The Housekeeper - Chapter 48 Part 2 of 4

The Housekeeper

By Karen Singer

Chapter 48 Part 2 of 4

Doctor Parker hurried out of her office after work, waved to a few members of her staff, and got into her car.  Moments later, she was quickly heading for the highways that would take her north toward the Cherokee Indian Reservation and the gambling casinos there.  She didn’t bother even phoning her kids who were again staying at her sister’s house until she was well out of the city.  And even then, the conversation with each of her kids was fairly short.  She was more interested in winning some money than anything else!  With her mind totally occupied on that, she never noticed the black van that had followed her ever since she left her office.

It wasn’t until she neared the reservation that she pulled off the road and stopped at a rather seedy looking strip mall and pulled into an empty parking space there.  She was a bit annoyed as she got out of her car to see a black van suddenly pull up and stop right behind her car.  The side door slid open and an oriental man poked his head out. 

“Doctor Parker?” the man asked as he got out of the van. 

She was a bit surprised that he would know her.  “Yes?” she asked uncertainly. 

Before she could even cry out, the man was on her, pressing a towel over her mouth so she couldn’t cry out as he tackled her to the ground.  Strong hands picked her up and quickly carried her into the van where the door was closed the moment they got inside.  The van was already moving back toward Atlanta before the side door was fully closed. 

It had all happened so fast that Jessica Parker had barely thought of kicking and screaming before she was safely into the van and they were moving again.  The entire abduction process had lasted less than ten seconds.  Before she knew it, her mouth was gagged and a black bag was pulled over her head.  Her wrists were taped behind her back, and her ankles were secured with more tape.  She never even had a chance to fight back.  Scared out of her wits, she struggled against her bonds on the floor of the van.  Her struggles did her no good at all.  The men were very good at keeping her subdued.

At a slightly more leisurely pace, her car was backed out of the parking space by another oriental man.  Her car too headed back toward Atlanta.

“Smile.”

Carol rolled her eyes at the prompting from the little Chinese photographer as he prepared to take yet another picture of her.  This was at least the fifth one!  And they were all just head shots for new ID pictures.  Once again she forced a smile to her face and the bright flash stung her eyes. 

“That was a lovely one,” Janice exclaimed. 

Carol was fairly certain that every picture they had taken of her was identical… with the exception of the photographer draping a silk scarf over her chest in the last two pictures to make them look like she was wearing a different outfit. 

“Is that all?” Janice asked.

The photographer bowed and in very poor English said, “Yes.  New ID’s be ready in a week.”

“Thank you,” Janice replied happily.

Carol thought about what was happening.  Her mother had arranged for them both to get fake IDs.  She was soon going to have to get used to going by the name of Carol Edgewater.  Carol Alison Edgewater!  Actually, she kind of liked the name.  Her attention was caught by Susan Wu walking over to them.  The exotic beauty of the woman she had just met struck her strongly.  She wasn’t sure what all the woman had to do with what was going on tonight, but it appeared to Carol that Susan was some kind of a major player in what was happening.

Her mother was going to do another of her brainwashing jobs again.  That was about all she knew.  And this time, instead of her mother having to abduct the victim herself, this woman Susan was taking care of that part for them.  The poor sap.  By the time her mother got through with him tonight, she had no doubt he would be reduced to not much more than a lump of Jell-O!

“She’s on her way now,” Susan said to Janice.  “They picked her up outside of one of the places she had gotten loans from before.”

Janice shook her head.  “She just won’t learn!  Well, after tonight, she’ll think twice about ever gambling again.  In fact, she’ll think twice about a lot of things!”

“She, Momma?” Carol asked.  “Are you doing a woman this time?”

“Yes dear,” Janice replied.

“But…”

“Yes, I know.  But this woman needs to be taught some serious lessons.”  She smiled at her daughter.  “Don’t worry, since she’s a woman I’m not going to do much with her at all.  And this is the only session I plan on having with her.”

Jessica Parker did her best to calm her frazzled nerves.  She had no idea what was going on.  She had no idea who these men were.  She only knew that she had been abducted and was now completely at their mercy.  Every time she tried to kick and struggle too much one of them planted a rather large foot against her neck and pressed down until she stopped.  Her only option was to lay there and hope.  But she wasn’t sure what she should hope for.  To live of course.  She was guessing that the fact that they hadn’t killed her was in her favor.  Of course, she knew that they could always kill her later. 

The van turned again and she felt her body shift slightly across the vehicle floor.  It slowed down and turned again… and again.  And then it stopped.  She could hear the men talking, but she couldn’t understand a word of the language they spoke.  She had been kidnapped.  Why?  She didn’t have much money.  Even her ex-husband knew that!  Had he done this?  Had her ex-husband had her kidnapped?  He had to be after – her kids!  It was the only answer she could come up with. 

Strong rough hands suddenly picked her up and she realized they were taking her out of the van.  She got thrown over one of their shoulders and she was carried like a sack somewhere before she was set down on the floor.  She felt hard cold concrete under her. 

“Untie her and strip her naked,” Janice ordered.

Before Jessica could react, she felt several men going to work on her.  She felt a knife slit the tape that bound her hands and ankles.  The black bag was pulled off of her head, but the men pressed her flat down against the concrete as they began pulling off her clothes so she couldn’t see much.  She struggled madly against them, but they were too strong… and way too many.  All too quickly, she found herself completely naked. 

She now expected to get raped.  She realized she should have thought of that possibility earlier.  Well, the rape part was bad, but she knew she could survive it.  She suddenly felt one of the men reaching around her head and the tape sealing her mouth was brutally ripped off.  She cried out at the pain, even as she gulped in the fresh air.

“Keep holding her down firmly please,” Janice directed.  She turned to her daughter, “Carol, will you do the honors please?”

Carol smiled as she quickly moved over to where they were holding the woman down.  “Excuse me,” she said as she had to worm her way around one of the big Chinese men.  She fished the dog collar with the shock box on it around the woman’s neck and fastened it tightly.  Then she stood up.  “That’s got it, Momma,” she said as she returned to her mother’s side. 

“Thank you dear,” Janice replied.

“You can let her go now,” she told the men.

The moment the huge goons got off of her, Jessica started to get to her feet to run.  But she never made it even to her feet before her neck and head exploded in pain.  She cried out in terror and alarm as she fell back to the floor and clutched the collar around her neck.

“Don’t… touch… the collar!” Janice instructed.

But Jessica wasn’t hearing her.  “She was quickly racked by more electric shocks from the collar and they didn’t stop.

“Don’t touch the collar!” Janice said more firmly.  “Don’t touch the collar.  The pain will only end when you stop touching the collar.

It was a few moments before Jessica could get that concept through her head, but the moment her hands stopped trying to unbuckle the collar around her neck, the pain ended.  She breathed a quick sigh of relief as her hands went back to her neck, just to rub the area… and her head erupted in the same horrible pain again. 

“Don’t touch the collar,” Janice said again.

This time, Jessica got the message much more quickly.  She rolled over on the floor and looked up at whoever had been talking to her, and was surprised to see the woman who had been in her office earlier in the week.  The one who had bought all her gambling markers.  “You!” she exclaimed.

“Yes, me,” Janice said simply.  “You pissed me off, Doctor Parker.  And you’re about to find out just how much I don’t like that.”

“What do you want?” Jessica asked.  “You know I don’t have much money.”

Janice laughed.  “You don’t have any money!  Yet you were stupid enough to try to get more from that loan shark and go gambling with it again!  You just don’t learn, do you?”

Jessica looked up at her for a moment.  “You know I don’t have any money, so what do you want?  To kill me?  Maim me?”

Janice smiled wickedly.  “Nothing quite so melodramatic I’m afraid.”

“So what is it that you want?  Why all this?”

“What I want from you Doctor Parker, is for you to sit in that chair over there.”

Jessica had to turn around.  She saw they were in a large warehouse of some sort with large boxes filling the other end of the gigantic space.  She saw another woman – oriental – along with a younger girl watching what was going on.  She also saw a couple of cameras mounted on tripods, both aimed at the area.  She had no idea where she was, except that she was guessing some kind of a warehouse somewhere.  There was nothing much else around except open concrete floor… and a single wooden chair… with a bucket next to it.  Odd. 

“Please sit in the chair,” Janice told her.

Jessica shook her head.  “I’m good.”  The moment she said it, the pain erupted again and she writhed on the floor at it as she tried to tear the collar loose from her neck again.

“Don’t touch the collar!” Janice ordered.

It was a moment before Jessica could get that thought through her head again and remove her hands from the collar.  And the moment she did, the pain ended again. 

“Now, sit in the chair!” Janice ordered.

Jessica looked up at Janice for a moment, and she saw her raise her hand with some kind of remote control in it.  She got the message and got to her feet.

“If you need to pee,” Janice said, “there’s a bucket for you to use.  Just go ahead.  Now might be a very good time for you to do it.”

Jessica looked around, especially at the large oversized goons who had kidnapped her.  “I’m good,” she muttered, even though under different circumstances she would have relished the chance to relieve herself.

“Then sit in the chair,” Janice commanded again.

She went over to the chair and sat down.  “Now,” Jessica started to say, but the moment she opened her mouth, she was hit by another electric shock.  A much smaller one than she had experienced before.

“I didn’t tell you to say anything at all,” Janice told her.  “We’ll get around to that later.  For now, I simply want you to stay silent, and do what I tell you.”

“What do you want?” Jessica demanded, fully expecting the pain.  She wasn’t disappointed as the major pain hit her once again.  But it stopped quickly since she didn’t put her hands anywhere near the collar on her neck.

“What I want,” Janice said, “Is for you to stand up now.”

Jessica was dumbfounded.  “But…”  Her neck erupted in the minor pain again.  Her hands flew to her neck and the pain changed to the bad pain.  She pulled her hands away and the pain ended.  She breathed a sigh of relief as she tried to recover. 

“Stand up!” Janice ordered.

Jessica finally stood.

“Sit down!” Janice ordered.

“But…”  She was again hit by the minor pain.  It didn’t end until she was sitting down.

“Stand up,” Janice ordered, holding the remote out again.

Jessica stood, watching Janice warily.

“Sit down!” Janice ordered and watched as the woman sat.  “You see, that’s all you have to do.  All you have to do is whatever I tell you to do.  Now let’s try it again, only faster.  “Stand up!”