Chapter 11. Tracy Baron
A/N: The torture scenes are going to be a bit graphic, just so you know. I'll try to leave as much to your imaginations as possible!
When Boxhall got up the next morning, he was confused, not seeing Pamela in her room. He'd hoped to steal a moment to feel her unborn kicking again, but it wasn't going to happen that morning. He shrugged and got himself ready for work like usual, thinking that Pamela might have stayed over Valerie's that night.
Just as he was getting ready to leave, Wolfe burst in through the front door, panting hard. Boxhall jumped, startled as the policeman shut the door and strode over to the officer.
"Is Pam here?"
"No, she didn't make it back last night." Boxhall blew on his coffee.
Wolfe got his wind back and looked at the officer carefully. "You're absolutely sure?"
"Yes, you can go look in her room if you like."
"I believe you. Listen, Baron's mistress on the side dumped him a few days ago, Pam's name came up, and he's hell-bent on kidnapping her! She can't go out in public anymore!"
"Oh, God!"
"That's not all, Joe! One of my men on the streets says he saw Baron with a lady walking to his house at about midnight last night."
"Could that be Pamela?"
"It's damn likely!"
"So what do we do now?"
"I'm going to see if I can get a search warrant for the Baron family's home. It'll take a day or two but I pray nothing happens to Pamela."
"I should probably go and pray too." Boxhall muttered. "So what do I do in the meantime?"
"Was your engagement announced in any of the papers?"
"Yeah, all of them. Why?"
"Baron might come for you too. He reads the papers everyday and you're not likely to slip by him unnoticed."
"Oh great. I can't sit around here and do nothing."
"Go to work but keep your eyes open." Wolfe advised.
"Easier said than done."
Pamela woke up on a cot in a dingy room. There was one window which beamed sunlight through the musty air. She sneezed and opened her eyes fully.
"Awake now, I see." drawled a female voice. "Get up then."
"My pleasure." she did so, a little taken aback to notice that her dress had been removed as were her shoes.
"It will be my pleasure now." the female said in a sinister tone. "Now walk over here." there was a table in the middle of the room which Pamela ascertained was a basement in a house. She stood beside the table and lay down on it when she was told to. The female walked over and took Pamela's wrists, shackling them down so they were above her head. The same was done for her ankles and Pamela gasped when she saw a knife blade in the dim light. In one swoop, the woman cut off Pamela's undershirt and underwear, leaving her stark naked.
"I am Tracy Baron, but I think you already knew that." a lantern sputtered into life. Tracy had white blonde hair, pale blue eyes, and dark rings under her eyes. Pamela measured her up, then her gaze traveled down to where a swelled and distended belly poked up from the woman's dress.
"You're pregnant!"
"And you're not!" Tracy slapped her across the face. Pamela looked down at herself and drew a sigh when she saw that her bump would not be noticeable if she kept lying down like she was. Her skin turned to goosebumps as she felt a cold breeze pass her by.
"I spent so much time with Anthony," Tracy said lazily as she pulled out a whetstone and began to sharpen her knife blade. "cultivating a family, raising them properly, then Anthony gets some notion in his head that he wants to be a politician and did I say no? Of course not. Wife wants husband to be happy."
Scrape scrape. "Then of course, one of his friends tells him about a burlesque house run by you and trampy little friends. He decides he's unhappy with me and goes to the house for one night," Tracy tested the blade and put the whetstone away, giving a maniacal little laugh. "one long night."
"Ain't my fault!" Pamela barked so loudly the baby kicked her hard, making her wince. She'd have to keep her voice low, as the child would react to sudden noises now.
"It is!" Tracy slapped her again. "For having that pervert house so near my own!" this time her belly jumped and she put a hand on it as she sat down again. "Calm down, baby. Mom will make this right again." she told her unborn child. Pamela wondered if she'd look that big when she was full-term.
"When are you due? Any day now?"
"It's of no concern of yours!" Tracy lashed out with the knife, making a cut dangerously close to Pamela's skin. "You're the problem here! My son and daughter leave me after their father's shenanigans with you, I'm having the child of some ungrateful louse of a husband! It's all because of you!"
Pamela refused to answer anymore and Tracy mistook that as defiance. Lashing out again with the blade, she cut a four inch long gash down the side of Pamela's left arm.
"That's just a warmup. I'll do more to you later on!" Tracy chloroformed Pamela and went upstairs, one hand on her big belly, calling out to her husband in a chirpy and cheerful voice.