Three

He left the room and she stared around at the other girls.

“Does any of you know what’s going on?”

There was a lot of head-shaking, shrugging and muttering. She caught the words “Crazy ass shit…” and “Don’t ask me…” but nobody made eye contact.

Nobody except one young girl who looked different to the rest. She was young, barely in her twenties, and very blonde. She looked like she could be Scandinavian. She said, “What happened to your clothes?”

Maria looked down at her sheet.

“I was in bed.”

The girl’s eyes widened.

“They took you from your home?”

Maria nodded. They stared at each other a moment. Maria asked, “What about you?”

The girl sighed. She looked like she might start crying.

“I was stupid. I was at a party. I had a row with my boyfriend and I decided to walk home. I got lost…”

“Who are these people?” She looked around the room. “Does anybody know?”

There was more head-shaking and muttering.

The girl said, “My name is Leah.”

“Maria.” And after a moment she added, “We’ll get out of this, Leah. Don’t worry. They picked on the wrong woman here.”

A few of the girls glanced at her. Some snorted.

The sky was turning pale through the window when they heard the car engine. It pulled up outside and died. A door slammed and echoed in the pre-dawn gray, and moments later they heard voices and feet on the stairs. The door opened and Maria gaped. A wild terror of incomprehension gripped her. A voice was screaming in her head that this did not make sense. None of this made any sense.

She stared and said, “Sylvia…?”

Sylvia looked at her with eyes that showed no recognition. Behind her stood Zoltan with a couple of huge thugs with impassive faces. Sylvia moved slowly around the room surveying the girls. The ghost of a smile touched her lips when she saw Leah.

“They are all trash, Zoltan, and you know it. But I’ll take her,” she pointed at Maria, “as you knew I would, and the little blonde for Cún. Usual price.”

Zoltan bowed. “That will be most satisfactory – for the little blond. Doctor is more. The risk…” he shrugged. “I have to send my men to Brooklyn. They will look for her. Doctor is double.”

Sylvia looked resentful. “She had better be worth it All right. Take them to my car.”

With that she swept out of the room. Zoltan pointed to Maria and Leah. “You and you. Come!”

Maria screamed, “You have got to be kidding!”

Leah was whimpering, “What is happening? Somebody please…”

One of the thugs hauled her to her feet. The other grabbed Maria by the arm. Zoltan stepped up to her and thrust his face into hers. “No joke, Doctor. And please remember, they don’t need you in one piece. Is OK if bones are broken. Enjoy the ride, college professor.”

They could still hear him laughing as they were dragged down the stairs and into the first gray palings of dawn. There was a black, stretched limo with smoked windows waiting. They were thrust in the back and the gorillas got in either side of them. Opposite was Sylvia, sipping a bloody Mary.

They pulled away and headed through the limpid morning towards Randall’s Island and Manhattan. Maria stared at Sylvia. After a while she said, “I can’t begin to fathom, how you plan to get away with this.” She shook her head, “Your son…” Sylvia laughed but didn’t say anything. Maria went on, “He’s investing in my project! What do you think is going to happen next? What do you think is going to happen when I don’t turn up for work today?”

Sylvia’s expression had become one of pure delight. She held her glass in her right hand, with her right elbow cupped in her left. She licked her lips and said, “You have absolutely no idea what we are capable of. Mark said he wanted you for his birthday. So Mamma went birthday shopping.”

They turned into Duke Ellington Circus and then the underground parking garage of the pentagonal Princes Tower. They parked on level ten and Maria and Leah were bundled into a private elevator that took them forty-five stories up to the penthouse. There, they stepped out of the elevator into a vast room. The doors slid closed behind them. The elevator took the gorillas back down to the garage, and Maria and Leah were left alone with Sylvia.

The room was elaborate and the furnishings eclectic. Marble columns supported a high ceiling. The floors were parquet, with Persian rugs scattered here and there with careful abandon. Over to the right, the entire wall was plate glass, with sweeping views of Central Park. A collection of bookcases and a dresser looked Jacobean, but the sofa was gray suede and was modern in concept.

Sylvia pulled a silver cigarette case from her bag and lit a long cigarette with a gold Cartier lighter.

“You poor girls. You look so disorientated and vulnerable. You almost bring out the maternal instinct in me. Come with me, let’s get you cleaned up and ready to meet the boys, shall we?”

They followed her down a long passage until they came to a door which was ostentatiously padded in burgundy leather with bronze studs. Sylvia clapped twice and the door swung open. She stood back and they moved, hesitantly, ahead of her.

The room was black. It had a black floor, five black walls and a high, black ceiling. The only feature was a large, white pentagram painted on the floor, contained within a white circle.

They turned to look at Sylvia who was leaning on the doorjamb, smoking. She said, “See you in a bit, girls.”

The door swung closed and they were alone.