Don't Look Back (26 page)

Five minutes passed and I was starting to feel panicked that he wasn’t going to show up. But I knew him well enough to know that he would want that money. As I gazed around the area, I saw a pair of headlights on the other end of the park. The car looked like it was pulling to a stop. The headlights turned off.

Frozen in my seat, I waited to see if Trevor and Natalie would appear from that direction. After several minutes I saw a lone figure walking toward me, a bag over his shoulder. There were a few lights in the area; just enough so that I could see it was Trevor. But he didn’t have Natalie with him. Where was she?

Pulling my keys out of the ignition, I climbed out of the car and ran toward him.

“Where is she?! Where is she?!”

“Calm down, Lily. She’s in my car.”

“You left her alone?”

“She’ll be fine. Now where’s the money?”

“Bring me Natalie first.”

“No. First I need to make sure you have the money.”

I had no desire to keep the money so I was willing to go along with his request. “It’s in the trunk.”

We walked back to my car.

As we entered the dimly lit area, Trevor stopped and looked at me. “Wow, Lily. You’re a mess.”

Ignoring him, I inserted my key into the trunk and raised the lid. I watched Trevor as he lifted the top on the metal box and touched the money inside.

“It’s all there,” I said. “I never spent any of it.”

He glanced at me. “Good for you. Now put the money in this bag.” He handed me his gym bag, the same one where I’d found the SD card. Now I was glad I had taken the money. Without it I would have had no leverage to get Trevor to meet me and give Natalie back.

I took the bag from him and began transferring the money from the metal box to the gym bag. It didn’t take long to move it all over. I handed him the bag. “Okay. Now I want Natalie.”

He set the bag down and laughed. “Now I have the money
and
the baby.”

My heart dropped. He had no intention of giving Natalie back to me. I glanced at the gym bag. Why had he set it on the ground? Was he planning on attacking me?

Frantically, I ran through the self-defense moves in my head. I tried to be subtle as I got into a defensive stance.

Trevor grinned at me. “I’m sorry we couldn’t work it out, Lily. We had a good thing going for a while there. But like all good things, this must come to an end.”

He lunged for me, his arms outstretched. But I was ready for him. I put my hands up and deflected his attempt. Then he grabbed my wrists, but I twisted my arms towards his thumbs and broke loose. I glanced around, hopeful that someone would come by, but it was late and no one appeared.

In the moment I looked around, he took advantage of the distraction and put his hands around my neck, trying to strangle me. I put my right arm up in the air and quickly twisted to the side, forcing his hands off my neck. My elbow was bent now and I thrust it at his face, hard. His head snapped back. I lifted my knee and rammed it into his groan. He collapsed to the ground. As he writhed on the grass I felt his pockets and found his keys, then pulled them out and ran as fast as I could toward his car.

As I approached, I could hear Natalie wailing. My hands shook as I tried to jam the key into the lock. Finally, I was able to unlock the door. As I slid into the driver’s seat I glanced back toward Trevor and saw him trying to get up. I shoved the key into the ignition and the engine turned over. Trevor was stumbling in my direction, but I threw the car into reverse and pulled out of the parking space.

I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t have any money on me and I had left my purse at home. I decided to drive there, get my purse and then drive away. As we headed home, Natalie settled down, the motion of the car rocking her to sleep. Ten minutes later I pulled up to my house.

I thought about Trevor and what he would do next. Would he try to take Natalie again? No doubt he would. At least he won’t be able to follow me without a car, I thought. Then the blood drained from my face as I realized the keys to my car had been left in the trunk lock.

He was probably only minutes behind me. Frantically, I tried to figure out what to do. Then it came to me.
The hidden room
. I’ll take Natalie and hide in there.

With shaking hands I took her out of her car seat. It was not the car seat from my car. Obviously this was something Trevor had planned ahead of time. I stepped onto the porch and was thankful I hadn’t bothered to lock the front door when I’d run out or I wouldn’t have a way to get in now.

I carried Natalie into the house and locked the door behind me. Greta greeted me with her usual joy. I wondered what I should do with her. If I brought her into the hidden room she might bark and give our location away. But if I left her in the house, she might stand outside the closet and bark, again giving our location away. As much as I didn’t like it, I decided to put her outside.

“Come on, girl,” I said as I hurried her to her dog door. “Go on out back.” She went out her dog door and I dropped the plastic shield in place. She barked, not liking to be kept outside when I was inside.

I raced to the staircase, then realized I hadn’t set the alarm. As I reached toward the buttons, my gaze went to the panic button on the panel. That would call the police right away. Breathing a sigh of relief, I pressed the red button. Nothing happened. A bad feeling swelled within my gut as I pressed the button several times with the same result. Maybe I need to punch in the code first, I thought, frantically pressing the buttons for my security code.

There was no beeping response.

Trevor must have disabled the alarm when I was unconscious, I thought, trying to keep complete panic from taking over. How had he gotten the code? Had he found it when I was unconscious? Had he planned on coming back even after he’d taken Natalie? Why? What was he planning on doing?

Then I heard the crunch of gravel as a car pulled into the drive. Turning to the front door, I jammed my eye to the peephole and saw my car driving toward the house. I was certain Trevor was behind the wheel. With Natalie in my arms, I raced up the stairs to her room and into her closet. I slid the closet door closed, then crawled into the hidden room, Natalie held in one arm. It was awkward, but I was able to do it. Once inside, I set her on the hard floor, then with shaking hands I reached out into the closet and did my best to pull the boxes against the small door as I closed it, hoping it would disguise the door.

I peered out the window and saw my Honda parked out front, but I didn’t see Trevor. Terror surged over me in waves as I strained to listen for any indication of what he was doing.

Natalie started fussing. I was sure she must be hungry. I picked her up from the floor, then sat on the ground and leaned against the wall. I lifted my shirt and put her to my breast. She ate hungrily. But most importantly, she was silent.

Suddenly I heard the front door crash open. Tears filled my eyes as I held Natalie against me. Paralyzing panic held me in place as I waited for Trevor to find me.

“Lily, where are you?” Trevor said from somewhere below me.

It sounded like he was searching the first floor.

Moments later I heard a creak on the stairs and knew he was coming.

Frozen with dread, I was terrified about what he would do if he found me. When I heard him walk into the baby’s room, I gagged as the horror of my situation overwhelmed me. I prayed Natalie wouldn’t make any noise. I heard the floor boards creak as he walked around the room. Then I heard the closet door slide open. I held my breath, waiting for him to throw open the door to my sanctuary, but miraculously it didn’t sound like he was moving the boxes.

When I heard his footsteps walk away, relief cascaded over me and waves of dizziness made my ears buzz.

“Where are you, Lily? Come out of hiding,” he demanded.

It sounded like he had gone into my bedroom.

“I want Natalie back,” he said.

I held her closer to me and looked down at her. She had fallen asleep.

“It will be better if I don’t have to track you down. Now come out.”

I could tell he was getting agitated. Once he realized we weren’t hiding in my bedroom, what would he do? Would he start a more thorough search and find the hidden room? What would I do if he found Natalie?

I knew I had to keep him away from my baby. Doing the only thing I could think of to protect her, I set her on the floor. Even though the floor was hard, she stayed asleep. Then I went to the small door and slowly pushed it open. I crawled out, then closed the door and put the boxes securely against it. I tiptoed out of the closet and pressed myself against the wall. Trevor was still in my bedroom.

“Where are you, Lily?” I heard him roar.

I was hesitant to leave Natalie alone in the room, but in my panicked state I didn’t know what else to do. Suddenly I heard the faint sound of Natalie waking. I had to draw Trevor downstairs and I had to do it now. I sprinted down the stairs, purposely making noise.

A moment later I heard him pounding down the stairs behind me. I had barely reached the living room when he caught up to me. I noticed the front door hanging open and the dark night beyond. Then I turned to face him.

“There you are, Lily. Where’s my baby?” He stood about five feet away.

“You can’t have her,” I said. I felt tears threatening, but took a deep breath to get myself under control.

“It’s not up to you.” He took a step toward me.

“Stop!” I yelled, as I’d been taught in class.

He laughed. “You think you can keep me from my baby?”

“She belongs to both of us,” I said, trying to sound reasonable. “Why can’t we share custody?”

“Because, as you’ve so recently demonstrated, you get to set all the rules. I don’t like your rules.”

I wanted to draw him out of the house and away from Natalie before she began to cry loud enough for him to hear. I turned to run out of the house, but before I took more than two steps, he had locked his arm around my neck. I realized I had broken a cardinal rule of self-defense: Never turn your back on your attacker.

I found it hard to breathe. Using both of my hands, I grabbed the inside of his elbow and yanked, allowing my airway to open. He held on and I swung my head back as hard as I could, hitting his face. He let go with a grunt of surprise. I spun around and saw his nose gushing blood.

He came at me again, a look of fury on his face. I got into a defensive stance with my arms up, bent at the elbow, one hand further forward than the other. He reached for me, but I used my arms to deflect his attempt. He tried again and this time I shot my arm out and pushed his chest. He stumbled backward a few steps, but didn’t fall.

Pure hatred glowed in his eyes and I knew he would kill me if I didn’t stop him. Fresh adrenaline pulsed through me at the realization and I took a deep breath. This time when he rushed me, he tackled me. I fell to the ground on my back with him on top of me.

“Now we’ll see who wins,” he said as his hands wrapped around my throat and began to squeeze.

I tried to turn my head to loosen his grasp, but his grip was too tight. Then I tried to move my arms, but realized he was using his knees to pin them against my sides. I tried kicking him with my legs, but he was sitting too far forward for me to reach him.

Blackness filled my peripheral vision. Natalie’s face flashed in my mind and utter sadness filled me when I realized she would grow up without a mother as I had. I felt myself fading away but my eyes remained open. Suddenly a flash of fur flew across my limited field of vision and a great weight was lifted from my chest. Trevor was off of me. I took in deep gasps of air as I heard him scream. I managed to turn my head and I saw Greta on top of him, her jaw clamped on his neck. Abruptly, his voice went silent.

I lay there, trying to recover from my near strangulation. Then I slowly sat up and looked around, trying to understand what had happened. The front door was smashed in, Trevor was on the floor, dead or severely injured, Greta had her powerful jaws still around his neck. This time no tears came. I was in shock.

Finally, Greta let go and came and sat by me. I crawled over to Trevor and pressed my fingers against his neck. I didn’t feel a pulse. I was surprised that there wasn’t very much blood.

“Lily,” a voice called from the door.

I swung my head around and saw Marcus standing there.

“I just got your message,” he said as he came to me. “What happened?”

Seeing him there made me feel safe and I burst into tears. “He took Natalie,” I sobbed, my voice scratchy from Trevor’s chokehold.

Panic filled his face. “Where is she?”

“She’s fine now,” I assured him, through my tears. “But Trevor,” I said, motioning down at him. “I think he’s . . .”

Marcus checked for a pulse, then looked at me and shook his head. “I think she crushed his windpipe.”

“We’d better call the police,” I said, trying to stand. Marcus helped me up. I went to the coffee table where I’d left my purse, took out my cell phone, and dialed 911. When someone answered, I tried to explain what had happened. The person on the phone said an officer would be there shortly and had me stay on the phone with her until the officer arrived.

While I was waiting, I took Greta into my bedroom and closed the door, not wanting her to get in the way while everything was going on.

Chapter Forty-Five

Within five minutes two police cars and an ambulance had pulled up to the house and I hung up the phone. The emergency personnel first tended to Trevor, but it was obvious he was beyond help. Then they turned to me. Besides the red marks on my neck, I had a good-sized lump on the side of my head where Trevor had hit me. After they checked me, I declined to be taken to the hospital and the ambulance left.

The police officers turned to me, questioning me about what had happened.

“Before we talk, I need to get my baby,” I said.

The officers followed me upstairs. I could hear Natalie crying as I got closer to her room. The officers watched as I moved the boxes in the closet out of the way and crawled into the hidden room. One of them followed me in. I picked Natalie up from the floor and handed her out to the officer who was in the outer room, then I crawled out. The other officer followed behind me.