Kidnapping

Calgary, September 2024

Martin Smith had no reason to complain. He was good-looking, and intelligent, and liked his job as a professor of biology at an important university. He was also a good teacher and was popular with his students. But we all have weak points, and Martin's weak point was women. He couldn’t leave them alone. It had already cost him his marriage, and that made him think. He wouldn’t be young forever, his sex appeal would disappear, and he could very well end up as a lonely old man. Martin didn’t want that. He needed a woman at his side. Being a university prof, Martin was familiar with the academic environment and knew that humanities are a domain of females. Therefore, to meet his future wife, he registered for the evening course in Creative Writing. His only reason to register was to meet the right woman, but as the course progressed, he realized he liked to write. The assignments were easy, they didn’t take much of his time, so he started to write his own stories and made them available on a website. This made him popular with the women in the class, he could seduce any one of them, but Martin didn’t want to do that. He was looking for the one he could stay with.

Anita was in no rush to find herself a man, but Martin, a student in her Creative Writing course, was interesting. He had charm, and the stories on his website made her laugh. But he was too much of a womanizer, that was obvious, and she didn’t want that. She didn’t want to go through another heartbreak. But Martin was persistent, and she finally accepted his invitation for dinner. “Why are you chasing me? You can have any woman from our class. Why me?” It wasn’t the best start of the conversation, but Anita didn’t mince words.
“Because I am interested in more than just a one-night stand. I want a relationship.”
“That’s what my last boyfriend said, and then he dropped me.”
“That’s what I would also do when I was young. But then I got married and lost my wife for cheating on her. It was painful and I realized I needed a woman at my side. A woman I can stay with.”
“Am I that woman?”
“You might be.”

Anita had to admit that Martin was attractive. But maybe he was lying, and she was careful. That’s why it took some time before she went to bed with him. As it turned out, Martin wasn’t lying. For him, Anita wasn’t another trophy to conquer and discard. They had more dinners together, there were more visits to his apartment, and when Anita’s toothbrush ended up in Martin’s bathroom, it was time for her to move in with him. It all looked good, but one evening Martin didn’t come home. Anita’s first thought was he was with another woman, and she got mad at him. But when he didn’t return the next day, and he didn’t show up at work, she realized it couldn’t be just a one-night fling. Martin wouldn’t disappear like that, and Anita called the police.

The day Martin disappeared, he was returning from work, when two men approached him in the parking lot. “Professor Martin Smith?” asked one of them.
“Yes. May I help you?”
“We would like you to come with us.”
“Why? I want to go home.”
“I am afraid it wouldn’t be possible,” said one of them. They grabbed him, pushed him to a car, and put black glasses over his eyes. Martin couldn’t see anything.
“Is this kidnapping?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Why? I don’t have any money for ransom”.
“We don’t know why. We just do what we were paid to do.”
After what looked like a long time, the car stopped, the two men took Martin out and led him up the stairs to a door. They rang the bell, the door opened, and they pushed him in. There was a sound of counting money, the door closed, and somebody took off Martin’s black glasses. He was in a dining room, and a middle-aged woman was observing him.
“Was it you who got me kidnapped?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I will tell you later. Now you must be hungry, you missed your dinner. I have prepared something for you to eat.” The dinner was surprisingly good. It was his favorite food, as he sometimes described in his stories. The wine that went with it was excellent. After dinner, the woman took him to the bathroom. “You probably want a shower,” she said. Martin took off his clothes, started the hot water and she promptly joined him. Then, after showering and drying, she took him to bed. Martin couldn’t prevent having an erection, she straddled him and put his penis inside her. When they finished, Martin asked: “Is this why you kidnapped me? To be your sex slave?”
“Partly.”
“And what is the other reason?”
“I will tell you in the morning.” It was still too early to go to sleep and Martin wanted to put on his clothes, but he couldn’t find them.
“You wouldn’t need them,” she said.
“You want me to be naked?”
“Yes. This will prevent you from trying to escape.”
They watched some TV and when it was getting late, she took him again to her bed. It was big enough for both. Good dinner made him pleasantly sleepy, and the morning came sooner than Martin thought. The first day of the kidnapping wasn’t too bad.

After breakfast, Martin wanted to know the other reason for being kidnapped. The woman took out her cell phone, connected it to Martin’s web page, and said: “I like your stories.”
“You didn’t have to kidnap me to tell me that.”
“True, but there is more. I wrote a book.”
“And?”
“And it isn’t very good. I need somebody to rewrite it.”
“You could have asked any number of unemployed writers. They would be happy to do that.”
“Yes, but they would want their name on the front page. I want only my name to be there.”
“Do you have a name?”
“You can call me Jane.”
“OK, Jane. You want me to rewrite your book so you can claim credit for it. Why me?”
“Because you are not a known writer, and nobody will believe you if you would dispute that I am the author of the the book. But don’t worry, you will be OK here. You wouldn’t be deprived of sex, and you will spend your days here writing. Then, when you finish the book, you will go back to Anita.”
“Don’t you think my disappearance will be noticed? That the police wouldn’t be interested?”
“It will be noticed, and the police will be interested, but they won’t find you. We are well hidden here.”
“OK then. After you let me go, what will I tell the police?”
“You can tell them the truth, but they wouldn’t believe you. They will think you ran away with an unknown woman.”
There wasn’t much more to say, and Jane showed Martin the computer where she kept her book. “It isn’t connected to the Internet, you cannot communicate with anybody,” she said. “Just concentrate on my book, and when I come back in the evening, I will read what you wrote.” With that, Jane locked Martin in and left.

As the days went by, Martin realized how bad Jane’s book was. It was a silly love story with no plot and a simple happy ending. It wasn’t publishable and Martin had to rewrite it all.
“Why did you write this book? You don’t seem to have much talent for writing,” he asked her one evening.
“You are right, I don’t have the talent. But I love reading and I admire writers. I want to feel myself to be one of them, and I want to see my book in a bookstore.”
“Even by cheating your way in?”
“Yes. Even by cheating my way in.”
Martin thought the woman must be crazy.

When Martin disappeared and Anita called the police, they didn’t take her seriously. From what she said, Martin may have just run away. But as the days passed and Martin was still missing, police opened an investigation. They quickly found out he didn’t have any accident, didn’t use his credit cards, and didn’t withdraw any money. That indicated he didn’t just leave. A murder or kidnapping might have happened, but there was no motive for that. Martin didn’t have enemies among his students or coworkers. That left his Creative Writing course and his website with stories he had published. Perhaps he offended somebody who now wanted to take revenge. They investigated who accessed his page, and all were by the students in his course, except one. That account had false information, but there were credit card payments, and the police found out the true name and address of that person. Therefore, one afternoon Martin heard a knock on the door and a voice calling: “Police, open up!” He ran to the door and shouted: “I cannot open, I am locked in.” Police knew how to open the locked door, and when the policeman came in, he saw a naked man.
“Professor Martin Smith?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Why are you naked?”
“She took my clothes to prevent me from escaping.”
“Who is she?”
“Jane, the woman who kidnapped me.”
“Therefore, are you here against your will?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Well, this is your lucky day, you are free now. I will get you some clothes, and you can come with me.”
“But I don’t want to leave yet.”
“You don’t want to leave? You said you are here against your will.”
“That is true, I was kidnapped but now I want to finish the book. I am almost done.”
“Sir, what are you talking about?”
“I know it sounds strange, but she kidnapped me to rewrite her book. The book is so bad it cannot be published. She has no talent for writing, but she wants to be a writer, and she kidnapped me to make the book publishable. However, as I was rewriting it, it became more and more my book and now I also want it to be published. I need only a few more days to finish it.”
“Well, Mr. Smith, you must make up your mind. Are you, or are you not here against your will? If you are, come with me, we will write a report, and Jane will be charged with kidnapping. If not, I will leave you here and close the case.”
Martin knew that the charge of kidnapping would put Jane in jail and the book would never be published. Police will confiscate the computer, and the manuscript will be lost.
“I would rather stay,” he said.
“OK, then the case is closed and there will be no charge against your kidnapper,” and the policeman left.

When Jane saw a police car parked in front of her house, she thought that all was lost. Martin will charge her with kidnapping, she will go to jail and the book will never be published. But then she saw the policeman leaving alone, without Martin. She rushed home and saw Martin sitting in front of the computer.
“Why didn’t you go with him?”
“I want to finish the book.”
“You want to finish the book? You want to stay here rather than to return to Anita? You must be as crazy as I am.”
“You are right, I must be crazy. But maybe this is what makes me a writer.”

Martin finished the book, and Jane drove him to his apartment. She didn’t go upstairs, and Martin was faced with explaining to Anita what happened. She didn’t believe him, it sounded too strange, but one day Martin received a parcel. It was a book with Jane's name as an author, and the acknowledgment that said: “And above all, my thanks go to Martin Smith, who made the book possible.”
“So, it is true,” said Anita when Martin showed her the book.
“Yes, it is true,” he replied. “You can read it and decide if it made me a better writer.”