The day began like any other for Caspar Pollock. He got up for work, fried up some eggs, blasted down the road in his truck, and made it just in time to be five minutes late. Pollock was a tall, bald man with an expansive set of tattoos and small, rather cruel eyes that seemed to narrow in on whoever was unlucky enough to cross his path. He was a heartless bully, known around his neighbourhood for a nasty criminal record, a tendency to abuse women, and a drinking habit that made him a nasty customer at any time in the evening.
Work was the usual tradesman kind of labour. He worked as a welder in an automobile line, doing some of the finer work that the bigger machines did not handle. Caspar had steady hands, steady and strong, and they seemed immune to any heat and any strain, so that he rarely took his unpaid break through the course of his nine-hour shift. At the end of each day, he was sweaty but far from exhausted. Usually he would prowl the streets as though looking for trouble. Often he found it.
He joked with his workers, from time to time. They often told stories about the beautiful women they had intimidated into sex. Not one of them admitted to having intimate, loving sex; and between the lot of the blue-collar men, none of them cared for this kind of attachment. Each knew what they liked, and found their way to get it. For Jacques, it was seductive words and hooded eyes. For Freddy, it was a look of elegance and decency -- that collapsed as soon as his prey was in his arms. For Caspar, as often as not it was rape. Once he had been jailed for a time, until the woman refused to testify and the charges were dropped -- though not before a trial had been gone through, even in the absence of the woman's testimony.
At the end of this sunny Wednesday, Caspar found himself stuck in traffic on the way home. The heat was beginning to rise degree by cruel degree, until the interior of his truck was beginning to almost bake him. He was stuck in the middle of a busy roadway, flies buzzing around his head -- Caspar occasionally pulverised these with an idle, meaty hand -- and the radio screaming out his favourite heavy metal songs. His truck was caked with mud, on the front, the sides and even over the license plate. It seemed to steam like some infernal engine, overheating in the sun.
Growing fed up with all the blistering heat and the annoyance of the conditions, he threw open the door of the truck and stepped out, looking for somewhere to shoot up on heroine. Glancing around, he barely bothered to obscure the tube hanging from his pocket as he sauntered over to an area overgrown with trees by the side of the road. He did glance around a little, but seeing no police, he was not concerned. He vanished into the trees.
Meanwhile, May Frost, an elderly woman of conservative background and timid but insistent demeanour, watched in fury from her car. SHE knew what was going on, and her small, fierce little eagle's eyes watched from her tiny car, as the long-legged working fellow vanished into the trees. Youth these days! Shooting up and getting drunk -- probably beating their wives -- May knew, and judged, and smouldered. Her own car smelled strongly of pine, filled with air fresheners, and she looked around for someone to help her out. She almost dialed the police using her antique, oversized cell phone. But she froze as the phone reached her ear. Someone was coming down the road -- looked like a cop. She pulled open her door and stepped out.
The traffic was back-to-back, bumper-to-bumper, and an occasional car honked as the day steamed on. The sun was sending them all slightly mad. A few sighs of relief emerged as the cop car pulled closer.
Constable Heather Westfield was a fresh recruit, straight out of police school. Being something of a looker, a rather cute blonde with short hair in a bun, and cool, collected blue eyes, she was the heartthrob of the academy. That she was relatively inexperienced in sex hardly seemed to matter, as she wore her uniform with a special pride that imbued her with womanly charm, and a strange grace. She was like an angel trapped in the clothes of a mortal. A little overheated, she had cranked down her window. Today, she was riding alone for her first time without a partner, for the heat had given her usual partner Michael a spat of migraines once again. Heather felt confident that the few hours she would be alone, should be fine. She had been dispatched, in this case, just to deal with a traffic backup, to nip any road rage issues in the bud.
Exiting the squad car, she stretched her short legs, pulling her arms over her head to stretch for a second, before remembering herself. Glancing around, there was no sign of hostility from anybody, save an occasional honk. She looked around for anyone in distress, and May took her by surprise from one side, a bundle of nervous elderly energy.
"Hey there! Hey there, officer! I have news for you, I have news...the man from that truck, he went off down into the trees there. Yes, into the ravine. No, you can't see him from here. But trust me! Trust me. He was there, and he had one of those -- you know, those drug tubes. He meant it, officer. Believe you me, he meant to use it. He's probably shooting up even as we speak!"
Heather paused. It was against procedure to rush off into the trees alone, but there was no reason to think the man was armed. And if he was doing heroine, he would not be paying attention to who was sneaking up behind. She had her gun and nightstick. She was hardly concerned. She shrugged. "Well, policy is..."
"Never mind policy, officer! Never mind that! C'mon now, he's just a big bully I expect, all muscle and no action. Probably will pee his pants when he sees a police officer with the cuffs and all." May squinted at Heather awfully, almost threateningly, and suddenly Heather knew that if she did not act, there would be some stupid report against her, some needless paperwork to fill out. Well -- it was only meters from the roadside. What was the worst that could happen?
Westfield scratched at her forehead where a mosquito had bitten her. Under the blonde bangs that had snuck out from her hair bun, her eyes were still calm, but a little annoyed. "Alright, alright. Just please get back in your car. Traffic isn't moving anyway, I guess it'd be a while until help could arrive. And in the meanwhile..."
Suddenly, she was a little excited. She was really going to catch her first 'bad guy', and even red-handed if she was lucky. She headed down towards the trees, away from the noise. The young female officer was surprised by how quickly the road noise vanished behind her as the first couple of trees flanked in around her. Rising up in deadly crescent, they seemed to engulf her rapidly. There was no sign of a man down here. Heather was inclined to rather doubt the story. Her head swiveled. Left -- right -- then she saw something. It looked like a towel.
This was a little odd. Heather crept towards it, her lean body leaning forward like a hunter stalking its prey. Where was the man who had left it here? Or was this just coincidence? She crept closer. Suddenly, she saw a tall, bulky shape in her peripheral vision. Turning quickly, she almost saw who was there -- before something struck her on the side of the head, and she fell...
***
Heather came back around as something slapped against her face. The constable blinked, coughed roughly, and tried to stand, only to find this surprisingly difficult. Her arms were behind her, and despite her struggles, they remained there, fastened somehow. Her handcuffs...? Yes, it was them alright, jingling behind her stubbornly. Her wrists were forced roughly behind her back, in a harsh position. Again, she was slapped. This time, the source was more obvious: a rough, hairy arm was angling in from behind her, and contacting her face to rouse her.
She tried to bark out that she was a policewoman, and that he should rethink assaulting her like this -- but no words came out. Something filled her mouth, leaving it dry and feeling stuffed. It was some kind of rag, tasting of dirt and salt. She spluttered against it quickly, but found her mouth too full-up to even moan properly.