Chapter 8

The next morning, Dan called his bank manager and arranged to make four consecutive withdrawals of 500,000 dollars each day. He insisted the money had to be used, not new bills. The manager informed him that the amount of money would be 5,000 100-dollar bills and would take most of the day to collect.

He had Tessa drive him to one of the local car rental agencies, where a pickup truck was waiting for him.

Dan stood in front of his sexy squad as several took his picture in his costume. Tracy had transformed him into a person who relied on the streets to make his living. His wide-brim hat would keep the sun off him while partially concealing his face.

His light tan khaki shirt had seen better days; the long sleeves were useful to hide his tattoos and prevent sunburn. His lighter-coloured cargo pants had extra pockets that bulged with more things he might use. He didn’t want to remove his wedding rings, so old gloves with most of each finger cut off were worn. Wraparound sunglasses hung from a string around his neck, as did several odd-looking necklaces.

“I wish we could get our hands on the plans or blueprints for that building,” he said in passing. He placed the trike and trailer in the box of the pickup and was ready to go.

“My neighbour works for the city planner’s office. I can call him and ask how much it would be for a copy of the prints.” Tina offered. A short call later. “A copy of the prints will be ready for us by noon. The cost is 100 dollars,” she smiled.

Dan gave her the money and said he’d call once he was parked at Fort Meade and ready to start his scheme. He would lock his wallet and phone in the truck and hide the keys, then call them when he was done. He said any of them could go home, but all chose to stay and wait for his return.

Dan parked the truck behind another vacant building about a quarter-mile from the kidnappers. He made his way along the road, finding several bottles and pieces of scrap metal in the ditch to add to his collection. His heart rate quickened as the building came into view. He peddled onto the property and looked for items to turn into cash while, out of the corner of his eye, hoping to somehow catch a glimpse of his love.

He began to wander the parking lot, peering into the overgrown shrubbery. He did find several empty beer bottles and added them to the bag on his trailer. He lifted the lid to an old dumpster, checking its contents. The first one was empty, but the second had several bottles, some old copper tubing, and strips of aluminum. He used a pair of long, extendable tongs to pick up the loose gems.

He was busy looking for items and listening to several Beatles songs on an older MP3 player. “Hey, Mister, what are you doin’ here?” He was startled by the sudden voice. Dan turned to see a curly-haired man of average height.

“Jesus man, don’t do that to me! You scared the living shit out of me!” Dan replied, removing his earbuds.

“I said, what are you doin’ here?”

“Tryin’ to make a living, I’m a self-employed recycling engineer; what about you?”

“None of your fucking business,” he growled.

“I haven’t seen you around here before; this is my territory, you know,” Dan said, memorizing his features.

“I can say the same thing about you being around here. We’ve been here for a few weeks now and haven’t seen you around here before.”

“That’s because I just got out of the hospital after recovering from pneumonia. Imagine getting sick in this climate; it really sucks. I hate to see how much of my good junk was stolen from me. I even had my fucking trailer stolen from me while I was laid up. Luckily, my brother made me a new one; ain’t she a beauty?” He said, picking the copper tubing from the dumpster and strapping it in his trailer. “The fucking stuff people throw away,” he mentioned.

Arnie put his right hand behind him, gripping the butt of the 9mm tucked into his belt. “You shouldn’t be around here right now; it might be dangerous for you.”

“I don’t see anything that looks dangerous,” he said, looking around. “You do seem out of place around here, though. Let me guess, you’re an undercover cop on a stakeout.”

“Uhh, yeah, that’s it. My partner and I are undercover cops,” Arnie said, going along with his assumption. “We’re in a covert sting operation that only our police chief knows about.”

“Well, I’m around here at least once a day. I could be an extra pair of eyes for you. If I see any other cops around that might hurt your operation, I could let you know.” Dan took a small bottle of mouthwash and a toothbrush out of his backpack and, taking a small swig, began to brush his teeth.

Arnie gazed at his stranger as he walked around and inspected his trailer, looking inside other bags. Dan gargled the liquid in his mouth and swallowed it. Ahh, it serves two purposes: it cleans my teeth and quenches my thirst. He took another swig, drinking it down. “Want some?” He asked, offering him the bottle.

“No thanks,” Arnie said, casually waving his hand.

“Looks like you could use some dental work yourself. Good teeth mean a healthy heart,” he offered. “Do your gums bleed easily?”

“Yes, they do,” he admitted.

“You should go see a dentist soon before you have to gum your food. See these; they’re all mine!” He said this, showing him and tapping his healthy, white teeth.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m William, and yours?”

“I’m Arnie.”

“Hi, Arnie, nice to meet you.” Dan hated to but offered his hand to shake. “So if you and your partner are undercover, how much longer are you going to be around here?” He hoped to find out.

“Probably another week; we have one more person to capture, and then certain days have to arrive for our sting operation to be completed.”

“Gotcha!” He winked. “Tell you what I can do for you. I’ll keep an eye out for anything unusual around here and tell you about it, for a price.”

“I don’t have to pay you anything.”

“Oh, come on now, consider me to be your informant, you know, like you’d see on the police TV shows. All I ask for is a quart of rye whiskey and all your empty bottles. I get ten cents a bottle on recycling.”

“I’ll give you two pints and our bottles,” he countered.

“Deal,” he offered his glove-covered hand again. “So it’s okay if you and your partner see me around here a few times a day?”

“Just don’t go in the building; we have it very secured.”

“Okay, I can meet you out here. I sometimes spend the night in a small room in the back. The other door inside has always been locked, and I can’t get inside the building. It saves me time in the morning to start my hunting. Many people will dump stuff overnight, and I’m already here to pick through it nice and early.”

“Just don’t go snooping around in the building. It would be very dangerous for you,” Arnie warned.

“Okay, I won’t. I’ll be back this afternoon around three for my bottles and booze.” Dan continued to empty the dumpster, then secured the items on his trailer and peddled them onto the next building. He wanted to look up at all the windows in hopes of seeing his girl but had to act casually.

“Who the fuck was that guy?” Chuck asked, putting down his binoculars.

“It was just some homeless guy named William. Get this. He thinks we’re undercover cops on a stakeout. So I let him keep thinking we are. He said he just got out of the hospital after having pneumonia and hasn’t been around his territory to collect junk for several weeks. He said he’d let us know if he sees anything unusual around here for two pints of booze and our empty bottles.”

“Keep an eye on him. I don’t want him sneaking around inside the building and finding our girls. If he did find them, then we’ll have to kill him too.”

“I warned him not to enter the building.”

“Come on, let’s each fuck a girl together.”

Finally, out of sight, Dan took out two bottles of water. He poured it over himself because he was so hot and sweating buckets from being so nervous. And the other he drank without stopping. He sat in the shade of his umbrella, letting his heart return to a somewhat normal rate. His underarms were soaking wet from his nervous perspiration.

“I have got to find a way to get inside that building. I need a diversion.” He continued to another building and then made his way back toward his pickup. He looked again around the front of Claudia’s prison, memorizing what it looked like.

He peddled back to his truck, loaded the bike and trailer, and then called his girls to tell them he was coming home. Tracy applied mineral oil to remove the glue holding his wig and beard in place. All the girls had stayed at his house, worried for Dan and waiting to hear how his adventure went.

“I met one of the kidnappers named Arnie, and he confirmed that he has a partner. I had to do all I could to control my temper and emotions. I just wanted to take him by the throat and choke him until she told me where Claudia is. He believed my story of being in the hospital with pneumonia and scrounging for different things to sell. I’m going back this afternoon for their empty bottles.”

“I want to try and sneak inside the building and look around, but I need a distraction, a beautiful, sexy distraction,” he smiled. “Kim and Tracy, what I’m asking you to do is very dangerous. I need you to go out and have a very sexy picnic by the kidnapper’s building and for them to see you two eating pussy.”

“We’ll do anything to help out our Claudia,” Kim offered.

“I’m going with you, I’m in love with her too,” Brooke added. “We can put on a threesome show for them.”

Dan and the girls made their plans for the afternoon, then he went to the bank. He gave no reason for the unusual withdrawal of half a million dollars in used cash. Tina returned with the blueprints for the building. Spread out on the kitchen table, they all examined the layout.

“There is a storage room in the back that connects to the lower level near the garage door,” he pointed. Susan and Karen had prepared lunch for everyone, and as they ate, more plans were made.

“So, how do we look?” He was asked and turned to see three sexy-looking women wearing bikinis that barely covered them.

“Wow, you’ll definitely grab their attention; you sure have mine!” He smiled. Dan handed Brooke his credit card. “I don’t want you using my Cadillac, so I’ve rented you a car in your name just in case they can trace a plate number.”

Dan made sure the girls had a can of pepper spray. It was their only defence against the killers. They made their plans and set them into motion.

At 3 pm, Dan peddled onto the property and began looking through the overgrown vegetation for bottles. He found several more and placed them in a bag.

“Here you are as promised,” Arnie said, dropping two large, clear bags of empty pop and water bottles and beer cans onto his trailer.

“Wow, I ought to get about ten to fifteen bucks for all those empties!” Then Arnie handed him two, pint bottles of whiskey. Dan opened one, took a good gulp, then offered him a drink.

“Sorry, I forgot you were on the job. The only person I usually see around here is a guy walking his dog. He’ll park his truck and walk for about an hour. I think he’s training him to retrieve, and sometimes I see the odd cop on his break.”

Dan didn’t stay long; there would be no real reason to. He peddled until he was out of sight of the building, then hid his bike behind an abandoned building and waited for his three luscious girls to arrive. He watched Brooke park the light-blue rental Mustang convertible in the empty lot.

The sound of loud, booming music caught Chuck’s attention. “Hey, Arnie, come here quick! We’ve got company!” He yelled down the hallway. He picked up his binoculars, adjusting the focus.

Arnie hurried into their main room, doing up his pants, fresh from fucking Julia. “Holy fuck!” He exclaimed, seeing the three bikini-clad women getting out of the car. “Let me take a good look at them,” he asked Chuck, holding out his hand for the binoculars.

“Use the scope on your rifle,” he told him.

“Oh, my, fuck! Will you look at those fucking bodies?” Arnie drooled. “Want to add them to our group?” He hoped.

“I’d love to, but it’s too close to our base of operation here. If we take them, the cops will be looking for them right on our doorstep.”

Brooke, Kim, and Tracy emptied the trunk and spread out the two large blankets that Dan had supplied under a tree. They added a picnic basket and a plastic cooler box. The girls embraced and began alternating kisses.

“Oh my fuck, they’re lezzies! What a waste of three good cunts!” Arnie empathized.

“There’s nothing wrong with watching hot-looking chicks make out. We’ve watched our girls do it,” Chuck said.

Dan hoped the girls had the guy’s attention by now. He grabbed his backpack and snuck along a tall chain-link fence that butted up against overgrown hedges.

He could feel his heart pounding in his ears as he noticed the back door was secured with a padlock. “Hey, this might actually work!” He said, to no one. He leaned his crowbar against the door, taking off his pack. He took out the small bolt cutters he’d brought and, with some hard applied force, snapped the lock. He smiled as he took out his replacement padlock.

“Now if I have to, I can prove I’ve been here before,” he said, placing the broken lock in the bottom of his bag. He took out his flashlight, opened the door, and trained his flashlight on the dark interior. Stale, damp air greeted him as the warm, humid air took its place.

Dan crept cautiously inside, his flashlight illuminating a bright circle. He estimated the room was approximately sixty feet long by about forty feet wide, with a cement floor, walls, and ceiling. He was surprised no rats were scurrying for any hiding place they could find. In the center of the back wall was a wide metal door that hung on round rollers. A closer examination revealed it was secured by using an arm and lever system.

He gave the arm a gentle tug and was surprised the door wasn’t locked. He cringed with fear as he slowly opened the squeaky door just enough to squeeze through. Sunshine filtered through high-placed, dust-covered windows. Above him, metal stairs cast a shadow on the floor in front of him.

He looked from one end of the long room to the closed garage door. There was a small entry door beside it. The walls were bare cinder blocks with an exposed metal girder ceiling. To his left, the metal stairs led up to the next floor and another door.

Dan noticed a dark blue van parked inside and crept towards it. He cautiously peered inside with his light, noticing bundles of electrical wire and other items. “This must be the van they used to kidnap them,” he whispered.

He walked around the back of the van, inspecting the garage door and smaller door entrance. He noticed wires lying over both doors and along the walls. The wires were connected to beige-looking blocks of clay stuck everywhere. In the top-right corner was a box with a red blinking light. “Oh, that’s just great. C-4!” He recognized the explosives and gulped hard.

He had to control his urge to yell out Claudia’s name as he searched for any sign of his love. He carefully checked each door on the ground floor to see if it was unlocked. It was cool and damp inside, but he was sweating bullets from nervous adrenalin.

“Can you see anything in the windows?” Brooke asked, her back facing the building.

“It’s hard to tell with them tinted,” Kim said, undoing Brooke’s bikini top. “Yes, I can make out two men standing at the window over the main entrance!” Her heart rate jumped.

“Remember, we have to pretend we don’t know we’re being watched,” Tracy cautioned, her bikini top joining the other two on the blanket. Brooke took out her phone and took several pictures of them topless.

“Holy shit, look at those fucking tits!” Arnie exclaimed. The girls took off each other’s bikini bottoms and began three-way kissing and tit fondling. “Hey, what are we standing for?” He asked, sliding a chair over to the window.

Arnie trained his scope on the girls from about one hundred and fifty feet away, angled down from him. Chuck joined him with his chair and two beers. They relaxed to watch the anticipated show.

The girls lay on the blanket with Brooke in the middle. She kissed Tracy as Kim sucked on her nipples and then moved lower between her legs. “I’m too nervous to have a good cum,” she said, as Kim’s expert tongue parted her pussy lips.

“I think we are all nervous, but when this is over and Claudia is safe, watch out!” Kim enticed. She and Brooke turned to the sixty-nine positions, with Tracy kissing, licking, and kissing Brooke’s ass up to her shoulders and down again.

“This is fucking awesome!” Arnie exclaimed, taking his cock out and stroking it. Chuck was also enjoying the show.

“We’ll make Julia and no tits do it for us next,” he said, refocusing his lens as Brooke took her turn between Tracy’s legs.

Dan’s heart pumped so hard that he could feel his pulse in his neck. He silently crept up the metal stairs with his pepper spray in one hand and the crowbar in the other, certainly no match for a 9mm gun.

He peered through the dirty, stained window, able to see the length of the hallway. He slowly opened the door and took several steps. The hallway was darkened at both ends except for a brighter opening on the left about halfway down and red-coloured exit signs. He went to his right to a closed door, and it was locked.

The next door had a padlock to keep it secured. The metal door had a three-inch-high by five-inch-wide sliding cover. He slid it to his right and peered inside. He thought he could see something. He trained his light briefly on the object. It appeared to be a person lying on a bed on their left side. He closed the little door, not knowing the person was Erin.

The next two doors on the left and right were also locked, but only by a doorknob. The third door was open, revealing an open-concept washroom. As Dan approached the sunlit part of the hall, he thought he could hear voices. Then the sudden scraping of a chair had him scurrying back toward the red exit-sign-adorned door. He opened it quickly and held the door closed with his hand on the doorknob.

His heart was ready to jump out of his chest as he peered through the window. A shadow announced movement, and he leaned his head back enough to still see. A man walked across the hall into the washroom. Dan recognized him as the same man who gave him the ransom phone, and except for the hair, it was impossible to tell him apart from Arnie. Then the resemblance hit him: They were identical twins, just as he had portrayed them in his book!