Honeymoon for Three

CHAPTER 25

When Penny and Gary stopped at a turnout on the highway, Alfred had to keep going. If he pulled in after them, it might be enough to arouse their suspicions, even if he parked fifty yards away. In any case, they were bound to notice the camper, and it was conspicuous enough with its bubble top that they would recognize it if they saw it again.

Alfred drove around a curve until he was out of sight of the green VW. He stopped on the side of the road and waited five minutes. The waiting was nerve wracking because he wanted to time it just right. He had to keep focused on his watch to prevent himself from immediately going back to where they had stopped.

The tension stimulated his bladder, and he desperately had to pee. He got out of the camper and found a clump of bushes, pretty much out of sight of the highway, and picked a time when traffic was almost nonexistent to relieve himself.

Back in the camper, he watched the secondhand creep around the watch. He had spent a lot of the past few days waiting for something to happen or not happen. He was growing tired of it. This was the last time. Finally, the five minutes were up. He started the engine, made a U-turn, and went back to where their car was parked. Penny and Gary were out of sight, down on the beach. Good. He parked on the inland side of the highway, down the road from the Beetle, and got out of the camper.

He let a logging truck loaded with big tree trunks rumble by and then crossed the highway. As he approached the slope down to the wide beach, he couldn’t believe what he saw. Giant pieces of driftwood lay on the sand, some of them a significant distance from the water. These trunks were as large as those of the redwood trees. They were redwood trees, bleached white and stripped of their bark by the water and sun.

Alfred didn’t have time to ponder the whys and wherefores of how they had come to be on the beach. They could be helpful to him, allowing him to keep out of sight. That was what counted. Maybe this was a sign from heaven.

Standing behind a rock, he scanned the beach for Penny and Gary. He spotted them some distance away. They were taking pictures of each other posing with the huge logs. He watched them, wondering whether he should go down the short slope to the beach and try to get closer to them.

If he did that, he would have trouble keeping them in sight. The tree trunks would be a hindrance to him, as well as a help. He was safer where he was now, and he had a good view of the whole beach. If he had to, he could retreat without them seeing him. He didn’t want to retreat. He felt in his bones that this was the place to take action. This might be the best opportunity he would get. He was charged up and ready.

Now they were down by the gray ocean picking up things-rocks, perhaps. Gary took an armful of whatever they had collected and started walking back toward the car. Alfred watched him until he was sure that Gary was coming all the way. It was too late to make it across the street to the camper. Alfred worked himself further into the rocks beside the parking area, out of sight of Gary’s car.

This was a perfect opportunity if he wanted to kill Gary, except that he didn’t have a suitable weapon. He had a better idea. Killing Gary would also kill any chance he might have of winning Penny. At least, killing him now would. After Penny saw things his way, it might be different. He needed to have a little more patience. Gary was coming up here alone. Perhaps Penny would do that next.

He peeked out and watched Gary open the hood of the car and place a number of black rocks inside. He closed the hood but didn’t latch it and walked back down to the beach. Why were they picking up black rocks? Who cared? What Alfred cared about was whether Penny might take the next trip to the car-alone.

He looked back down at the beach. Penny had an armful of rocks. He held his breath. She was walking toward the car. By herself. Gary was walking in the opposite direction, along the beach. Perfect. Penny struggled up the sloping sand toward the parking area. In a few seconds she would reach the top of the slope and be out of sight from the beach. Out of Gary’s sight.

Alfred retreated to his hiding place. She would walk right past him. When she placed the rocks in the front of the car, she would be within a few feet of him. Her back would be toward him. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for.

Penny was happy. She loved to collect pretty things. The small rocks, including the agates, they would use in the coffee table they were going to build. They would place them on top of the table and then cover it with liquid plastic. The larger pieces of jade couldn’t be used in the coffee table, but they were too pretty to leave behind.

She came up the slope and saw the car. Gary said he had left the hood unlatched. She walked directly to the front of the car. How could she open the hood without putting down her rocks? She bent her knees and managed to hook one finger around the handle of the hood and pulled. The hood came up. She bent over the storage area and carefully let go of some of the rocks.

An arm snaked around Penny’s upper body from behind and jerked her upright. She screamed and dropped her remaining rocks.

“Shut up.”

Alfred’s voice was unmistakable. Penny twisted, trying to escape his grip. A sharp pain in her back stopped her. She grunted but swallowed the next scream that threatened to come out. It wouldn’t do any good, anyway. Her first scream had been carried away by the wind. Gary was too far away and couldn’t have heard it.

“Don’t move. And don’t scream.”

The pain in her back increased. He had a knife. He had acquired another knife. Penny stopped struggling. How had he gotten out of Yellowstone? How had he found her? Why was she thinking these inane thoughts? He was going to kill her. She tried to relax her muscles so he would stop hurting her.

“That’s better. Now I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to walk across the road and go to the VW camper.”

She saw the white camper with the bubble top. It was parked across the highway about a hundred feet south of them. How had Alfred obtained a camper? Had he stolen it? If so, the police must be looking for him. Oh yes, they were already hunting him for murder and car theft. Where was Gary? Penny turned her head as far as she dared and realized she couldn’t see the beach from here. Gary couldn’t see her. She was on her own.

Alfred’s arm was wrapped around her body at the level of her breasts and held her tightly. Her back was pressed against his belly. His potbelly. The thought almost made Penny giggle, in spite of her situation. She was on the verge of hysteria. She had to control herself. They marched in lockstep toward the road. When they reached the road, they waited for a lumber truck to roll by at high speed.

Penny thought about trying to signal the driver. Her arms were free; she could wave to him. What would that accomplish? He would think she was being friendly and wave back. They were just two lovers, out sightseeing. Even if by some remote chance he recognized her plight, by the time he brought the big rig to a stop and came back to help her, she would be dead, and Alfred would be gone.

She had to cooperate with Alfred-for now. They made it across the highway before a couple of cars zoomed past, heading north. They were going too fast to see what Alfred was doing to her. She had to admit that at sixty miles per hour they would look like lovers. Ha. Big joke. And the knife? She didn’t feel it. He must be hiding it, somehow.

They made it to the right side of the camper, the side away from the road. If Alfred wanted her inside, he had to open a door. He would have to use one of his hands to do this. His left arm held her. His right hand presumably held a knife. He reached his right arm around her and unlatched the sliding door. There was nothing in that hand-no knife, nothing.

Penny simultaneously twisted out of his grip and ducked under his right arm, which was still on the door handle. She stumbled for a moment and then regained her footing. She took a couple of steps toward the front of the camper, intending to cut around it and cross the highway just ahead of a car she could hear approaching.

Alfred tackled her from behind before she could make the turn. The wind left her lungs with an oomph as she hit the ground. She struggled to breathe. The stumble had cost her too much time. The car went by, but the passengers couldn’t see them. They were hidden by the camper. She felt a sharp pain in her back again and gave an involuntary grunt.

“If you do that again, I’ll kill you.”

Alfred was breathing hard. She didn’t doubt that he would do what he said. He removed the knee from her back-that’s what had hurt her-and put his arm around her neck in a chokehold. She got to her knees and then to her feet. She had no choice if she wanted to breathe. Alfred guided her back to the sliding door.

The door was partially open. He pushed it farther open with his shoulder. Then he shoved her onto the floor of the camper. Before she could move, he had closed the door and was on top of her again with his knee in her back. It hurt. What now? She found out. He bent both of her arms behind her back and bound them together somehow. He worked fast.

“What are you doing?”

“Duct tape. Marvelous stuff. Don thoughtfully left a lot of it in the storage box.”

“Who’s Don?”

“None of your damn business. Now if you’re through trying to run away, I’m going to be nice to you and let you lie on the bed instead of the floor. Get up there but be quick about it.”

Or Gary would show up. Did she dare to stall? It was difficult for her to get up from lying on her stomach with her arms taped behind her. When she took too long, Alfred grabbed her by the arms and jerked her to her knees. She rose slowly to her feet under her own power, but then he picked her up and threw her onto the bed.

“You’re hurting me.”

“We don’t have time for your games.” Alfred captured her feet and taped them together at the ankles. The side windows of the camper beside the bed had curtains over them so that nobody could see inside. The rear window was uncovered, but she doubted that anybody would be able to see her through it unless he was close enough to press his nose against it.

“I won’t be able to walk.” Or run away.

“No kidding. And just to make sure, I’ll take your shoes.”

He ripped the sneakers off her feet without bothering to untie them, and threw them into the storage cabinet. He took a couple of steps to the driver’s seat, plunked down in it, and started the camper.

“Where’s your knife?”

Alfred laughed as he drove away. “I don’t have a knife anymore.”

“You stuck it in my back.”

“That was just a sharp rock I picked up. It fooled you, didn’t it?”

That bastard. She could have gotten away and alerted Gary. Well, he wouldn’t fool her again. “You won’t get away with this.”

Alfred braked hard and pulled the camper to a stop. What now?

“You sound like a bad movie.”

He was standing over her again with the roll of tape. He tore off a length, and she understood what he was going to do.

“Not my mouth. I won’t scream.”

“Damn right you won’t scream. And I’m tired of hearing you talk.”

When she turned her head away, he shoved it into the bed hard so that she couldn’t move it and pressed the tape over her mouth.

Penny felt like a calf that has been roped and tied by a cowboy at a rodeo.