In the Shadow of His Wings (16 page)

Laura’s parents had returned to Saskatoon in November. They couldn’t stay in Niagara Falls indefinitely and it was with heavy hearts they left for home. They stayed in touch daily through email and phone calls. His wife disappeared, his world comes to a standstill, but for everyone else life goes on. Jim knew that wasn’t exactly true for his kids, and not for his in-laws either, he felt so miserable and at that very moment, incredibly sorry for himself.
I’m sorry God, I know it’s wrong but right now that’s exactly
how I feel. I’m full of self pity.
Then God brought to Jim’s mind the same verse He had used to comfort Laura,
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever.”v
Jim leaned over, opened the glove compartment and dug out a small package of tissues. He wiped his eyes and nose and looked up to see his windshield covered in a light dusting of fresh snow. He paused for a moment, over the self pity, and prayed for Laura’s protection. He was concerned that she would also be consumed with depression. He prayed the Lord would lift her up and above all, bring her home.

Chapter 15

Gerhard spent a couple hours at the gym that morning, trying to work out his anger. There was a gym on the lower floor of his hotel for his guests. He made it a practice to use it regularly himself as well. He used it most often during his lunch hour each day. On this particular morning he it was pointless to even try to work. It was mid-December and a quiet time for the hotel, he had the gym all to himself. At first he lifted the weights fast and furious, his face red with anger. Gradually he slowed down as his mind began to form a plan as to how to best deal with Christine.

His mind went back to that first day he brought her home, the threat he made to her in regards to her daughter Lacey. He felt that this would be a very good time to remind her of that threat in a very real way. He had followed the newspapers, knew all about Lacey, Josh and the hunt for Laura Reid. It wasn’t hard for Gerhard to find out exactly where the Reid’s lived. With just a little digging, he had been able to find out where Lacey went to school. Today would be a good day to pay a visit to Miss Lacey.

He was going to have to be very careful how he handled this. Gerhard was fully aware that the police had watched him carefully after his house and hotel had been searched last October. He hadn’t worried about it back then. He knew they wouldn’t find anything, he also knew he still had to tread carefully with Jim Reid. The man had put Gerhard’s face up on posters all over the city. He won’t have forgotten Gerhard’s face and neither will his children. Gerhard had a quick shower, dressed, went to his office where he thought and planned what he would do that afternoon.

One call to Lacey’s school and Gerhard found out when the students were dismissed. He drove over to the school, parked his car near the main entrance, where the busses were, hoping he would recognize Lacey when she came out. Her picture had been in the paper several times, with her brother and father, in regards to her mother’s disappearance. Gerhard thought he knew what she looked like well enough. At three o’clock the students started pouring out the door. Gerhard strained forward in his seat hoping to catch a glimpse of the girl. A group of three girls came out of the building, he was pretty sure the one in the middle was Lacey. She was dressed a light blue ski jacket, with dark blue gloves. The main reason he knew he had the right girl was her striking resemblance to Laura. She looked so much like her mother and at the same time she also looked a lot like Christine at that age. Looking at her brought a flood of memories back to Gerhard. He remembered picking Christine up from school, how much she hated that.

How she would rather go to the mall or to a friend’s house. Usually Hilda would insist Gerhard pick Christine up, bring her straight home, where she would be waiting with a list of chores for the girl to do. He remembered how that frustrated Christine! How she often vented her anger out to Gerhard.

Gerhard wore a hat with sun glasses in attempt to disguise his looks as much as possible. There were a lot of cars coming and going around the high school. With all the students running about with parents picking up their kids no one paid any attention to him. Gerhard watched Lacey, expecting to see her say goodbye to her friends and head for a separate bus that would take her home. Instead the three girls got on a bus together.

He noticed right away that this bus was not going in the direction of the Reid home. He hoped he would be able to see when she got off. Each time the bus made a stop he watched the kids that got off but did not see that Lacey was one of them. After several stops he was concerned that he might have missed her, but then he saw her. She got off with her three friends in front of the city library.

“Perfect” he thought, as he parked his car and entered the library. He had to remove the dark glasses once inside so he had to be careful. He knew Lacey would probably recognize him, he didn’t want the girl alert to his presence. This particular branch of the library was the main one for Niagara Falls and therefore a large one. In the children’s section near the entrance, Gerhard didn’t bother to look for Lacey. There was a section with comfortable reading chairs where one could listen to audio books with head phones, Lacey wasn’t there, and she wasn’t in the magazine or newspaper area either. Gerhard slowly and carefully moved through the fiction aisles but didn’t find the girls. As he came out of the non-fiction section and came towards the reference area he saw them. The reference books can be looked at but not signed out of the library.

Gerhard watched the girls for a couple of minutes. Then realized he had better do something so as not to bring suspicion upon himself. He turned away from the girls, pretended to browse the shelves for awhile, then selected a book not paying attention to what it was.

There were tables and large plants scattered in an area for patrons to use for quiet study. Gerhard sat at one of the tables where he was partially hidden from the girls behind a plant. He settled down and pretended to read his book. He kept an eye on the girls as they did their research, waiting for an opportunity. He knew this might take a while so he made himself comfortable. The girls pulled out school books, also sat at a table, spread out their back packs and began to work on homework. About an hour passed as the girls worked, comparing notes, reading, occasionally picking up another book, whispering, writing and studying. Then the right moment arrived. All three stood up together. They stretched and walked away from the table. The girls were careful to take their purses but they left their back packs and school books while they went to the washroom together.

Gerhard casually walked over to their table. He glanced around and no one was looking in his direction. It was getting close to the supper hour and the library was almost empty.

He quickly looked through the back packs and found Lacey’s. He reached inside, pulled out a school text book. He checked inside the front cover and saw that she had signed her name in it. There were even a few notes of hers stuck inside.

“This will do nicely” he thought to himself, as he slipped the book inside his coat, quickly making his way to the door. Gerhard drove home through the snowy streets carefully, still angry, but calmer now that he had a plan and a way of dealing with that anger. He had been unable to focus on hotel business all day. His staff had noticed that something was wrong. He mumbled an excuse to his secretary about not feeling well as he left early to catch Lacey.

As Gerhard drove home, he reflected on the days events. A new thought occurred to him. He really hadn’t thought this entire situation through in a ‘long term’ sort of way.

His main consideration had always been for his mother. He only wanted to bring Christine home for her. He wanted to see his mother happy and he had done that. When he first started building the room in the basement for Christine, he was sure they would never use it. After all he knew his sister was dead. However when he walked into the church that Sunday and saw Laura Reid, he saw the resemblance to his sister. He acted so fast, so impulsively, that he didn’t really think it through. Laura escaping had never entered his mind. He realized now, if she did, his life would be over. He would be arrested for kidnapping and he would go to jail for a very long time. The other thing he needed to consider long-term is what happens if his mother passes away. He knew she was not in the best of health, she refused to see a doctor. At some point, she could get so sick that he would have no choice but to take her to the hospital. What would he then do with Laura? That was something he hadn’t thought of.

Gerhard’s mind wrestled with these thoughts. Some days he got confused himself and thought Laura really was Christine. Sometimes he forgot he had kidnapped this woman and truly believed his sister was at home, chained in the basement. She couldn’t be trusted and that’s the way it had to be. Other days his thoughts were clearer and he knew what he had done was very wrong but he had done it for his mother. She was so much happier now, so didn’t that make it ok? Gerhard loved his mother but he felt like she was sucking the life right out of him. He couldn’t have a life of his own. He wanted to get married, have a family of his own. He couldn’t pull away from his mother. He thought that by bringing Christine home for her, she would finally let go of him a little.

That hadn’t happened yet, but it would, he was sure of it. The two women just needed more time together. As they grew closer, he would be able to pull away and then he would have more freedom. He was looking forward to that.

Laura
had been sitting on pins and needles all day. She found it impossible to sit still. She kept imagining the scenario at the bookstore, how Gerhard would go in and ask for the book. Sandy would calmly say she didn’t have it but she could order it and ask him to come back in a couple of days. Then Sandy would call Jim and Jim would call the police, the trap could be set. If this all worked then she could be home in just a few days.

Laura kept pacing in her room, her excitement building. She prayed for Sandy, Jim and the police. She tried to watch TV with Hilda but her stomach was in knots, she found it impossible to sit still. Hilda kept looking at her suspiciously, wondering what was wrong. Laura finally made an excuse about an upset stomach. Hilda gave her some antacid tablets and told her to go lie down. Laura didn’t know how she was going to get through the next few days waiting for the police to arrive. She got so excited about the thought of being home for Christmas. She might even have time to do some Christmas shopping and decorating before the twenty fifth! Laura picked up one of the catalogues and started to look through it, this time with thoughts of what she would like to get for Jim, Josh and Lacey. A few minutes later she heard Gerhard’s steps coming down the stairs. She felt her pulse quicken and her hands tremble slightly. She put down the catalogue and trying to look as normal as possible, as she got up to go set up the three TV

trays for supper.

Gerhard brought in their supper. The three sat and ate just as they always did, while they watched the evening game shows. Gerhard seemed quieter than usual as he ate his dinner, occasionally glaring at Laura. Hilda didn’t seem to notice, but Laura did and it made her very uncomfortable. Gerhard always brought their supper home with him from the hotel restaurant. The chef’s there were very skilled and the food was top quality. Their dinner that evening consisted of chicken and French fries from a fast food restaurant. This was out of the ordinary for Gerhard although Hilda seemed to enjoy it.

Laura found it very difficult to eat with the way Gerhard was looking at her. There was a look in his eyes that she had not seen before and it terrified her. Something was very wrong. Gerhard ate his dinner in silence, waiting until Hilda was completely finished before he said anything.

“Not hungry tonight Christine?” he asked.

“No, not really, my stomach is bothering me a little today.” Laura replied, nervously.

“I’m sorry to hear that” Gerhard responded, not sounding sorry at all, but sounding more angry than anything else. Laura felt herself starting to tremble with fear.

She was beginning to realize that something must have gone very wrong with her plan.

Gerhard stood up to clear the dishes, Laura automatically rose to help him as she always did.

“Don’t bother,” Gerhard said, “since you don’t feel well, I’ll get them. You go lie down in your room.”

“Thank you, I will” Laura went past Gerhard nervously to her room, not sure what was going on in his mind but feeling a great deal of fear inside. As soon as she got to her room she reached for her bible and clutched it to her chest tightly as she sat on her bed. It was only a moment before Gerhard walked in the door, closing it quietly behind him.

“That was quite some trick you pulled on me today.” Gerhard stood just inside her room, glaring at her.

“What do you mean?” Laura tried to sound innocent.

“Don’t insult me. You know exactly what I mean. I have something for you.” With that comment Gerhard tossed the book of Lacey’s on Laura’s bed. Laura picked up the book, for a moment confused. Then as she looked at it and recognized it as her daughter’s, the color drained from her face.

“How did you get this?” Laura whispered.

“How I got that is not important.” Gerhard responded, his voice quiet but very stern and angry. “The fact is that I was close enough to your daughter to get that book.

My giving you that book right now is a warning. Actually it’s very nice of me to give you this warning. Remember the first day you came here? I told you then what would happen if you didn’t cooperate with us, didn’t I? So you can say this is your second and final warning. Have I made myself clear?”

Laura was trembling from head to toe, with tears running down her cheeks, she nodded. This time Gerhard, still angered by her trick, wasn’t softened by the tears. With a very sarcastic voice he continued, “This is the book you get instead of the one you