Gina checked her email one last time at 6:00pm before shutting her computer down for the night. She hadn't received any email since 4:15 when she went to her Friday afternoon meeting, but she wasn't surprised. She assumed it was just another summertime Friday night where most clients and coworkers leave early to head to the beach. She had no idea that Eric had pointed her email to a storage server while maintenance was being performed. Had he failed to do this, she would have been quite suspicious of Janine's "You Suck. :-), see you next week" email in response to her weekend cancellation.
She locked her laptop in the bottom drawer of her desk knowing that she would not be using it all weekend long. As she walked out of her office she called "Hello, anyone still here?" before turning off the last of the overhead lights. Walking out the kitchen door toward the back parking lot she took a deep breath, savoring the taste of freedom knowing she didn't need to be back at the office for 62 hours. She opened a pack of Marlboro Lights and threw the cellophane and foil in the trash can by the door.
Gina giggled to herself as she pulled a cigarette from the pack and flipped it over, slipping it back in. "Lucky cigarette," she said out loud, "won't get to this one until tomorrow!" She slipped one of the other 19 cigarettes from the pack and lit it with a match, drawing the toxic air deep into her lungs. As she inhaled the smoke, she let loose a small cough and thought to herself that although it was fun to smoke occasionally, she was glad she had quit a few years ago when she and Mark got married.
She strolled to her car slowly, enjoying the cigarette and not wanting her husband to pick up a car that smelled of smoke. As she approached her car a dark blue Chevy Caprice pulled up beside her. She noticed the antennae on the back of the car and assumed it was a police car, though she found the dark tinted windows a bit odd. The driver's window rolled down and a middle aged man asked "Gina McLaughlin?"
She looked at the strange man and took a couple steps toward her car, unlocking the doors with the remote. "Yes, my name is Gina, who are you?"
The man held an official looking badge out his window and identified himself as Detective Patrick O'Malley of the Pennsylvania State Organized Crime Task Force. Gina nodded, having assumed the car was a government vehicle. "Hello," Gina replied as she took a drag off her cigarette, "How do you know my name, and what do you need?"
"Mrs. McLaughlin, we have no time to waste, we can tell you that your friend Janine has been kidnapped just 90 minutes ago. We have reason to believe that her captors also intend to kidnap you when you park at Phil's in 5 minutes. We discovered that her plans with you were clearly outlined in your emails back and forth and we feel her captors were confident that your weekend away would give them time to secure the two of you before you were missed."
As the Detective explained the situation, a professionally dressed woman emerged from the back of the car and walked to Gina, extending her hand. "Hello, I am Special Agent Colleen Flynn. I will be your body double for the evening. It is our hope that I will be kidnapped by Janine's captors after parking your car at Phil's. They will assume that I am you and they will take me to the location where they are holding Janine." Ms Flynn lifted her tongue to reveal a shiny metal disc in her mouth. This transponder will lead Detective O'Malley to me and Janine in no time. Please give me your keys Gina; I will drive your car to Phil's now.
Gina looked back and forth between the two officers and shook her head, her mouth gaping open silently allowing her cigarette to fall from her mouth to the ground by her car. In a haze, she extended her right hand and her car keys to Colleen and whispered meekly, "Please... please help Janine... she is my best friend."
Colleen took the keys and nodded "I will do my best, I promise. Please, get in the back of the cruiser, Detective O'Malley will wait here with you while you call your husband to explain the situation. Wish me luck Pat, I am off to Phil's. Don't lose me this time, ok?"
Gina nodded silently as she watched Colleen drive off in her car toward Phil's. She stepped toward the rear passenger door of the sedan and paused to look at her reflection in the window. She noticed that she could see her reflection perfectly, but could not see through the dark glass. She pulled the handle and got in the back of the car, shaking her head in shock as she looked to Detective O'Malley in the front seat and pulled her cell phone from her purse. "I just can't, I don't under..., but..." Gina stammered at she opened her phone. Detective O'Malley looked in the rearview mirror at Gina and said "Ma'am, they may be monitoring your cell phone calls. Please let me see the phone to see if they have disabled the security encrypting."
Gina paused and nodded, knowing it was better to be safe than sorry as she reached through the bars dividing the back seat from the front. Detective O'Malley smiled to himself as he saw the woman's hand extending through the bars and he reached for the phone. He turned his head to the right and in one swift motion grabbed Gina's hand and yanked it down hard. He secured her wrist in a handcuff which was attached on the other end to a bar under the seat back.
Gina shrieked as her elbow slipped through to the front seat and her shoulder was pinned against the steel bars. She slid forward from the seat to her knees on the floor of the sedan, "what the hell asshole?"
Detective O'Malley turned around swiftly and pointed his handgun straight at her head, starring deep into her eyes. She looked back at him in shock and terror, her head spinning as her heart raced in her chest. He spoke calmly yet firmly as her looked back at her.
"You will not make another sound young lady. You will speak only if asked a question. You will address me as Pat, not asshole. If you attempt to draw attention to the car by screaming, your efforts will fail, but we will kill Mark and Janine as a punishment to you. You don't want that to happen now, do you?"
Gina shook her head side to side, her mind racing as she thought of her husband and best friend and the danger she would put them in if she screamed. This was the first time she had realized that Mark might be in danger too. She looked deep into the cold eyes of the man who had handcuffed her and gasped for air, on the verge of hyperventilating. As she panted in fear, he turned away from her and released a curtain from the ceiling of the car, blocking her view forward, but more importantly ensuring that any passersby would not see her in this predicament. He placed the car in drive and drove away slowly, calmly, without saying another word.
He drove the short distance to Phil's and pulled over, parking a few blocks before the bar.
"Where are we going, what are we doing?" Gina questioned from the back of the car, biting her lip as she remembered her directive to remain silent. Pat turned his head, slipped the curtain to the side and said sternly to Gina "Shut your mouth bitch, or you will be sorry. You will have to learn to listen better. Colleen will be along shortly to explain more to you."
Gina knelt on the floor in the back seat, her arm and wrist aching as she sobbed uncontrollably with her face just inches from the strong metal bars. Why was this happening and what did they intend to do with her? Questions raced through her head until she saw Colleen approaching the back door from the side. Gina stared up at her in disbelief as she surveyed her surroundings to be sure no neighbors were watching before she opened the rear passenger side door, slipping in quickly and calmly as she sat in the seat next to Gina and closed the door
"The car is parked safely at Phil's. I was not observed exiting the vehicle this time Pat."
"That's good Colleen, you always do such nice work. I do love working with you. I will proceed to our next destination." Pat pulled out carefully and drove by Phil's, heading out of town with the first stage of his mission complete. "Is Heather in place as well?"
Colleen nodded as she replied, "Yes, Heather is in place Pat."
Gina couldn't believe her ears, they were a team, and they had worked together before. She wondered how many other people had they kidnapped, what were their motives, and who was Heather? Her head was filled with scenarios, some dark, others more mild, but all distasteful to say the least. She shifted side to side on her knees, the bars and curtain in front of her blurring through the tears in her eyes. Gradually, she turned her head to face Colleen and stared blankly at her, tears flowing down her soft cheeks.
Colleen placed her hand on Gina's shoulder and smiled at the kneeling woman. "It is good that you are comfortable kneeling, that will please your new owners greatly." She gave a quick squeeze to Gina's shoulder and looked her straight in the eye "This will certainly be a most unpleasant experience for you, but I can assure you that I will do everything I can to minimize your discomfort at all times. Pat, can you release her from the handcuff at the next red light?"
The car rolled to a stop shortly after Colleen's request and Gina felt her wrist being released from the steel cuff. She pulled her arm back through the bars and sat back in the seat, angling herself toward Colleen as she pleaded "My new owners? What do you mean, owners?"
Colleen smiled slightly and nodded understandingly, "All in good time Gina. Pat, is that the first time our prisoner has spoken without permission?"