Fear and Greed

Instead of the petite brunette with the smile that could turn his legs to jelly stood two men. Both looked about the same age as him but Franz could see immediately that their fortunes had clearly faired a lot better than his own. He’d always aspired to designer clothes and rarely failed to notice when others were wearing them. These two looked as if they were a walking advert for  Hugo Boss. 

Franz was momentarily confused. He was expecting no other visitors, and his apartment, being both out of the way and on the top floor, was hardly the kind of place that people would be ‘just passing’. They’d obviously got the wrong address.

“Can I help you?”

It was the taller of the two men that answered.

“Mr Hoffman?”

“Yes.”

“Mr Franz Hoffman?”

“Yes.”

Franz turned to face the man who was addressing him, and, a little impatiently, asked what it was they wanted. He never received a spoken reply. The two men moved so quickly that  he had no time to react.  He doubled up in pain as the punch knocked the wind out of him and he was forced back inside his flat, powerful hands moving him with ease. He was immediately pushed to the floor and held, face down, while his hands were tied behind his back. He wasn’t in bad shape himself but his struggling was completely ineffectual against the figures of solid muscle that held him now. At this point Franz started to panic and as the air returned to his lungs he opened his mouth to scream.

The sound never came. The sticky tape stifled it, and a few seconds later Franz found himself gagged and helpless. Both men, who hadn’t uttered a word since their entry, then rose to their feet and moved silently to different parts of the room. By rolling on to his side Franz could watch them .  What he saw confused him even more.

The shorter man went straight to the kitchen area where he set about emptying all the prepared ingredients into a dustbin liner. The cheese and salad went the same way. He then opened the fridge and took out anything with a sell-buy date, dropping these in to the bag as well. Once satisfied that he’d got everything he required, he placed the bag by the front door before returning to the kitchen area where he washed, dried, and put away anything that had been used earlier. By the time he’d finished the kitchen looked as if it hadn’t been used in weeks.

He then moved towards the dining area and set about clearing the recently laid table, ensuring that everything was returned to its rightful place. He went about it methodically, opening and shutting drawers and cupboards until he found the correct one. Once done, he blew out the candles and plumped up the cushions on the sofa.

The other, in the mean time, disappeared into the bedroom, and Franz could hear him rummaging around. He emerged a few moments later with Franz’s holdall, which bulged from the pressure of the clothes now inside,  before entering the bathroom where other items were added to the ‘luggage’. The bag was also left by the front door.

The two men then looked at each other and nodded. Not a single word had been exchanged between them, yet both clearly knew exactly what they were meant to be doing. The whole operation had taken precisely ten minutes. A large blanket was produced from the bedroom and spread out beside the trussed up body, and seconds later Franz found himself rolled up inside it and over the shoulder of what he assumed to be the larger man. Now in darkness, he was reduced to listening to their  movements, his senses heightened by the complete terror he was experiencing. He heard the lights being turned off and the curtains drawn back, then the unmistakable sound of the front door being opened and shut again behind them.