We’re going to have to work together to get untied.” He spoke up suddenly and then paused. When he spoke again, his voice was lower, almost seductive. “Unless you want to stay tied together, of course.”
“Why would I want to be tied with my back to a man?” I retorted, and shivered with suspicion.
“I agree. If I’m going to be tied to someone, I very much want us to be facing each other, or preferably, I’d like to be tied on top of her.” He chuckled slightly as I gasped, and I was glad he couldn’t see my red face. “Come on, Bianca. Look around and see if you see anything sharp.”
“Sharp?”
“Like scissors?”
“Oh, you think those two bozos dumped us here and left us with scissors?” I retorted, and looked around, suddenly wishing I were here by myself after all.
“Look for anything sharp, like a rock or a tree stump—anything that might help us saw through the rope.”
“All I can see is the ocean.” I paused. “Or the sea. Or whatever this body of water is that I’m facing.” I could hear the shrill of terror emanating from my voice as I stumbled over my words.
“Calm down, Bianca.”
“How am I supposed to keep calm?” I shouted, and tried to move.
I could feel my body starting to shake. I wanted to be away from him. His body pressed against mine was no longer comforting. It was ominous and foreboding, and I needed my space.
“Stop.” His voice was strong. “You need to look for something sharp.”
“Why don’t you look?”
“I can’t see right now.”
“What?” I stilled. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I can’t see.”
“Oh my God, did they do something to your eyes? Are you blind?” My heart started racing as I realized that things would be a lot harder if Jakob couldn’t see. I felt guilty for feeling slightly relieved as well. If he couldn’t see, it would be a lot harder for him to do something to me.
“They blindfolded me,” he said patiently, and I felt like a bit of a fool for jumping to conclusions.
“Oh, okay.” I turned my head as much as I could. “We’re going to have to try to stand up.”
“We’ll have to lean back into each other and use each other as support,” he agreed, and I felt him push his back into mine. He felt hot against me, and I yelped as I felt a slight shock at the added pressure of his body against mine.
“Are you going to act like this all day?”
“Are you going to annoy me all day?”
“Bianca, what do you want me to do?”
“Have you tried wiggling your nose and forehead?” I asked softly, slightly embarrassed at my tip.
“Sorry, what?”
“Wiggle your nose around. It might shift the blindfold on your face.”
“And you know this how?”
“Just do it!”
“I knew you were a closet freak.” He laughed, and his body moved up and down against mine.
“What are you doing?” I snapped, way too aware of how close we were.
My mind ran back to the third line in the note. What had the writer meant by saying our bodies were now one? Had they known how annoying and exhilarating it would be to be tied to someone? Or were they trying to warn me about Jakob? My thoughts were running through my mind a million miles a minute, and I knew that the note on the beach was related to the letter that I’d received. They were both too cryptic to not have been related. My mind flashed to the note I’d received in my apartment and the man who had been looking through my father’s box. For a brief second, I wondered if Jakob had been the same man, but then I remembered they looked nothing alike.
“Jakob.” My voice was light. “What’s going on?” I spoke again, trying to ignore my thoughts as he bounced around behind me.
“I’m wiggling my nose like you said.”
“And you need to move your whole body to do that?” I snapped, unable to hide my tension any more.
“My God, you are a bitch, aren’t you?”
“You’re not exactly Prince Charming.”
“It seems to me that you’d be happier with the Marquis de Sade,” he snapped back, but then he laughed and confused me.
“What’s so funny?”
“I was just laughing because really I should be flattered.”
“Flattered about what? Being kidnapped?” My voice rose, and I was incredulous about his words. Was he a psycho? I had dismissed that thought earlier, but now I wasn’t quite sure. Maybe this was part of the plan. Maybe I had trusted the wrong person.
“No, silly. I’m flattered that I turn you on.”
“Excuse me?” I squeaked out as he continued to wiggle against me.
“That’s the only reason I can think of for you acting so tense and irritable.”
“Really? That’s the only reason you can think of?” I banged back against him hard, hoping to wind him but really only hurting myself. I could feel anger building up in my stomach, joined by a certain and sudden irrepressible thrill. “Just wiggle your nose, your eyebrows, and your cheeks, and try to get that thing off.” I sighed in exasperation. My body was on high alert, and my mind was already working overtime.
There had to be a reason why we were here together. We couldn’t have been randomly kidnapped. Maybe the man that had been following me thought Jakob was some sort of contact of mine. Maybe my kidnappers thought he knew something about my investigations. Or maybe not. Maybe he had his own story. If I could figure out his story and background, maybe I could figure out why we were both here. There was, of course, the possibility that he had more sinister aspirations, but I couldn’t allow my mind to focus on that.
“Yes, ma’am,” he responded, and continued his erratic body movements against me for the next few minutes.
“So, can I ask you a few questions?” I said, and then took a deep breath and waited for him to respond.
“Yes, my name is Jakob; yes, I’m single; yes, I like sex; no, I’m not a freak; and no, I don’t do drugs; though I do like a drink every now and then.” He spoke matter-of-factly, and I giggled.
“Well, I’m glad we got that out of the way,” I said, and I smiled to myself at his goofiness. “However, those aren’t the answers to any of the questions I was going to ask you.”
“Yes, okay, I admit it. I have smoked weed. Once, or twenty times,” he responded again, and I shook my head.
“I guess you experimented in college, huh?” I got into his banter easily and then frowned at myself for getting distracted. “That’s not my question either though. I’m trying to figure out why we’re here. We have to have something in common. I can’t believe that we were randomly kidnapped together.”
“Aside from the fact that the man you said was following you came up to me and asked me what we’d been talking about? Aside from the fact that I told him to mind his own business, and he told me to be very careful what I said and to who? I thought I was being punked in the coffee shop. Now, I realize I wasn’t. But, hey, yeah, we can see if we have anything else in common. Feel free to ask me anything you want.”
“Okay, I’m thinking.” I stared at the ocean, hoping it would give me insightful questions to ask, but all I could keep thinking about was the fact that he was single.
We sat there in silence as he attempted to get the blindfold off and I thought about questions to ask him that wouldn’t give too much of my own story away. I tried to take in my scenery more thoroughly so that I could ignore him as much as possible. We were on a beach—that I was sure of. The sand beneath me was a light white-yellow, with few shells. It was the kind of beach I’d want to vacation on if I’d been given the opportunity. The water was a gorgeous transparent blue, with calm waves. The sky was a soft light blue, with luscious, fluffy white clouds, and I could see the sun in the horizon, mocking me.
Even though our section of beach was partially shaded, it was still frighteningly hot. My whole body felt like it was on fire, and I was thirsty. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and took a couple of deep breaths.
“Where were you when you were kidnapped?” I asked him, the first question that came to mind.
“I was leaving work, walking to my car, when two men approached me.” His answer sounded logical enough. “They asked me for directions, I responded, then I felt a prick in my arm. The next thing I knew I was waking up in the back of a car.”
“With me?”
“No.” His tone changed. “They picked you up after I was already in the car.”
“So that means that there were other people in on it.” I bit down on my lower lip, gnawing hard as I thought. “I think that guy from the coffee shop was watching me that night. I think that he must have been in on it with Billy and the other guy.”
“I suppose that makes sense. I doubt those two numbskulls could have put this together by themselves. They didn’t seem very bright.”
“I agree.” Something suddenly occurred to me, and I gasped out loud. “It makes me wonder why our kidnapper chose them to do the job—it’s almost as if it wasn’t very well planned out.”
“Maybe they figured the gun was enough?”
“Yeah, that’s true.” I shivered as I remembered the gun. I could feel that I was about to start panicking again as my brain was five steps ahead of my body. My only consolation lay in the fact that if our kidnappers had wanted us dead, they could have just shot us. Unless they thought that was too easy. Maybe they were testing us to see how deeply into despair we’d go. Maybe this was a test to see how depraved human beings could be? Get it together, Bianca. I knew that this was not the time for my overactive imagination to kick into high gear.
All of a sudden my stomach growled, and I felt hunger gnawing at me from inside. I tried to ignore the pangs and cravings that had suddenly emerged inside me. How were we going to eat and drink? I thought back to a movie I’d watched as a teenager called Alive. It had been about a plane crashing in the Andes, and one of the men had eaten the flesh of his dead friend to survive. The movie had been based on a true story, and I could still remember the documentary I’d seen about the man who’d eaten his friend’s flesh as he was interviewed. His eyes had a haunted look as he spoke about what he’d done, but he’d had to do it for survival. My eyes popped open, and I shuddered as I thought about the possibilities of what could happen. What would Jakob and I have to do to survive?
“Take a chill pill, Bianca,” I muttered to myself as my brain ran away with all the craziest scenarios it could think of.
“Sorry, what did you say?” Jakob asked as he continued moving.
“Nothing,” I whispered back, feeling tears coming to my eyes.
“Oh no, are you okay?” His voice changed, and he sounded concerned. “Don’t cry. They didn’t shoot us. We’re okay. I think I nearly have the blindfold off. Once I do, we can work on getting these ropes off and figuring out what’s going on.”
“No, I’m not okay.” I gulped. A seagull flew past then and dove into the ocean. I scowled as it ascended with a fish in its mouth. “Go ahead and mock me, why don’t you,” I shouted at the bird, jealousy in my stomach as I thought longingly of the fish in its mouth, and Jakob’s body stilled.
“Are you losing it?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Just remain calm, Bianca.”
“Whatever.”
“I’m surprised my charm hasn’t won you over yet,” he said softly.
“What are you talking about?” I frowned at his words. Something he’d said had made bells go off in my head, but I wasn’t sure what.
“I’m just trying to make small talk.”
“Well, don’t,” I snapped. “Just work on the blindfold.”
“I’m trying,” he snapped back, and fell silent again.
I moved my head to the left and the right as much as I could, but all I could see was sand and ocean and some trees in the distance. I tried not to think about who or what was lying in wait for us while we struggled with the ropes.
“I think it’s moving!” he gasped excitedly, and he started moving more and more energetically. His back rubbed against mine, and I kept my mouth shut, even though I wanted to tell him that moving his whole body around wasn’t going to help shift the blindfold on his face. “So, Bianca, are you in the habit of wearing blindfolds?”
“Are you asking about my sexual proclivities, Jakob?” I answered him, my body on high alert as he rubbed back against me.
“I wasn’t asking what you ate last night, that’s for sure.”
“You’re an ass.”
“I know. You told me that already.” He laughed. “But yes, go ahead and continue talking about what you can remember from last night, and we can try to figure out why we’re here.”
“Last night, I was waiting for my friend at a bar. I hadn’t seen her in a while. I wanted to tell her about some stuff that was going on.” I bit my lower lip as I thought about Rosie. “I remember looking at the menu. I was going to have the steak.” I sighed and thought back to the previous evening. Or what I thought was the previous evening. I had no idea how much time had passed. “I was waiting to order until Rosie got there. I wanted us to have a nice evening.” I paused, not wanting to get into everything I’d wanted to tell Rosie about. “I ordered a glass of Moscato.”
“You like sweet wine?” He spoke softly, even though he was still bobbing around.
“Yeah, I do.” I froze as I remembered something. “I didn’t drink Moscato though.”
“Oh?”
“The bartender sent me a bottle of something else.” I closed my eyes and tried to remember. “It was a bottle of pinot noir. He said it was on the house.” I opened my eyes again. “Some new vineyard from Upstate New York had asked local bars to serve the wine.”
“Interesting.”
“Anyways, the waiter brought over a bottle of wine and poured me a glass while I waited for Rosie. I texted her asking where she was, and she arrived a few minutes later.” I paused as I tried to remember every detail that I could. “She hurried toward me and apologized. I remember she was angry because the waiter did
n’t take her drink order fast enough. She was telling me about her job and then . . .” I frowned. “I can’t remember exactly. She needed to go to the restroom, and I saw a guy. The guy I think was following me.”
“Why do you think he was following you? What did he look like?”
“I can’t remember.” I sighed loudly. “I can picture him standing in the corner, watching me, but all I can see is his shadow. I can’t remember his face.”
“What happened next?”
“Someone came up to the table.” I shook my head, as if that would help me to remember more details. “I can’t remember who. All I remember next is waking up in the car trunk.”
“What happened to your friend Rosie?”
“I don’t know.” I froze and my eyes popped open. “I left something in her bag. I hope she’s okay.”
“I think she’s okay. I think she’d be here with us, if they were worried about her. They obviously just wanted to kidnap us.”
“Yeah. I wish I knew why.” Though, that wasn’t completely accurate. I was pretty sure I knew why I had been kidnapped, I just didn’t know why he had been kidnapped as well. I was pretty sure I’d been kidnapped because of my investigating the Bradley Corporation, but what, if any, connection did Jakob have?
“Do you know the Bradley Corporation?” I spoke slowly, as if the answer to his question was of no more importance than the color of his eyes.
“I’ve heard of it.” He responded to me without pause. “I can’t say I know it well. Why?”
“No reason.” I licked my lips. I was started to feel dehydrated. “Now I wish I hadn’t drunk that wine last night. I bet I wouldn’t be feeling so parched if I’d just stuck to water.”
“It is odd that you received a free bottle of wine, and not just a glass.” He spoke thoughtfully.
“Do you think that has anything to do with me being kidnapped?” I bit my lower lip. “I can’t remember much after that.”
“I don’t know.” He sighed. “I didn’t have wine last night. I’m more of a beer man.”
“Surprising.”
“Why’s that?”
“You seem more like a whiskey guy,” I responded swiftly. “I can picture you in a study with a crystal decanter.” I groaned inwardly. I had a tendency to speak before I thought. I didn’t want him to think I was interested in him.