Brainwashed
Chapter Two — The Missing Girl
“Well, what do we have here?”
She had the gun out and trained on the goon’s ugly face before his sneer could even begin to collapse into a perfect little ‘o’ shape. It did, anyway, a second or so later.
“Hands in the air, don’t move.” He complied with both commands, and she smiled. “Let’s not have any little accidents, Mick.”
“How’d you...” he began to edge backwards, a tactic that might have worked if he had kept his mouth shut instead of drawing her attention to him. “How’d you know my name?”
“Oh for fuck’s... look, just shut up. And if you move again, one of us is going to be really, really sorry. Spoiler, it’s not gonna be me.”
She took a step forward, enjoying the fear she saw in his eyes. She had the edge. She was powerful. She was in charge. And most importantly, she was right about this. All of this. Even the goon seemed to know, because at that moment his expression changed from fear to... understanding? Sympathy?
Too late, she realized it was neither of those things. It was... triumph.
Then the heavy weight arrived, pressing against the back of her neck, throwing her body forward helplessly as her vision exploded in white fireworks. She opened her mouth to shout, but everything went black before she could be certain that she was actually shouting.
buzz buzz buzz buzz
buzz buzz buzz buzz
“God fucking dammit. Not today. Not. Now.”
She rolled over in bed, wishing more than anything to let the cool silk sheets send her tired body back to dreamland. It would be so easy to ignore the annoying little rectangle on the dresser; the buzzing would stop eventually, and then she could place her head on one of those soft, soft pillows and let her eyes drift closed. Drifting into sleep, as if she were being hypnotized. A brief memory of her high school years bubbled to the surface. “Just another five minutes, mom,” she mumbled. “I can still make the bus.”
buzz buzz buzz buzz
“I hate you,” she declared, hoisting her reluctant body into a sitting position. She tucked her feet under her butt and picked up the phone. “What?” Her eyes sent silent daggers into the screen, hoping in vain that they might travel downtown and strike Rudy Ramirez right in the ear.
Rudy, unaffected by daggers real or imagined, was all cheers and pink bunnies. “Rise and shine, Detective!”
“You know Rudy, where I come from those are both felonies.”
Rudy laughed, in a way that seemed to march out of the phone and pound directly on her eardrum. “Where I come from, Dana, you’re gonna get your ass chewed out again if you don’t grace us with your tough-girl presence soon. Do you even own an alarm clock?”
She glanced at the empty end table. “I have a phone.”
“Obviously.”
“I...” She scrunched her nose and ran her hand over her face, taking time to massage her forehead. “I’ll be down. Just... let me get dressed.”
“Oooh, wear something sexy. I like it when you dress sexy. Makes me feel like I’m in a TV show.”
“I hate you. You know that, don’t you?” He knew it. She never let him forget it. He also knew that she didn’t really mean it, and he never let her forget that.
“I have a surprise for you. You’re gonna want to see this.”
She paused, holding the phone close to her ear, expecting Rudy to follow with an explanation, or a punchline, or... something. Instead, the line went dead, and she rolled onto her side in defeat. The phone, its annoying mission accomplished, clattered to the floor.
“I hope there’s still coffee,” she muttered, as she began to drag herself into the workday.
“Follow me. Room Three. Svet—”
“Nnnn nnnn nnnn. Coffee first. I ran out this morning.” She scanned the cupboards for one of the unchipped mugs, but this late in the morning there were none to be found. Frowning, she settled on a relatively intact White Plains GMC/Chevrolet and filled it to the brim. She took a long sip, then another. Oh fuck yeah. No matter what kind of shit went down around town, the one thing she could always count on was finding good coffee back at the precinct.
“Okay, that’s better.” She checked the mug’s handle for obvious cracks and, finding none, began to carry it back towards the interrogation rooms. “Is my surprise in Room Three? Gasp! Rudy, is it a pony?”
“A Russian pony, maybe. Svetlana Konstantinov. Remember her? Turned up this morning in her dorm room, out of the blue.”
She pretended to let the news roll off of her without effect, but the shaking mug—and the small waterfall of coffee it produced—betrayed her. “So it’s over? Just like that? We spent all that time looking for her and that’s the end of it?”
They paused at the door to Room Three. “Detective,” Ramirez announced, holding his arms apart and bowing, “welcome to Missing Persons. This is your life now.”
“And I TOLD you, I DON’T remember that! Why won’t you LISTEN? God, do you even speak English?”
Ramirez grinned. He stared down the blonde in the metal chair until her icy-blue eyes darted away from him. “Nice. Are you done? Good. Detective Fallon here gets grumpy when she’s low on caffeine, and it’s too early in the morning for shouting.”
“Ohhhh. Uh huh.” The blonde looked up at him. “Good cop.” She turned to Dana. “And bad cop. Hi, I’m the fucking kidnap victim that would like someone to find my fucking kidnapper, if that’s not too much FUCKING—”
Crash. The noise of the chair crashing against the wall was enough to make Dana jump. The Russian girl, on the other hand, looked like she’d just been shot. The color faded from her hands as they began to shake uncontrollably. She wrapped them together and placed them in her lap.
Dana watched as a sly smile crept into the corner of Rudy’s mouth, just enough to satisfy him without giving him away to the frightened blonde. Detective Ramirez lived for days like this, where he could be dramatic and throw chairs like a TV detective. It always seemed to work, and it was certainly working now. The sneer and the attitude that Svetlana Konstantinov brought with her into Room Three were already hightailing it back to Brooklyn.
“Please,” she whimpered. “Please, I just—”
“Hey, guess what? News flash.” Ramirez was on a roll. “The good cop called in sick, and all we had left”— he motioned to Dana—“were more bad cops! Tough luck, huh? Now tell us why you ran away, Svetlana.”
“I... I don’t...”
That was Dana’s cue to jump in, and she did so, carefully opening a manila folder in front of Svetlana. “We have surveillance photos of you at two ATMs, making withdrawals. Two hundred bucks each time, the max daily limit. Little video here”— she tossed a USB drive onto the table—“of you waiting in line at Topaz, where you were seen dancing with this gentleman, as well as this upstanding citizen.” She passed the photos to the stunned blonde, who stared at them in disbelief.
“This isn’t me. I... I’ve never been to Topaz...” Svetlana’s eyes remained glued to the photos. “I don’t remember going to an ATM. I don’t remember anything!”
Ramirez retrieved his chair from the corner and carefully set it on its feet. He settled into it with a satisfied, exaggerated groan. He folded his hands and looked his quarry in the eye. “So, was it a boyfriend? Was it drugs? You’re young, you’re out partying, the time slips by... come on, Svetlana.”
“Girls who get kidnapped don’t just end up safe and sound in their dorm rooms,” added Dana. “They end up floating in the river, or tied up in a... in a... warehouse.” She bit her tongue and cursed under her breath. Fuck. “Point is, we can’t go looking for a guy if there’s no crime. And right now it doesn’t look like there’s a crime. You have to give us more to go on.“
The girl began to sniffle, choking back tears. Dana’s first instinct was to reach out to her, to take her by the hand and tell her that it was all going to be okay. But time on the force had taught her long ago that things rarely turned out okay. Instead she pulled her fingers into a fist, her nails digging red lines into her palm.
“I was in my room, it was... October 5th? It was Wednesday.” Svetlana placed her hands on the table, growing more confident as she continued. “Me and Lindsay were gonna go out for drinks, but I had to be back early for an exam the next day. That’s the last thing I remember until yesterday.”
“And then?”
“And then I woke up in my bed yesterday, and I thought that I was late for my test! So I jumped out of bed and I got dressed, and Lindsay came to the door... she wanted to know where I’d been. I didn’t... she told me that I’d been missing for weeks, and I said ‘no, that’s impossible, I just fell asleep in my bed.’ Please, if I knew anything, I’d tell you, I swear!“
“You’re not on drugs? Drink a little on the weekends?” Ramirez was having none of it. “Drink a lot on the weekends? Take the edge off of classes, maybe?“
The girl sagged in defeat. “Yeah, sometimes.”
Dana shared a glance with Rudy as the girl began to weep openly.
“God, you’ve got great tits. Are they real?”
The beautiful woman placed her hands over her breasts without breaking her rhythm. “Yes, master. They’re real. They belong to you, master.” She rolled back and forth, clenching and unclenching with practiced ease. “My body is yours to command, master.”
He closed his eyes and reached out to hold her spectacular body, hands waving fruitlessly until she guided them to her hips. “Yeah. Nnnnn. Cor... Cor... Cora... just... a little... just...” His hands moved to her ass and pushed her, driving him deeper into her, bringing him to the edge. “Just... oh god you’re incredible...”
She timed her orgasm to match his, and their loud cries echoed across his spacious industrial loft.
“Like I said, one day she was there, the next day she wasn’t.” The pretty brunette sagged in her chair. “I didn’t see her come in. I got home that morning from Austin’s... my boyfriend’s apartment, and she was in the hallway asking me what time it was.”
“Never said a word about leaving? Going on a trip? Going to visit family? Nothing?” Ramirez gripped his notebook and tapped it with a pencil. He rarely took actual notes.
“No. God, I don’t even know if she talks to her family. She never talked about them when I was around. She wasn’t dating anyone. I guess she had the money to go pretty much anywhere, but she didn’t say anything about it.”
“What about problems? Teachers? Grades? Something outside of school?” Dana’s notebook was full of scribbled notes, arrows, and circles. “Whatever comes to mind, even if it doesn’t mean anything.”
The brunette shrugged. “Her grades were crap, but she didn’t seem worried about it. She said she was going to be an influencer anyway, so grades didn’t count.” Another shrug. “My parents would kill me if I ever got a C on literally anything, but Svetta just seemed to go with the flow. I mean she’s hot enough, and she’s got like a thousand followers on Instagram, so whatever, right? I’m not her mom.“
“Drugs? Drinking? Parties? You want to be an influencer, you have to meet the right people, go to all of the right parties.” Ramirez finally touched pencil to page. “I’m guessing your roommate was out most nights?
“Not really. She spent a lot of time in her room, or shopping. We only partied on the weekends. I never saw her take drugs. Just... normal college kid stuff, shots of vodka and... oh shit, sorry! I’m sorry! Am I going to get her in trouble for saying that?”
“We’re not the underage drinking unit, Lindsay.” Dana took a few more notes. “Does Svetta drink a lot more now that she’s 21?”
“No... look, I don’t want to make her look bad. She’s a good person! I don’t know what happened to her or where she went, but she’s never lied to me. When she looked at me yesterday... it was like one of those movies where someone, you know, like travels through time and ends up in the future. That was the exact look she gave me.”
DiMaria’s was pricey for a cop’s salary, but a step down from the places that Mark usually preferred. Dana considered it a perfect compromise, and told him so repeatedly on the way over.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go someplace else?” He was dressed in a sharp suit, perfectly tailored to show off his physique. “I mean, not to diss Momma Mia’s here, but...”
“But... you’re going to come in with me, and we’re going to have a nice bottle of wine, and then I’m going to screw you senseless,” she finished, tugging on his tie and smiling. She kissed him on the lips, lingering for a moment as she gazed into his soft blue eyes. “Call it a win-win.”
“I’m going to kiss you with my garlic-y mouth,” he said, pulling her in for a much deeper kiss. “And you’re going to have to love every second of it. I’m going to order two... no, three things of garlic bread just for you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Play your cards right,” she said, letting her hand fall against his crotch, “and my mouth will be nowhere near yours later tonight.”
She looked up to find the cab driver watching them intently. She made sure to leave him a large tip and a seductive wink.
“You’re the best fuck I’ve ever had, Cora.”
She flashed two rows of brilliant white teeth. “Thank you, master. I exist only to serve you.”
He climbed out of bed and motioned for her to follow him. She did, taking care to slow extend her long legs one at a time, gently pressing each foot against the concrete floor. Her eyes were locked to his the entire time. In a moment, she was wrapped around him, eagerly nuzzling his neck as he observed the traffic in the street below.
“Is your sister still coming to town?”
“Yes, master,” she said, placing gentle kisses on the back of his head as she did so. “She’ll be in town for a week. I made arrangements to meet her the very first night, as you commanded.”
“Good girl. That’ll be more than enough time. We can play with her when I’m done. Have you ever been with a woman before?”
She shook her head. Stands of blonde hair flew into both of their faces. “No, master. But I will, if you command me to. I will serve and obey without question.”
“Of course you will. So, Carrie’s a model?”
“Yes, master. She’s very beautiful. She paid for college with her modeling money. Some of my tuition, too.”
He leaned in and kissed her. “You’re amazing. You really are.”
“You’re amazing, do you know that?”
She let her robe fall to the floor, and took a step forward. “Bribing a police officer is a crime, Mister Kozol.” Another step forward, swaying her hips. “I’m gonna have to take you in.”
Mark was already in bed, naked, waiting for her. He patted the sheets. “What if I resist arrest, detective?”
She climbed on top of him and took his cock into her hands. “Then I’m going to have to get rough with you.”
“Please, just let me go! I won’t tell anyone about this! I can just go back... just go back and tell everyone I ran away, that I went home... people will believe me!”
The tall man nodded to his companion, who moved behind her chair.
She froze in terror, not sure of what might happen next. Certainly nothing good. She couldn’t recall much of what had happened to her, or how long she’d been held captive, but the soreness between her legs told her a lot about what her captors had been up to.
Suddenly, the painful ropes dropped away, and the blood returned to her hands. She leaned forward, unbelieving at first, then with purpose, bolting out of the chair and making a stumbling, desperate run for... for...
“Stop, Svetlana. Come on, don’t... you’ll hurt yourself. Shit! See? I told you.”
He was on top of her before she could rise to her feet. She recoiled, ready to kick him in the crotch, but he simply pulled her up and stepped away. “We’re letting you go. Your father paid the ransom we asked, so we’re letting you go.”
“You’re... my dad paid? My dad paid! My dad paid!” She sank to her knees, no longer worried about escaping. She was free. This whole nightmare was finally over. “Oh God, thank you! When do I... when do we...”
He helped her to her feet again. “The money’s already in the account, Svetlana. We have to let you go. We have promises to keep. You have promises to keep. Promises to keep.”
Her hands fell to her sides. “Miles to go, before I sleep.”
“You will leave the warehouse and carry out your mission. Two hundred dollars. More if the machine allows it. Then you will return to me. Miles to go, before you sleep.”
“Yes. Miles to go...” The shorter man opened a door to the outside, and she carefully made her way to it. “...before I sleep.”
“Hey, Svetta? Are you okay?”
She slowly opened her eyes. Lindsay was looking down at her, a glass of juice in her hand.
“You left the lights on again,” said Lindsay. “Are you sure you’re okay? You were muttering something about sleep.”
She searched her mind for the memory, but the dream was already gone. “I don’t know, I don’t remember what I was dreaming about.”
“Well, let me know if you need anything. Do you want me to get the light?”
She leaned back into the bed and closed her eyes. “No.”
“You’re so tense, Dana.” He curled his hands over the top of her shoulders, pulling her body down until it was pressed against his. She buried her face in his chest and sighed.
“You smell like garlic,” she finally said.
“I warned you. All of those free breadsticks at DiGiorno’s.”
“DiMaria’s.”
“Whatever. Come here. Snuggle up.”
She inched her body until her head was level with his. He wrapped his arm around her body, his hand coming to rest between her breasts. She squirmed a bit until she was completely comfortable. “That was good. I needed that. After today, I really needed a good fucking.”
“Something new with the Archway case?”
God, you smell like a garlic factory. “No, I’m still not allowed to talk about that. This girl... party girl, went missing a few weeks ago. Turns out that she was just running around New York drinking and dancing the days away. Rudy was pissed.“
“Rudy’s always pissed.” He moved his hand to her hair, running his fingers through her long brown locks. “He just does it to impress you, just like me.”
The tingling endorphins and the smooth, even motion of Mark’s hand began to lull her to sleep. “I don’t know. The evidence isn’t there but... somehow she seemed to really believe her own story. I don’t think she thought that she was lying. But she had to be.”
“Drugs will mess you up, buttercup.” His voice was soothing, relaxing. “If someone slipped her that scopolamine, she wouldn’t remember anything. She’d just wander around the city like some brainwashed zombie.”
She stiffened, and pulled away from him. Of course. Of fucking course.
“Dana?”
She sat upright in bed, ignoring his protests. “Archway. It always comes back to fucking Archway!”
“Shit, Cora wasn’t lying. You’re gorgeous, babe. Oh man, we are going to have some good times!”
The woman pulled against her bindings. Her head fell to her chest and remained there, slowly moving back and forth. “Corrrrrr... Corrrrrr...a? Can’t... can’t... what’s...”
“Shhh... you’re going to be fine. You’re just a little sleepy, that’s all. Cora, is the equipment ready?”
“Yes, master.”
The woman groaned and, with much effort, managed to raise her head. She tugged at the leather straps again. “Cora? What’s... I’m... where...”
“I need you to pay attention to me, Carrie. Can you do that for me?”
She nodded, weakly. “O... kay...”
“Good. We’re about to begin.”