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“What about them?”
“They sent a second picture of someone’s bloody fingers that were missing some fingernails.”
“Not mine,” Vinnie said.
I looked up at the vent. “That’s how we’re getting out of here.”
“Do they have you in flexi-cuffs?”
“Yep.”
“Amateurs,” Vinnie said.
“They were counting on me still having scrambled neurons.”
Flexible nylon disposable restraints serve a purpose. They’re inexpensive and they take up no space. They’re a good substitute for metal bracelets unless you put them on someone who knows how to get out of them. And one of my first lessons from Ranger had been how to get out of them.
If I’d been cuffed in front, it would have been relatively easy. Being cuffed behind my back made it more difficult.
“Get over here,” Vinnie said. “Let me do it. I’m chained in front. I can work with my hands better than you.”
He got the cuffs open, and I studied his chains. They weren’t attached to the toilet. They were attached to a rusted eyebolt that was screwed into the floor next to the toilet. I tried unscrewing the bolt, but it wouldn’t budge. The concrete around it was cracked and crumbling but not enough that I could work the bolt loose.
“I need to give this bolt a good whack,” I said to Vinnie.
“They keep a flashlight by the door.”
I looked at the door. “I don’t see it.”
“It’s there. It’s so freaking dark in here it’s hard to see. It’s probably lying on its side.”
I ran over and found the flashlight. It was a monster Maglite. I tried the door. Locked, of course. I ran back to Vinnie and gave the rusted eyebolt four whacks with the Maglite, and the bolt cracked open.
“We’re in business,” I said to Vinnie.
He was no longer attached to the floor, but he was still bound by the chain. I checked my watch. Time was ticking away for us. “I can’t figure out this chain system,” I said. “They’ve got them twisted around your wrists.”
“Let me do it. I’m good with chains. Sometimes Madam Zaretsky goes on to another client and forgets about me, and I have to let myself out.”
“I wish I hadn’t heard that.”
“Hold the end of this chain while I work at the other end. I’ve almost got it unraveled.”
“We have a decision to make,” I said. “We can hide behind the door and take them by surprise and beat the crap out of them. Or we can try to escape through the overhead vent.”
“I’d like nothing better than to beat the crap out of them, but, more often than not, there are more than two. There are at least six people involved in this.”
“Then it has to be the vent. I hope it goes somewhere.”
Vinnie stood on the toilet. “I can alley-oop you up to the vent. The hard part is getting myself into it.”
I climbed up Vinnie, sat on his shoulders, and removed the rusted vent.
“We’re in luck,” I said. “This is part of a huge air duct. We can easily slither along in it.”
I climbed off Vinnie and into the air duct. I was flat on mystomach, but I had enough clearance to belly crawl. Vinnie was tiptoes on the toilet, trying to pull himself up into the duct, having no luck.
“What about the laundry cart they used to get me into the room?” I called out to Vinnie. “It had a bar across the top. If you could stand on the bar, you might have a better chance of getting into the duct.”
