Chapter 30

Sasha was adorable. She had only been here a week, so Abby didn't think she had had any truly horrifying experiences yet. Mostly she was being trained. The shirt looked like a dress on her. We rolled the sleeves up and did all the buttons, but I came to the realisation, it was not going to be warm enough. We collected Sally and Jo. They were wearing panties and a short top like Abby, still the shirt was a great addition. We then went through the guest room and found some blankets. Gathered it all by the front door and waited.

As we were waiting, certain nasty thoughts were occurring to me. I presumed that by the time Mr Smith had finished, there would be no one left alive in this building. That meant I was probably safe. The only other people who knew about my abduction was the kidnappers themselves and that could have been the Neanderthals. If it wasn't the Neanderthals, whoever they were, probably realised that I couldn't recognise them. My only worry was whether Mr Smith was going to leave witnesses. The fact that he wouldn't let us actually see him doing anything and he hadn't given us his real name, gave me hope. I had faced him before and knew he would underestimate me. If it came down to it, provided I stayed wary, I think I could take him.

My biggest worry was the girls. They had probably had multiple 'clients'. Those clients could be in any walks of life, from the police to lawyers to bankers. To be involved in this, I expected them to have money, so professional careers or inherited money. The more obvious it was where they were, the more their life could be in danger. That also meant I couldn't just phone Tracy and get her to pick us up. It was highly likely she had contacted the police. Her phone could be tapped, waiting for a ransom demand. So I needed to get 5 half clothed girls, holed up somewhere looking respectable and inconspicuous. Make up some story to sell to the police, get them off my back and then get Tracy on my side and pick the girls up. To do that I needed money. Now chances are, Marcus has a safe somewhere and a good amount of cash should be available if I could convince Mr Smith to help. And Mr Smith will probably want it all anyway.

I told Abby and the girls to stay there and rushed off to Marcus' room. If Marcus was already dead, there wasn't much I could do. As I approached I heard sounds that let me know he wasn't dead yet. Not getting too close to the door I shouted. “Mr Smith.” I then waited, not getting any closer. After a few moments he popped his head out the door and looked at me with raised eyebrows. In a more normal voice. “He probably has a safe somewhere with some money in it. I need some of that for myself and the girls, perhaps Marcus would be willing to help us out?”
“Good idea. I think he could be persuaded.” He made shooing gestures again and went back into the room and closed the door.

I left him to it and went back to the girls. My biggest worry was our feet. I got some sharp knives and scissors from the kitchen and got lucky and found a ball of string in one of the drawers. We started cutting up one of the blankets, then with a knife and the string made these drawstring bags that we could use in place of shoes. We made holes in some other blankets so we could wear them like ponchos.

Before we had finished, Mr Smith came to get Abby to help him around the place. I went too, worried that this might be a chance for him to get rid of one of us. In short order he had the alarm switched off. We then went to a dining room. He moved a chest of drawers to reveal a safe and then proceeded to open it. He was trying to prevent us from looking inside and I figured I wasn't going to fight him for the contents, so I pulled Abby back with me. He counted some money out, his back to us, then hid the rest and turned to hand me £1000 and a phone. I'm guessing that for him to give that to me meant there was a lot more inside and that he probably wasn't going to double cross us. I took the money and backed cautiously away. I got us out the front door and away as quick as I could and hid us in the trees a few hundred metres away. The sun had risen and was starting to light everything in a beautiful golden hue. I then asked them to stay there and went back to observe what he was going to do. I hid in some bushes about 50 metres out. About half an hour later he came out the door with some keys in hand. I could already smell smoke and before he peeled away in one of the cars out front, I could see some flames through some of the windows.

Although it was January and the wood was relatively wet, I was worried that the fire might spread, so rushed back to the girls and got us all moving down the road. We looked a pretty ragtag group. I asked if anyone was any good with mobile phones and Sally stepped forwards. I gave her the phone and asked her to work out where we were, where the nearest main roads were, villages, towns etc. It only took her a few minutes to start to show me. We were a couple of miles away from a small village, and about 15 miles from a decent size town. Oxford was about 60 miles away.