The Palindrome Cult: A gripping, page-turning, crime suspense thriller, its fast pace takes you from London to New York, via Dubai and the Virgin Islands. (Hedge & Cole Book 1)

by Kevin Bradley

  Hedge looked at her near naked body and felt incredibly aroused, but also a little nervous. He was not a confident person at the best of times and so he found this situation unsettling. Monica was busy undressing him. She pulled off his shoes, trousers and underpants and sat down roughly on his groin. She moved on top of him for a few seconds and then reached down and pushed him inside her.

  Hedge was finding this all very strange, but also intensely exciting. What was happening to him? Just thirty minutes ago he was sitting in a barber shop having his hair washed and cut, and now he was having sex with a beautiful young woman, who he had only met a few hours earlier. She was now moving vigorously on top of him and he noticed that her eyes were rolling slowly, and she was moaning gently.

  Suddenly she pushed down on him hard and let out a loud scream. Her body shook violently and she clenched her teeth. She held her mouth tightly shut for several seconds. Her body stopped its rhythmic movements, and she sat on top of him for a while longer. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was fast and shallow. Her hands were gripping his arms tightly, but then her eyes opened and she looked directly at him. She smiled softly, and her eyes sparkled as she stared at him.

  She started to move again deliberately up and down. Hedge felt like he was in some kind of strange dream. Seeing her climax had sent him to a new level of arousal, and her slow movements were giving him acute pleasure. He couldn’t stop himself, nor did he want to. He arched his back and groaned loudly as he pushed up inside her. Monica felt his short spasms and then she slowed and finally stopped her movements.

  He lay there breathing heavily for a while. Then, without warning, she jumped off him and headed in the direction of what he assumed was the bathroom. He could hear the toilet being flushed and then a few moments later she was back. She had dressed herself again, the black T-shirt was back on and her face looked like it had been washed. Hedge went to move his arms but realised he was still held firmly to the bed head by the handcuffs.

  ‘How about letting me loose,’ he said, ‘I promise to behave.’

  Monica didn’t reply and instead pulled a length of blue nylon rope from under the bed and quickly looped the two ends onto each of his feet and secured them to the bottom of the bed frame. This was not what Hedge had expected and he started to feel slightly nervous again. Perhaps she had some more pleasure in store for him, but he sensed her mood had changed. She still said nothing. She disappeared into the bathroom again, and returned carrying what appeared to be a short length of plastic coated wire and some heavy duty scissors. She used the scissors to cut away the rest of the clothes that he was still wearing.

  ‘Hey careful, that’s an expensive jacket,’ he said.

  Monica said nothing, and just carried on her work with the scissors. His jacket and shirt were cut away, then the socks pulled off, and finally Hedge was lying naked on the bed. He was unable to move very much as the handcuffs and the rope were holding him securely in position. His legs were spread wide apart so that his genitals were on full display, and this was the area that Monica now transferred her attention to. With her small fingers she grabbed hold of his scrotum and pulled it down away from his body as far as it would go. She then tied the plastic coated wire round the top of the scrotum and pulled the wire tight.

  Hedge shouted again. ‘Hey, what are you doing, let me go now, this isn’t funny anymore.’

  Monica looked at him with a hard stare, grabbed hold of his scrotum with her left hand, and picked up the heavy duty scissors.

  She leaned over and whispered in his ear. ‘Blake asked me to say hello!’

  Chapter Fourteen

  Within a matter of a few minutes Hedge had gone from a state of intense pleasure to one of extreme terror.

  ‘What the hell are you doing,’ he shouted at Monica.

  She laughed and touched the end of the scissors to his groin.

  ‘Uncle Blake asked me to do him a favour. Apparently he didn’t like being moved from Saltmarsh. He blames you for some reason. Do you know what I’m talking about?’

  He knew exactly what she was referring to. ‘It wasn’t my fault they moved him. He fell out with the governor over something. It was nothing to do with me.’

  She looked like she didn’t care either way. She had received her instructions, along with a substantial payment, and so she was going to carry on regardless of what he said. She was about to reply to him, when was interrupted by a sharp knock at the hotel room door.

  He thought about shouting out for help but the embarrassment of his position stopped him from doing so. As if reading his thoughts, Monica pulled out a reel of brown tape that she had left under the bed, ripped off a strip around eight inches long and fixed it roughly across his mouth. He tried to open his lips, but they were stuck fast.

  Being taped like this was one of those nightmare situations he had often thought about as a small boy. He had worried endlessly about not being able to open his mouth and someone then putting a washing peg or something similar on his nose. This would then lead to a painful, suffocating death. He started to feel panic but told himself to calm down and relax. He tried to breathe slowly and deeply through his nose. His attention was distracted as Monica was opening the door and another woman was entering the room. She looked older than Monica, maybe ten years older. She had short, light coloured hair and a slim figure. Her eyes looked slightly oriental, he thought, but she didn’t have the typical dark complexion of someone from Asia. She was dressed conservatively in black trousers and a dark blue top. She had an air of authority and walked into the room in a confident manner.

  The two women embraced and held each other close. They were obviously friends.

  ‘It’s good to see you again Monica, how are you?’ said the older woman. She spoke in English but with a drawling kind of accent.

  ‘Anna, it’s good to see you too. I am well thanks, and trying to keep out of trouble.’

  Both women laughed as they moved apart and focussed their attention on Hedge.

  ‘So this is the guy you phoned me about,’ the older woman said.

  ‘Yes. My uncle seemed to think he came from a very wealthy family, so I thought you would be interested in talking to him before …..’ Monica cut herself off, without explaining what came next.

  ‘Well, you never know, his family might be of interest. It wouldn’t hurt to utilise your particular qualities again. You have been so successful in the past. I don’t know how you manage to catch their interest, but you do it so well. I am especially impressed with the way you get those high quality photographs. Have you found out much about him yet?’

  Monica replied ‘no, not yet, but we have had some fun’! She laughed, and the older woman looked at her with an astonished grin.

  ‘You are such a tart, but then I suppose he is fairly good looking. Anyway, I can’t stay long so let’s get him talking.’

  Both women came back to the bed and sat down either side of Hedge. Monica picked up the scissors and ripped the tape from his mouth.

  Hedge started to speak. ‘What the hell….,’ but Monica slapped him hard around the face.

  ‘Shut up,’ she said. ‘My dear uncle Blake had asked me to send him your testicles. He thought the prison authorities will find that quite odd when they check his mail. He, of course, would say he knew no reason why anyone would send him such a gruesome package. It would make his day though to know I had carried out his instructions. Then I remembered my friend Anna here. She has a great money-making scheme currently in operation. Her specialism is politicians, but rich bankers and businessmen are also of interest. I mentioned that you come from a wealthy banking family and so she was interested in you. My uncle Blake tells me that you have a very rich uncle. We need to know a bit more about him. We want to understand how wealthy he is and also, what kind of women he likes. He does like women, doesn’t he? Otherwise we may be wasting our time. You see if he likes women, then he can be tempted. And if he can be tempted, then he can be blackmailed. It’s as si
mple as that. My part is easy. I just get to have sex with some guy who happens to think he is important. So far I have had several government ministers, and a few well-known city gentlemen. So, my friend here is going to ask you some questions. If you answer satisfactorily then your testicles will remain attached to your body. If you don’t tell her what she wants to know, then these scissors are perfectly capable of severing your scrotum. I will cut just below the wire and so you won’t bleed too much, but you will never have full sex again.’

  Hedge was terrified. What could he possibly tell these women that would be of any value? He tried to pull his arms free again but the handcuffs held him fixed to the bed. He often thought that maybe he was a tough person, who had endured a lot and who didn’t frighten easily, but he was now in a severe state of panic. He tried to scream but Monica put her hand over his mouth. He felt his head spinning and his eyes lost focus, his mind was racing beyond control, he couldn’t think clearly. He was breathing rapidly and he felt like he was hyperventilating – that terrifying condition that occurs during panic, when you try to breathe more, and end up breathing too much.

  He felt himself about to faint. His anxiety was at a severe level. The thought of having his testicles cut off by a pair of scissors seemed horrific. He was in utter state of delirium. It also occurred to him that Monica had just told him some very incriminating information. Was that because he wouldn’t live to tell anyone about it?

  His mind was racing again. Then, without warning, he lost control of his bladder and bright yellow urine was spraying out across the bed. It covered his body and soaked the sheets he was laying on. The two women just laughed and quickly jumped up from where they were sitting on the edge of the bed.

  Monica found this hilarious and spoke through her laughter. ‘Well if he’s pissed himself he must be pretty scared.’

  ‘Bloody hell,’ said Anna, ‘Monica, would you go and get something to clean him up with as he’s made an awful mess here. There must be some towels in the bathroom.’

  Hedge lay quietly in a state of shock as they did their best to soak up his urine. As they busied themselves with their unpleasant task, the two women watched him intently and only started talking again when he seemed settled. Anna leaned closer to him and began to ask him some questions.

  ‘What is your full name? Where do you live? How long have you lived there? Who lives there with you? Tell me about your cousin? What does your uncle do exactly? How much do you think he is worth?

  The questioning went on for a few minutes. He answered in a slow deliberate monologue. He told her his full name was Tom Millar, but everyone called him Hedge.

  The address he gave was in the borough of Twickenham, a smart suburb on the edge of the capital, and he shared the house with his cousin Isaac. They had been living there together for the last three and a half years. Isaac moved out from his parent’s home as he wanted a bit more independence. He got on well with Hedge, and it seemed the ideal thing to do. It also reduced his commute to work, as Isaac was employed by an advertising agency based in the neighbouring borough of Richmond. He told her about his uncle, where he worked and what he did. He had no idea how much his uncle was worth, but thought it would be several million pounds.

  Anna continued the questioning with a more serious tone. ‘Has your uncle ever had any affairs with other women? Do you have access to your uncle’s work diary? What is the name of his secretary? Who does he bank with and what accounts does he have?

  She pulled out a small Dell laptop computer from a black bag she had brought with her, opened it and started to power it up. Hedge was somewhat calmer now and he started to think a little clearer. Anna was obviously considering lining his uncle up for some kind of blackmail.

  His mind drifted away from the questions he had been asked, and he wondered why in films the victims of torture are always portrayed as not giving up information until they have endured a certain amount of pain. He would have told them anything they wanted to know without hesitation. He was very conscious of the pain in his testicles due to the plastic coated wire wrapped tightly around them.

  ‘I know he banks with Barclays, one of the central London branches,’ he replied. ‘But I have no idea of the accounts that he has with them.’

  ‘Never mind the detail. I can deal with that.’ Anna replied casually.

  Anna started tapping the keys of the laptop, only stopping occasionally to ask him some further piece of information about his uncle.

  After about fifteen minutes she stopped typing. She looked up at Hedge with a satisfied grin. ‘It seems he does have a lot of substantial accounts with Barclays bank, including some money held in foreign currencies.’

  Hedge didn’t know how she had done it, but she seemed to have accessed the banks records and tracked down some of his uncle’s funds.

  ‘He is a very wealthy man, your uncle. He certainly won’t miss a couple of million pounds. You have been very helpful to me.’

  She closed the laptop and put it back into her bag.

  ‘Monica, I’ll leave you to finish up here. Thanks for the tip off about this. Our organisation will be pleased with this information. We will be in touch if we need you to assist with this one. You will get the usual payment, of course. Take care and see you soon.’

  Anna looked round at Hedge and smiled. ‘Enjoy yourselves. Oh and by the way, Monica may be a bit of a tart, but she is also a psychopath! I hope you enjoy pain’. She laughed again and left the room.

  Hedge could hear her footsteps going down the hallway. Monica had gone back into the bathroom, and he was wondering what was going to happen next. Hopefully he would be released, with his bodily parts intact, and he could report the incident to the police, and his uncle. But, what did Anna mean about liking pain. He started to worry again just as Monica reappeared with a devilish look on her face. She was carrying a small clear plastic bag.

  She leaned over Hedge and whispered to him. ‘It was great being your lover, even if it was a little brief.’ She laughed and pulled the plastic bag over his head and fixed it tightly around his neck with a length of the same tape that she had gagged him with earlier. She then picked up the scissors, opened them, and placed the two blades around his scrotum.

  ‘I have always had a fixation about doing this,’ she said with an evil grin. ‘I wanted to see how painful it really was.’ She looked at him intently as if waiting for his reaction.

  Hedge was panic stricken yet again. He shouted out but he wasn’t sure what he was saying as his voice was muffled by the plastic bag. He could feel the air in the bag getting hot, and his breathing became suddenly more difficult. Each gasp for air seemed to leave him still needing more oxygen. He was panicking and he couldn’t stop himself. His vision started to blur. Was it the terror of his situation, the lack of air getting to his lungs, or because his breath was fogging up the inside of the plastic covering his head?

  He started to go dizzy. He was still screaming, or he thought he was, but he couldn’t hear himself. Bright shapes started to jump around in front of his eyes. He was desperately trying to free his hands, but the more he pulled on the handcuffs, the deeper the metal cut into his wrists.

  Then three things happened all at once.

  First, he heard a loud bang and saw a large hole appear in the wall immediately behind his head. Second, a small red hole appeared on Monica’s forehead, and third and perhaps most concerning to him, Monica’s hand clamped down hard on the handle of the scissors causing the blades to snap together.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Hedge felt that he must have passed out for a few minutes, but in fact it was only seconds. He awoke in a total state of confusion. The room was full of dust and noise. People were shouting and it was completely dark. A body was lying on top of him and he was covered in a warm, sticky liquid which he could feel running off his chest. Then, without warning, a bright torch snapped its light on and the plastic bag was ripped off his head.

  Hedge could see the outline of a man,
dressed in a dark uniform, standing directly in front of him. He held what looked like a pistol in one hand, and Hedge noticed that it had a long barrel, possibly a silencer, he thought. The man pulled off his facemask and looked down at Hedge. Then he started laughing. He laughed until Hedge could clearly see tears coming down his face. He turned away from Hedge and doubled over, howling to himself. Eventually he had to sit on the bed in order to control his hysterics.

  He looked at Hedge again. ‘Sorry mate, but you do have to see the funny side of this. There you lay in a pool of piss and blood, covered in dust, a naked, dead girl laying across you, and your testicles all red and swollen from being wired up.’

  He chuckled again loudly as he obviously found his summary of the situation quite hilarious. ‘Still,’ he added, ‘I must say, you have got balls, although only just!’

  This last comment made him burst into hysterics again, and once more he was doubled up with the pain of so much laughter. Hedge looked down at his groin area with a worried expression. There was blood all over his lower stomach and his upper legs.

  ‘Shit, what has happened to me,’ he shouted.

  Monica’s inert body was lying across him, blood seeping from a small hole at the front of her head. Another man, also in a dark uniform, had come over and was cutting him free from the handcuffs and the rope. Once his hands were released, he rubbed them together for a few moments, trying to get the blood flowing again. His wrists were red and sore where the metal edges of the handcuffs had cut into his skin.

  Hedge managed to sit up slightly. He pushed Monica off him, and saw that she was still clasping the scissors tightly in her lifeless hand. The blades of the scissors were closed firmly together, and they were covered in blood – his blood. The pain emanating from his groin was intolerable, and he realised with horror what had been done to him. He felt lightheaded and thought he was about to pass out again. With one final effort before he did so, he reached down and tried to clear some of the blood from his lower body, wiping it away with his bare hands. His eyes examined his groin, and he realised with relief that his testicles were untouched and still firmly attached.