When Alfred slowed and made the U-turn, he caught Gary by surprise. Without thinking, Gary immediately turned behind him. His car had a tighter turning radius than the camper, but he had to cut in front of an oncoming car, causing its driver to stand on his brakes, which produced the loud screeching noise of skidding tires, followed by several honking horns. Too bad. Gary took off after Alfred, ignoring the car that was now behind him with the driver still blowing his horn. Alfred had to do better than that to get away from him.
On their drive south, Alfred had noticed a particular cliff a bit north of Bodega Bay, with a place to park beside it. It was far enough away from the road that the traffic from Route 1 wouldn’t be able to see what he was doing. It was a perfect place to get rid of Gary. Gary, who was the source of all his problems.
A cliff. Alfred thought about another movie: Rebel without a Cause . With James Dean. Alfred was James Dean. He was the misunderstood rebel. There was a scene in Rebel in which James Dean and another boy drove stolen cars over a cliff. Last boy to bail out before the cars went over was chicken. James bailed out successfully. The other boy didn’t. He went over the cliff in his car. The irony was that James was later killed in an auto accident for real, not all that far from where Alfred and Gary and Penny were playing out their own drama.
The three of them should do it the same way. He and Gary should drive their cars over the cliff and find out who was chicken. Penny would be the girl, played in the movie by Natalie Wood. Alfred had always liked Natalie. He had seen all of her movies. Penny somewhat resembled the beautiful Natalie in looks, hair color, and hairstyle. Penny would wave her arms to start them. The winner would get her. That was fair.
Alfred drove through Bodega Bay for the second time this morning. Gary stayed on his tail. Once he was out in the open again, he watched the rugged landscape along the coast, looking for the spot he had in mind. He drove past a sandy beach. That wouldn’t do. Then he saw it on a curve. The vertical, black cliff, outlined against the sky, swooping down to the relentless ocean. The top of it was shielded from the nearest section of the road by rocks. And anybody who saw them from this far away wouldn’t be able to tell what was happening.
He signaled for a left turn but had to stop and wait for a stream of cars going by in the opposite direction. Cars lined up behind the camper, since nobody could pass him. He was pleased to see Gary’s car right on his bumper, also signaling.
A gap in the traffic allowed him to make the turn. He crossed the lane and drove off the road onto the gravel shoulder as far as he could, to a spot partially shielded by rocks. He shut off the engine and locked his door. He pulled out the gun. This story was different than Rebel without a Cause or High Noon, because he wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
Gary stopped right behind him. In his outside mirror, he saw Gary jump out of his car and run up to Alfred’s window. Gary tried to open the door. Failing that, he pounded on the window and yelled through the glass, “Where’s Penny?”
“Come around to the sliding door,” Alfred shouted.
Alfred got out of his seat and went back to the bed where the blanket still covered Penny. He uncovered her head, keeping his gun hidden. She glared at him, unable to speak with her mouth taped. He unlocked the door, unlatched it, and gave it a shove so that it slid open. Then he put the gun to Penny’s head.
Gary looked through the window of the camper past Alfred, confirming that Penny wasn’t sitting in the other seat. If Alfred had done anything to her… As he went around the front of the camper, he noticed the damage to the spare tire and a dent in the metal. Had Alfred caused that? Was Penny hurt?
Through the front window, Gary saw Alfred get up from his seat and go back toward the sliding door. Gary tried to open the front, passenger-side door, thinking that if he could get through it, he might gain an element of surprise. It was locked. He took another step to the sliding door and tried to open it. Also locked. What kind of a game was Alfred playing? Gary couldn’t see through the curtained window on the door. Within seconds he heard a click and the door unlatched. Gary grabbed the handle and slid it all the way open.
By the time the door opened enough for Gary to see in, Alfred was standing over Penny at the end of the bed, just inside the doorway. Gary saw Penny’s face and the gun pointed at it simultaneously. The combination of the two turned him to stone. Her eyes were large, looking at him with a warning she couldn’t voice because her mouth was taped.
Alfred faced Gary, a slight grin on his face. “I don’t want to have to shoot. If you cooperate-”
“Is she hurt?” Gary’s fear showed in his voice.
Penny hummed, “Mmmh mmm.” It sounded like a negative.
“No, she’s fine. The tape is just a precaution.”
“If you hurt Penny, I’ll kill you.”
“Brave words from the guy who doesn’t have the gun. This is what I want you to do. Sit down here with your back to me.” Alfred pointed to the floor of the camper.
Gary saw the cut on Alfred’s forehead. It had been bleeding fairly recently. Something had happened-but what? He sat down at the entrance, reluctantly, with his feet on the ground. He turned his head to watch Penny and Alfred. How could he get the gun away from Alfred without endangering Penny’s life?
“Face front.”
Gary watched the gun swing around until he felt the cold metal against his own head. He faced away from Alfred. He wouldn’t be any good to Penny if he were dead.
“Put your hands behind your back.”
Should he duck and roll and try to get the camper between himself and Alfred? No, because then Alfred would shoot Penny.
“What are you going to do?”
“Put your hands behind your back.”
Alfred’s voice was more strident, more demanding. The gun dug into Gary’s scalp. Alfred wasn’t rational. He couldn’t be reasoned with. Gary could swing his arm and hope to dislodge the gun from Alfred’s hand, but if he missed, Alfred would shoot them both. For the moment, Gary had to do what Alfred wanted. He placed his hands behind his back. He had never been so scared in his life, but he was more scared for Penny than himself.
With one hand, Alfred arranged Gary’s arms so they crossed at the wrists. With his other hand, he kept the gun pointed at Gary’s head. Then Alfred wrapped something around and around Gary’s wrists. It felt and sounded like tape. Gary tried to surreptitiously hold his hands so that there would be some play between them, but Alfred wound the tape tightly enough to nullify this. He was obviously experienced at taping people. He must have practiced on Penny.
“Isn’t that enough?” Gary asked. “I can’t move my hands.”
“That’s the idea. Okay, here’s where you get to be a hero and save the life of your wife.”
Doing what? Gary didn’t say it out loud. He waited, hardly breathing, to hear his fate.
“You and I are going to walk out to the cliff. Then you’re going to be big and brave and jump off. If you do that, Penny will live.”
The unspoken part of that statement was that Penny would live with Alfred. She wouldn’t do that. The fact that Alfred had to tape Penny’s mouth and probably her hands and feet-she hadn’t moved-was in a way a relief to Gary. It meant that she hadn’t been seduced by Alfred. It meant that she still loved him. He had heard of kidnapped persons relating to their kidnappers, but it hadn’t happened in this case.
Should Gary walk to the cliff or should he force Alfred to shoot him here? The noise of the shot probably wouldn’t be loud enough for any cars on the road to hear, and they were shielded from the road by the body of the camper and some rocks. If he shot Gary, would he then shoot Penny?
Gary would rather take his chances with the cliff. When he was mobile, he might be able to do something. Even with his hands taped behind him, he had some options. The least he could do would be to take Alfred over the cliff with him. If he could get in the right position, he could slam his body into that potbelly. They would die together.
Alfred told Gary to stand. Gary stood slowly, turning his head a little to glance at Penny. She had a look of horror in her eyes, but it was more than that. Was she trying to tell him something? He wasn’t sure what. Then she
