“Up this way. Turn left at the light. Should get there in about 5…maybe 10 minutes.” Derek said, pointing from the passenger’s seat. He was a short, wiry man in his twenties with a scruff of untidy brown hair.
Jones grunted his acknowledgement, flipping the turn signal and pulling the small nondescript black car onto the indicated street. He was more heavy set, in his forties with thinning gray-black hair and a short beard. Both were dressed in dark blue jumpsuits and caps with the logo of the company they worked for stitched on in yellow thread: Sure Catch Debt Collection Services.
“Run me by the details on this account.” Jones said in a gravelly voice. “Just so there’s no screw up like that job last Tuesday.”
“Never going to let me live that down…” Derek grumbled, flipping through the stack of folders he had in front of him till he found the right one. “Here it is: the Tilden Account. This brainiac, Roy Tilden, borrowed about 15K a year ago, wanted to invest it in, you know…” Jones snickered. A lot of people had gotten suckered in by that particular golden goose and ended up in deep debt when those eggs turned out to be fool’s gold.
“So yeah, he’s missed his last three payments so now he’s officially in arrears. We collect the collateral and if he doesn’t square the debt they get moved on.”
“Who are we looking for?”
“Three items: mommy and her two girls. Daddy’s credit wasn’t so good so he had to put all three up to cover the debt.” “Derek held up a sheet from the folder. On it were pictures of three women, well one woman and two girls really. All three were pretty enough, the woman was just starting to show her 42 years of age. She wore her strawberry blonde hair shoulder length. The older daughter had hair like her mothers, worn in braids. The younger must have taken after her father. “Or the milkman.” Jones thought with a chuckle. She had dark hair, worn in pigtails. Altogether, the three made a cute, happy family. Seemed a shame to break them up like this. “Too bad daddy was greedy and stupid and couldn’t pay his debt.”
The house at the address in the file indicated was a nice, upscale suburban house surrounded by other large, expensive houses with well manicured lawns. It was hard to imagine the family that lived here could have so great a debt. “Living beyond their means, trying to keep up with the Jones’, never imagining anything bad could happen to them.” He thought, parking the car a little bit further up the street from the house, leaving the stretch directly in front of the house open.
As he and Derek walked up to the path to the front door, Jones made sure the bag slung over his shoulder was zipped shut, with none of the restraints in it showing. The collateral tended to panic when they saw that come out and he didn’t want to spook them too soon. The bright yellow taser, on the other hand, he kept visible where he could get it quickly. He’d lost count of the times a target had gotten violent when Jones and his partner came to collect them.
There was no car in the driveway and no one answered the door immediately when Jones rang the doorbell. He was starting to wonder if the Tilden’s had been tipped off and done a runner, when it was opened by the blonde woman in the file picture. She was dressed for a casual day in with a knit cardigan over a blouse and pants.
“Hello! Can I help you?” She said with a smile, not noticing the logos on Jones and Derek’s uniforms, or at least not realizing the implications.
“Are you Mrs. Shelly Tilden?” Jones asked, in a serious tone.
Her expression changed to one of confusion but she nodded. “Yes, that’s me…why do you ask?”
“We’re with Sure Catch, here to talk about your husband’s debts. May we come in?” Jones asked, flashing his ID badge in the woman’s face. For a moment, he was sure Mrs. Tilden would slam the door shut and he got ready to shove a steel-toed boot between it and the frame, but though she went pale, Mrs. Tilden seemed to realize it would do her no good in the end. She stepped back, letting the two men push past her into the expensively decorated foyer.
“Is it that bad?” She asked numbly.
“You’re more than three payments behind, ma’am.” Jones replied grimly. She flinched. “Are your daughters home, Mrs. Tilden?” He asked.
She looked at him with an expression of horror. “No…not them too…” Jones wondered if her husband had left out a few details about his business dealings when telling his wife. Not that it mattered, she had signed the documents when they took on the debt. Whether she’d read them carefully enough or not, it didn’t change the mess she and her daughters were in now.
Her eyes flickered to the stairs at the far side of the lobby. Jones’ eyes narrowed. “Call them here.” He told her, setting a hand on his stun gun. “Or we’ll have to go up and get them.” His tone told Mrs. Tilden that, should she force them to go to such trouble it would not be good for her or her daughters.
“May! Erica!” She called upstairs in a hollow voice.
“What is it, mom?” A girl’s voice called down from upstairs.
“Come down here…bring your sister!” A couple minutes later two girls trooped down. Jones and Derek recognized them immediately from the file. The younger girl, May, was dressed in a t-shirt and pajama pants. Behind Mary, her older sister Erica wore a hoodie and shorts. The girls regarded the two men apprehensively as they went to stand beside their mother.
“What’s going on, mom?” Mary asked, nervously.
Before her mother could answer, Jones interrupted by loudly clearing his throat. From a pocket on his jumpsuit, Jones pulled out a laminated card with legalese written across it. He’d given the speech often enough to have it memorized, but it was necessary to ensure this was done right, to prevent any cause for dispute further down the line. He read the words off, inserting the appropriate information from the case file:
“As of this date, October 21st, 2023, the debts of one Roy Tilden, amounting to $15,862.83, being more than three months in arrears without payment are considered in default. I, Henry jones, representative of Secure Catch Debt Collection LLC on behalf of the holders of said debt, shall take possession of the collateral on said debt to whit: one Shelly Tilden, wife of the aforesaid debtor, one Erica Tilden, daughter of same and one May Tilden, daughter of same. As of this date, those three are to be considered the legal bondswomen of Secure Catch Debt Collections LLC or any designated third party, until said debt is repaid or otherwise discharged. They may be put to such work as is seen fit, wages to be deducted from the total debt. Failure to abide by all instructions, resistance or any attempt to subvert this arrangement in any way may result in fines of up to $1000 for a first offense or $5000 for repeat offenses. Do you understand?”
For a long moment, the three looked at him in numb disbelief, the daughters even more so then their mother. She, at least, had some inkling of the family’s financial troubles, even if she hadn’t known just how bad till this moment, but it was obvious Mr. and Mrs. Tilden hadn’t told their girls anything about the debt. Now their safe, comfortable middle-class life had just come to an abrupt end. Jones almost felt bad for them. It wasn’t their fault their parents had made mistakes, but now they were going to pay the price for it.
The two girls looked to Mrs. Tilden who finally nodded. “We understand.” She said in a quiet voice. For a second, her daughters looked like they might try and argue or beg, but they slowly nodded to, resigning themselves to their fate.
“Good.” Jones said. “Strip. Everything off!” The three new slaves just stared at him in disbelief. “Company policy. All new slaves arrive naked. You’ll get new clothing at the processing center.” Jones told them. It had something to do, he recalled, with a case about a year ago: woman and her slick lawyer arguing that the collateral covered her, but not the clothes she was wearing at the time and that taking those constituted an illegal seizure of assets from the debtor. Jones didn’t know if the court had bought the argument, but company policy now was not to risk it. Not that he minded much, at least when he was picking up collateral as good looking as the Tilden women. “As I said, Strip! Failure to obey will only add to the debt you’ll be working off.”
“We don’t have a choice, dears.” Mrs. Tilden told her girls. She must have known, at the rate debt slaves were compensated, even a single $1000 fine for disobedience would add more then a year to their period of service. “Do as the man says. It’ll be alright.” She put action to word, slipping off her cardigan and pulling the blouse up over her head. Her daughters looked doubtful, but began to reluctantly undress as well. As the women slowly stripped, Derek opened his bag and began pulling things out. Naked and blushing with embarrassment, the three stared at the slave collars in his hands.
“Check the name on the tag before you put them on.” Derek said, passing the collars to Mrs. Tilden, who took them with obvious reluctance. She passed the right collars to Erica and May then took her own and slipped it around her neck. The lock “clicked” audibly as the two ends met, securing the collar in place. The two girls followed suit, donning their own collars. They stood, fidgeting in discomfort at the unusual pressure, tugging occasionally at the steel rings, as if there was any chance they would be coming off any time soon.
Meanwhile, Jones had opened his bag and taken out gags for the three women: heavy leather panel gags. As he approached, the new slaves began to complain, eyes going wide as they saw the insides of the gags and the rubber plugs fixed there, but a stern glare from Jones reminded them they no longer had any say in the matter. That was soon made literal as the gags were applied. Mrs. Tilden helped her daughter strap their gags on, their wide eyes tearing up from the discomfort of the plugs and straps, then struggled to wrap her lips around the rubber plug of her own. Soon the three were “mmpphh’ing” miserably, all the more so as Derek approached with leg irons for the three of them. They were followed by handcuffs, completing the new slaves’ bondage.
“Okay ladies…time to get moving!” Jones barked, gesturing to the door. “On the double!” He turned and led the way. With frightened grunts, the women stumbled forward, struggling to adjust to the hobbling gait imposed by the ankle fetters they wore. As they approached the door, they fell in line, Mrs. Tilden directly behind Jones, her two daughters following with Derek at the back, making sure none of them slowed down. As they shuffled out the front door, the women gasped through their gags.
While the two collecting agents had been busy inside securing the Tilden’s, the collections truck had driven up, sliding into the open space Jones had left in front of the house. Unlike their nondescript black car, the truck was prominently emblazoned with “Secure Catch Debt Collection Collateral Retrieval” on the side, to ensure any bystanders knew what was up and not to interfere, when they brought out the captives. That was why it had trailed a quarter of an hour or so behind them on arriving, to keep from spooking the women before the agents had had a chance to find and secure them. The men from the truck had piled out, unlocked the rear doors of the trailer and were lowering a ramp from inside.
The sight of the truck, parked in front of the Tilden’s house had brought out the whole neighborhood, crowing the front door and gawking at the sight of the Tilden women stumbling out of the front door, naked but for their restraints, their new slave collars prominent around the women’s necks, leaving little doubts what would happen to them now. Their faces burned with shame as they were paraded, humiliatingly, in front of their former friends and neighbors. Some called out words of encouragement to the poor captives, others taunted and jeered at the new slaves. From the ratio of one to the other, Jones guessed the Tilden’s had not been particularly popular with most of their neighbors.
“Too much flaunting their borrowed wealth in front of everybody else…” Jones guessed. He led the trio to the back of the truck and to the ramp. There was a slight pause as Mrs. Tilden reached the top and saw how she and her daughters were going to be transported to their new lives. The inside of the trailer had been outfitted with two rows of cages on either side, facing the aisle that ran down the middle, stacked two high. The cages had narrow steel bars, wrapped in foam padding to reduce the chance of injury in transit, but that was the only consideration for the unlucky occupant’s comfort. The cages were just barely big enough to accommodate an adult, crammed inside.
About half the cages had a glim figure inside, men and women though in the ratio of 3 to 1 in favor of female captives. All of them were naked, save for collars, shackles and gags. Hung on the front of each cage was a plastic sleeve with printed sheets, detailing information on the occupants, the loans they had been claimed as collateral for, and to which facility they were going to be delivered to.
Waiting at the top of the ramp were two of Jones and Derek’s coworkers. As soon as they saw Mrs. Tilden hesitate, they sprang forward and seized the dumbfounded woman. Behind, Erica and May watched in mute horror as their mother was dragged to the next unoccupied cage and forced in, bent over near double to fit in the cramped space.
While the girls awaited their turn to be caged up, Jones and Derek conferred with the driver of the truck. “I think we’re going to handle the…Miller account next. It’s just a couple blocks down from here…on Maple Drive.” Jones told him.
“Remember, we’re collecting all collateral on this debt as well.” Derek chimed in. “That’s mother and daughter, plus the guy’s sister and his two nieces. They live next door.”
“Great…that’ll be real fun.” Jones grumbled.
“Okay. We’ll give you a nice long lead time before we bring the truck in.” The driver told them. Behind him, Erica Tilden squealed indignantly as one of the handlers got a little too handsy lifting her into the cage above the one her sister knelt in, sobbing brokenly.
Ignoring them, Jones and Derek walked to their car. The Tilden family and their fate was gone from their minds. They were focused on the next assignment: the unfortunate Miller women who would soon be joining the Tilden’s in the cages. Jones glanced at the stack of account folders they still needed to get through today.
“Plenty more debts to be collected…”