Are you tough enough?

The man circles around his victim.  He smiles and smokes his cigarette as he looks up to the noose.  He marvels at his handy work.  The knot in the noose is nice and tight.....and effective.  “So?  Do you think you are tough?  Do you think you can survive this test?”  The man snarls at his victim. “I.… I don’t know what you want from me.  Please let me go, I think you have the wrong person.  I haven’t done anything wrong.”  The tall man with grey hair pleads between coughs.  He is standing on a cardboard box that will not be able to hold his full weight for very long, with a noose around his neck.   The noose is fastened around a sturdy pipe running along the roof of the room.  It is dark in the room, there is a lamp, lighting up a small area. He cannot see where he is, but all around him are boxes and old furniture.  A moldy, musty smell assaults his nostrils. It is stuffy and dusty in the room. He does not know where he is.   His name is Georg Bahn, he is a deputy headmaster of one of the finest schools in Germany.  He is also a history teacher and took his students on a tour to France when he was abducted.  He cannot remember much about what happened to him.  Only that they were at the Eiffel tower and that he felt a prick in his neck.   The next moment he awoke with a noose around his neck.  His arms and legs are bound with ropes and a madman is talking to him about being tough.  “Do you want me to fight you, is that what you mean?”  Georg asks the man confused.   “No, I don’t want you to fight me, you need to show me that you are tough enough to stand in that position until I come back”  The man says in a strong French accent.  Georg feels the unsteady box under his feet, with even the slightest move he feels that the box will cave in. He tries not to move.  “Why?  Why me?  What have I done?  I think you have the wrong person”  He pleads again.   “Shut up!  You have said that already!  You are the right person, I am not mistaken!  You are the one that disciplined those boys!”  The Frenchman is yelling at Georg.  He is glaring at Georg, he should not pretend that he is innocent, he saw him with those boys, he was harsh with them. He needs to be punished.  What the victim does not understand is that he will not get out of this alive.   What boys, what is this lunatic talking about?  Then it hit him, probably when he scolded the two boys that were trying to climb on the railings at the Eiffel tower.  He was a little tough on them maybe, but they did not behave as they should have.  Is that what this is about an insignificant incident?  Who is this guy?    “Who are you?”  He asks, while swallowing hard.  But he is only greeted with silence.  He tries to look at his captor, but it is too dark to see his face clearly. After a long while the man looks up at him through the smoke of his cigarette.  "My name is Serge Taduk, I am the angel of justice.  I seek justice for people who have been wronged by filth like you." He whispers threateningly.  He threw his cigarette butt on the ground and snuffed it with his shoe. Serge slowly grasps the door.  "Wait please, what do you want me to do, I will do anything, please just let me go.  Do you want money, I will get you anything you need."  Georg pleads. Serge turns back to face him once more.   "Shut up, imbecile!  You insult me if you think it is about money!  I can see already that you are not strong enough.  You think you are so tough to take your anger out on innocent teenage boys. We will see if you are really that tough.  If you try to sit, you'll die, if you move too much the box will collapse and you will hang.  So stand and wait for me to come back.  We will then see..."  He turned to the door again and looked over his shoulder to George.... "We will see"  Serge starts laughing and disappears through the door with the lamp, killing the only light in the room. The German was difficult to get here, he is tall and heavy.  Serge had to incapacitate him without anyone seeing and then drag him to the trunk of his car.  He had to think for a few minutes where to take him.  Then he remembered about the row of dilapidated lock up garages on the banks of the river Seine.  He had to put his lock picking skills to the test to get inside.  No one was in sight, he made sure that no one saw him. But luckily for him there was a pipe running through the row of units to attach the rope to.  After further investigation he realized that this storage unit hadn't been opened for months, maybe years.  It was covered in dust and cobwebs.  It was the perfect place.  The last unit in the row, the most secluded one, closest to the bridge. Nobody will hear him scream, he is too far away from the other units and besides the bridge is very noisy. If he struggles too much, he will speed up his own demise.  Serge smiles to himself.  His victim will not be in a position to free himself and eventually the unsteady box underneath his feet will cave in.  Then he will dangle there until someone discovers him.  He remembers all his victims, some pleaded for mercy, others were tough and thought that they would get out of it alive.  Some of the men threatened to kill him once they got out of there. Some of the women cried and a few even tried to seduce him. But all of that was in vain.  None of them got out alive, they were all too weak for the challenge. They were all weaker than him.  He gets a dark look in his eyes, and he swears under his breath. He was tough, his father made sure of that. No one will be as tough as him. He has not met one person that could beat him at the ultimate challenge. He locks the storage unit and turns to disappear into the night.   "Detective Le Beuf, speaking"  Henri answers the phone in his office.  He is a homicide detective at the Paris Homicide department.  He has a successful conviction track record all over Paris and surrounding areas. Unfortunately in many Parisian towns over the last few years, murder is on the increase. "Yes.....where?...alright... good, see you there"  He hangs up the phone.  He sighs and sits back in his chair.  A missing person’s report!  He is a homicide detective, why should he be bothered with a missing person.  There are hundreds of missing people every year in Paris. Why does he have to be bothered by this?  There is a department that deals with missing persons.  But they are overwhelmed at the moment and they need help. 'Sacrebleu!'    "Dupont, we need to go!"  He yells out to his partner.  Natalie Dupont has been his partner for the past five years.  She is a very capable detective, tough and very efficient.  At first the other men in the department made fun of her, but they soon realized that she is as good as most of them.   Natalie comes walking into his office.  “Where are we going?”  She asks, tilting her head to the side.   “We need to meet a German teacher at the Champ de Mars, their colleague is missing” He sighs.    “Why do we need to respond to a missing person?  We are homicide detectives?”  She asks, folding her arms.  She looks at Henri, he is a tall man in his late forties, with dark hair and dark brown eyes.  There are grey flecks in his hair.  He is wearing a five o'clock shadow that starts to show his age. “I know, I know, but the missing persons department needs help, so they phoned us. I am also not happy about this, but let's just go.  I am sure by the time we get there, they found him.” Henri says, taking his jacket and leaving for the door.