Lucy drove through the streets of the rundown township and soon crossed over the main street of Lourensville. It was Friday night and the town was lively. Music and patrons spilled out from Syd’s Bar and a few other restaurants and coffee shops seemed busy. She found it hard to believe that soon she would be returning to the huge city of Chicago. She realized she had begun to rather like the rhythm of small-town life.
Soon, she was on the outskirts of town and on the highway heading north toward Mountain Shadows. The radio station she’d been listening to was playing a selection of oldies that she didn’t really like so she turned the dial. Out here, FM was mostly lonely static, so she switched it off and rode in silence. It was then that she noticed the dark sedan behind her.
There were few vehicles on the road tonight, and it was only about a ten-minute drive until she reached the turn-off to the farm. To her annoyance, the car behind her put on its high beams, dazzling her vision all the while creeping closer. Lucy hugged the side of the road and put her arm out, signaling the sedan to pass, but despite there being no oncoming traffic, the sedan infuriatingly refused to overtake her.
“Oh, for God’s sake. What the hell do you want?”
Friday night, probably a bunch of drunk teenagers.
For a few minutes, the car eased off and Lucy felt her breathing return to normal. Bunch of idiots.
The turn-off to the farm was only about a half a mile now. From behind, the sedan suddenly surged forward, fast enough to bash Lucy’s bumper. The impact caused her pickup to fishtail dangerously. She managed to bring her vehicle under control, and hands gripping the steering wheel, she instinctively pressed her foot to the floor.
As she sped up, the car behind her receded and she glanced at her phone.
Got to get hold of Josh. But at the speed she was traveling, she didn’t dare take her hands off the steering wheel.
“Shit!” she cursed when she realized she had in fact flown past the entrance to Mountain Shadows. The next town was many miles away and she debated whether or not she should turn off the road and into another farm. She decided against it, for she was not familiar with those farms, and many of them had gates that required one to get out and manually open and close them. It was too risky. She would have to hope these jokers would tire of their little prank or that she’d make it to Krugerville, a small outpost about an hour away.
Lucy reached over with one hand and fumbled in her handbag for her phone. After picking up the bag, she shook its contents, and her phone tumbled off the front seat and onto the floor.
“Shit!” she cursed again. In her rear-view mirror, she could see the dark-blue car was gaining on her, and she recognized it as a Ford. Two male figures riding up front were now visible in the halo effect of the high beams. Keeping one hand tight on the wheel, she made a desperate dash for her phone, but as she did so, the Ford picked up its pace. It now occupied her entire rearview mirror.
Her pickup wasn’t powerful enough to pull away. She crested the top of a long hill and knew the downward slope would help her acceleration. The landscape around her was changing. There were fewer farms now, and she knew the Lion River ran parallel to the road.
Lucy gained a bit of distance on the downhill but as soon as they hit a flat stretch, the Ford surged forward again. Her hands clenched the steering wheel, and sweat beaded her forehead. There was no doubting the malicious intent of the men in the car behind her. The sense of panic threatened to overwhelm her and she had to steel herself not to give in to the involuntary shaking of her hands and body.
Foot flat on the accelerator, she realized the road would soon begin climbing again. She couldn’t hope to outrun them this time and if she was bumped from behind again at this speed, she feared her truck would roll.
The Ford swung out and drew level with Lucy.
What the hell is this? A game of chicken?
She was right. Seconds later, the high beams of a large truck appeared over the crest of the oncoming hill. Lucy tried to weigh her options, but without warning, the Ford took another swipe at her, connecting with her front bumper.
“No!” she screamed as her pickup fishtailed again and skidded off the road onto a narrow shoulder.
Must turn around.
She tried to turn her truck around and head back toward town, but the shoulder was narrow and next to it lay a deep ravine. The Ford blocked her path to the road.
Must phone Josh.
Lucy grabbed for her phone and began punching in her passcode when the window on the driver’s side shattered. She tried to start her engine again, but it was too late. Strong and sinewy hands grasped at her through the window. Moments later. the door was flung open and she was dragged out of the truck, her heels scraping on gravel.
The headlights of the Ford illuminated one of her attackers. He was brown-skinned with one gold tooth and a prison tattoo that snaked up his neck.
“Calm down, missus. There’s no point in fighting,” said the one with the gold tooth. His accent was strongly Afrikaans. The hands that held her smelled of tobacco.
“What the hell do you want?” she screamed. “Take my car, my wallet, my phone. Take anything you want, just let me go.” Her voice was both desperate and defiant.
“That’s not what we’re after, miss,” said the man holding her.
Omigod.
“We’re going to take you for a little ride.”
The man who had been holding her pushed her away and she stumbled into the dirt. She turned and got a quick look at her second attacker. Tall, at least six-foot-three, she reckoned. He wore a baseball cap, and one ear had a diamond stud.
The lights of another vehicle appeared, and Lucy make a mad dash to run out into the road and flag down the driver. She only managed a few steps before a sharp blow to the head sent her spiraling to the ground.
***
Lucy was semi-conscious while her attackers picked up her limp body and bundled her into the trunk of their car. When the trunk slammed shut, she was plunged into an inky blackness so deep she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. She heard tires scraping on gravel and dirt and the sound of the two men grunting and pushing. Their footsteps became faster until she heard what sounded like crashing and splashing. My truck! They must be dumping it in the river, but why?
Clearly, these were no ordinary thieves. She felt her head, where she had received the blow. It was tender to the touch and matted with sticky blood. Lucy heard low voices and then footsteps signaled that the two men were returning. She heard the thunk of car doors being slammed shut. The engine started and to her relief, the tail lights illuminated the trunk just enough so she could make out her surroundings.
Where in God’s name are they taking me? She had to calm herself. Her life depended on it. She remembered the technique she used to calm frightened children.
Name five things you can see, hear, or touch. She could see the tail lights, red and glowing, hear the rushing of the road beneath her, and occasionally the muffled voices of the two men in the car. The trunk smelled oily and musty, debris rattled around her.
Never let your attackers take you to the second location.
Where had she heard that? It was common wisdom, wasn’t it? Victims who were taken to a second location seldom left it alive.
Lucy thought of her mother and wished she could somehow summon her presence. Her hand clasped at the gold locket that lay at the base of her throat.
“Mom,” she sobbed. Her situation felt utterly hopeless. Outnumbered two to one, her attackers had a plan and knew where they were going. She was sure they were armed, and that blow to the head felt like it had come from the butt of a handgun.
What do I do, Mom? Help me, please. Lucy thought of her family back home. Her brother, her niece and her dad. She thought of Josh. Would she ever see that handsome, beautiful face again? The face that always looked on her with such kind and forgiving eyes.
And why the hell would anyone want to kidnap me? Does this have something to do with the Palmers and Sun Valley?
Focus! It didn’t matter why she was here. Escape had to be her only thought.
In the weeks before she had died, Lucy’s mother had made her several videotapes. She recalled her mother’s words. “Lucy, just remember, if you are ever in a really hard place, the answers are almost always close at hand. You just have to look hard.”
With a newfound sense of determination, she decided there was no way she would let these two men and whoever was behind this take her without a fight. She felt her foot hit something hard. She reached down and her hand grasped a sturdy piece of metal. It was polished and smooth to the touch. A tire iron, she realized, something that could come in handy.
With her mother’s voice urging her not to give in, she remembered that she was also her father’s daughter. She’d been practically raised in an auto shop. The car was a Ford sedan, about a 2008 model, she reckoned. It, therefore, must have a trunk-release cable. She thanked her lucky stars her hands hadn’t been tied. I suppose they thought I was unconscious, she thought. Besides, who on earth would hear my screams out here?
Lucy felt for the cable. They were made to be easy to use, simple enough for a child to operate. She fumbled until her hands found the cable and she wrapped two fingers inside its handle.
The car was traveling at a high speed. They would be many miles from Mountain Shadows. Should she wait until they reached the small town of Krugerville? Would anyone be awake or around to save her should she make a dash for it?
The car began to slow down, and as it did, she heard another sound, faint at first but growing louder. The car came to a complete stop and there it was; the unmistakeable sound of a train. Of course! It was the Trans-Karoo railway crossing. It cut through this part of the country and ran all the way down to Cape Town.
Never let them take you to the second location.
Damn straight, she told herself. It was do-or-die, and with the car still idling, she grabbed the tire iron and pulled the release cable. The hood popped immediately, and Lucy scrambled out. Her feet hit the ground and she began running. The man in the passenger seat had seen the truck pop and didn’t seem like he wasn’t about to let her get away. For a moment, she hesitated. Should she try to outrun him or stand her ground and fight?
With the tire iron behind her back, instead of waiting to be caught, she ran toward her attacker. Caught off guard, he stumbled as Lucy raised the weapon. With every ounce of strength in her body, she brought it down on his head in several hard, heavy blows. Confident that he was subdued for the time being, she turned and ran toward the river just as she heard another car door slam and a second voice call out in the night.
Lucy ran to the steep bank and didn’t hesitate when she reached it. Running, tripping, falling at once, she dropped the tire iron and heard it clanking to the earth. To get away as far and as fast as possible was her only aim. She found herself at the water’s edge, and despite some scrapes, she was miraculously intact. The brush was dense beside the river, and when she heard a man’s voice, she decided that hiding would be her best means of escape.
Fortunately, the night was a dark one, illuminated by only the thinnest of crescent moons. Out here lurked snakes, spitting cobras, and adders, as well as vicious stinging scorpions.
Lucy wanted to put as much distance as she could between herself and the two men, but she knew movement would likely attract them. She moved slowly and crawled under a thick bush near the river bank. With adrenaline coursing through her, she tried to breathe as quietly as possible. She heard the men’s voices and estimated they were perhaps a hundred yards away.
Gathering herself into the smallest shape possible, she waited while a pair of footsteps could be heard coming close, scarping the hard, sandy soil above her. A beam of light, not terribly strong, perhaps from a cell phone, danced on the water in the river before her. In jerky movements, the beam of light shone in front of and beside her. She prayed silently and willed herself to disappear.
After what felt like hours but was only minutes, she heard the footsteps recede. From about fifty yards away, she heard one of the men shout, “Sy’s weg!” From the smattering of Afrikaans she’d picked up, she knew the phrase meant, She’s gone.
But she didn’t trust it. She thought maybe it was a trap. A few minutes later, she heard the sound of car doors slamming and she listened while the engine was started and her attackers drove away.
Lucy stayed huddled for another half an hour, until reluctantly, she gave up her hiding place. As she climbed up the river bank, she noticed her clothes were ripped in places and she could feel both the painful bump on her head and other scrapes and bruises. She decided to walk the way she had come. Back toward Mountain Shadows and Lourensville. Krugerville might be closer, but she knew no one there and doubted if they even had a police station.
For the next few hours, Lucy trudged along the highway, ducking out of sight every time a car passed, which slowed her progress.
It was just becoming light when, bone-weary and thirsty, she stumbled upon the place where she had been forced off the road. It felt like a lifetime ago. She saw a police vehicle, a tow-truck, and Josh’s SUV. As she came closer, she heard the crackle of a police radio.
“Look!” somebody shouted.
“Lucy?” Josh ran toward her and she allowed herself to collapse into his arms. The tension and adrenaline that had kept her going all through her ordeal now seemed to ebb away and so did her strength.