Deadly Journey (7 page)
Authors: Declan Conner
Insurance Policy
The start of my
third day of captivity began with me blinking at the light piercing through the
slats of the shutters covering the glass doors to the balcony. I shielded my
eyes. As comfortable as it was wearing silk pyjamas and being shrouded with
silk sheets, on a soft mattress and with duck-down pillows, sleep had proven
difficult. My aching limbs were not the only thing that kept me awake for long
periods. Thoughts of what my captors wanted from me had circled a constant
stream of scenarios as to how, if ever, I would gain freedom.
There was a tap on the door and the young
maid entered pushing a cart holding a cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs and hash
browns. The aroma of the food and wisps of steam from the coffee carafe fought
for the pleasure senses in an otherwise blocked nose. Stony Face, the guard,
rose from his chair and unfastened the shutters, throwing them open to a burst
of light that made me squint. Reaching over to the nightstand, I picked up the
photo of Mary and the kids by the edges. Their innocent smiles gave me warmth
and comfort. Distracted as the maid arrived at my bedside, I replaced the photo
against the lamp stand, positioned so I could see their happy faces.
‘Buenos días, Señor Rawlings.’
‘Good morning...err?’
‘Leandra.’
Her smile was infectious.
‘You can call me Kurt.’ I returned the
smile.
‘Please eat. You need to build up your
strength.’
Stony Face stepped forward and grabbed her
wrist as she was about to place a steel knife and fork on the tray.
‘
Idiota. Tenador de plastico
.’
Releasing his grip, he raised a hand in the
gesture of a backhanded slap. Leandra stood akimbo and gave him a petulant
stare before she cut the bacon into portions. She smiled directly into my eyes,
as if she were trying to tell me something. Swivelling on a heel, she turned
and scuttled from the room, taking the steel knife and fork with her.
The aroma of the food made it impossible to
resist, and I delicately picked up a piece of the bacon between my thumb and
forefinger. Dropping the bacon into my mouth, I savoured the salty flavour,
wanting to make every chew count. Leandra returned and handed me a plastic
fork.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘He was afraid you
would use the utensils as a weapon.’
‘No problem.’
Stony’s perception was right. It was the
first thought that had come to mind when I saw them in her hands.
‘Señor Perez has arranged for his doctor to
visit you. He will arrive in the next fifteen minutes,’ Leandra said. Her smile
continued to radiate warmth as she poured a cup of coffee. ‘Is there anything
else I can get you?’ she asked.
I thought about Perez’s prints on the
picture for when I escaped. I knew we didn’t have them in his file.
‘Yeah, I could do with a small picture
frame for my photograph.’
‘That’s easy. I have one spare in my
bedroom. I’ll get it for you later.’
‘What’s the itinerary after the doctor?’
‘Itinerary?’
‘Sorry... plan.’
‘Ah, I understand. They have a full day
planned for you to relax at the poolside. Maybe you can watch some television,
or read a book? The film has been cancelled until the wounds on your face heal.’
I tried not to let my disappointment show
at the delay of them sending the ransom note to confirm I was alive. So far,
Perez had been true to his word. I hoped it would stay that way.
‘I’ve left you some boxer shorts and a
towel on the bedside cabinet. When you’ve finished with the doctor, I’ll see
you at the pool.’
Leandra turned with a twirl, and in her
usual unfazed manner, she stepped lightly out of the room, her skirt swaying to
the wiggle of her backside. Damn if I didn’t think she was flirting with me.
No sooner had I devoured the breakfast than
the doctor arrived. Hardly an advertisement for his trade, he was sweating
profusely, wiping his brow with his handkerchief and gasping from his arduous
struggle at dragging his grossly overweight body up the stairway. He finally
caught his breath and waddled over to the bed, launching his case onto the
mattress as if he had levered a ton of weight from his grasp. Leandra returned
and placed the picture frame on the nightstand. The doctor gestured for her to
remove the bed sheet, while he opened his case and took out a stethoscope.
‘Help him undress,’ he said, looking at
Leandra.
She must have seen the panic in my eyes at
having no underwear.
‘I think I can manage, thank you.’
The warmth in my cheeks told me I was
blushing. Leandra winked, held up her hands in a form of acceptance and with a
wry smile. She took hold of the breakfast cart and pushed it out of the
bedroom, snickering as she went.
She seemed like a good kid. I couldn’t
understand why she would want to work for criminals, unless she was related to
them. Sitting up was no problem and I removed my pyjama top. The bottoms were
more problematic. The doctor didn’t see it that way. He simply whipped them
from my legs like a magician removing a tablecloth and leaving the plates and
cutlery in place. If it hadn’t been for the journey to arrive at the villa, I
would have felt that they were honestly concerned with my welfare.
The check-up was thorough. First, he
checked my breathing using his stethoscope on my chest and back. Then he put a
tourniquet around my upper arm and pumped it up to check my pulse and blood
pressure, and finally, he shone a beam of light into each eye.
‘You’ll live,’ he said. ‘Lie back.’ He was
still wheezing.
He planted the palm of his hand against my
chest and pushed. With my head on the pillow, he started to pinch my nose, and
then I felt him place hard-cotton buds inside my nostrils. A crack and an
intense pain caused me to scream out like a stuck pig.
‘That’s better. It should be straight now.
Let’s look at those feet.’
The pain from the cure was worse than the
original break. I hardly noticed him remove the bandages from my feet, until he
stepped back and winced.
‘No more bandages. You need to get air to
the wounds. I’ll give you an injection and leave some antiseptic and
antibiotics. Keep your feet clean and dry.’
The thoroughness of the examination started
to ring bells as to why they would want to make sure I was in fine health.
Following the injection, questions about my medical history, gave the
impression I was worth more alive to them than dead.
‘To be on the safe side, I think I should
draw some blood and run some tests. You’re looking anaemic.’
I didn’t protest, if I was ailing
something, it was better to know. He inserted the needle into my arm and drew a
blood sample, popping the vial into his case. He pressed his fingers around the
bruising on my ribs.
‘Your ribs aren’t broken, just bruised.’ He
passed me a tube of cream. ‘Apply that to your lips if the scabs split. You’ve
not suffered any lasting damage. It’ll all heal with rest.’
It wasn’t until he had wobbled out of the
room that I realized he had forgotten to leave the antiseptic. The guard waved
the barrel of his gun at me and pointed to the exit. I took hold of the boxer
shorts and threw my legs over the side of the bed to dress and put on my
slippers. Fortunately, he allowed me time to put the photo in the picture
frame. A final glance at the photo, and my inner self told them I would be back
soon.
The walk down the stairway and out back to
the pool was torturous, made worse by Stony’s impatience as he kept striking me
across the shoulder blades with his rifle. Leandra was waiting by the pool with
a grin the width of the Rio Grande. She pointed to a bottle of iodine and some
cotton buds on a table next to a sun lounger.
‘First the pain, then the pleasure. Lie
down on the lounger.’
I thought it best to get it over with and
to suffer the treatment. The iodine smarted like hell, leaving a yellowish stain,
but the pain soon subsided to a numb feeling.
‘You big baby. I’ve never seen a grown man
flinch so much.’
She laughed and I had to laugh along with
her.
‘What made you take a job here?’ I asked.
‘Insurance.’
‘Insurance?’
‘Yes, but like you, I’m worth more alive
than dead, for now. I hope they never have to pay out on the policy.’
Her riddle gave the impression that she was
far more mature than she looked, leaving me intrigued as to what she meant.
Before I could ask, Perez joined us at the pool and waved her away, snapping
his fingers. He stopped, and with an icy stare, looked me up and down. An
agitated expression took shape on his face, as if he was trying to determine
what to do with me. He turned and marched briskly over to Leandra, who waited
by the door.
She stood with her head slightly bowed,
clasping her hands together and twiddling her thumbs. Perez talked to her with
his lips close to her ear, while repeatedly casting sideways glances over my
way.
Four guards stood on the opposite side of
the pool. From their stance, it was easy to work out that these were
professionals. With their automatic rifles held to their chests and their fingers
poised on the trigger guard, they were clearly ready and waiting should I make
a move.
I remembered Leandra’s words, “worth more
alive than dead”.
But it was the ominous “for now” she had
uttered that sent my mind into overdrive.
Compromised
Straining to look
behind me at the sound of footsteps, I did a double take as Leandra approached
the pool wearing the briefest of bikinis and carrying a tray with two glasses,
a jug of fruit juice, and a bottle of sunscreen. Her usual smile was replaced
by a distant look in her eyes and her brow furrowed in a scowl. She kept
whatever was on her mind to herself as she set the tray on a table at the side
of my chaise lounge. Then she took a seat, her lips curved into a forced smile.
Something was clearly troubling her. She averted her gaze, picked up a towel
and draped it over my feet.
‘Don’t want third-degree burns to add to
the damage. Lie back and I’ll put some sunscreen on you.’
The tone of her voice suggested more of an
order, unlike her normal effervescent self, and she was avoiding looking
directly at me.
‘What did Perez want?’
‘Oh, nothing.’
“Nothing” meant she wasn’t in the mood to
give anything away. With my eyes closed, cold drips of sunscreen on my chest
made me flinch. The palms of her hands gently massaged the cream into my skin.
The rotations were slow and deliberate. Maybe, I thought for a moment,
incarceration wasn’t all that bad. All it would have taken was for her to feed
me grapes to make the vision complete. More drips and she caressed the skin
around my stomach with her fingertips. I felt a stirring in my boxers… then I
heard the sound of clicking and whirring. Jerking upright, I grabbed her wrist
and caught sight of one of the guards taking photos. A loud metallic click
snapped my eye-line in the direction of a guard who sighted his rifle directly
at me. Instinct made me release my grip and I threw Leandra a stare. Her eyes
were moist and she was trembling, clearly distraught. Blotches of red appeared
on her cheeks.
Head bowed, and shaking, Leandra grabbed a
bath towel from the back of her chair. Covering her body, she stood and ran,
her flip-flops slapping the tiles. She was still whimpering as she entered the
villa. Two of the guards were laughing and looking at the playback on the
camera screen. My emotions were all over the place. Rage subsided into guilt at
allowing this situation to come about. I was certainly capable of applying my
own sunscreen, but some kind of primeval instinct and misplaced trust had made
me act like a jerk. Now they had pictures of me sunning myself, with a nubile,
scantily dressed young woman sliding her hand down my boxer shorts. An image
flashed through my mind of them showing the pictures to Mary and the kids.
‘No… oh. Oh God.’
The guard with the camera walked away from
the pool and into the villa. It was uncomfortable just to lie there, so I put
on my slippers and hobbled around the pool. The guards watched me, alert and
wary. Another week’s rest and I could have grabbed one of them, disarmed him,
used his body as a shield, and dropped the others with a spray of gunfire. For
now, though, that was just wishful thinking.
Reaching the outside edge of the pool, I
rested my hands on the wooden balustrade. The area at the rear of the villa was
set on a cliff top. Looking down it was a sheer drop of around fifty feet to
the bottom and an outcrop of boulders. The cliff face was as smooth as a baby’s
backside, with no foot or hand holds to enable a descent.
A prod in the back made me jump. One of the
guards waved the barrel of his gun and pointed it in the direction of the
chaise lounge. It crossed my mind that he’d thought I would jump. As
embarrassed as I felt, I hadn’t quite reached a level of despair where I’d want
to end it all. Wafts of breeze hit my face and filtered out the negativity from
my deliberations. After a couple of deep breaths, I felt composed enough to
limp back to the chaise lounge.
Why this… why that? Questions reverberated
to the point of making me light-headed. The biggest question of all was who had
put the original hit out on me, the one responsible for my plight.
The sound of clip-clopping from behind me
caught my attention. Leandra was back in uniform, her hair tied in a bun. She
came alongside of me, and inspected her polished shoes, with her hands clasped
in front of her as she swayed slightly.
‘Would... would you like some juice with
ice?’
There was a quiver in her voice and I
hesitated to answer. The trust was gone. This hadn’t been some young woman’s
clumsy attempt at an infatuated grope, but a sneaky ploy to compromise me.
She whispered, ‘Listen, I’m sorry. They
made me do it.’
I wanted to believe her, but I couldn’t
bring myself to trust her words. I nodded and she poured out two glasses of
juice. She must have seen me hesitating as I put the glass to my lips and then
set it back down on the table without taking a sip. For all I knew it could be
laced with poison. She picked up her glass and took a long swig.
‘What did they threaten you with?’
‘They don’t have to threaten, only command.
I’ve seen firsthand what happens when you don’t comply.’
I couldn’t be sure, even with someone so
young, that she wasn’t playing me. Remembering what she’d said about them
shooting me like a dog if I didn’t do as they said made me wonder if this was
all part of the plan for me to cooperate with them.
‘So what’s all this about insurance?’
‘I’m not here because I want to be. They
took me from my parents four years ago as security for their coca leaf supplies
from Bolivia. Yes, they’ve given me a private tutor for language and
international business studies and I want for nothing, but they have stolen my
life. If my father double-crosses them and supplies the Cobra cartel, or any
other cartel, they will kill me.’
The agent in me wanted to know more.
‘Which part of Bolivia are you from?’
Her lips tightened. ‘Do you think I’m
stupid?’
Clearly, I had acted stupid in asking a
question that would betray her family. I had underestimated her maturity. ‘Obviously
you’re not stupid. Can’t your parents pay a ransom?’
‘No, but they will exchange me for my
sister when she is sixteen.’
‘And how old is she now?’
‘Twelve.’
She was right about them taking her life
away. Her eyes moistened. Unless she’d had tutoring in being an actress, her
anguish seemed genuine.
‘Do they allow you to have contact with
your family?’
‘They allow me to speak to my mother and
sister once every six months on Skype, from an Internet cafe forty kilometres
from here, which is something.’
‘What about a boyfriend back home?’
The question must have hit a nerve. She
turned her head away slightly. A tear ran down her cheek.
‘I’ve never simply just hung out with
friends,’ she said. ‘I only ever had one boyfriend, but...’
She clammed up and wiped her eyes with a
tissue from the table. It was obviously hard for her to talk about her past.
She was so young, so intelligent, and full of life, my heart went out to her at
being denied the normal pleasures of a family life. It was odd she hadn’t
mentioned talking to her dad over the Internet.
‘Can’t you sneak a phone call from here?’
Her eyes rolled and she let out a sigh. ‘There
are no land lines, and when they tried to build a cell tower, Perez had them
blow it up. Anyone except Perez caught with a GPS phone would be shot.’
‘Do you know what they have planned for me?’
A single tear ran from her eye and dribbled
onto her cheek. That answered me in more than words.
‘All I know is, they’re going to make a
film tomorrow of you pleading for the ransom to be paid, then they will ask you
some questions.’
‘Have you no idea what Perez means when he
says he wants questions answered?’
‘No, but trust me, whatever information he
seeks, give them the answers.’
Her expression didn’t seem to indicate a
ploy, but rather a plea in earnest that made me shudder. The idea that I had
maybe twenty-four hours before the film to find out if torture lay ahead for
them to get the answers they needed scared the hell out me. What secrets I
could possibly have that they would want to know?