The Armoire Ch. 09

Lindsey returned and said, "Okay...I have to ask another favour—"

"First, I need a favour from you," said Tommy.

"If it's about the girl," said Lindsey, "I've put out a BOLO and I have people checking hotels around the airport. If she's here, we'll find her."

"What's a 'BOLO?'" asked Tommy.

"Be On Look Out."

"Oh...okay, thanks," said Tommy, "What's your favour?"

"I need you to come with me to Hazelton. We are going to drive around and see if we can find this sicko."

He said, "What...you think there's going to be a sign?"

"In a way," she said, "Some sort of sign...yes. I know it's thin, but I've got a bad feeling that, as we speak, some naïve girl is in big trouble."

"If you think there's a chance...let's go," said Tommy, and they immediately went out to the corporal's cruiser.

He suggested that Alyssa sit in the front while he slid into the back seat, immediately noticing that the back doors only opened from the outside. Alyssa, looking back through the riot shield, said, "Well, well! It looks like you are our prisoner! What shall we do with him, Corporal?"

Chuckling, Lindsey said, "I'm sure we can think of something!"

"Trapped and at the mercy of two beautiful women...! Every man's dream!" he said as he stretched out and made himself comfortable.

Hazelton was about a half hour drive and, much to Alyssa's delight, the corporal used the siren any time there was traffic. About half way into the trip, Lindsey said, "Do you ever worry when he's got you tied up? You know, maybe he's a bit stressed and will whip you more than you want?"

Alyssa turned to look in the back seat, smiled and said, "Sammy's not really the type that gets stressed out."

Lindsey glanced in the rear view mirror and smiled herself, seeing him, head against the side window, sound asleep. Even her occasional use of the siren didn't cause him to stir.

"Why do you call him 'Sammy'?"

Alyssa said, "I only call him that when clients are around."

"I'm not a client," said Lindsey.

"True," said Alyssa, "but we both know...you want to be."

The two women didn't speak again until the corporal pulled the cruiser into a Tim's drive though for coffee and sandwiches. While they were stopped, Alyssa hopped into the back, leaned over him, kissed his cheek, and whispered, "Tommy, sweetie, we're here."

He opened his eyes and smiled at her, groggily saying, "Oh...okay...I might have dozed off there for a bit...So, Lindsey, what's the plan?"

She said, "Well, I know it's pretty weak, but I'm going to drive around and hope that maybe you can spot something that says 'this is the place'. To be honest, I don't even know what you'd need for a...dungeon."

He said, "It would depend...You can buy ready made stuff, but that would leave a paper trail. Heavy timbers, like eight by eights, maybe...I just don't know if we'll be able to tell from the outside."

For the next two hours, the corporal slowly drove up and down street after street. Once in a while they would cross paths with other cruisers and ETF teams doing the same. All the houses just looked like houses...until, on a winding little side street, Tommy said, "Oh...wait...wait...stop...! Back up a bit, please...okay...right there...look...the house with the huge white deck!"

"We didn't come here to admire household renovations," said Lindsey.

Tommy said, "No, no...That white vinyl decking...it's replaced an old deck...look in the backyard."

Lindsey looked at the pile of pressure treated wood in the backyard and said, "Yeah...a pile of old two by fours...so what?"

Tommy said, "The new deck has concrete posts...eight of them, but the old deck must have had large, wooden posts...like eight by eights...I don't see any, do you...? It would be a way to get the timbers without leaving a paper trail...using the old wood...Do you have binoculars?"

Lindsey pulled out a pair from beneath her seat and peered out the car window, "There's a sticker on one of the concrete posts...'Rafter's General Contracting.'"

She immediately got on the radio, received the contractor's address and sped to the location, only a couple of blocks away. They all entered the office in the small industrial complex and Lindsey, wasting no time, said, "I need to speak to whoever's in charge."

A man in his fifties introduced himself as Henry, the owner. He remembered doing the job as it was his first vinyl deck installation and gave the corporal the customer's name. While she went out to the cruiser to check on the name, Tommy stepped up and asked him about the posts from the old deck.

Henry said, "Oh...she had us clean them up and do a little cutting on them. She gave us drawings...we didn't do any assembly, just the cutting. I have no idea what they were for."

"Do you still have the drawings?" said Tommy.

Henry went to a file cabinet and returned with several sheets of paper. Tommy looked at them for a moment then handed one of them back, "Do you have a photocopier...? Do me a favour, make two copies of this; one regular and one mirror image."

He did as requested and handed Tommy the copies just as Lindsey returned, "There's no priors on 'Alice Handel', but she moved up here about six months ago, so—"

"I may have something...look at this," said Tommy as he held the two photocopies, one on top of the other, against the front window.

Lindsey looked for a moment then said, "It's...the letter 'X.'"

"Oh...Jesus!" said Alyssa, "It's a St. Andrews Cross!"

The corporal immediately ran back to the car and began to scream commands into the hand held microphone. Tommy thanked Henry then he, and Alyssa, joined Lindsey at the cruiser. They rushed back to the house, parking just around a little bend in the road, out of sight. Soon the other teams began to converge on their location with Lindsey coordinating their actions.

Tommy and Alyssa just stood by, listening to them argue over obtaining a warrant and one of the ETF members suggested they get a microphone on a basement window. There was little cover but an experienced ETF policeman managed to sneak up and affix the remote mike to one of the boarded up basement windows. Everyone then gathered at the back of a police van to listen.

At first there was nothing but then...some garbled noises. The ETF man handed the headphones to Lindsey who then passed them to Tommy. His face went ashen as he passed them to Alyssa.

Alyssa said, "That's the sound of someone being whipped with either a single tail or a strap."

Lindsey jumped on her radio and, after some argument, returned and said, "We'll have a warrant in about fifteen minutes."

Tommy said, "Do you really want to listen to that girl being beaten for the next fifteen minutes?"

"We have no choice," said the corporal, "We can't go in without a warrant."

"But...we could distract her..."

Tommy reached into his pocket, retrieved the collar that Alyssa had worn earlier, and handed it to her, "Here, put this on."

Alyssa donned the collar, and before anybody could stop them, they walked toward the house. Lindsey called them but they just kept walking until they reached the foot of the walkway.

"Stay here," said Tommy, "Just stand here looking like a slave, okay?"

She said, "Shouldn't I go with you? What if she has a gun?"

He said, "Oh, that's supposed to encourage me to bring you up there? Just stay here."

He walked up the steps and immediately hammered loudly on the door. He turned to look at Alyssa who had her feet apart, hands behind her back, and her eyes towards the ground. He was momentarily distracted by her natural beauty when the door opened slightly, "Yes? What do you want?"

"Oh, Hi," he said, "My name is Ricky and I'm really sorry to disturb you but I just had to ask about this beautiful deck—"

The woman behind the door said, "I'm very busy right now—"

"I know. I hate to bother you, but I'm not from here; I was just passing by, and I saw this deck. I've seen this stuff advertised but this is the first time I've seen it for real. Did somebody build this for you?"

She said, "Some local company...I forget who...Look, I'm really busy and..."

The woman opened the door a little more and said, "Who's that?"

Tommy turned and looked at Alyssa, "Oh...she's just my...girl."

The door opened all the way and the woman stepped out onto the deck. She was short; probably mid forties. Her hair was mussed and she was perspiring a fair bit, "Your 'girl', eh? She looks more like your slave."

"Yes, well...she's not important right now. I'd really like to know more about this deck I'm late for a meeting, so I don't have a lot of time either, but—"

She said, "Why don't you have her come up here?"

He said, "Look, unless you're familiar with the lifestyle, then you wouldn't understand. She's being punished, so I'd rather just leave her there."

"Maybe I understand better than you think," she said.

"Why? Are you into the 'lifestyle' as well?"

She said, "As a matter of fact, I am. I have a new slave of my own. I just got her the other day."

The woman, thinking that she was talking to a kindred spirit, relaxed quite a bit and they spent the next twenty minutes chatting. He was constantly trying to steer the conversation to the deck; and she was urging him to bring Alyssa closer. He kept refusing, saying that it would undermine her punishment. Finally he saw Lindsey about two houses over, hiding from the woman's view. She was waving a blue paper; obviously she had obtained the warrant.

Tommy looked at his watch and said, "I'm sorry. I'm so late for my meeting...I have to go, but maybe on my way back through I could stop by?"

She said, "Sure. I'll be here."

She went to shake his hand but he pretended that he didn't see and went down the stairs to Alyssa. Together they continued down the street, away from Lindsey and the police officers. They kept walking until they heard the ETF people break in the front door of the house, and then they returned to the foot of the walkway.

There was all kinds of commotion for the next few minutes. Officers and paramedics scurrying all over the place. Then one of the medics came out and asked if anyone had bolt cutters.

Tommy said, "What's wrong?"

"She's got the girl locked in the cross with combination locks," said the medic.

"Are they blue, with yellow knobs?"

The medic stopped and said, "Yeah, as a matter of fact. How'd you—"

Tommy immediately headed into the house and saw Lindsey questioning the woman who was cuffed and seated on a couch.

"I need to go down there," he said.

Lindsey motioned for another officer to bring him to the basement where he saw the young women locked in, facing the St. Andrew's Cross. He motioned for two officers to hold her arms and take her weight while he reached down to the combination lock on her left ankle cuff, pushed the knob to the right, then pressed it down. The lock immediately popped open and he repeated the process on her other ankle lock. The girl collapsed a bit but the two officers took her weight so he could get to the locks on her wrist cuffs.

As he reached for the lock on her left wrist, the girl turned her head towards him and, almost unconscious, she whispered, "Mr. Darquesied?"

"OH SHIT...! NICOLETTE!"

Frantic now, he popped the other lock and he and the officers guided her to the floor. He was beside himself, asking how she got there and why she hadn't called, but she had passed out. The paramedics had to push him back so they could attend to her and one of the officers stood in front of him, trying to calm him down.

After a few moments, one of the medics said, "She'll be okay, sir. She's dehydrated, and bruised pretty good, but no broken bones. Just let us do our thing, sir. She'll be okay."

Tommy began to settle down, realizing his actions weren't helping. The officer escorted him back upstairs, but when he saw the woman, he made a move towards her, causing her to stand and the officer to grab him.

"YOU SLIMY BITCH! YOU ARE THE SCUM THAT OTHER SCUM SCRAPES OFF THE BOTTOM OF ITS SHOES! YOU WANNA SEE WHAT A WHIP CAN DO...? JUST GIVE ME TWO MINUTES, CORPORAL...TWO MINUTES, AND YOU WON'T NEED A TRIAL!"

Lindsey came over to try and calm him down, leaving the woman standing in front of the couch and Alyssa a couple of feet in front of her. The woman whispered to Alyssa, "Maybe someday I'll beat that ass of yours."

Unnoticed, Alyssa moved to within a few inches of the woman's face, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said."

As the woman began to speak, Alyssa suddenly head butted her square in the face. The sound of her nose giving way was like the noise of a stalk of celery being split. An officer grabbed Alyssa by the arms and pulled her away while Lindsey went to the woman and sat her down. The blood streaming from her nose coated her already filthy tee shirt, and clearly showed that it was broken.

"LITTLE BITCH!" she shouted, "SHE ASSAULTED ME! YOU SAW! ARREST HER!"

Corporal Stapleton turned to her fellow officers and said, "Anybody here see that girl assault this woman?"

They all indicated that they had not, and then one officer stepped forward and said, "I think I may have had to strike her during the take down."

Another officer stepped up and said, "No, I think it was me."

One by one, all the officers and ETF people said that it may have been them who caused the injury to the unfortunate woman. Tommy smiled at them all and then led Alyssa out and back to the cruiser.

He wanted to go along when the paramedics were ready to transport Nicolette to the hospital, but the crown attorney insisted the Lindsey get his statement without delay, so Alyssa went instead. It was already getting dark when things began to settle down. As the corporal and Tommy got into the cruiser for the ride back, he said, "How could this have happened...? What are the odds that I would be involved and that she would—?"

"Sam," interrupted Lindsey, "You saved her life today. Why not just be happy with that for now?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said.

Lindsey said, "The girl, Miss Lowes, came to for a minute and I was able to get some of the details.

"Apparently, for some reason, she left Chicago in a rush and didn't have any of your information. She stayed in a hotel the first night, and then got an airport limo to take her to Hazelton. She thought she remembered that you said your place was close to that town. She went to the local paper for directions.

"Near as I can figure, Alice Handel must have been just outside the door when the kid was placing her ad. She must have seen Miss Lowes and, somehow, heard her ask for you; maybe the kid told her. Anyway, when Miss Lowes came out, Handel told her she was a friend of yours and would take her to you. You know the rest."

It was almost nine P.M. when the arrived back at the Novomercado station. Tommy was getting increasingly hungry and tired, but he was immediately accosted by the young lawyer for the crown who managed to drag out the taking of his statement to over an hour. In the meantime, Alyssa called to say that Nicolette had checked out okay at the hospital and was being released. A police woman was driving them back to the ranch, so he could just go straight home when he was done.

Finally finished with the lawyer, he said goodbye to a couple of people then headed to the parking lot. As he was about to get into the truck, he heard Lindsey behind him, "Sam...Sam...wait up."

"Something wrong?" he said.

"No, no," she said, "I just wanted to thank you. We got a dangerous predator off the street today, Sam. We saved that girl's life; and who knows how many others she would have taken. That's all thanks to you, Sam."

"Seems to me that there were an awful lot of people working very hard on this, but I'm glad I could help. I'll see you sometime, Lindsey."

She said, "Actually...I was hoping to come out and see you, maybe in a couple of days, when things settle down."

"Yeah, sure," he said, "but call first, okay? You know, even Mother Teresa got nervous when she saw an unexpected cruiser in the driveway!"

She said, "I will call ahead, but, don't worry, it'll be my own car next time."

* * *

"And, lastly, Sam Darquesied," said Sadie, "Sam, you have become a truly good friend over the past few years. For obvious reasons, I'm not going to go into any detail here, but you're kindness and patience with this old broad has always been very special to me.

"I know you would not accept any money so I have donated a sum to Plan Canada in your name. I have also set up a fund through Chicago First National; the lawyer will give you a letter with the details, but you know what it's for...Thank you for everything, Sam."

The funeral had been a pompous affair; befitting a woman of Sadie's wealth and stature, but Tommy knew that she would have preferred something less ostentatious. She was one of the most down to earth people he had ever met; despising pretentiousness and affectation. He knew her as a strong woman, but sitting there in the lawyer's office, amid Sadie's family, he mused that she must have been even tougher than he thought.

Candice, Sadie's daughter and the mother of Nicolette, had been arguing with various and sundry relatives over the estate. So and so got too much; so and so shouldn't get any at all...it was like listening to a hundred people scraping their nails on a blackboard—all at the same time! Interestingly, not once had Candice inquired as to the welfare or whereabouts of Nicolette.

Alyssa had held his hand throughout the reading of the living will; something neither one had ever seen before. They, along with Sadie's lawyer, Theodore Tackle, had been the only people in the room who had shed a tear. Sadie had presented "Teddy" as an honest and caring man who would assist Tommy with the "fund." The fund, of course, was for expenses involving Nicolette.

"I loved Sadie too Tommy, but I think she has asked too much of you," said Alyssa as they left the lawyers office.

"I wonder if they actually knew," said Tommy, "They knew Nicolette has lots of issues, but I don't think they knew that she is essentially...another 'Amanda'; but Sadie must have trusted Ted quite a bit. The letter says that I am in control of the 'fund', but he's in complete control of Nicolette's inheritance; and that's millions of dollars."

Alyssa said, "He seems like a decent guy. I guess we'll get to know him better at the meeting this afternoon."

He said, "Yeah...well that's three hours from now, so...you want to get some lunch?"

Grabbing his arm with both hands, she moved in close, and said, "We're close to the hotel. Could we go there and just get room service? I need to get some...therapy!"

He smiled, took her by the hand, and headed for the hotel. Almost from the day they met, whenever Alyssa got anxious or nervous, her favourite and most effective method of relaxation...was to wrap her luscious lips around his cock! It never ceased to amaze him that something so delightful for him was therapeutic for her; but it actually was! When she was done she was always relaxed and truly happy. All he could do was occasionally look up to the heavens and say, "Thank you very, very much!"

* * *

Tommy glanced at Alyssa, asleep on his shoulder, and then turned back to staring at the clouds below. There was a lot to think about; and Nicolette was the hub of it all. As well as Ted thought he knew her, the lawyer was stunned when Tommy had told him that she may have been seeking the very thing that they had rescued her from.

"I have never seen any evidence of that kind of desire in Nicolette; not even a hint," said Ted.

Tommy said, "I understand, Ted, but neither you nor Sadie would have known what to look for. I've seen this before but I've never been directly involved. She may need some psychiatric assistance; I'm not sure."