gagged-cowboy : 01 - Sherry Rathbone II: She is coming (F/F, ff/FF, fict)

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gagged-cowboy : 01 - Sherry Rathbone II: She is coming (F/F, ff/FF, fict)

Post by Canuck100 »

gagged-cowboy's stories
01 - Sherry Rathbone II: She is coming
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By gagged-cowboy

This is the second adventure of Sherry. Enjoy Note from Canuck: i could not find the first one

She is coming

Chapter I: The Maxmilian Stone

Sherry Rathbone, an 18 year-old amateur detective, was lying on the floor in the dark and gloomy basement. Her wrists were securely bound behind her back with a piece of rope and so were her feet and knees. Another rope was tied around her chest. The helpless girl was also gagged with a bandanna stuffed in her mouth and another one firmly tied around her mouth. The other bandanna served as a blindfold.

She’s been there for quite a long time, desperately struggling with her bonds and furiously moaning through her gag. This situation seemed to be hopeless but she did not give up and struggled on and on.

The door opened and she heard a familiar voice: “Sherry, Sherry! Are you here?”

Our detective responded with another unintelligible groan.

The lights went on and Lucy Baker glimpsed her best friend tied up on the floor.

“Look what do we have here? Are you into this or are you solving another crime?” giggled Lucy.

Loud moans from Sherry’s silenced mouth made her laugh even more.

“What did you say? I didn’t understand. Oh, sorry you have a gag in your mouth.” Lucy was standing there laughing and making fun of her helpless friend. Finally she decided to free her.

At first she took off the blindfold. Sherry gave her a very angry look. After she was un-gagged she said only: “I will kill you, Lucy Baker.” This was just another reason for Lucy to laugh.

“Ok, why are you tied up? What happened?” asked Lucy after she began undoing the ropes.

“Do you remember our last case?”

“Yeah! Those mysterious housebreakings.”

“Correct! Then you will also remember that our mysterious housebreaker tied us up. I was like this two times during one night and in neither of these cases was I able to free myself. That’s frustrating. So I decided to practise. Every day I ask my younger sister to tie me up and I try to escape.
No success yet but I feel that it will get better soon.”

“Well, good luck then.”

Sherry sat on the floor and rolled up the sleeves of her red flannel shirt and started rubbing her sore wrists.

“I need more practice and so do you, Lucy, if you want to assist me with my cases.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I have more important things to do.”

“Like this date tonight with that Douglas guy? What’s his name? Johnny? And he’s taking you to the Partington club.”

“Yeah, exactly. How did you know all that?”

“It’s not hard to deduce. You’re wearing a short leather skirt, stockings and a white blouse. Why else would you dress like that? Certainly not for hanging around with me.”

Her friend blushed a little bit.

“You are right but how do you know with whom?

“I’ve seen him several times looking at you at school. It was only a matter of time when he asks you out.”

“Ok but what about the place?”

“The Partington club?” It’s the most expensive place in this town and he is the son of Rita Douglas, the owner of Douglas Industries, maybe the wealthiest person in the whole Bakersfield. So it is only logical that if he wants to make an impression at the first date, he will take you to the most expensive place.”

Lucy was amazed. How does she do that? She thought.

“You will never stop astonishing me, Sherry. But maybe you should go out sometimes too. It’s not normal for the girl of your age to lie in the basement bound and gagged. What about that reporter, Richie, who saved us during that stolen painting case? He invited you for a dinner, didn’t he?”

“Yeah we had a dinner once. I like him. He’s really a nice guy but I don’t have time for this romantic stuff. I need to educate myself and practise if I want to be the greatest detective since Sherlock Holmes.”

“Come on. Sherlock Holmes is only a fictional character. He never really existed.”

“Yes he did.”

“Oh my god we have been through all this thousand times. You should grow up.” What Lucy really hated about her friend was that Sherry, the most intelligent person she has ever met, wasn’t able to admit that her favorite detective Sherlock Holmes was only a character made up by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. She was always saying that all of Sherlock’s stories actually happened and were recorded by Doctor Watson and Doyle was according to her only a literary agent who published them. Nobody was able to convince her that she was wrong.

“Don’t argue with me. You know that I’m right.”

Lucy gave up like every time when this kind of discussion occurred.

“OK Miss Naive, I gotta go. I don’t wanna be late. See you tomorrow.”

“Have a great time, Lucy.”

The following morning, Sherry Rathbone was sitting on her bed reading the newspaper. “The Precious Diamond stolen” said the headline on the front page of The Bakersfield Chronicle. Sherry, who was interested in every crime committed in the town, started to read the article.

“Last night, shortly before midnight, an unknown intruder broke into the mansion of Robert Deerfield, the head of the Bakersfield Museum. The burglar bound and gagged Miss Darby Deerfield, his daughter, who was the only person in the house. According to the police report, ten thousand dollars were stolen from the vault as well as all the Mrs. Deerfield’s jewelry, including the precious Maximilian Stone, the priceless diamond originally given by the last Mexican Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg to his wife Charlotte. Mr. Deerfield bought the diamond last year in the auction. Miss Deerfield was discovered tied up in her bedroom, two hours after the burglary took place, by her parents who have just returned from the party. According to her the intruder was masked and armed but she was still too shocked to tell us more details about the last night’s events. Police is now investigating the case. Mr. Deerfield promised a reward if the diamond was found.”

“That’s very interesting.” said Sherry to herself. “It’s time to see Richie.”

An hour later, Sherry found herself in the office of reporter Richie Gloucester, her friend and admirer. For the purpose of her visit she changed out of her usual outfit consisting of jeans, t-shirt and red flannel shirt into a white blouse, plaid mini-skirt and stockings and now she was sitting on his desk, giving him her best flirtatious looks and trying to persuade him to tell her more about the case.

“Get out! I’m too busy. Everything is in the paper.” Even though Richie was in love with her, today he was not in the right mood for her inquisitive questions.

“C’mon Richie, tell me more details. There must be something that wasn’t in that article.”

“There’s nothing else. Get out!”

“C’mon!”

After several more minutes of Sherry’s best smiles and the cutest looks, she was able to produce, he melted.

“OK, but under one condition.”

“I was afraid you would say that. What is it?”

“I’ve got two tickets for tonight’s movie The Mutated Gorillas from Planet 9 Strike Back. Will you come with me?”

“Well, I think I will have to sacrifice myself.” She knew that Richie was a B-movie freak but the title of this movie was too much for her. She would have rather spent two hours bound and gagged in her basement than watching this but she didn’t have any choice.

“So, there are some strange details that weren’t in that article. First the vault wasn’t opened by any force. The burglar must have known the combination.”

“Maybe he threatened Darby and she told him that.”

“Yes I thought so too but according to her father, he and his wife were the only one to know. Darby didn’t.”

“I see. And it is not logical that they would steal their own money and tie their only daughter up in her bedroom.”

“The other strange thing is that there were no signs of forced entry. Either the door wasn’t locked or she let him in deliberately.”

“That’s very remarkable. Maybe she conceals something.”

“Maybe but you did not see her. When I arrived there to interview her she was still deeply shaken. She was still crying and sobbing and repeating how frightened she was and how awful it was to be bound and gagged etc. I don’t think she has anything to do with it. By the way, do you know her?”

“Yeah I do, from the school. She is one of those stupid arrogant big-headed high society dames. Everybody who don’t have Ferrari or Porsche is not a human being according to her.”

“I see, our little princess. Ok, I guess that is all I can tell you. I pick you up at six.”

“Sure, I gotta prepare myself for the fight with the mutated gorillas from planet whatever. Anyway thank you very much and see you later.”

It was a wonderful wedding. Sherry was dressed in the white Victorian wedding gown and she was walking slowly towards the altar during the sounds of the wedding march. And there he stood in front of the altar wearing the black suit and cylinder, Mr. Sherlock Holmes of 221B Baker Street himself, the man of her dreams, Mister Perfect. Soon her dreams will come true and she will become Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, the wife of the one whom she loved and adored most in the whole world. Everybody was there, Lucy Baker, her sister and parents and all of her friends. Doctor Watson was sitting there deeply touched by that beautiful moment, Mrs. Hudson was crying, even inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard came to see this memorable event.

“Do you take Mr. Sherlock Holmes to be your lawful wedded husband?” asked the priest. She was just about to say “Yes, I do” when the abominable mutated gorillas from planet 9 appeared and with terrible screams started to smash everything to pieces.

Sherry woke up screaming. She was covered with sweat and breathing deeply.

“It was such a lovely dream and those stupid gorillas spoiled it. I hate them, I hate them, I hate them!!!!”

Then she remembered the worst movie she has ever seen.

“Richard Gloucester, I will never go to the movies with you again. I hate you.” She screamed into the night.

It was 4 a.m. but she was afraid to fall asleep again. What if those gorillas returned?

She was just lying in her bed contemplating about the Maximilian Stone case again. After two hours she was absolutely positive that Darby Deerfield wasn’t only the helpless victim of this terrible crime and she must have known something more than she said to the police. But there was no way Sherry could have proven it.


Chapter II: The Adventure in a Luxurious Apartment

Five weeks later, the police was still searching for the stolen diamond but neither the Maximilian Stone nor the money was found. Sherry gave up investigating this case and returned back to practising her escape art, with only small successes, and reading about the famous crimes of the last two centuries, which was the indivisible part of her detective education, because most of the crimes are repeating and if you know them all, it’s not hard to guess the solution of a new one. She became quite bored because it appeared that the criminals took the vacation since there have been no extraordinary crimes committed.

She hasn’t seen much of Lucy Baker those days. Her friend started to date Johnny Douglas and visited Sherry only occasionally.
The only positive thing about those five boring weeks was that the mutated gorillas from planet 9 did not return.
Sherry had the compulsive feeling that her detective skills are being wasted in this silly boring town but she did not know that this was soon to be changed.

There is an abandoned car factory at the outskirts of Bakersfield. It’s been closed for twelve years. The town council planned to demolish the building and build there a supermarket instead.

However, this factory wasn’t completely empty. A 17 year-old blonde was sitting on the chair in one of the offices. She was tied to that chair and firmly gagged with duct-tape over her mouth. She was left alone there by her kidnapper who left to collect the ransom.

The girl was struggling with the ropes that were binding her but it was hopeless.

After some time she heard a voice. “Loren darling, are you here? Loren!!! It’s me.”

The girl gave several loud moans through her gag and finally the door of the office opened and there she saw the horrified face of her mother.

“Oh my god, Are you okay honey? What did they do to you? Oh my god. Wait! I will untie you in a moment.”

The woman took off the duct tape first. Loren spat out a large handkerchief.

“Oh, mom, thank god you’re here. That gag was terrible I almost couldn’t breathe.”

“It’s alright now, honey.” said the mother in a calm voice, wiped tears from her daughter’s face and started to untie the knots of the ropes.

The following day The Bakersfield Chronicle informed about the kidnapping of Loren Douglas, the daughter of Rita Douglas. The kidnapper abducted her two days ago and demanded 100 000 dollars. Girl’s mother was instructed to leave the money in the dustbin at the parking lot and then she was informed via phone where her daughter was. Mrs. Douglas did not involve police because she was warned by the kidnapper that her daughter would be killed in case she did so.

In the afternoon Lucy Baker visited Sherry.

“Did you read about that Loren’s kidnapping?”

“Of course, how is your future sister-in-law?” said Sherry half jokingly. Loren was a sister of Lucy’s boyfriend Johnny.

“I have seen her just an hour ago. She was really weird.”

“She spent two days bound and gagged in the abandoned factory. What would you expect?”

“That’s not it. She looked and acted perfectly normal. She was joking and laughing and flirting with every guy around, including her brother, as usual like nothing had happened and that’s weird.”

“Well, maybe she is just stronger that we would expect and she got over it quickly.”

“A spoiled rich kid like her, I don’t think so. You should have seen her once when they cancelled her favorite TV show. She was mad and furious like if it was the end of the world and blamed everybody for it. Or once when her mom refused to give her money for her third car, she started to be hysterical and smashed two expensive vases. Every time something happens to her she is like that or she is crying all day but not now.”

“I must admit that’s very weird. You said her mom refused to give her money. Does it happen often?”

“Yeah, quite often. Since I have been dating her brother I have seen it at least five times. Either she wants a new car or she wants money for shopping in Paris and so on. You should have seen her wardrobe. There are thousands items of clothing and she never wears them twice. Her mom started to be sick of it and refuses to give her more than the regular pocket money which isn’t small either.”

“That’s certainly most interesting. Maybe we have a motive.”

“What do you mean, Sherry?”

“She could have faked her own kidnapping to get money from her mother.”

“You are joking?”

“I’m not. Of course, it’s just a possibility but I think I will take a closer look at our Miss I-have-no-money.”

“Ok, but don’t tell her anything about me? I think she doesn’t like me and actually I’m not in love with her either.”

This meeting happened on the last day of summer holidays. Since the other day Sherry has returned to school and that gave her a perfect opportunity for “taking a closer look” at Loren Douglas. She was seeing her every day in school and every afternoon after school she followed her.
Every day, Loren spent the whole afternoon in the shopping mall. In the evening she returned home with a lot of new clothes and jewels and after dinner she went to the Partington club. She was returning home late after midnight, always drunk.

When Sherry saw how Loren was spending all her money she started to be absolutely positive about her theory but she wasn’t able to prove anything.

This has been going on the whole week without any change but suddenly something strange occurred. One day Sherry saw Loren in the company of Darby Deerfield. Both girls were chatting and giggling like the old friends, which was really extraordinary because in the school they acted like they didn’t know each other. When they met in the corridor they never even looked at each other neither said “hello” and now they were here both together and going someplace.

Suddenly an incredible idea struck Sherry’s mind. These two girls must have been the partners in crime. First Darby lets Loren tie her up and steal her parents’ money and jewelry and then, several weeks later, Loren with the help of Darby fakes her kidnapping and demands money from her mother. Two greedy girls stealing money from their parents. How clever. Who would have suspected them? Nobody would.

They left a very expensive restaurant where they met and Sherry, of course, was after them. Both girls got into Loren’s pink Rolls Royce and drove off. Sherry knew that she lost them because her bicycle was no match for the car and she had no money for a cab. Disappointed she got on her bike and slowly went the same direction they did. They were nowhere in sight and Sherry decided to give up and go home when she suddenly saw the very same pink vehicle parked in front of a high apartment building in the downtown. She couldn’t believe her luck. She chained her bike to the lamp and went to look around.

“Those two must be somewhere here.” She said to herself. “But how would I get in? And even if I did how would I find out in which apartment they are. There must be at least 20 places.”

However, this mystery solved itself.

“Admiring my car?” said a familiar unpleasant voice behind her back.

Sherry turned around and saw Loren Douglas.

“Actually it’s quite awful.”

“I don’t wonder. A girl like you, whose parents work for living, cannot fully appreciate a nice car when she sees one.” said Loren in a very arrogant way. “By the way, we have been expecting you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you think I did not notice how you have been following me these last days? You have a lot to learn, Nancy Drew.”

Sherry really hated when somebody called her like that. It was such a cliche.

“I bet you figured out our smart plan, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did. You are not as clever as you think. You made a lot of mistakes.” Sherry started to be sick of this arrogant silly goose.

“You weren’t the only one. I caught your friend Lucy snooping in my room today. Do you wanna see her?”

“Lucy? Where is she? What have you done to her?”

“Nothing yet. Come upstairs and see for yourself that she is okay.”

“I’ll come with you but at first I will call the police.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Suddenly Sherry realized that she was staring into the mouth of a small gun.

“Can we go?” asked Loren with the smile of the winner on her face.

Sherry said nothing and entered the building together with the blonde, feeling the pressure of gunpoint in her back.

Their apartment was in the highest floor. Loren and her captive entered and headed through the big corridor into the luxurious living-room. There on the leather sofa Sherry saw her friend Lucy completely bound with ropes and gagged with three pieces of duct tape. Darby Deerfield was sitting next to her. She was holding a gun too.

“Sherry Rathbone, welcome to our modest hide-out!” said she with a sinister smile on her face.

“Are you okay, Lucy?” asked Sherry with a deep concern. Her helpless friend replied only with a nod.

“As I have already told you, she is okay. The question is how long.” smiled Loren. “Tie her up, Darby.”

A brunette got up, put her gun down on the coffee table and picked up a piece of rope, which she used for tying Sherry’s wrists behind her back. Our detective didn’t resist because she knew very well that there was no use. After a little while her ankles and knees were bound as well.

“Don’t gag her yet. I wanna talk with her.” ordered Loren.

“Let Lucy go. She has nothing to do with this.”

“You are wrong, my dear. She has everything to do with it. I caught her in my room going through my stuff this morning and when I asked her what she was doing she seemed to know everything about our little fraud. So I had to capture her and bring her here. I, of course, didn’t believe her when she told me she figured that herself. I knew about your snooping hobby and so I decided, together with my dearest friend Darby, to set a trap for you too.”

“Okay, what are you going to do with us?”

“We must wait for Her to decide.”

“For whom?”

“You will find out. She should be here soon.”

“Why are you doing all of this, anyway?”

“Money, what else?” said Darby and scratched her pretty little nose with her gun.

“Yes, you know we both have rich but very mean parents. They insult us with some small pittance they call pocket-money and so when She addressed us with such a great offer we couldn’t have naturally refused.”

“What kind of offer?”

“Well, She knew about the Maximilian Stone that Darby’s family had in possession and asked us to help her get it. She promised us a lot of money in return. So Darby let me in and she revealed me the combination of her father’s vault, which she had found out by accident, and so I stole the Stone plus all the money and jewelry I found there and tied Darby up so that everything would have looked like a regular burglary.”

“You surely made a lot of mistakes.” replied Sherry. “No signs of forced entry and the combination. That’s how I started to suspect Darby.”

“But nobody else did except for you so it doesn’t really matter, anyway.”

“And what about the kidnapping and ransom? That was also a plan of that mysterious ‘She’?”

“No, it was our idea, however She approved it. I wanted to get some money from that old miserly witch, who calls herself my mother. So I faked my disappearance and was hiding in this apartment, which She generously bought for us, for some time. Darby made several pictures of me with a piece of duct-tape over my mouth and sent them to mother with a ransom note asking for 100 000 dollars and no police. That old fool was so scared for her poor little daughter that she did exactly as she was told and now we are richer for 100 000 dollars. However we have already spent most of it for clothes and other things.”

“That was your other mistake.” said Sherry who felt so disgusted by these two wicked girls that she did not want to hear anything further.

“Any other questions?”

“No! You can gag me now because I don’t want to speak with such bitches anymore.”

Loren and her accomplice burst out with laughter.

“Okay, you will get what you want. Gag her Darby.”

The brunette took out a large wad of cloth and stuffed it into Sherry’s mouth and then sealed it with three pieces of duct-tape.

“I never liked either of you. Actually I despise scum like you two. What is your aim in life? Having happy families and averagely paid jobs? I’m sick of you. I never understood why my brother started to date such a loser like you, Lucy. But it doesn’t matter now because he will have to find another girlfriend very soon.” After this devilish monologue was over, Loren blindfolded them and together with Darby left the room.

Their poor tied up prisoners were frightened for their lives like never before and started to struggle with their bonds but the ropes were too tight. Muffled screams from their gagged mouths made those two wicked girls in the other room only laugh.

After two hours of hopeless efforts to free themselves they heard a sound of the door-bell.

“She is here.” said Darby in the other room and after a little while both girls together with their boss entered the living-room.

“So this is the notorious Sherry Rathbone.” said the deep smooth voice of a woman who has just come. “I am certainly happy to meet you at last.
Maybe you don’t know that but our paths had crossed once before. Two months ago, you spoiled my clever plan for getting that painting from the gallery. John Smith was only a petty thief. I was behind the operation. You are very smart, Sherry, I can say I regret I must get rid of you. Actually I don’t. It will be a real pleasure.”

Sherry did not say anything through her gag. She was really scared but didn’t want to let this fiendish woman know.

“What are we going to do with them, boss?” asked Loren.

“After it gets dark take them to your car and drive them to that abandoned factory you had used for your kidnapping fraud. It will be demolished in the morning.”

“Okay, that’s a great plan.”

“I knew you would like that.” smiled She. “I have to go. A buyer for that Maximilian Stone will arrive in an hour. Farewell Sherry. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

“Darby, what would you say about a little joint? I bought real high quality stuff yesterday at Partington club.”

“Sounds great. Let’s go.”

After both left Sherry shook down the rope from her wrists. She’s been working on it since the beginning and finally she managed to untie the knots. That hard training she was undergoing every day was really worth it.

She untied her legs but let the ropes hanging loosely in place and she kept her gag and blindfold as well. After that she started to untie the hands of Lucy.

It was already dark when Loren and Darby, both really stoned, entered the room again. They saw their two helpless prisoners still sitting calmly on the leather sofa.

“They are really cute, don’t you think, Loren?” said Darby and started to laugh. Loren burst out with laughter too.

“Yes, they are, honey.”

“Let’s play with them for a while before we kill them.”

“No way. We must do as She said.”

“Sheeee is cute tooo!!!!”

Both girls got another attack of hysterical laughter and so they didn’t even notice that Lucy and Sherry took off their blindfolds and jumped on them.

When they realized what happened they were both lying on the floor tightly bound.

“Hey, let us gooooo!” shouted Darby while Loren was still laughing.

“Shut up.” said Sherry and taped her mouth. Lucy did the same to Loren.

“Let’s call the police.” said Lucy with a sound of triumph in her voice.

When Darby and Loren heard the word “police” they both started to struggle furiously and moan loud protests through their gags but Sherry and Lucy had no mercy on them.

After the police arrived they were told the whole story. All of Mrs. Deerfield’s jewelry and the rest of the stolen money were found in the apartment but no trace of the Maximilian Stone.

Both teenage criminals were sentenced to several years in the county juvenile facility. They never revealed the identity of their boss. Either they must have been so loyal or so frightened of her but Sherry knew that it won’t be long and she will meet Her again.

Several days after the events in the luxurious apartment, Johnny Douglas broke up with Lucy, saying that he cannot date somebody who got his sister into prison.

Lucy was devastated. She was sitting in Sherry’s bedroom and crying. Her friend was holding her around her shoulders and comforting her.

“He didn’t deserve you, Lucy. He was an asshole.”

“I know that now but it hurts.”

“Don’t worry, Lucy, you still have me. And if nobody else wants you I will marry you.”

Both girls broke down laughing and they laughed hysterically for at least twenty minutes until they weren’t able to breathe and their bellies really hurt. Lucy’s melancholy was over and she was glad to have such a friend as Sherry.

The End

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