In the Shadow of His Wings (25 page)

“I think I should go lie down for awhile Gerhard. Take me to my old room up here. I don’t want to go down those stairs tonight, I’m too tired.” Hilda moaned as Gerhard helped her up.

“That’s a good idea mom. Let’s get you into bed. Don’t worry about the salad; I’ll take care of it.” Gerhard was deeply concerned about his mother as helped her down the hall to her bedroom. Hilda staggered and Gerhard led her, feeling both dizzy and weak. He had never seen her so colourless or this frail. He helped her into bed not even bothering to change her clothes. Hilda was far too weak to do it herself and Gerhard had no intentions of undressing his mother. She was wearing a very simple housedress that would be comfortable enough to sleep in anyway. Gerhard put a fresh glass of water at her bedside and was about to ask her if there was anything else he could get her when she started to snore, he quietly left the room.

Gerhard went back to the kitchen, staring at the forgotten supper on the counter and the salad on the table without really seeing it. He no longer had an appetite and didn’t care at all about the food. His mind was racing with the nights events and he didn’t know what to do. He pulled the garbage can out from under the sink and dumped the entire meal into it. Not even bothering to package up the salad ingredients he pushed all of that into the garbage as well. He gathered up the cutting board and knife and dropped them into the sink. He worked robotically, without thought of what he was doing or the food he was wasting. He didn’t think that maybe Laura might be hungry.

Scenes from his many bad dreams jumped into his thoughts. Visions of the police at his door, there to arrest him and send him away to prison haunted him. Thoughts of his mother dying and leaving him alone, of what he would have to do with Laura if that were to happen. Even if that didn’t happen for a long time, what was he to do with this woman downstairs? Clearly he had made a terrible mess of things. His whole life was a mess. Gerhard couldn’t stand to be in the kitchen another minute. He didn’t want to go downstairs and talk to Laura so he decided to go for a walk outside. It wasn’t until he opened his front door and stepped out that he realized how the weather had turned. It was pouring rain and thunder was rumbling. Gerhard didn’t care though. The weather just seemed to match his mood and he went for a walk anyway. He walked down his driveway and turned right to go down the sidewalk. He did not even notice the man sitting in the parked car right across the street, watching him exit his house.

Gerhard was not the only one having a rough night. There was another man in Niagara Falls that was having trouble finding a sense of peace. Detective Don Chisholm was also struggling. Over the last several months Don had worked hard to solve the Laura Reid case. He had been frustrated to find a brick wall every which way he had turned. The woman seemed to have vanished into thin air. Something he knew wasn’t possible. In his line of work, this was rare. There was almost always some sort of clue to follow, somewhere, somehow. In this case he could find nothing and to Don that just was not acceptable. At first he was sure it had to be the husband, but through careful investigation and observation he was able to rule that out. He investigated Laura as well; to be sure she wasn’t seeing another man on the side and had perhaps carefully staged an abduction in order to run off. The more he investigated this family, the more he knew that couldn’t be the case. Someone had to have kidnapped her but he could not figure out who or why. He hated loose ends and refused to close the file on this case and give up.

Many times he had pulled out Laura’s file and read over every scrap of information in it, hoping to find that one piece of evidence that he might have overlooked. Perhaps one thing that was said, that was ignored that shouldn’t have been. There was no such thing as the perfect crime, somehow, there had to be a clue. Somewhere there was something that would lead to the woman’s whereabouts. Don had come to know the Reid family well and had grown to care about the family. He desperately wanted to bring their mother home. He imagined what their faces would look like if he was able to bring them good news of Laura, but then again, after all this time he seriously doubted she was still alive. He knew that if he could even find out where her body was, and what happened to her, then at least it would give them closure. If he could do that, then maybe he would feel a sense of peace.

One thing that stood out in his mind each time he read through the file was the name of Gerhard Bloone. Don had stressed to Jim that Gerhard was not a suspect and when he had said that, he had believed it, but now he wasn’t so certain. The man had been so helpful the day he allowed the police to search his home and business. He’d been almost too helpful and eager. Don now wondered if it
had
been Gerhard who had come into the book store and attempted to purchase the book that had gotten Jim so excited back in December. Maybe he had been too quick to dismiss the possibility and he now wished he had looked into it more thoroughly. At the time he had been so certain that Gerhard had nothing to do with Laura’s abduction, however lately the thought of the man as a suspect kept nagging at his mind. Don had felt restless that evening, he had gone for a drive, mindless of the pending storm; he had driven around town for awhile, going past the Falls Mist Hotel. He then found himself driving down the Niagara Parkway and ending up in front of the Bloone house. He had pulled up across the street from the house and just sat there for awhile thinking, when the storm had hit. He was surprised when he saw Gerhard exit the house, without a jacket and begin to walk down the street. As lightening struck in the night sky Don was able to see the look of distress on Gerhard’s face. Gerhard didn’t even notice Don sitting in his car. Don started up the car, drove up along side Gerhard and lowered his window,

“Mr. Bloone, it’s a rather wet night to be out for a walk, is something wrong?” Don called out politely, carefully studying Gerhard’s face for his reaction.

Gerhard turned towards the detective, a look of surprise on his face. He was not expecting to see anyone else out on such a night, definitely not expecting to see the police detective!

“No not really, I uh, I just had a fight with my mother and had to get out for a bit, that’s all. I didn’t think about the weather. You’re right, it’s a nasty night. I should get back inside. Goodnight.” With that Gerhard turned back towards his house and hurried up the driveway.

“Well goodnight then!” Don shouted, but his voice was drowned out by a clap of thunder. He watched Gerhard return to the house and again he wondered if this man were really innocent. He was beginning to have strong feelings to the contrary. It was obvious that Gerhard had recognized him and was definitely disturbed at the sight of the police detective.

Gerhard
rushed back into the house, trembling with fear.
The police detective!

What is he doing here, outside my house?!
It had been a few months since he had last seen detective Chisholm but he was certain that the man in the car outside his house was him. It was definitely not one of his neighbors and the man had known his name!

Gerhard went to his bedroom and without turning on the lights looked through the windows. He couldn’t see anything through the rain on the window so he waited for lightening. When the lightening flashed he saw that the detective’s car was gone and he fell onto his bed in relief. Yet his mind raced, wondering what the man was doing there in the first place. He had been so careful and he was sure the police didn’t suspect him.

He had made every effort to assist the police in their search for Laura. They had even searched the house and found nothing. So why was he here now? It didn’t make sense.

Gerhard knew this was going to be a long restless night.

Chapter 22

The next day Laura paced in her basement living room, continually looking up the steps, waiting for Hilda to come down.
Where can she be? She always comes
downstairs at this time.
Laura was getting hungry. It was past lunch time. Hilda had not brought down their lunch and now it was time for the woman’s soap opera’s and she still hadn’t come down. Gerhard had left her some breakfast on a TV tray earlier but hadn’t waited for her to come out of her room. So she didn’t get a chance to talk to him about last night. She didn’t care about missing last night’s dinner but she wondered what went on upstairs between him and Hilda, why neither of them came back down to eat with her.

She wondered if that was supposed to be part of her punishment as well. She was so upset about Lacey the night before that she probably wouldn’t have eaten anything even if they had brought her food. She wondered what was going on with Hilda and Gerhard.

Especially since today’s routine was clearly not going as it normally did. Laura continued to pace and as she did she prayed, asking God to help the young woman in the newspaper article, whether it was her daughter or not. She prayed that God would strengthen her and heal her. She also prayed for Jim, who she knew could possibly be out of his mind with worry for his daughter. She prayed for Josh as well. How she longed to be there with them. Her heart ached for her family. She thought of her parents and wondered how they were handling everything. They would be finding the whole mess very difficult, especially living so far away where they couldn’t physically be with the family everyday. Laura’s thoughts went to her church family as well. They had so many special and wonderful friends there. She missed them all so much. Her eyes filled up with tears as she pictured their faces. She knew that they would all be supportive and caring towards Jim and Josh. She thanked God that they were part of such a wonderful church. Laura couldn’t imagine what it would be like for a person to go through a major crisis without the support of a church family. They were there for her for everything!

For the good and bad times and she knew she could count on their love and support whether it was a small or big problem. They were truly like a family, working together and sometimes even fighting together. They didn’t always get along perfectly.

Sometimes there were problems but that’s when they had to work a little harder and work through those problems and resolve things. When they did, they were stronger because of it. Laura smiled when she thought of some of the tough times they had been through.

Some people had left the church when struggles had come. She always hated to see people leave because she knew that if they stayed and worked through the difficulty they would see how God worked it out for good. The church become stronger for it. They might, perhaps, even see themselves grow through it as well.

Laura looked at the time again and instead of worrying about where her lunch was she worried about Hilda.
Something must be wrong.
She was thinking over the possibilities in her mind when the upstairs door opened and Gerhard came down the steps. This was a week day and it was not normal for Gerhard to be home during the day.

He didn’t look himself. His face was red, he seemed flustered and nervous. He placed a tray on the couch with some food on it that had clearly been purchased at a fast food restaurant.

“I hope this is alright. I’m sorry about the choice of food but I was in a hurry today.” Gerhard stood there wringing his hands as he talked, clearly feeling awkward.

“Gerhard what’s wrong? Where’s your mother? Is she alright? I haven’t seen her all morning?” Laura walked around the couch and over to Gerhard, definitely more concerned about Hilda than the food.

“She’s not feeling very well. I think she’s ok but just needs to rest. She didn’t feel up to coming down the stairs so she’s using her bedroom upstairs for now. I came home to check on her and bring you both some lunch but I have to get back to the office, so you go ahead and eat and don’t worry about anything. I’ll be home at supper time as usual.” Gerhard turned to go back up the stairs, clearly wanting to get out of there and away from any further questions. Before he went all the way up he turned to add,

“I’m not sure when she’ll feel up to coming back downstairs again. Perhaps in a day or two. I’ll be sure to come home each day and bring lunch for you both and I’ll get some snacks for down here too. Maybe I’ll get something extra to put in your fridge so that you’ll have some additional choices. I’ll see what I can do. Don’t worry about it, everything will be ok.” Gerhard disappeared through the door, not waiting for Laura to respond.

Laura sat down with her lunch and thought about what Gerhard had said. Poor Hilda. She knew the woman well enough by now to know that she must hate being upstairs alone all day. She must be bored. It would be better for her if she were at least downstairs where Laura could tend to her and keep her company. Laura bowed her head to thank the Lord for her food and also to say a prayer for Hilda. As Laura ate her cold hamburger and French fries she thought about Gerhard and how stressed he looked. It couldn’t be easy for him to run a major hotel and have to baby sit two women at the same time. Ordinarily a man of his means would hire someone to take care of his mother. Of course that wouldn’t be a good idea in this situation. Although the more Laura thought about it the more she realized that he really could do that if he wanted to. When she had tried to escape she had noticed how the upstairs door was hidden in a pantry. Both Hilda and Gerhard had made a point of telling her how well the basement had been sound proofed. So they could have an upstairs nurse or house keeper and she wouldn’t know that Laura was downstairs. But there would always be a risk of course. It might depend on just how ill Hilda is. If she were not completely conscious she might say something she shouldn’t. The nurse might find out a bit of information that Gerhard wouldn’t want her to know. Gerhard would be feeling paranoid enough that he would never take that risk. Of that Laura felt sure. She wondered if he had called a doctor in to have a look at his mother. She hoped he had at least done that for the poor woman.

After Gerhard delivered Laura’s lunch to her he checked back in with his mother to see if she needed anything else before he went back to work. She was propped up in bed with several pillows and had a supply of magazines on the bed to the left. On her night table to the right, Gerhard had been sure to place a fresh pitcher of water as well as a tin of her favorite cookies. On Hilda’s lap was an attractive bed tray with her lunch, also from a fast food restaurant. There was a TV remote control in the side pocket of the bed tray and a small TV mounted on the wall across from the end of Hilda’s bed.