THE SW CASINO
By Minimizer
Chapter 44
Strangely, I thought, the TV had no report whatsoever of my kidnapping. I'd expected to see something about it, but there was no mention of me. I guess the abduction of a single casino employee wasn't noteworthy. Or, perhaps, they were keeping it quiet for some reason.
I wondered if Irwin had been watching for that as well. Was he disappointed there hadn't been any report? I didn't bother asking, and he didn't say anything at all about it. Instead, after the news was over, he got up to leave. "I'm glad you seem to be adjusting so well, Ashley," he said as he stood. "I knew I made the right choice picking you."
Something that had been working its way around in my subconscious finally came to the surface. So far, throughout my explorations, I'd been thinking of nothing but escape or rescue. I hadn't been looking at the bigger picture. Well, it was time to change that. "Why did you pick me, anyway?" I asked curiously. "Didn't the others work out?"
"What others?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "There's only you, Ashley. What makes you think I have any others?"
Even though I was small, I could still read faces--perhaps it was even easier for me at this size, as I could pick up on much more subtle shifts in his facial muscles. It seemed to me that my question had honestly surprised him, a fact which of course surprised me as well. Up until now, I'd assumed he was the reason behind all the disappearances at the casino, but now it was starting to look otherwise. "Well," I went on quickly, "I just mean, you've prepared all of this for me so well, it's like you've done it before."
He laughed. "Thanks for the complement, Ashley, but you really are the only one. I believe in being thorough, and just tried to think of everything my little doll might need."
"Then you won't be kidnapping any other girls?" I asked, ignoring the doll comment and continuing to try to learn as much information as I could.
"Oh, I doubt that," he told me. "One of you should be quite enough, I think. Of course, if you get too lonely, I might consider it, but I'd have to come up with a new plan. I'm sure right now the casino security staff is drawing up new procedures to make sure my little trick never works again."
"Good," I replied. I didn't want him making anyone else a prisoner just because of me.
"Well, be that as it may, it's time for me to go to bed," said Irwin. I felt my heart sink, afraid that he might want to take me along, but fortunately he didn't. "I'll bring you breakfast in the morning. If you're hungry tonight, you'll find snacks in the drawer." He pointed up at the desk where my house was. "Just turn the wheel to open it. Now, good night, Ashley."
"Good night," I replied politely, and watched him depart. He tromped off like a giant retreating to his cave, and turned off the lights as he went. When he did, a series of automatic night lights came on, giving me enough illumination to see by. I couldn't make out Irwin as anything but a distant shadow, but I heard the door shut and the lock click, leaving me safely imprisoned.
I thought about searching around some more, but I doubted I'd find much in the dark. Besides, I was getting tired. Even if I did find a way out, I'd be too exhausted to take advantage of it.
I climbed down off the chair, made my way over to the desk, and went up the ladder. I was curious about what he meant regarding the "wheel," so I looked around for a moment, and found what he was talking about. Near the edge of the top surface, he'd installed a dial I could turn that caused the drawer to slide outwards. Inside, there were several small packages of snack foods like crackers and cookies, as well as a small bottle of spring water.
Come to think of it, I was pretty hungry, so I climbed down into the drawer and started trying to open one of the cookie packages. The plastic wrapping proved extremely difficult to manage at my size, but after some experimentation, I was able to work it open.
A single chocolate chip cookie was probably going to be enough to satisfy me at my size, I thought as I started in on it. This was actually the first time I'd tried full-sized food while shrunk, and it was unusually rough and gritty. You normally don't think about things like that when eating a cookie, but at my size, even the crumbs were chunky.
As I ate my gigantic meal, I thought about what Irwin had said earlier. He'd sounded completely honest when he told me I was the first girl he'd abducted. So, assuming he wasn't just a very convincing liar (which I doubted very much), that meant he wasn't the man I was looking for at all. In other words, this little adventure of mine wasn't getting me any closer to solving the case. Irwin was a copycat at best, or more likely, he didn't know a thing about the other girls, and was just one guy acting alone.
Was that the reason for the other disappearances? Individual, unrelated kidnappings? No, somehow I doubted that. This abduction didn't even fit the other profiles. None of those had occurred on the job. They'd come later, after the woman in question quit or had been fired. Hell, they'd even had time to collect their paychecks afterwards! As far as I knew, this was the first time anyone had ever successfully been snatched right off the casino floor like that.
Eating the dry cookie was making me thirsty, so I moved over to the water bottle. Irwin had attached a kind of spigot to the side of it, so getting enough to drink was no trouble. I didn't like having to drink directly from the faucet like that, but there weren't any cups available in my size. The water did seem different, though, somewhat thicker than usual. That was because it was six times bigger than I was used to, of course. It felt really strange sliding down my miniaturized throat.
As I drank, doing my best to avoid choking, I thought some more about the mysterious disappearances. There was another possibility, one that became even more likely the more I thought about it. What if, all along, people really had been being taken right from the casino, like myself? The lack of any kind of news report about the incident suggested this theory had at least some merit. Someone had the power to cover things like this up, obviously. How many times had they done it before?
Well, this idea had its problems, too. What about the cashed paychecks and other events that had happened afterwards, outside the casino? Could someone have faked those things? If so, they had a lot more power than I'd ever suspected. They would, for example, had to have connections with the police and other investigating agencies. What if this was some kind of huge conspiracy?
Damn! If only I could get out of here, I could start investigating that angle. Being stuck in Irwin's basement was getting me nowhere!
I finished eating, and now had another problem--I had to use the restroom. Surely Irwin had thought of that, I thought, but where was I supposed to go? In a corner somewhere? I doubted that very much. The giant engineer would have a much better solution, I was sure.
I climbed out of the drawer and started walking around. Surely he'd have put it close by my home, I thought. Then I noticed, in the dim light, a door set into the wood paneling near the back of the desk. I opened it up and saw that Irwin's ingenuity hadn't failed me. Set into the wall was a Barbie bathroom set, but as I quickly discovered, this one had a real working toilet. He must have installed special plumbing into this section of the wall just to make it work.
After relieving myself, I decided to at least try to get some sleep. I wasn't getting anywhere else tonight, anyway. Besides, if Irwin went to work tomorrow, I'd have all day to try to escape.
I didn't want to sleep in the leotard and tights, but then again, I didn't want to be naked either, just in case my captor woke me up the next morning and found me like that. I searched around among the Barbie clothes and found a set of pajamas, which would have to do. Like the skirt earlier, I found the fabric somewhat rough, but it was better than nothing.
Besides, as I found when I got in the bed, its sheets were just as coarse and uncomfortable as the clothes. I was afraid the mattress would be just as bad, but as it turned out, it was quite nice. It wasn't a Barbie toy, but something Irwin had obviously crafted for me. I had no trouble settling in.
Getting to sleep was another matter, however. Though I was tired, I couldn't think about anything but my predicament. It really hadn't struck me yet just how hopeless my situation was, but now, in this tiny doll bed, trapped in a giant basement, I realized for the first time that I might be stuck here for a long, long while.
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As I ate my gigantic meal, I thought about what Irwin had said earlier. He'd sounded completely honest when he told me I was the first girl he'd abducted. So, assuming he wasn't just a very convincing liar (which I doubted very much), that meant he wasn't the man I was looking for at all. In other words, this little adventure of mine wasn't getting me any closer to solving the case. Irwin was a copycat at best, or more likely, he didn't know a thing about the other girls, and was just one guy acting alone.