CHAPTER THREE

She was dressed in a silk light gown that showed some, if not most of her body curves. She felt naked in front of this stranger…she stepped back and her eyes were fixed on the masked eyes of the intruder. Gil examined her for a while; she was well-shaped and beautiful. His eye paused at the waist, then the chest and before he knew it he was bewitched by her looks. A couple of wicked thoughts crossed his mind, but he pushed them aside and forced his mind to concentrate on the task he was there for. Jane could see the mischief in his eyes. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

She wanted to ask what the hell was going on, but the words failed her. She tried again but before she could even utter a sound the knife was at her throat and the pain was overwhelming. Despite the pain, she summoned all her courage, and grimacing, she forced a question out.

“Who on earth are you and want do you want from me?” she inquired.

“Shut up.” He retorted in a low and rather harsh voice. Pressing his index finger to her mouth, he signaled her to be silent. He looked her straight in the eyes. Their eyes intertwined for a moment. Her eyes, he noticed, were marble shaped, and her eyebrows gave them a sleepy appearance. The apparent burning lust in his eyes made her look away. The earlier push had loosened the gown strap and her right breast was now fully exposed. Gil swallowed hard at the sight of it. He pushed the knife a bit deeper and allowed his other hand to caress the exposed breast…it was firm and upright.

He played with the nipple for a few seconds as it became erect from his touch, before trailing his hand down to her belly. He felt himself harden at the feel of her soft velvety skin; eventually, he slipped his hand a bit lower. The texture of her pubic hair made him gasp from desire. She was paralyzed with fear, and while she dreaded what might happen next, she prayed he did not do it. He made some smooth circles with his index finger, before forcing her legs apart, creating a way to the most sensitive part. He allowed his middle finger to invade her. Jane gasped at the sensation created, feeling for a moment aroused despite the humiliating way it was done to her, but she hoped to God he would stop.

“Give me your car keys,” he whispered into her ear.

“What? Hell no! You want to rape me and rob me of my car!” she exclaimed in a fit of tears. “Oh, God! Why me?” she sobbed.

“Sssh! Put a sock on it, you are a smart lady and that’s why I’m showing you mercy. Don’t push it.” His voice was low but audible enough for her. She followed the command and tried to restrain her sobs, of which she managed.

“OK fine, let’s make a deal, you give me the keys and I leave your body untouched,” Gil suggested. Jane rose and opened the bookshelf drawer, drew the keys out, and with shaking hands, she handed them to the intruder.

“And I would be a fool not to demand the money ha!

"What do you think?” Jane froze for a moment…she wanted to tell him that she had no money but didn’t want to risk infuriating him. For a moment she betrayed her fear and mustered up some bravado. Just a little to call him whatever name came to her mind. She looked him straight in the eye and said: “You are just an evil bastard.” Something smacked her hard across the face, rendering her semi-conscious for a minute or so. When she came to, her mouth was bleeding. Gil handed her a tissue and she placed it over the cut. The ribbon on her gown had come undone and her naked body was out in the open.

“That was a warning. You better bite your tongue and choose your words carefully. We clear?” she nodded in acquiescence. “Now give me what I want lady.” Without any further argument, she sailed to the bedroom and Gil followed her. She produced an envelope and handed it to him. He tore the seal, ran his finger on the notes, and smiled. He singled out a paper that was sticking out from the stack of cash. It was written One hundred thousand Pula. It was his lucky day!

“You are free, but not yet.” He was having fun now. Something on the table to his left eye caught his attention.

“What’s this?” he asked as he picked it up. “The receipts of the car.” She answered.

“So your car is new?” he raised his eyes to meet hers…she nodded the answer. “How wonderful”

He went through them; they stipulated that the car was still new and it seemed it had not yet been registered. “This is a fortune, Gilberto,” he murmured the words. Jane was motionless unless…she stared at Gil as he went through the papers. She regretted not having taken the money to the bank well in time. Now she was not only about to lose her money but her BMW Z4 too! The damned universe, she mused.

Gil went through the papers with utmost tranquility and smiled at whatever he discovered from them. Gil shot a glance at her, a warning; she looked down to avoid the vivid wickedness she saw in his eyes. He pulled her very close to him, and she could swear her heartbeat could be heard from a distance.

He breathed heavily on her neck and ordered her to drop the gown. He took a glimpse at the wall clock…

01:23

“Jesus!” he swore. He took the electric cable and tied it to the bed. His cowboy boots hit the floor with a thud as he made his way out of the room. She listened to the ignition of her car. The wheels screeched as he took a U-turn and sped off, the engine sound fading into the distance.

She started crying and her naked body shook from her ordeal. How am I going to find my car? the question recurred in her mind. She looked at the clock.

02:00

Four more hours to go before she could be freed. She was getting cold, extremely cold. I am going to catch a cold, she thought…but somehow she managed to pull down the duvet from the bed and it landed on her body. The sobbing had subsided a bit, allowing her thoughts to sail to her car…the fact that it had no registration made her sick. She blamed the transport department for doing everything at a snail pace.

Without registration, it was going to be hard for the car to be tracked down. And her experience with the police told her it would take them weeks to even try tracking it. The bastard had seemed clever enough to know what it meant to have an unregistered car with him, and from his smile, it was crystal clear he knew what luck had struck him. She wondered whether she would ever find it. Despite the cold she managed to doze off…in the delirium of her sleep, she had a dream that her friend visited her, driving a replica of her BMW. The dream was cut short by a knock at the door. She vaguely heard the knock, as if it was from a distance. She’d heard it after several attempts, she acknowledged with a whimper. Her friend Rose stepped into the room, evidently shocked by the mess, but didn’t ask anything. She instead untied her and helped her up.

She led her to the bathroom to clean up before she started interrogating her. When Jane was dressed, Rose helped her to the living room and started with the questions.

“What happened, dear?”

Instead of answering, her body wobbled in response. Her weeping of the previous night resumed. Rose tried to calm her down, a futile attempt that was. After an hour or so of wailing like an infant, she managed to half relax.

“He stole it, Rose, he took my car,” she managed between sobs.

“Who did?” Her friend was starting to scare her. “Hell, I don’t know, a man with a mask.”

“Okay, let’s have breakfast and go to the cops.” Jane could barely eat. Rose led Jane to the passenger seat of her car and off they drove to the police station.

“That all he took from you?” Rose asked on their way to the station. A long silence. Jane had been so worried about the car that she forgot to mention that her money was gone too. An employee from her boutique had brought the money to her place the previous day.

Being tied up by work, she had decided she would deposit the money over the weekend, but alas! Fate had decided otherwise for her. She had now lost that money, her car too consequently. Her business was likely to be forced to closure due to this. How wicked was the monster that robbed her? She cursed him under her breath, wishing all the bad luck in the world to befall him. She wished the car could overturn with him, catch fire and burn him to death.

“Oh my God, he took my money too, I’d forgotten about that.” The sobbing resumed. Rose fixed her eyes on the road…a few meters ahead was the police station. She pulled up at the public lot and parked near a black Rover which she recognized to be her school’s headmasters. She got out, shut her door, and helped Jane out of the car. They locked the car and waited at the reception for assistance. “The longer they sit their butts on those lousy offices of theirs, the further that jerk goes in my car.” Her anger was at its peak now. In actuality, they had been at the station for less than a minute and she was already accusing them of having poor service delivery.

A few minutes later a constable in his early thirties or so attended to them. He introduced himself as Mr. Thakadu.

“What’s your name, ma’am and how can I help?”

“Jane Paul,” the agony was vivid in her tone. She ignored the other part of the question, whether deliberately or because she was trying to find the words for it, she had no idea herself.

“Calm down madam. What can I do for you?” The officer repeated the question, patiently.

“There was a break-in at my house last night, in which I was robbed of my car and money…and my security guard is missing,” she tried to control her emotions after the statement but failed.

“Relax darling,” the reassuring voice of Rose interceded. Sensing the pain Jane was probably going through, Constable Thakadu used his training skills to dig up as much information as he could from her with the utmost tact.

“Take me through the incident. Describe the robber or robbers and what they were wearing. The more the information you give the quicker the investigations will be.” She narrated the break-in, step-by-step, some words choking her thanks to the shock she was still in.

“My car is new, and it has no registration, I am not sure if I will ever see it again,” she concluded.

“Miss…” A pause followed as Thakadu reconsidered the stupid question he was about to ask. Nonetheless, he proceeded with it. ”Who do you suspect?” There was no offense in the question, it was the kind of question police officers ask all the time. In most cases, the victims do have suspects in their minds. She looked at him with a puzzled expression, licked her dry lips before swallowing hard, and wiped the tear that was rolling down her cheek.

“How the hell am I supposed to know the numb skull who robbed me? Besides I am new to this village and I don’t know anybody.”

“Do you have any other connections to the village, I mean apart from the lady you are with?”

“Are you sure you don’t have a lot going on upstairs? I said am new. Period.” She was losing her temper.

“We will do everything in our power to ensure that the culprit is caught and brought to trial…for now you may go, we will be in touch.” He collected his stationery and left the consultation room.

“Should there be any whiffs, contact us immediately please,” he said before taking off. Jane and her friend left the office right after his back vanished behind another door.

“I have no hope,” Jane confessed. “You should be optimistic.”