The Case of the Mad Scientist

Chapter 4: An Assignment
The pretty young woman had just pulled her Miata into her parking space at the Crenshaw Arms apartment complex. Humming a
happy tune to herself, she picked up a couple textbooks from the seat next to her and walked to the apartment she shared with a
fellow secret agent, Mark Paulson. Mark had told her that secret agents did not drive little sports cars like that, they drove high-
powered machines, like his Corvette. But she liked her little car. She said it was “cute”.
Finished with the class for that day, “Seventeen Ways to Kill a Man with a Pencil,” she ready to relax. Being a hot day, she
immediately shed her clothing and enjoyed the air-conditioned air against her naked body. In the bedroom, she did a few
stretching exercises and wondered what she could do while waiting for Mark to come home. Then she saw the set of handcuffs
on the dresser and smiled.
She decided to practice escapes from handcuffs. She opened the top drawer of the tall dresser and removed two more sets of
handcuffs. Taking all three pairs of steel cuffs in her hands, she made sure that the keys were sitting on the dresser in plain sight,
and then she tossed the cuffs on the bed. She would need those keys in the event she failed to work her way free from the
handcuffs.
She locked the first set on her ankles, clicking them down snugly. Then she locked one cuff around her left wrist. Putting her
hands behind her back, she felt around and managed to click shut the second cuff around her right wrist. Reaching around in
front of her as she sat on the edge of the bed, she took the third pair in her joined hands. It was not too difficult to lock one of the
cuffs around the connecting link of the pair on her wrists. Then she rolled over onto her side and arched her body backwards.
Feeling behind her, she managed to take the cuffs linking her ankles in one hand, and the empty cuff dangling from her wrist
cuffs in the other. Click! Click! And Click!
She rolled over onto her stomach and smiled. This was the handcuff hogtie Mark had shown her. It was a quick and simple way
to immobilize a prisoner and, according to Mark, very difficult to get out of. She believed him, because the night he had locked
her up in it, she had been totally unable to free herself. So, that warm summer afternoon, she was going to work on escaping
from that position.
She felt around, pushed and pulled on the cuffs, but she could not force any of them to loosen. In fact, some of them tightened
down another click. Then she twisted around and arched her body, trying to see what she was doing behind her. Seeing some of
the steel circles locked around her did not help much, but in trying to arch backwards, she felt herself slipping off the bed. She
landed on the carpet with a thump.

For a while she continued to struggle, rolling around and arching and not moving one inch closer to freedom for all her efforts.
Finally she lay still, panting from the exertion and coming to the conclusion that she was not going to be able to get those
damned things off. Might as well give up and find something better to do with her time, she told herself.
It was then that she remembered where she had left the keys. From her position on the floor, the top of that dresser was a long
way off. Had she been able to stand up, she might - just might - have reached the keys. But in her desire to make this a difficult
escape, she had locked her wrists to her ankles and standing was impossible.
With a sigh, she realized that she would just have to wait until Mark came home. Then she would have to endure his teasing,
some of which would probably including tickling her while she was helpless. Of course, that might lead to teasing of a more
personal kind and then... She smiled at the thought of what might happen then.
Meantime, it was going to be a long afternoon.