“Don’t move. And don’t scream.”
The pain in her back increased. He had a knife. He had acquired another knife. Penny stopped struggling. How had he gotten out of Yellowstone? How had he found her? Why was she thinking these inane thoughts? He was going to kill her. She tried to relax her muscles so he would stop hurting her.
“That’s better. Now I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to walk across the road and go to the VW camper.”
She saw the white camper with the bubble top. It was parked across the highway about a hundred feet south of them. How had Alfred obtained a camper? Had he stolen it? If so, the police must be looking for him. Oh yes, they were already hunting him for murder and car theft. Where was Gary? Penny turned her head as far as she dared and realized she couldn’t see the beach from here. Gary couldn’t see her. She was on her own.
Alfred’s arm was wrapped around her body at the level of her breasts and held her tightly. Her back was pressed against his belly. His potbelly. The thought almost made Penny giggle, in spite of her situation. She was on the verge of hysteria. She had to control herself. They marched in lockstep toward the road. When they reached the road, they waited for a lumber truck to roll by at high speed.
Penny thought about trying to signal the driver. Her arms were free; she could wave to him. What would that accomplish? He would think she was being friendly and wave back. They were just two lovers, out sightseeing. Even if by some remote chance he recognized her plight, by the time he brought the big rig to a stop and came back to help her, she would be dead, and Alfred would be gone.
She had to cooperate with Alfred-for now. They made it across the highway before a couple of cars zoomed past, heading north. They were going too fast to see what Alfred was doing to her. She had to admit that at sixty miles per hour they would look like lovers. Ha. Big joke. And the knife? She didn’t feel it. He must be hiding it, somehow.
They made it to the right side of the camper, the side away from the road. If Alfred wanted her inside, he had to open a door. He would have to use one of his hands to do this. His left arm held her. His right hand presumably held a knife. He reached his right arm around her and unlatched the sliding door. There was nothing in that hand-no knife, nothing.
Penny simultaneously twisted out of his grip and ducked under his right arm, which was still on the door handle. She stumbled for a moment and then regained her footing. She took a couple of steps toward the front of the camper, intending to cut around it and cross the highway just ahead of a car she could hear approaching.
Alfred tackled her from behind before she could make the turn. The wind left her lungs with an oomph as she hit the ground. She struggled to breathe. The stumble had cost her too much time. The car went by, but the passengers couldn’t see them. They were hidden by the camper. She felt a sharp pain in her back again and gave an involuntary grunt.
“If you do that again, I’ll kill you.”
Alfred was breathing hard. She didn’t doubt that he would do what he said. He removed the knee from her back-that’s what had hurt her-and put his arm around her neck in a chokehold. She got to her knees and then to her feet. She had no choice if she wanted to breathe. Alfred guided her back to the sliding door.
The door was partially open. He pushed it farther open with his shoulder. Then he shoved her onto the floor of the camper. Before she could move, he had closed the door and was on top of her again with his knee in her back. It hurt. What now? She found out. He bent both of her arms behind her back and bound them together somehow. He worked fast.
“What are you doing?”
“Duct tape. Marvelous stuff. Don thoughtfully left a lot of it in the storage box.”
“Who’s Don?”
“None of your damn business. Now if you’re through trying to run away, I’m going to be nice to you and let you lie on the bed instead of the floor. Get up there but be quick about it.”
Or Gary would show up. Did she dare to stall? It was difficult for her to get up from lying on her stomach with her arms taped behind her. When she took too long, Alfred grabbed her by the arms and jerked her to her knees. She rose slowly to her feet under her own power, but then he picked her up and threw her onto the bed.
“You’re hurting me.”
“We don’t have time for your games.” Alfred captured her feet and taped them together at the ankles. The side windows of the camper beside the bed had curtains over them so that nobody could see inside. The rear window was uncovered, but she doubted that anybody would be able to see her through it unless he was close enough to press his nose against it.
“I won’t be able to walk.” Or run away.
“No kidding. And just to make sure, I’ll take your shoes.”
He ripped the sneakers off her feet without bothering to untie them, and threw them into the storage cabinet. He took a couple of steps to the driver’s seat, plunked down in it, and started the camper.
“Where’s your knife?”
Alfred laughed as he drove away. “I don’t have a knife anymore.”
“You stuck it in my back.”
“That was just a sharp rock I picked up. It fooled you, didn’t it?”
That bastard. She could have gotten away and alerted Gary. Well, he wouldn’t fool her again. “You won’t get away with this.”
Alfred braked hard and pulled the camper to a stop. What now?
“You sound like a bad movie.”
He was standing over her again with the roll of tape. He tore off a length, and she understood what he was going to do.
“Not my mouth. I won’t scream.”
“Damn right you won’t scream. And I’m tired of hearing you talk.”
When she turned her head away, he shoved it into the bed hard so that she couldn’t move it and pressed the tape over her mouth.
Penny felt like a calf that has been roped and tied by a cowboy at a rodeo.
CHAPTER 26
He should go to whomever passed for the police in this part of the world. Gary was certain that Alfred had somehow found them again and kidnapped Penny. What would he do to her? Would he kill her? Gary couldn’t bear that thought. If he were going to kill her, she might already be dead.
He had to assume she was alive and act on that assumption. Any other thoughts led to insanity. He had to find out where a police station was located. He was standing beside the Beetle, sweeping the highway with his eyes, from north to south. All he saw were a few cars and lumber trucks. Alfred was long gone with Penny.
He should look at the map. He got into the car so that he could study his map of California without the wind blowing it. Humboldt County was an unpopulated area. Any sheriff’s station would be south of here, perhaps at Trinidad or McKinleyville. He could drive to them in a few minutes.
Which way would Alfred be taking Penny? Gary remembered that he had been living in Lomita, very close to her. Would he head in that direction? What would a rational kidnapper do? Was there any such thing as a rational kidnapper? Was Alfred rational? How could he be? He had killed one person; he had tried to kill them. He was obsessed with Penny. Rational was not a word that applied to Alfred.
Gary started the VW and headed south. He was moving at close to the top speed of the little car when he caught a logging truck. He couldn’t safely pass it, so he rode in its slipstream. These trucks really moved, and although he was anxious and impatient, he realized he couldn’t do much better than to cruise in its wake. He arrived at the village of Trinidad in fewer than fifteen minutes.
He stopped at the first gas station he came to and asked directions. He found out that the sheriff’s station was in McKinleyville, a little farther south. Another ten minutes and he was there. He parked in front of the building and went inside. When the deputy on duty asked him what he wanted, he blurted out, “I think my wife has been kidnapped.”
