The decoy

Chapt 19

Chapter Nineteen

            It was getting dark when the small car approached from the south, just as Hill had predicted. It stopped about one hundred yards down the road. The lights were all that could be seen in the dark but there was a steady pounding of music coming from the vehicle. The engine was turned off but the car lights remained on.

Suddenly, a figure appeared from the shadows and walked down the path silhouetted by the headlights. Cassandra walked quickly along the pebbles that covered the side of the road. At times, she skipped a few steps and broke into a slow jog. From a distance you could make out the figure of a young woman wearing a tight sun dress. She had long dark hair and she was not much over five feet tall.

"Get out," Hill ordered, "Hurry"

Sebastian stepped out of the car and moved walked towards the stores.

Now he could see that, as Hill had told him, she was Hispanic and very pretty. She was small for her age and from that distance she appeared to be in her early teens but as she approached, Sebastian recognized that she was probably seventeen or eighteen. The same age as the young woman, whose body Sebastian had seen dumped in a parking lot four years prior.

"Get over by the liquor store quickly before she sees you," Hill called out from the car.

"When she is closer then walk over to my car."

Then he pulled a pistol and the taser from under his seat in preparation.

Sebastian did as he was told. He thought he would follow through until the girl approached the car and then he would reach through the window and hit Hill. This would surprise him and maybe Sebastian could open the car door and drag him out before he caught his wits and grabbed the gun.

Sebastian stood and waited for the girl to arrive. Flies buzzed around a nearby garbage can that was filled with bags, fast food and bottles. As he stood in the dark he was overcome by the retched smell of garbage.

Without really thinking it through, he slowly reached into the can and pulled out an empty bottle. It was the biggest one he could see and it would make a handy weapon.

The car up the street turned off its lights but the music could still be heard thumping down the road. Cassandra stepped from the road and hurried into the light of the plaza.

Sebastian approached Hill's car and Hill offered a bottle of gin out of the window. Sebastian took the bottle from him as he had been told and the girl, seeing the exchange, walked towards Hill's car.

Sebastian could see that Hill's eyes were on the pretty young girl.

Sebastian readied the bottle in his hands and he saw that Hill was leaning towards the passenger's side of the car so that he could speak to Cassandra.

The girl said something to Hill and then put her hand through the window of his car. Hill hit her in the arm with the taser. She screamed and dropped to the ground as Hill opened his door. Sebastian moved to the passenger side of the car. He had been instructed to help load the girl into the car.

He stood over the girl and saw that Hill still was watching him.  Sebastian raised that bottle and prepared to hit Hill but then Hill surprised him. Instead of reaching to load the girl into the car he turned and hit Sebastian with the taser.

The jolt of electricity was completely unexpected and debilitating and Sebastian folded over and dropped to the ground. The bottle smashed on the pavement.

Hill dragged the girl, who was still convulsing, to the back of the car and hoisted her up into the same dog cage which had imprisoned Sebastian. Then he turned and helped Sebastian to his feet and into the back of the car.

They pulled out onto the highway and drove right past Cassandra's boyfriend who was parked at the side of the road unable to see what had just happened and still waiting for his girlfriend to return.

Soon he would be the chief suspect in her disappearance.

It was Sebastian's turn to sit quietly as Hill tried to engage him in conversation. Hill seemed unaware that he had just hit Sebastian with enough voltage to render him helpless and chatted endlessly all the way back to the ranch as Sebastian struggled to recover.

"It is very good for you that we were successful. Now tell me what were you planning to do with that bottle that fell from your hands?"

Even if his tongue had fully healed to allow him to speak, he was still too stunned by the shock from the taser to respond in any way. His breath was labored and he gasped for air. He was sure if he concentrated he could calm himself and begin to breathe properly.

Hill talked throughout the drive and Sebastian ignored him and slowly began to recover. They pulled into the ranch and Sebastian and Hill locked the girl in the pen which had imprisoned him for many years. He felt guilty that he was helping Hill and he felt even worse that he had allowed himself to be fooled by Hill. He had let Hill set him up and take part in the entrapment of this innocent girl and he knew that Hill would not ignore what Sebastian had done.

Cassandra lay on the straw in the pen and sobbed. She never spoke, never asked who they were or what was happening. She knew what was going on and recognized that she was helpless to stop it.

The dogs hadn't been fed in days and they were wild with anger. There was a frightening primitiveness to their howling. They normally greeted Sebastian with excitement but now they jumped at the doors of their pens and growled at not being fed. They sounded desperate and their constant noise only added to the terror that Cassandra felt.

If he could speak Sebastian was sure that he could calm the dogs but there was nothing he could do tonight to settle them. He looked at them and hoped that his presence would settle them but they just looked back with desperation fueled by hunger and they continued to bark.

"You will eat with me now and then you shall sleep in the barn so you can keep an eye on our prize," Hill said, "I should punish you for your misadventure with the bottle but I was prepared for you and we were successful. I can only hope that the jolt of electricity will help you to learn. Besides I think you will appreciate having a sister here with you."

Again he spoke with an odd sense of caring as if it was someone else who had caused the girl's distress.

Sebastian wondered if now that he had the girl, Hill would tire of him finally and kill him. He was sure that Hill couldn't run the ranch by himself and he was also confident that a young woman, especially someone so small in stature wouldn't be able to complete all of the chores that Sebastian did. Still this pretty young girl did offer one thing to Hill and Sebastian knew that Hill would use her and then likely get tired of her.

After dinner Sebastian walked down to the barn in the darkness. The dogs were not sleeping they were too hungry and restless. They snarled at his presence.

He knelt down in front of her pen and she looked up at them.

"Who are you?" she cried now. "Please let me go"

She looked terrified and Sebastian recognized that she needed him to reassure her, to say something which would let her know that he would help but he couldn't talk.

She turned and buried her face in the straw sobbing and listened to the dogs snarling. She waited for the two men who had captured her to begin their torment.