Williams, but he’ll swear he didn’t telephone you, and they’ll realise it was a trick by the kidnappers to get you to the Pirates’ Cabin. They’ll wonder why you didn’t recognise Williams’s voice.
You’ll say the connection was bad, there was a lot of background noises of music and you never doubted it was Williams talking. That’s the explanation why you went to the Pirates’ Cabin. Okay?’
‘You don’t really think the police will come into it?’
She was nibbling at her thumbnail while she stared at me.
‘I don’t know. Your stepmother said they won’t, but I am going to be prepared. Now concentrate. I’m giving you the story you may have to tell the police. You are now in a car with the rug over you and you are held down by threatening hands. A man, speaking with an Italian accent, warns you if you make a sound, you’ll get hurt. You gather that there are three men in the car. I’ve written down a conversation you overhear. You’ll have to learn it by heart.
‘The car makes a number of turns which leads you to believe you are off the main roads. Finally, after two hours driving, the car stops. You hear a dog barking. You hear the sound of a gate being opened.
The car drives forward and stops again. You must remember all these details. If the Federal Bureau come in on this, they’ll want these details. Many a time they have caught kidnappers because the victim has heard a dog bark or has heard the noise a bucket makes going down into a well – stuff like that, and they’ll probe your memory, so you’ve got to be ready for them.’
Her eyes were very intent as she nodded.
‘I see now why you wanted me here tonight,’ she said. ‘Even if the police don’t come into this, Daddy will ask questions. He is very shrewd. He will ask just those kind of questions.’
‘Yes. You’ll be supposed to be in this place for three days and nights. You’ll be locked in a room. If the police come into this, they’ll be certain to ask you to make a plan of the room and you must be able to do it without hesitation. During the time you’re supposed to be in this room, you will hear the dog barking, you will hear the sound of chickens and cows. You’ll decide this is a rundown farmhouse.
You’ll only see one of the kidnappers and a woman who will take charge of you. I’ve written down a description of both these people, and you’ve got to memorise it. If the police come into it, watch out you stick to your story. Don’t let them trap you into mistakes.’
She was interested and very tense.
‘I understand.’
‘There is a toilet just outside the room you are in. This is just the kind of trap question they might spring on you, and you must be prepared for it. You’re allowed to go there when you want. The woman takes you. I have another plan to show you the part of the house you will see when you go to the toilet.
It’s not much: a short passage and three doors that are shut. The toilet has a cracked basin and a string instead of a chain for the flush. Remember these details. They’ll help to make your story convincing.
I’ve written down all the meals you are supposed to eat during the three days you are in this farmhouse.
You must memorise them too. Make no mistake about it, the Federal Agents will really turn you inside out if they come into this, and you’ve got to be ready for them.’
She touched her lips with the tip of her tongue.
‘You’re beginning to make me feel as if I’m really going to be kidnapped,’ she said.
‘That’s the way you’ve got to feel,’ I told her. ‘I’ve drafted a letter you must write which I will mail to your father. You’d better do it now.’
I got up and went over to the briefcase I had brought with me. Before touching the sheets of cheap notepaper I had bought at a store, I put on a pair of gloves.
She came over to the table and sat down. I stood over her and watched her copy out the letter and finally address the envelope. I made her fold the letter and put it into the envelope and then put the envelope into my briefcase.
I then handed her the sheets of paper containing all the details I had prepared for her.
‘Take this away and really memorise it,’ I told her. ‘Come here at nine o’clock the night after this, and I’ll check you, then we’re ready to go.’
She put the papers in her handbag.
‘Before you go, let’s look at the dress you have and I want to see you in the wig.’
She opened the case and took out a cheap blue and white print dress, white ballet shoes and a henna coloured wig.
I nodded to the bedroom door.
‘Go in there and change. I want to see how you look.’
‘For someone in my stepmother’s employ,’ she said, picking up the dress, ‘you certainly know how to give orders.’
‘If you don’t like it…’
‘But I do! It makes a refreshing change.’ She fluttered her eyelids at me. ‘I like men older than myself.’
‘That gives you a wide choice,’ I said. ‘Get moving. I want to get home.’
She wrinkled her nose at me, then went into the bedroom and shut the door.
I now became even more conscious that I was alone with this girl. She had that something that raised the worst in me: that would raise the worst in any man. Since I had been married, I had never fooled around with another woman and I wasn’t intending to now although I knew this girl would be easy. I had only to give her some encouragement, and she would give me the green light to go the whole way.
