"Okay, I'm going to cuff you to the frame of the sofa bed," O'Neil told Joe after they had eaten. "It's time to ditch the van and get new wheels and I can't be worrying about you escaping while I am gone." He grinned at Joe's dour expression. "That thing is too heavy for you to even budge it let alone drag it so you can reach something that might enable you to pick the lock on the cuffs."
Joe's expression turned into a glare. He can smile, thought Joe. He wasn't the one forced into this predicament. Joe kept quite. Yelling had done him no good nor had reasoning: both of which he had tried as O'Neil prepared dinner and then as they ate. Maybe the silent treatment would work on O'Neil's nerves.
O'Neil disengaged Joe's left hand from the table leg and took him over to the sofa that had already been transformed into a bed. "I won't be gone any longer than I have to be," O'Neil promised Joe. "I know, you're going to have to get used to being alone but once we're settled into our new home you will have things to do to keep you from being bored. I'm even going to home school you."
O'Neil waited for Joe to say something. "Want a magazine or something while I'm out?" he asked. Again, only silence met his words. "How about a book to read while I'm gone?" Without waiting for a reply this time, he went over and pulled a book from one of the boxes he had transferred from the van and tossed it onto the bed beside Joe. "In case you go stir crazy, " he said.
Joe waited until he heard the van's engine fade away before trying to twist his wrist free of the cuff. He was fortunate that his captor only incapacitated one of his hands and his left one at that, for, unlike his brother, he was right handed.
Joe slipped off the bed and, with his left-hand, grabbed hold of the frame. He put his right hand next to his left and pulled. He pulled as hard as he could until sweat popped out on his forehead from the effort. "Is this thing bolted to the floor?" he wondered aloud, sitting down to rest for a few seconds.
"Okay," he said, thinking out loud. "Pulling isn't going to work and there is nothing I can reach except that stupid book." His scowl deepened with each word until, suddenly, a slow smile began spreading across his face.
He shoved the sofa's mattress over and spotted the wire frame. He began pulling and beating on one of the pieces. After almost an hour, he finally managed to break a piece off. Exuberant with triumph, he inserted the fractured metal into the handcuff lock at his wrist. After a little maneuvering, the lock clicked and he was free.
Joe ran outside ready to take off for the nearest town but stopped almost immediately. Looking around, he gave a heavy sigh. Was nothing ever easy, he wondered? The area was flat for miles. If he were to take off on foot then O'Neil would see him even if he didn't return for another hour! His only chance would be to overpower O'Neil and to do that he would have to surprise him. Joe went back inside. He had to think like a cop. He had to think like a crazy cop.
Before entering the cottage, O'Neil would most likely check the perimeters of the building and then the window. One way to throw him off guard would be if Joe were still on the sofa bed, asleep with the book lying partially off of his chest. But he would need a trap to get O'Neil at a disadvantage when he entered the cottage.
Having something in mind, Joe set about searching for some twine. "Even better," he said, opening a third drawer a little later and finding some wire. He used the wire to criss-cross the area in front of the door ankle high then stood up and admired his handiwork. He hadn't stopped at one cross section. Having no wire cutter, he had used the entire length making the area covered a full six feet plus of almost invisible wire from the entrance into the small living area.
He turned his head back to the sofa, glancing through the window as he did so. His head snapped back to the window. "Blast it!" he snarled, seeing a blue Toyota coming toward the cottage. He had wanted to rig the window as well but there was no time. He only hoped O'Neil used the door.
Joe scurried back to the sofa bed and fixed the mattress. Lying down, he flipped the book open to page eighteen and lay it down so that it was a bit slanted off of his chest. Then he placed his wrist against the frame where O'Neil had handcuffed him and closed his eyes.
Joe heard the car stop and a door open. He tried hard to relax so that the rise and fall of his chest resembled that of someone in slumber. He resisted the urge to crack open an eye as he waited to hear the car door shut. If O'Neil saw him peeping his great escape would be over before it had even begun. After what seemed like an eternity but was in reality mere seconds, the car door shut. Where was O'Neil now? Did he know, Joe wondered as fear tried to take over his reasoning? No, he couldn't. Even Joe's freed hand wasn't visible to the window.
Eventually, the silence ceased to exist and Joe could hear the rapid palpitations of his heart. It reminded him of Tony practicing a particular beat on the drums until he got it down pat. Was O'Neil never going to come inside?
Just when Joe thought he could lie quietly no more he heard the door creak as it slowly opened. Joe pretended to stir but settled back down as O'Neil remained motionless in the entryway. Seconds ticked by then O'Neil began advancing into the room. One step. Pause. A second step. Anytime now, thought Joe as he mentally prepared himself to arise and pounce.
Another step and then another and then..."Aargh!" O'Neil shouted as he fell onto the wire.
Joe leapt from the bed, snatching up a small stool located just shy of the sofa bed and smashing it on top of O'Neil's head then lifting it back up, poised for a second blow if the situation warranted it. Joe stood there, breathing heavily from his pent-up anxiety and waited, but O'Neil remained motionless.
Setting the stool down, he knelt timidly and checked for a pulse. It was there but very faint. Joe paled when he saw the growing pool of blood surrounding O'Neil's body. "The wire," he moaned. O'Neil had fallen on the wire and it had ripped through his clothes and into his skin.
Joe couldn't leave O'Neil there. The man might bleed to death while he went searching for a phone which could be a long way away. He would have to take him along. Joe released the wire and O'Neil fell completely to the floor.
Easing him over onto his back, Joe made a quick assessment of the damage. The worst injury was to the area just above his heart. "Why did I have to make so many crosses with the wire?" Joe moaned, seeing the near fatal devastation his bid for freedom had caused. "O'Neil only wanted to protect me and if he doesn't get medical attention soon, I will have killed him!"