He sat in the hotel lobby and watched the couple in the bar. The man was middle aged but slight, dressed in casual city clothes; the woman a few years younger, petite but curvy. They were talking earnestly, but seemed nervous.
He picked up his small suitcase and went to the elevators, then down the stale-smelling hotel corridor to room 233. He used his key card to enter, and flipped on the lights and put his bag on the desk. A standard room, like every other hotel, with a small suitcase already open on the bed. He looked through it, noting the selection of women's clothing, costume jewelry, and shoes, and a selection of men's neckties. He opened his bag, to lay his own props on the desk: a pile of nylon pantyhose, plastic zip ties, the toy weapon, small scissors.
He checked his watch, then turned out most of the lights, and went to stand near the door. When he heard the noise of a key card in the lock, he stepped back, into the closet area, and pulled a pair of nylons over his head as a mask. The door opened slowly, and the man from the bar walked in.
"Freeze, don't move!" He moved behind the man and put his toy weapon to the side of his head, with his other arm around the man's throat. "Do what I say, kid, or I'll fucking kill you." He moved hard, pushing the man forward, toward the desk chair. The man started to speak, and then realized it was safer to remain quiet.
With his weapon in hand, he pushed the man to the chair and quickly used a plastic zip tie to fasten first one wrist to the arm of the chair, then the other. More ties fastened his elbows and ankles to the chair, and then a pair of pantyhose used like a rope tied his body into the chair. He took one of the ties, a repp stripe silk Brooks Brothers navy and gold tie from the '90s, and used it to force the man's mouth wide, and then knot it behind his head, leaving him gasping and cheeks puffed out.
