Chapter 2: Murder Gone Viral by Stephen Simpson
Gareth drives down the suburban road slowly, with the top of his car down. Richard follows a few cars behind in a nondescript white panel van. The windows of the panel van have been tinted; it is the only distinguishing factor.
He watches the girl as she walks across the road at the pedestrian crossing, and he is immediately interested in her. The dimple in Gareth’s cheek deepens as he smiles pleased.
Gareth slows down when he reaches her. He leans his one elbow across the door of his wine-red Mercedes, and he gives her his most seductive smile. Girls usually like him. He is rich, his hair is blond, his eyes are blue, and he is every girl’s dream boyfriend.
He says, friendly, “Hi.”
She looks across her shoulder suspiciously, but Gareth sees her defences drop away when she notices him. She smiles prettily and replies, “Hi.” She stops walking.
He stops the car along the curb and gets out. After he closes the door, he leans against it, half sitting on it. He says invitingly, “I have to do this social project to determine what makes the perfect teen, and I was wondering if you would mind taking part.” He sees her hesitate, so he adds quickly, “We can do it right here.” There is no reason why she would not trust him. He is only two or three years older than her; he is well dressed, and he can see from the expression on her face that she does not perceive him to be a threat.
She smiles shyly and her hand comes up timidly to touch her tousled shoulder-length brown hair.
He asks expectantly, smiling invitingly, “So, can I get my camera?”
She giggles nervously. “I suppose it will be okay.”
He smiles as he pretends to be relieved. “Thank you. You are a lifesaver.” From the corner of his eye, he sees the panel van parked a short distance ahead of his car. He walks away from the girl toward the back of his car, and she turns to look at him. Her back is turned to the panel van.
From the trunk of his car, he gets his expensive video camera and then as he focuses the lens on her, he switches it to record.
Embarrassed she laughs. “What am I supposed to say?”
“Tell me your name.”
“Sarah. Sarah O’Neil.”
“How old are you, Sarah?”
“Sixteen.”
“Where do you go to school?”
She looks across the road at a passing car. “I go to school at G.W. High School.”
“Tell me about your hobbies.”
“This is silly.” She giggles again.
He laughs with her. “Okay, then just tell me what makes you the perfect teen.”
“I wouldn’t say I am the perfect teen, but I like to think I am pretty close to being perfect.”
“Are you a cheerleader?”
Sarah blushes. “Yes, actually cheer captain.”
Gareth cannot believe his luck. “So, tell me about yourself, it doesn’t have to be anything personal, it is just for this stupid project I have to do for my Social Economics class.”
“Okay.” She smiles again. “I love to party, and I like to listen to music. I don’t really have a favourite band, but I like anything on the top forty charts. I am doing well at school and there is no doubt that I will be homecoming queen this year.” She stops talking embarrassed as a flush spread across her cheeks.
Gareth looks away from the camera and directly at her. “Is that it, Sarah? If you had to say one thing to describe you, to make people like you, what would it be?”
She says without hesitation, “I am pretty.”
He lowers the camera and switches the recording button off.
Smiling at her friendly, he says, “Thank you, Sarah. You were terrific.”
Gareth glances past her at Richard and nods his head unnoticeable. This is Richard’s signal, and he runs forward from the point where he was standing a few feet behind Sarah, just out of view of the camera. He pulls the black cloth over her face quickly and before she can yell or fight, Gareth grabs her legs. They lift her squirming body and then push her into the back of the panel van roughly. From the moment Gareth lowered the camera and said thank you to her, it took only fifty-seven seconds to grab her and to get her into the back of the van. They can hear her flailing around in the back of the van, but Gareth had painstakingly made the entire back area of the van soundproof. She can yell to her heart’s content, but no-one will hear her while she is in the back of the van.
Delightedly Gareth gives Richard a high-five. “Well done, that was not bad for your first kidnapping. I say, we are born to do this.”
Richard laughs loudly and then turns away from Gareth. “I’ll see at the lodge.”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
As they drive out of the city, Richard increases the volume on the car stereo so that he is unable to hear the banging coming from the interior of the van behind him.
When they arrive at the lodge, they drive up the dusty, unpaved lane to the wooden shack hidden behind a curtain of large, dense leaved trees.
They stop behind each other and then they both approach the back of the van cautiously. Richard stands ready to stop Sarah should she decide to make a run for it.
Gareth unlocks the back doors and as they swing open, Sarah lunges at him. He punches his fist and hits her straight in the face. His knuckles connect with her eye socket and with a gasp she falls back onto her back.
Sarah feels the pain shoot through to the back of her head and she feels dazed.
Gareth shakes his painful hand next to his side and he exclaims, “Bitch!” He grabs her by her leg and he pulls her out of the van. Her head bangs loudly, agonizingly against the fender and then mercifully she blacks out.
Richard, who is built sturdier than Gareth, picks her up off the ground and hurls her over his shoulder roughly.
Gareth looks around nervously, although he knows there is nobody within miles who could witness what they are doing. He follows Richard to the cabin, and then he squeezes past him to unlock and open the door.
The door swings open and a waft of stale air floats out through the door.
Gareth pulls his nose up in disgust as he mumbles, “Would think after the last two weekends this place has had enough air.”
In silence, Richard carries the unconscious Sarah across the room, past the stone fireplace and then down the stairs to the basement.
In the basement, he and Gareth have constructed six cubicles with drywall over the last two weekends. Although the previous weekend, every aspect of the manual labour was left to Richard to complete, because Gareth was setting up the elaborate electronic equipment, which they have positioned in the lounge area of the cabin.
When Richard walks into the basement, he looks around pleased. He is thrilled with his handy work, and even if he has to say it to himself, he did a good job.
There are no doors on the cubicles, but he put the drywalls up in a way that their captives will be unable to look at each other across the small passageway which runs through the middle. There are three narrow cubicles along each side of the dark, dank basement.
Unceremoniously he drops Sarah onto the cold cement floor of the first cubicle. She lands with a thud, and it is with satisfaction that he hears her head bang against the floor. He pulls her by her arm and then he cuffs her wrist to the metal ring he plastered into the concrete floor.
She is still knocked out, so he fills the plastic dog bowl with water from a big container in the laundry area, and then he places it on the floor near her head.
Silently, he turns away from her still body and he walks back up the creaky wooden stairs to the lounge, where Gareth is waiting for him.
Gareth is sitting in front of the large screen, between large, humming boxes and cables lying haphazardly all over the desk. He is uploading the video he took earlier of Sarah and working on creating a unique logo for their online reality show.
Richard stands behind him silently and he watches Gareth work his magic with the computer. He is impressed, but after ten minutes he becomes bored, so he turns away and walks toward the kitchen area. He opens the fridge and bends into it to pull out two cans of beer. He pulls the tab off the one and then he takes a long swallow. He smiles disturbingly as he considers what hard work kidnapping is. It takes a lot of pre-planning and physical exertion.
Distracted, he puts the empty beer can on the counter next to him, as he leans with his back against the cupboard behind him and he opens the second can of beer. He sips the beer from the second can slowly as he looks out the window at the back garden of the small log cabin. The trees are gathered closely together, and he watches as the shadows grow higher and higher.
He stands mesmerized as he stares out of the window, his mind blank. When Gareth suddenly speaks behind him, he jumps in his skin. “All done, we can go.”
Richard moves away from the counter. “One down, five to go.”
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