The man, who moonlighted as a kidnapper, sat at the bar of The Surfside Grill, a popular club located right on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico on the Southwest side of Florida. He had chosen the Surfside Grill as his hunting ground for a number of reasons – its good food, well-stocked bar and dance music, its popularity with the 21-30 crowd, and, most importantly to the kidnapper, the fact that the club was located at the bottom of a dark two-lane road that was a good half mile drive from the highway.

When inquisitive people asked what he did for a living, he never told the truth and simply explained that he was a travelling salesman who worked for an international conglomerate that sold a wide variety of products. In reality though, he made his living selling logistical services to businesses -- providing customers with, among other things, transportation services, warehousing facilities, packaging materials, and, occasionally, security. His real job made it easy for him to perform his second job because it gave him access to transportation, warehouses, and packaging materials. He was good at both jobs because he had a gift for getting people to like him. He also liked that he earned extra tax-free cash as a kidnapper.

This was the kidnapper’s third consecutive Friday at The Surfside Grill. Each time there he wore something different to slightly disguise his appearance – a false mustache, eye glasses, a wig, a suit and tie, casual attire. He seemed to be just one of many in the crowd. He ate, drank, danced occasionally and appeared to be watching a football game on one of the club’s large flat-screens, but, in reality, he was studying one of the club goers, a pretty blonde in her mid to late twenties. He took surreptitious pictures of her; he noted what she drank (a particular brand of Merlot); he noted that she usually arrived alone at the Club around 8:30 PM and left the club alone shortly before “last call’ at 2:00 A.M.; and he noted the car she drove (a modest blue car). 

Tonight, the kidnapper, who wore no disguise this time, made sure that he arrived at The Surfside Grill by 8:00 P.M. He sat at the bar and nursed a glass of Merlot, watching the television and, from time to time, turning to check the parking lot. He suppressed a smile when he finally spotted her blue car pulling into the parking lot. He noted where she parked and watched her come into the bar area. She wore a white and purple sundress with white ankle strap sandals. He glanced lower at her feet and approved of her perfectly pedicured red toes. Her blonde hair hung a little below her shoulders and was accessorized with a hard plastic headband that complimented her sundress. He timed his call to the bartender perfectly as she approached. “Another Clos du Val Merlot, please,” he said aloud.

The blonde stepped up next to him. “Hey! That’s what I drink too,” she said with a lilt in her voice.

“You have fine taste then,” he replied. “It’s one of my favorites. I like its black cherry and blueberry flavoring. Haven’t found anything else close to it.” The bartender set the glass on the bar near him. “And bring another for the lady here too, please,” he told the bartender.

“You don’t have to do that,” she said.

He grinned at her. “I don’t have to do anything but die and pay taxes,” he joked. “But buying you a drink? I want to do that! If you’ll let me, that is.”

She smiled. “Sure. That’d be nice. Thanks.”

“My pleasure,” he replied as he held out his hand. “I’m Ken.”

She took his hand and he smiled at the physical contact. “I’m Aly. Nice to meet you, Ken. Do you come here often?”

He shook his head. “Just finishing up some work in the area. It's been a long week, so I came here to unwind before I fly home tomorrow morning.”  Before he could say more, the bartender brought over the second glass of Merlot. He handed her the glass and then tipped his glass towards hers. “Cheers,” he said in a friendly tone.

“Cheers,” she repeated with a laugh as she touched her glass to his. “And thanks again for the drink.”

“You’re welcome.” He took a sip from his glass before looking over at her. “Say, I haven’t eaten yet, Aly, and I’m starving. Care to join me?”

“Okay, but only if we split the bill -- and you let me buy the next round of drinks,” she replied.

“Deal!” he answered. He pointed to an empty table across the lounge. “Let’s grab that table. It has a nice view of the water.” 

She took her drink and head to the empty table while he paid the bar tab, said something to the bartender and gave him a generous tip. He watched her as Aly moved across the lounge. She had well-toned legs and his eyes were again drawn to her pretty red toes. He waited for her to sit and then he sat across from her. “It’s nice to be sitting,” he said. “I’m a sales rep for a large pharmaceutical company,” he lied. “I’ve been making the rounds to hospitals and medical centers in the area to drum up interest in a new antibiotic we’ll be rolling out as soon as we get our last government approval. I never realized how many medical facilities there are down here. What about you? What do you do?” he asked after taking a sip from his drink.

“I work for the U.S. Navy,” she answered.

He raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s fascinating,” he said. “Tell me more.” 

And so it went. They had dinner; they danced; they took a walk around the Club's harborside dock to enjoy the early spring air; they talked; they laughed; and they enjoyed a few more glasses of the Merlot.

At just after midnight, he excused himself to use the Men’s Room, but, instead of using the facilities, he continued past the restroom to an exit that led to the parking lot. Some people were milling around outside with cigarettes. When he was sure no one was paying attention to him, he then made his way towards Aly’s blue car. He knelt behind it as if to tie a shoe lace, but he actually took two tire valve caps from his pocket, each of which had small needle-like prongs driven into the caps. He quickly unscrewed the valve caps from the rear tires of the blue car and replaced them with the caps taken from his pocket. He heard a faint hiss as the air very slowly escaped from the two rear tires. Satisfied, he returned to the restaurant, went to the bathroom and returned to the table where Aly sat sipping her Merlot.

They paid the dinner bill and danced again for a good while before finally sitting at the table to finish their drinks. At 1:30 AM, just when the bartender was getting ready for ‘last call,’ he yawned and said to her, “I’ve really enjoyed tonight, Aly. Thank you. But it’s late and I have a flight out in the morning, so I should be going.”

She looked at the clock. “I think I’m going to head home too. I had a nice time too, Ken. Thanks.”

“I’ll walk you to your car,” he said. “Lead the way.”

He followed her out of the club and into the early spring Florida night air, again admiring the view of her from behind. When she reached her blue car and took her keys out, he smiled at her. “I’m really glad we met, Aly. Tonight was fun.” He leaned close and gave her a friendly kiss on the cheek. “Good night.”

“Good night, Ken. It was great meeting you too.” She climbed into the car, locked the door and turned the key in the ignition. She waved to him through the window and drove towards the parking lot exit.

The kidnapper watched her car go. He wasn’t concerned. He had done this before and knew she wouldn’t get far. He slowly walked across the parking lot to his van, waited another two minutes, and then followed her up the dark road that led to the highway.

As expected, he saw Aly’s car pulled over as far to the right as the narrow two-lane road would allow. She stood near the back of the blue car.  He slowed down and pulled the van alongside her. He powered down the passenger side window. “Aly! What’s wrong with your car?” he asked.

She smiled as she saw his familiar face. “Of all the rotten luck! I have two flat tires. It’s too dark to see if I ran over something sharp or anything, but they’re both flat. I can even hear air coming from the back tires.” She looked frustrated as she said, “I was about to start walking back to the Club because there’s no cell signal here so I can’t even call for a tow truck. Must be a dead spot. I’m sure glad to see you again, Ken,” she smiled. “You’ll drive me back, won’t you?”

“Sure thing, but let me take a look. Maybe it’s not as bad as you think. Hold on a second and I’ll pull behind you so we’ll have a little light.” He put the van in reverse and parked it behind the blue car, leaving the engine running. A few seconds later, he was kneeling and checking out each rear tire of the car. “I definitely don’t see any nails or glass, but I can hear air leaking out of each tire. Weird.” He took off the valve cap from one of the tires feigned surprise. “The air stopped leaking.” He looked at the cap in his hand and examined it. “Look at this,” he said. “Someone swapped out your tire valve caps. This cap has a little pin in it that let the air out of your tire. Check the other one.”

Aly knelt down by the other rear tire and removed the valve cap. As soon as she did, the hissing air stopped. “Dammit,” she said. “Same thing over here. Who the heck would do that?”

“Probably some kid prank,” he answered with a shake of his head. “But at least you don’t have to buy new tires. You just need to fill them up again.”

“Great,” she said half-heartedly. “I’m still stuck here till I can get air for the tires.”

He smiled. “No you’re not! We can get them inflated and have you on your way in a few minutes,” he said.

She looked at him curiously. “How? You have an air pump with you?” She forced a laugh.

“Nope,” he replied. “Something even better! Canned air! I do a lot of driving when I make sales calls and learned the hard way that flats in the middle of nowhere suck. I also learned that you can buy these cans filled with compressed air that will fill a tire and let you go about fifty miles on it till you can get the tire filled properly. It even seals small holes if you drive over a nail or something. I never travel without a few cans.”

“That’s amazing!”

“They’re also perfect to help the occasional stranded damsel in distress,” he joked. “Come on. If we each use a can, you’ll be back on the road in a few minutes,” he said as he walked towards the rear of his van. She followed him. He opened the back of the van and pointed to a box labeled “Tire-Fix” which was strapped to the side of the van. “Grab a couple of those for me,” he said while pointing to the box.

Aly leaned over to reach for the cans and that was when the kidnapper pounced. He took a white cloth out of a plastic bag he had put in his pocket before leaving the van. He suddenly pressed the cloth over the blonde’s face with his right hand as his left hand wrapped around her torso. She immediately tried screaming and she struggled frantically, but he held her in place with the cloth covering her mouth and nose. She soon found herself feeling dizzy, then groggy and then her limbs felt heavier than ever before. “That’s it, Aly, just breathe it in and go to sleep,” he whispered into her ear as he held her. “Leave everything else to me.” A few second later, she stopped moving and was unconscious.

The kidnapper lifted her into his arms and gently placed her facedown in the back of the van on a small blue mat that covered most of its metal floor. He put the cloth back in the bag, grabbed two cans of the compressed air, and used them to inflate the rear tires of her car. After the tires were filled, he replaced the original valve caps, taking care to smudge any fingerprints. Next, he grabbed her purse from the front of the car. He left the car unlocked with the keys in the ignition.

He returned to the van, tossed Aly’s purse onto the passenger seat and climbed into the driver’s seat. A quick glance over his shoulder into the back of the van drew a smile from him as he saw the pretty blonde sleeping soundly just where he had left her. He put the van into “drive” and pulled away. The entire abduction had taken less than four minutes.

He knew from experience that the diluted chloroform he used would keep Aly out for about an hour so he drove carefully down the highway. Forty minutes later, he left the highway and, drove until he saw a dark building that was set back from the roadway.  He pulled into its parking lot, switched off the headlights, and turned on the dome light for the cargo hold of the van. The kidnapper climbed into the back of the van and opened a toolbox. He grabbed five lengths of pre-cut rope from the toolbox and placed them on the mat beside the unconscious girl. He also tore off three strips of silver duct tape and stuck one end of each strip on the side of the van.

The kidnapper smiled as he ran his hands over Aly’s body, smoothing out her sundress and gliding his fingers over her bare legs. At last, he took the first piece of rope and used it to bind her ankles together, winding the rope around her ankles several times before making a cinch, pulling it snug and then knotting the ends of the rope so many times that it would be impossible for Aly to reach the knots once he was done tying her. He used the second rope, which was a little longer than the first, to bind her legs together just above her knees, once again circling the rope around and around her legs till they were secured like her ankles with a tight and snug cinch and a knot she would not be able to reach or undo once she regained consciousness.

Satisfied with how Aly’s ankles and legs were bound, the kidnapper moved to her hands. He took her hands in his, remembering how he had enjoyed shaking her hand briefly when they met hours earlier. He held her hands for a few seconds, admiring their softness, but then he got back to business and crossed her wrists behind her back. Using a third length of rope, he bound her wrists together and knotted the ends beyond the reach of her fingers. He then sat with his back to the wall of the van and spread his legs apart before pulling the unconscious girl a sitting position between his legs. Her back leaned against him as her head slumped forward. He held her around her waist and hugged her to him, enjoying the smell of her blonde hair for a few seconds as he moved his head close to hers. Then, he reached for the final length of rope and bound her upper arms to her body by wrapping the long piece of rope several times around her, carefully positioning the rope below her breasts. As he tied her, his hands occasionally brushed over her breasts, exciting him. He forced himself to finish the job at hand and made a tight knot behind her back before gently easing her facedown again on the mat.

Finally, he took the smallest of the pre-cut lengths of rope and, after folding her bound legs towards her back, he used the rope to tie her bound ankles to her bound wrists, putting her into an effective, but not too stringent, hogtie. He admired the bound blonde as she lay there and, once more, he caressed the side of her leg below the hem of the sundress. 

As his hand glided back and forth along the side of her thigh, she stirred and uttered a moan. She felt herself waking like she did every morning for work but, when she tried to stretch her arms, she found that they wouldn’t move. Puzzled, she opened her eyes and tried again to move her arms and legs. She suddenly realized that she was bound hand and foot and that her ankles and wrists were tied to each other. She struggled to get free. But the ropes held. She realized that someone was stroking her leg and craned her head backwards to see her assailant. Her eyes widened as she saw him and remembered how he had grabbed her and smothered her when she was reaching into the back of the van.

“Ken!” she yelled. “What the fuck is going on? What the fuck are you doing?”

He grinned at her. “It’s not my real name, Aly, but you can continue using it if you like. As for what I’m doing, I’m kidnapping you,” he said as he stroked her leg again.

“This isn’t funny, asshole. Untie me and let me go! Right now!” She struggled and pulled at her bonds, but all she succeeded in doing was making herself tired and more uncomfortable.

“Just relax, Aly. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just going to borrow you for a day or so. You’ll be back home soon enough if all goes as planned.” He let go of her leg and reached for her purse which was on the passenger seat of the van. He emptied its contents on the mat and grabbed her iPhone. He was happy to find that the phone was not password protected so he called up its camera feature and pointed the lens at her. “Smile, Aly,” he said as he snapped several pictures of her as she struggled and stared daggers at him. When he got a few shots to his liking, he opened up the gallery and browsed the photos. He held the phone so she could see and scrolled through the images. “Very photogenic, Aly. I may have to keep a few of these for after we part ways,” he told her as he brushed his hand over her leg again.

“You’re a bastard, Ken, or whatever the fuck your name is. You’re going to go to jail for this. They’ll find me and they’ll get you,” she threatened with venom in her tone.

He saw tears at the corners of her eyes as she finally started crying. “Please, Ken,” she said in a more subdued, calmer voice. “Please just untie me and let me go.”

“Shhhhh,” he said to her. “I know what I’m doing and I meant it when I said that I wasn’t going to hurt you.”

She rocked herself back and forth as she strained against the bindings before slumping in defeat. “You’re never going to get away with this. They’ll catch you. They’ll start looking for me and they’ll find me, Ken.”

“Aly? Who even knows you’re missing right now?” he asked. “No one. And we’re far from The Surfside Grill now. Even when they find your car with the keys still in it and looking none the worse for wear, where will anyone look?”

“They’ll find me, you bastard. They’ll find me and I hope you rot in prison!” she yelled at him.

He ran his fingers through her hair. “They won’t. And I think that’s enough talking for now, Aly,” he said as he suddenly gave her hair a sharp tug.

“Owwwww!” she yelped loudly, which gave him the opportunity he needed to push another white cloth inside her open mouth. He held her head still with one hand as he grabbed a piece of duct tape from the side of the van. He pressed the tape over her mouth to seal the cloth inside. He quickly added the other two strips of tape to her lips. She grunted into the gag and tried to yell curses at him, but found that she could only make muffled noises now. She pleaded with her eyes instead as she mewed into the gag.

The kidnapper ignored her as he sat with his back leaning against the wall of the van. “Perfect,” he said. “Thanks for having your phone contacts organized so nicely for me, Aly.” She looked at him curiously. “I’m going to send a text now to ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ with a few of those pictures we took with your phone along with a simple message warning them against calling the police or FBI and asking them to send an email to a secure email address I set up.” Her eyes opened wide as he typed on the keyboard of her iPhone and then pressed send. He closed her phone and powered it off.

As she watched him, he reached into the toolbox and took out a computer tablet that had an Internet air card attached to it. “This is a burner air card,” he explained as he showed her the device attached to the tablet. “It has a limited number of cellular minutes and then it’s dead. I bought a bunch of them last year in New York City. They were cheap and they’re untraceable now. Still, why take chances, right?” he asked. “I even make the air card’s IP address anonymous by using a program called Tor, which is a free system of software and servers around the world that allows for anonymous Internet traffic. In other words, untraceable emails. I opened a special account just for you, Aly. Once your parents email me, I will give them instructions for your ransom. Then, I get rid of the air card and never use that anonymous email account again.”

She looked at him quizzically, her body trying to relax in the bindings now that she knew she couldn’t get loose from them on her own. He took a tissue from the toolbox and wiped the remnants of her tears from her cheeks before moving a stray lock of her blonde hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ear. “I never ask for more than $15,000, which most families can come up with pretty easily. It’s also not so much money that they risk putting their loved ones’ lives in danger by involving the authorities.” He grinned at her. “But, because I had such a nice time with you at dinner tonight, I’m only going to ask Mom and Dad for $10,000 for your release.”