The sound of tired crunching against the gravel driveway announced the return of the lady the house, back from her errands earlier then expected. And me only half done riffling the joint. Bothersome, but you don’t last as long as I have in this business without preparing for such eventualities.

Though I’d hoped to be in and out before Miss James got back from her usual Saturday morning errands, I’d brought my usual kit when I’ve not choice but to “entertain” a lady: a replica pistol for ensuring cooperation, three lengths of rope, two short, one longer for tying wrists, ankles and securing her to some stout piece of furniture and finally two large handkerchiefs, for a blindfold and gag. More then enough to keep her incommunicado for a solid 20-30 minutes while I made my getaway.

Silently, I moved through the house, taking up position in the living room where I could surprise her as she walked in the front door. I’d done it dozens of times before, this time shouldn’t have been a problem. But of course, just as soon as you think things can’t go wrong, that’s usually when they do…

The front door opened and a young woman stepped through; mid-20s, shoulder length Auburn hair, I’d seen her enough times when casing this place to recognize her. Still wearing the green blouse and skirt she’d had on when she left. I crouched, the fake gun in my hand, getting ready to jump up and surprise her, when I saw her turn her head back over her shoulder and heard her speak.

“I hope this bottle of wine is as good as the clerk said.” Miss James was saying to someone. “With this book, I think we’ll need a few glasses!” Giggling proceeded the two other women who followed her inside. Silently I groaned. Time to improvise.

Step one remained the same though. I had no choice really. I only had a few seconds at the most before I was spotted anyway and I’ve found it’s always between to take them by surprise. If you can get them rattled from the beginning, they’re less likely to try anything funny down the line. So up I popped, my model pistol in my hand and in my sternest voice cried “okay ladies! Just put your hands up and don’t say anything!”

Three faces turned towards me, showing stunned expressions. As they got a good look at me, and more importantly at what they thought was a full functional gun, fear crept into them.

“Who...who are you?” Miss James asked, stammering. “What do you want?” They always ask that. Don’t know why, I’d think it’d be pretty obvious.

“Just a man who’s robbing the place.” I replied. “You ladies stay quiet and calm and nobody gets hurt.”  They seemed to get the idea, dropping their purses and the bags they were carrying and raising their hands.

Now for the tricky part. How to get all three of them tied up with just the one of me and them all too likely to bolt as soon as my back is turned. As I thought, I gestured with the pistol. “Move over there! In front of the couch.” This got them out of the entry way and out of sight if anyone happened to walk past the house. And it gave me time to think.

“Here!” With my free hand, I pulled the coils of rope from my pocket and handed them to Miss James. “Tie their hands together,” I gestured with my pistol at the other two women. “You two...put your hands behind your backs!” I watched as Miss James, hands trembling, did her best to tie up her friends. As expected, she had only the vaguest of ideas what she was doing and I doubted that sloppy ropework would hold them for more then a few minutes. But

I only needed a few minutes to improvise…

After tying Miss Jame’s hands, with rather more skill, with my third coil of rope, I helped all three sit down, side by side, against the front of the couch. The two handkerchiefs served to gag her and one of her friends. Fortunately, the third woman, a pretty blonde, had a silk scarf tied around her neck. It would do for a gag.

I then went to work, scavenging for anything else that could be used to tie up three women. Given I’d given most of the house a going over before, looking for valuables, I had some idea of where I was going. In the living room with the three, there was a table lamp with a long cord. After unplugging it, I cut the cord with my pocket knife. The bedroom had another lamp, as well as the cord for her phone charger. Her closet provided three more scarves, one silk, the others wool, which would do for blindfolds.

Returning to the room, I laid out my improvised binding material. The cords were quickly used to tie the women’s feet together. I blindfolded them with the scarves. Finally, I went and retied the two friends’ hands. Their muffled groans said they much preferred Miss Jame’s sloppy ropework to my own tight coils, but they had little choice but to endure it.

“Okay ladies.” I said, straightening up. “I’m gonna finish robbing the place, then I’ll get out of your hair.” Their muffled grunts said they much preferred the latter to the former, but in any case they were willing to wait and not risk trying to escape. I left the living room, making enough noise they would no I was gone. Once I was out, I quietly slipped back to the door, peaking in. To my relief, they hadn’t started struggling the moment I was gone.

I reached for my cellphone and dialed a number. “Hey?” I whispered, making sure my voice was soft enough not to be overheard by the three in the next room. “Yeah, it’s me. Listen, I’ve got an...opportunity, if you’re still looking buy. Yeah, three of ‘em...Uh huh...ok, see you when you get here...”