by Finian Blake
“In that case I would like to put Jennifer up in your guest cottage.”
“Done,” Susan walked out the door relieved that Adam would deliver the bad news to Muriel. Terri came down the stairs with Muriel’s pants in her hand. She ran out to Muriel’s car looking for another pair of pants.
“Somebody has turned her ass into hamburger. She is absolutely incoherent at the idea of leaving here. Come up and see.” Adam came up to the guest room. Terri went inside to talk to Muriel, after a few minutes she admitted Adam to the room. Muriel was lying on the bed face down with several towels over her legs. Terri carefully pealed back the towels. There were thirty plus welts from a cane across her buttocks and thighs that were several days old. Five of the welts should have had medical attention days ago. Two of those five were still bleeding.
“Terri, would you get the service cart, and drive it to the front of the house? Muriel can lie down in the cart so you can take her up to the house and put her in our guest room. I will bring her car up the hill after I get the doctor. These open welts demand immediate medical attention.” Terri opened the door as Suki reached the top step.
“Susan wanted me to check with you before…” She looked past Terri into the room Muriel was face down on the bed. She got just a glimpse of Muriel’s welts as Adam was covering her with the towel.
“What the hell happened?” Suki said making no attempt to hide her outrage.
“Somebody gave her a vicious caning. We are going to take her up to our place and get a doctor.” Adam thought for a minute. “Tell Susan Muriel is going to use our guest room. Take Susan and Jennifer shopping with you, but do not say anything about this until you get back here. I need to find out more about what happened.” Adam could see Suki’s jaw muscles tightening. “Before we can do anything, we need to know what happened to her. Come up top when you get back.” Suki was a good actress. She put on her game face and left.
Terri came back with the service cart and laid Muriel on her stomach in the back. Adam took Muriel’s car keys, slipped on a pair of driving gloves, and drove into the village to find the doctor. He caught the doctor in the act of closing his office. Wednesday was a short day for him, since he was planning a round of golf with some friends. “Doctor, I have an emergency is there any way that you could help me out. One of the employees has a deep cut that may need some stitches.” The doctor knew Adam and most of the people at the Inn, so he agreed to have a look retrieving his bag from the office. He threw in a surgical kit next to his golf bag following Adam to the Knoll in his car.
Ben and Miles were driving their white van around the village looking for the VW. They lost Muriel in the area and were surprised to see a man driving the Volkswagen. When it passed them heading out of the Village. They did a quick turn around and followed it to the Knoll. The Volkswagen and the car behind it made a turn into a gated drive. They pulled over to see what was happening. The gate sealed the property, so the two men had to park on the highway and check things out. The boss told them not to come back without her. When it came to the boss they knew that it was not a figure of speech.
Adam took the doctor in the house taking him to the guest bedroom. Muriel was lying on the bed face down. When he lifted the towels Doctor Warren was sickened by what he saw. He had seen cuts and wounds but this was just a brutal beating. “I have to report this to the police. Muriel will be lucky if she is not crippled. How could this have happened?”
“We want to know the same thing.” The frustration in Adam’s voice was evident. She came to us this morning as you see her. Right now we need to get her treated. Can we treat her and then call the police? You know that this did not happen here.”
Doctor Warren knew everybody at the Knoll so he was positive that they had nothing to do with the assault. When Adam pulled a thousand Pounds out of his money belt the doctor agreed to keep quiet for now. “Alright but I am going to need more sutures from my office.” The doctor got into his car and drove to the gate.
Ben and Miles saw the car come to the gate. They fired up the van waiting for the car to drive out. When the car turned on to the road they accelerated and ran through the opening with the gate touching the back corner of the van triggering an alarm in the house. Adam looked out to see a white van pulling up the drive. Adam went to the pantry moving a panel. Inside was an assortment of weapons, choosing quickly he grabbed a silenced Uzi and a clip of nine millimeter ammunition returning just as the two men knocked on the door. He turned the handle on the door stepping to the side. The two men burst in the entry brandishing knives. He tripped the first man and the second assailant tripped over the first. They scrambled up to see Adam’s Uzi leveled at their heads.
“Congratulations gentlemen, you brought a knife to a gun fight. Get on your knees and cross your ankles behind you with your fingers laced behind your head.” Terri raced out of the bedroom to see the two men kneeling on the floor. Adam broke her concentration, “I am not sure, but I think these men might have something to do with Muriel’s welts. Get the rope from the bedroom.” Terri returned with the rope. “You’re so good at knots why don’t you do the honors.” Terri stepped on the top calf of the first mans crossed legs with her heel. She tied his wrists behind his back pulling his elbows behind his back with a sudden jerk so that they were touching each other causing him to grunt in pain. She had no mercy for this type of man. Terri did the same for the second man taking satisfaction in seeing his hands turn blue.
Adam had Terri go in the bedroom and asked Muriel if she would look at the two men. One look and Muriel went into hysterics running back into the bedroom. When she was calmed sufficiently, Adam brought the two men in the room.
Muriel started to weep again, “Oh my god I brought them to your door step. I am so sorry.” That was all Adam needed. He escorted the men out to the van loading them in the rear parking it in the garage taking two more lengths of rope tying their ankles together. Adam needed to be sure that the doctor did not see either them or the van.
“Gentlemen we are going to have a nice chat later. Please, make yourselves uncomfortable and I shall return for a nice long chat.” The van started to rock back and forth as Ben and Miles tried to free themselves. Adam fired one round through the wall of the van not making much of a sound at all and opened the door. “Your screams will be louder than that shot. If I have to open this door again, I will shoot you both in the nuts.” He closed the door and the van remained quiet. Adam hustled back to the house putting the Uzi away. He was just walking down the hall when the doctor rang at the gate. The doctor walked in the room saying, “I will require a nurse. Terri could I prevail on you to assist me”
“Just tell me what to do and it will be done.” The doctor gave Muriel a local for the pain and worked on Muriel for an hour and a half. He gave her a sedative and talked to Adam. “Keep it iced and clean. I will come back in a few days. What about the police?”
“We found out what happened and I think we can handle it better than the police.”
The doctor frowned, “What do you intend to do?”
“I will answer that question, if you really want me to.”
“No, I think I will just accept your word.” Doctor Warren liked Adam and Terri because they always donated generously to all of the village’s charities. He was inclined to cooperate with their request.
“I thank you doctor. If you will tell me what your fee is I will get you on your way.”
“Your thousand pounds should cover things nicely. Take care of that woman and I will come out here in a week to remove the sutures.” Adam turned to Terri as he left the guest room.
“Terri, would you tend to Muriel’s wounds? I have an appointment in the garage.”
Adam moved the two men to the tool room in the back of the garage. He was just moving the acetylene torch into place when the garage door opened. Frank pulled the Bentley in the garage.
“I left Susan off at her house with Jennifer. Suki came up here with me to see what was going on.�
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“While you were out, we had two intruders,” Adam said in a matter of fact voice. “They definitely have something to do with Muriel’s condition. I was just about to ask them some questions. Would you care to join me?”
“I would love to join you.” Suki walked in the garage using her business stride with her jaw set. “They turned that poor girl’s ass into hamburger. You boys grab a pint. I will have them talking in no time.” Suki walked in the tool room and before the door closed Frank and Adam could hear the distinctive pop of the acetylene torch. Within seconds the two were screaming at the top of their lungs.
Ben and Miles cried, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk.”
“I haven’t asked you to talk yet.” Adam and Frank walked in the room. Suki turned to Adam. “You guys and your precious balls all I did was threaten, to cook their balls and they caved in. I haven’t singed a hair yet.”
“Alright who goes first?” Adam was out of patience. The two men were feeling braver with Adam and Frank in the room. They started to back down. “If we leave you with Suki again it will be for an hour right now you have ten seconds to either talk or do a slow roast.” They separated the two men to check their stories.
Muriel was doing a freelance documentary on prostitution in London. She infiltrated a particularly nasty ring, and the Boss found out about her. They were filming snuff movies at a poker game. The winner of the hand got to torture the victim until the next hand was won. At the end of the last game they tried to get Muriel to slip a plastic bag over the head of the victim and when she refused they took a cane to her. She escaped this morning. The Boss and his madam Dianne ordered Ben and Miles to hunt Muriel down so she could be the guest of honor at tonight’s game. They dressed the victim in red lingerie so that there was no doubt of her being seen as the victim. Adam checked the van, and the bag with the red lingerie was in the back along with some bondage equipment.
Everybody at the Inn had heard of this group before. It was strongly suspected that they were hired by Angie’s husband Frank, the dead CIA contact from their last job, to put a hit on Susan, Lynn, Suki and Terri. Adam always meant to do something about this group, but never ran across them again. Now that he knew about the snuff films, he had to do something. Suki walked over to the torch and lit it again. Adam held her back.
“I have a better idea. We have to stop them all permanently.” He called down to the kitchen and had them run up a thousand foot roll of plastic wrap. He removed Ben and Miles ropes and clothing.
Having them dress in the red lingerie before wrapping them with the plastic wrap. He loaded them in the van.
“I am with you on this one Adam.” Frank, Susan’s driver pulled two silenced Uzis out of Tom’s arsenal making sure that each one was equipped with a casing collector for the spent brass. They filled fifteen one gallon jugs with gasoline, but there was one last thing that they needed from Ben and Miles.
“You are going to give us the layout for the house. If you lie to us, you will be alive in this van when we torch it.” Ben and Miles gave a full description of the layout, including the location of the security room under the stairs.
Adam, Frank and Suki dressed in black clothing and black ski masks before starting out for the house that Ben and Miles told them about. The two villains rode in the back of the van wrapped in plastic while Suki followed in the Rover. Adam tried to talk her out of it’ but there was no turning her back. This is the group that tried to kill her and when she found out about how they killed their female victims there was no stopping her. It was decided that they needed someone to drive the getaway car because the van was to be torched in front of the house. Suki wanted to do more but Adam did not want any more people than necessary to know what was going to happen, so they did not include the ‘Old Men’ or tell Terri.
Frank drove the van up to the gate pressing the opener and when the gate did not open he pressed the button on the call box. An indignant voice answered, “What do you want.”
“It’s Ben we have the bitch. It’s party time.” The gate opened to admit them. Suki parked the Rover down the road from the gate in order to stay out of range of the security camera.
The van pulled up to the front door finding that the front door was unlocked. Frank and Adam had the lay out of the house from the two men. Adam went straight to the poker room and Frank waited by the door of the security room. Adam stepped quietly in the door of the poker room wasting no time herding everybody into a corner. Adam was surprised to find three out of the twelve players were women. He normally did not kill women, but in this instance he would make an exception. When the three security men saw Adam’s round up they burst out of the room with guns drawn.
Frank dropped them with three short bursts apiece as they ran out. Frank then moved into the poker room with Adam he was glad to see that the silencer did its job. None of the players heard a shot over the music that was being played for their entertainment. They were set up to film and they had sex toys, garrotes and plastic bags by the rack for the victim. There was also a large selection of whips, paddles, and canes to torment their victims with Muriel planned as the victim. There was a projector set up with a film loaded in it. The twelve players each put up five thousand pounds for their admission and chips in the game, so there was sixty thousand Pounds in the till. Adam quickly scooped the till stuffing it in one of the plastic bags. Frank and Adam did not say a word. They started firing with Frank working left to right and Adam working right to left.
Frank went back to the van and took the plastic wrap off Ben and Miles walking the men dressed in their red lingerie into the poker room. Adam was walking around the room putting a bullet in the head of each of the poker players. Frank gave Ben and Miles each a double tap to the head before they could react to what they had seen. Frank went in the security room removing all of the recording tapes. Adam ran the film to the end of the reel. He ran the last few feet and found what he was looking for, which was the scene with Muriel in it. Adam took out a knife and cut the last few feet off of the end and went out to the van.
There were fifteen plastic gallon jugs of gasoline in the van. Frank took one jug into the house sprinkling half of it in the security room and Adam hit the remaining jugs in the van with a burst from his Uzi. Frank threw the plastic wrap and the tapes into the van. Adam pulled out a book of paper matches lighting an unfiltered cigarette. He placed the cold end of the cigarette in the book of matches and put the book of matches in a trail of gasoline. Frank had spread petrol only in the security room not wanting to destroy any of the evidence in the poker room. Adam’s primary idea was to destroy any evidence of him and Frank being in the house. They ran out the gate and down to the rover and Suki drove off when they dove in the car. It was a mile down the main road when they stopped.
Suki was nervous, “It didn’t work. We need to go back.”
“Just wait. We have two more minutes. This trick has never failed me yet.” In two minutes the sky lit up. Adam reached in his bag and produced the cash. “Muriel could use a start.” Suki and Frank silently nodded their agreement.
Dianne was getting impatient. Ben and Miles were supposed to be here with Muriel. She had prepared Brenda as the entertainment for the second table. Brenda was dressed in her red lace lingerie and high heels. Dianne was dressed in her silk maroon blouse and skirt which were both almost transparent. She wore maroon hose and high heel boots.
“Brenda, wait here. I want to see what is holding up the game. Dianne walked through the house finding that things were strangely quiet, since all of the guests should be here. She noticed a flickering light from the front of the house. As she ran forward she noticed the three security men lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Dianne looked outside and was shocked to see the van on fire in the drive. She moved cautiously to the poker room. The Boss and all twelve of the poker players were dead and there was blood all over the room. From what she could see, each player had been shot in the back of the head in addition to their other wounds. Ben
and Miles made a bizarre sight dressed in the red lingerie. Their wives would not understand this at all. Dianne started to look around to see if the killers were still in the house. Her search was interrupted by the sounds of sirens in the distance. She had to get away from this.
Dianne made her way back to the preparation room. Brenda was waiting for her.
“Brenda, I will assist at the poker game. You may observe. Switch clothes with me.” Brenda was relieved. She did not want to screw up. She knew that the Boss put a high priority on these games. Brenda quickly removed her red lingerie and assisted Dianne in getting undressed. She dressed in Dianne’s maroon outfit.
“I love the feel of silk. Your outfit is so sexy. Thank you for doing this. I have never worked a poker game before. I know that some of the girls have been fired for screwing up. The Boss won’t let them come back. He just sends their things on after them.”
“Maroon is the color that signals reserve. The players will not bother you if you are wearing maroon. Help me with your lingerie.” She quickly dressed Dianne in the red lingerie. Brenda finished by strapping on the red four inch stiletto heel shoes on Dianne’s feet. Brenda was sorry not to wear the shoes. They had a thin metal spiked heel that she thought were extremely sexy. Sirens could be heard outside the house. Dianne helped Brenda slip on her boots.
“What is the problem out there?” Brenda was concerned.
“One of the guests threw a cigarette in the bushes’ and we called the fire department.” Dianne produced a roll of thin cord. She sat down on the bed and tied her knees together with a single pass of the thin cord. Tie my hands tightly behind my back and then tie my ankles tightly too.
“But why do you…”
“Do as I say stupid girl.” Brenda hated being called stupid. She would show Dianne what tight was. When she was bound Dianne lay back on the bed. “I think that one of my garters came loose be a dear and check it for me after you’ve gagged me.” Brenda inserted a ball gag drawing it as tight as she could. Dianne rolled her legs up to her chest. Brenda moved forward to inspect Dianne’s garters. When Brenda was in range Dianne kicked her in the throat with all her might. One heel entered her wind pipe and the other tore an artery. Brenda started to thrash around on the floor unable to scream passing out in two minutes. Dianne started to struggle violently at her bonds. The thin silk cord cut into her skin at the ankles, knees and wrists causing her to bleed.