Shadowman
grabbed Amy McMillan at 4th and 7th on a cold February afternoon. In
a flash, she was in the van with chloroform silencing her. An elderly woman
across the street saw her, and then a horn honked. When the woman looked back
she recalled seeing a shadow and the girl was gone.
An
hour later, the kidnapper and his victim arrived at an empty cabin in the snowy
Coconino National Forest. Ray, known in the trade as Shadowman for his stealth,
sat and smoked a cigarette. He watched his teenage victim tied to a yellow
chair in the dusty kitchen and exhaled as the blindfolded girl moaned. She
began to struggle; raising her head, then went still and sniffed the air. Amy
looked in the direction of Ray who had abducted her.
“He hanged himself from there.” She said, nodding up at
the thick, bare beam which ran the length of the kitchen. “The husband stood on
the table and put the rope around his neck, then stepped into oblivion.”
Ray felt a chill run down his back and he dropped his
cigarette to the floor, rubbing it out with his foot. The cabin was abandoned
because of a murder-suicide incident. Amy McMillan was sixteen and it was
whispered she was prescient, a skilled seer, the source of her father’s
billion-dollar fortune. And now Ray and Jason had kidnapped Amy, asking for
$4million for her safe release, a fair sum for the McMillan family’s golden
goose.
According to the story, one night a few years back Amy
walked into her father’s den and announced that West Texas Crude was going to
collapse. She called the bottom at $51 in exactly 21 days. The rumor was her
father took a flyer and shorted oil which was selling for $101 a barrel when his
daughter made her prediction. Three weeks later he bought WTI for $51 and that
was the beginning of Maynard McMillan’s hedge fund, now worth billions. There
were whispers that Maynard’s uncanny trades were based on the occult, perhaps
an Ouija board. Leave it to Jason to determine the oracle was Amy McMillan, the
daughter with special faculties.
“When your partner, Jason, comes, he’ll tell you to
untie me.” The girl said, breaking the silence. “Then he will shoot you in the
back of the head and shoot me in the chest, thinking of my father.”
Ray chewed on his lip. Jason was nonviolent. The plan
was get the money, set the girl loose on a fire trail in the forest, and then
they would go their separate ways. Jason wanted to try Mexico. He would go to
Canada, somewhere along the coast.
“No witnesses.” Amy said, as if reading Ray’s mind. “That’s
what the Boss plans for you and me.”
Ray paced back and forth in the kitchen, stopped and
put a few more pieces of wood into the potbellied stove that was slowly heating
the frosty kitchen. The clever girl was trying to rattle him, but she did have
the vision. And she had known the prior owner of the cabin had murdered his
wife and then hanged himself. How could Amy have known that?
“You could take off and leave me with Jason. That’s one
option.” She said. “Save yourself.”
He looked at Amy, but did not respond.
“Or you could stay and let me take care of Jason, or
Boss as you call him.”
Ray looked at the blindfolded girl, who was remarkably
composed.
“Think about it. Jason wants out of the business. This
is his last gig. He wants the money and no loose ends.” Amy explained.
Ray’s cell buzzed and he answered. It was Jason saying
he had the money and was on the way. Everything went like clockwork.
“You’d better leave, or remove my blindfold.”
Ray hesitated, and then took off Amy’s bandana,
surprised at her captivating blue-gray eyes. She was alluring and he wondered.
“I’m still a teenager.” She said shaking her head.”When
it is done you get the keys, take his car with the money in the trunk. No
matter where you go, I’ll find you.”
They both turned as the front door open and tall, burly
Jason strode in, cloaked in a tan Burberry trench coat. He stamped snow from
his feet, and then looked in surprise as he spied Jason and Amy together by the
kitchen table. She was still bound, but the blindfold was off and her strange
eyes glittered.
Jason stopped and his eyes widened as he gaped at the
bound girl. “You!” He sputtered. “So McMillan adopted his wonder girl from the
institute.”
Before Ray could
speak, Jason produced a snub-nosed revolver and pointed it at them. Boss had no intention of sharing the ransom,
or letting Amy go free.
“Sorry, Ray. You have no idea who she is.” Jason said
with a nod of his head at Amy. “And I am getting out of the business. I need all
the money and I can’t let you two go, especially now that she’s seen me.”
Jason leaned forward, looking directly at Amy and their
eyes locked. The room went silent and Jason went rigid with fright. He straightened
up as his right hand that held the pistol involuntarily rose. Ray watched as
Jason brought the gun up to his chin, then slid the barrel across his cheek,
opened his mouth and put the stubby barrel between his teeth. Amy was still
tied to the chair and Ray stood beside her, transfixed as he stared at the Boss
with the revolver stuck in his mouth.
Ray caught his breath and put his hands on Amy’s
shoulders as she leaned forward. Jason stood before them and struggled. He
rolled his eyes, pleading as sweat beaded on his forehead. Ray pressed the
girl’s shoulders; maybe they should reconsider. Talk a bit. What did Jason mean
that he knew her?
Amy put her hand
on Ray’s and pressed it. Then she smiled broadly at the Boss, giving him a nod.
And Jason pulled the trigger.
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