Free Bad Medicine by Jude Pittman Page A

mattress, using her legs to propel herself across the bed.
    Guthrie pounced on top of her, flattening her beneath him and knocking the wind out of her lungs.
    "Feisty little thing, aren't we." He grabbed her legs and spread them apart. We'll have to fix that, but first, let's get these things off you." While Martine threshed and bucked, Guthrie yanked her pants and panties down her legs and tossed them aside.
    Martine bucked forward on the bed, flinging her bound arms, trying to smash them against Guthrie's skull.
    He laughed and forced her body back down on the mattress. Then he took a leather thong out of his pocket, and tied one of her legs to the bottom bedpost.
    Martine continued to thresh and buck, but to no avail. The more she struggled the more Guthrie laughed. He tied her other leg, then grabbed her arms and yanked them over her head.
    Gripping both arms with one hand, he released the tie binding them together.   Then, mindless of Martine's struggles to free herself, he grabbed her shirt, pulled it over her head, pulled it off one arm, then switched hands and pulled the shirt off her other arm and tossed it aside. Next he unfastened her bra and threw it after the shirt. Straddling her and pinning her arms, he removed first one and then the other arm from under his legs and tied her hands to the bedposts.
    "There, now isn't that nice." He leaned back and clapped his hands. "We're going to have such a good time."
    Martine's eyes widened in terror as Guthrie got up from the bed, crossed the room and brought a chair back to her bedside.
    "First I want to tell you a story." He reached inside the drawer of the bedside table and took out a deck of Medicine Cards.
    "I imagine, you being an Indian, you know how to read these." Guthrie removed a card and laid it on the bed. "The Snake," he said, then shook his head. "No. I've already used that one." He leered at Martine. "But, you know that don't you, my dear."
    Martine held her breath.
    "I think this one is for you." He took out the fox card and laid it beside the snake. "You didn't think I fell for your little teenager routine did you?" He stood up and leaned over Martine.
    "I know all about you and that pretend-a-cop boyfriend of yours." He smiled his creepy smile and stepped back from the bed. "I need to lock the front door,” he said, “and then we'll have all night to get to know each other better."
     
     
    Chapter Twelve
     
     
    "I must be nuts letting you drag me away from my dinner table and out into this godforsaken rain on nothing more than one of your gut feelings." Mark Hanson grumbled as he and Jesse sped across the city in Jesse's jeep.
    "You don't wish that any more than I do." Jesse spoke through gritted teeth. "I'll take a dressing down from you any day if we just find Martine safe and sound and this turns into a wild goose chase."
    "I suppose you know that this Guthrie is regarded as something of a 'pillar' of the community. Not to mention the fact that he's a lawyer. The son-of-a-bitch, and I'm going to look like a damn fool going in there and questioning him about some girl he has every right to claim he's never laid eyes on."
    "I'll take the heat, if it comes to that." Jesse led the way up the steps of the small square house almost hidden behind the main Britannia buildings.  
    "I didn't even know there was a house back here." Hanson puffed his way up the steps.
    "Apparently Guthrie had it built. His Clayoquot Sound Project has the right of use for five years and then it reverts to Britannia."
    "Nice. Free land, free use, tax deduction and the bastard gets to be a hero on top of it all."
    "Won't be so nice if he knows what's happened to those girls and hasn't come forward."
    "I'll do the knocking." Hanson stepped in front of Jesse and rapped sharply on the door. The guard up front said he hadn't come out, so he's got to be in there." Hanson pounded his fists against the door.   "This is the police. Open up or we'll have to bust the door