In the Shadow of His Wings

by Pamela Wells

  Hilda however, having no idea that her daughter was dead, insisted her son go searching for the girl. She would wake Gerhard up in the middle of the night to go looking for Christine but with the passing of time she became more bitter and angry over the situation, sometimes waking Gerhard up with a vicious slap across the face. Gerhard, in his self induced guilt, would receive her abuse in silence. Hilda never gave up hope that Christine would come home again. She kept Christine’s room clean and ready for her return, although she did move all of Christine’s things to a room in the basement.

  She reasoned that if Christine came back it might not be willingly at first. After all, she was a stubborn girl! So she set up the basement for a resistant Christine. Hilda planned, together with Gerhard, how they would get Christine to come home and stay with them.

  Since Gerhard knew this could never happen, he felt there was no harm in helping his mother plan as they set up the perfect living quarters. As Gerhard contemplated, he could not help but think of his sister in this prison.

  When Gerhard entered the Niagara Falls church that Sunday, three weeks ago he had come looking for some sense of peace. In the thirty years since his sister had died, his guilt had not eased but had grown inside him like a malignant tumor. His mother didn’t wake him in the middle of the night any more. She had finally given up on that. She had turned into a miserable, bitter old woman and the verbal abuse was relentless. Gerhard had been driving down the road one day when he saw a simple cross with the words below it “God Loves You”. It made him think, was there a possibility of a God who might actually care about the misery he was going through? So he decided that Sunday he would see what it would be like to sit in a church service. If God were indeed real, then just maybe He could make Himself known to him and give him some peace.

  As he looked around he didn’t expect to come face to face with his dead sister. He knew that Laura Reid was really not Christine but she looked exactly like what he thought Christine would look like today, if she were still alive. God really did care! He must have led Gerhard to this particular church for just this reason. His mind worked quickly on a plan to get this “Christine” home to his mother. He was glad he thought fast enough to give Laura and her husband his middle name William, instead of his first one. It was a shame that her husband actually saw his face but it was too late for that.

  Hopefully he had already forgotten what Gerhard looked like and would never make the connection between his missing wife and the stranger in church. If he did, well, he would deal with that situation when it came up. Laura had told him she was the church secretary. That was a handy fact to know. Before he could do anything in regards to Laura, he had some serious work to do in Christine’s room at home. He took three weeks off work telling his staff he was going on vacation and then got busy making the preparations.

  Chapter 3

  Monday morning and Jim was already in the bathroom when Laura’s alarm clock went off at 7:30. Lacey was getting ready for school while Laura prepared for her morning at work. Monday’s were busy. She only worked at the church until noon, but then she had her usual Monday errands to run. Banking and postal errands for the church, groceries, and whatever else for home.

  “Um, dear are you planning on doing much shopping today?” asked Jim as he came into the kitchen.

  “I don’t know. I might do some, why?” Laura responded, her shoulders starting to tense up.

  “I just want you to remember we have bills to pay and you have a tendency to spend more than we earn.” Jim came back with a sarcastic reply.

  “Have you seen my running shoes?” asked Lacey, as she ran back down the stairs with a piece of toast in one hand and a glass of juice in the other.

  “Check the front closet. What are you going to do without me next year when you go to university? Maybe you shouldn’t go. Why don’t you forget it and just stay home. I’m sure you could just find a job or something.”

  “No thanks Mom,” laughed Lacey, as she kissed her mom on the cheek, dashed out the door with her running shoes in her hands, her unfinished toast and juice left on the table.

  “Have a great day!” shouted Laura.

  Laura then turned to Jim and angrily reminded him, “It wasn’t me that overspent last month mister! It was you, remember? You said you needed a new laptop because your other one was too slow.”

  “That was for my business. I can’t be using a slow computer when we are so busy. That was a necessity, NOT a luxury.” Jim responded.

  “Most of the things I buy are necessities too!” shouted Laura. She was tired of this argument. It was one they had been over too many times to count. Laura always watched for sales and tried her best to buy the things they needed at good prices. So if she treated herself to a new blouse now and then, it wasn’t much different than if she bought the other things at full price. She figured it all balanced out.

  “Well there are at least three new shirts in your closet and the month isn’t even half over yet. Please just stick to the basics this week.” Jim was trying to hold back his anger; he was also tired of the same old argument.

  “If you are so worried about money maybe we need the help of an accountant to go over all the books. Only THIS time you hire a man!” shouted Laura.

  “Oh please don’t bring that old argument up again. I thought we had dealt with that years ago, it’s over. Our finances will be fine if you just control your impulse shopping!”

  He then left for work forgetting to kiss his wife goodbye. Or maybe he didn’t forget, he simply didn’t feel like it.

  Laura wanted to yell out to door to Jim. She didn’t know what she wanted to yell, she just wanted to. However she only had a few minutes before she had to leave for work herself. She tried to push away the angry thoughts as she sat down at the computer and checked her email. No major news today, just a few jokes to forward on and a bunch of junk mail to delete. There was an email from her mother but she would take more time later this afternoon to respond to that one. Her mother only recently discovered how much fun the internet could be and emailed Laura regularly.

  Bill and Sylvia Anderson had moved away from Niagara Falls soon after Laura and Jim were married. After Bill retired he bought a small piece of property in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and the two had moved there. Bill had grown up in Saskatoon and had always wanted to return there. It was a difficult adjustment for Sylvia at first and Laura hated the idea of her parents moving so far away but she wanted to see them happy and from the many times she had heard her father talk about his days in Saskatoon she knew the place held a an important spot in his heart. He had many relatives there so it didn’t take them long to settle in and Sylvia soon found herself surrounded by a warm and welcoming new circle of friends. She missed her daughter and vacations were spent flying back and forth, watching her grandchildren grow up from a distance.

  The day that Bill bought his wife a computer and hooked her up to the internet was an exciting one for Sylvia. Now she could talk to her daughter and her grandchildren every day without spending extra money. They could send pictures back and forth as well. Sylvia took full advantage of that, and with Josh’s expertise on computers they had a lot of fun. He sent her the most interesting and funny emails.

  Laura enjoyed getting emails from her mother and was happy to respond to them but she didn’t want to rush her response and with one look at her watch she knew she needed to get moving. There was always a lot to do Monday mornings at church. It wouldn’t hurt to get there a few minutes early.

  Laura arrived at the church just before nine that day. She noticed that Pastor Brooks’ car was already there. That wasn’t unusual. He often arrived early so he could spend some time alone in the sanctuary reading his bible or praying, before the phones started ringing and the place got busy. Laura parked her car beside his and just as she was climbing out of her car she heard someone coming up quickly behind her. She began to turn to see who it was, but before she could a large gloved hand grabbed her left shoulder
and another came around the front and clamped a smelly rag over her mouth.

  Terrified, Laura tried to scream, attempting with all her might to struggle, kick and pull away. She swung her purse around trying to hit her assailant in the head, but it didn’t have any effect, her purse fell to the ground broken. Whoever was holding her was obviously stronger and whatever was in that rag quickly made her legs and arms feel very weak and she soon felt herself falling. She knew the ground couldn’t be that far away but it felt like she was falling through a long dark tunnel that just kept going and going.

  Gerhard moved as fast as he could trying not to hurt Laura, dragging her over to his van he then laid her in the back. He ripped off a piece of duct tape placing it over her mouth, quickly wrapped more around her hands and feet, jumped in his seat and drove off. Laura lay there unconscious, totally unaware that she had just been abducted.

  Pastor Brooks finished his devotions in the sanctuary, headed for his office, noticing that the door to Laura’s office was still closed. She wasn’t usually late.

  Checking to see if her car was in the parking lot, he saw it sitting with the door open, the contents of her purse strewn over the gravel. He rushed to see if Laura was laying hurt beside her car. Pastor Brooks could see that Laura was not in or around her car. The ground was scuffed up and it was clear that there had been a struggle there. He backed away being careful not to disturb any evidence, rushing inside to call the police. The hair on the back of his neck was standing up and he had goose bumps up and down his arms.

  He was sure something awful must have happened.

  After Pastor Brooks called the police he also called his wife, June. He wanted her help and support on this. He knew he needed to call Jim Reid next and he was dreading making the call. Since the Brooks didn’t live far from the church June arrived before the police did.

  “I saw Laura’s car. I’m afraid you’re right. Something awful must have happened. There is no way she would walk away from her purse like that. You can see by the ground that she struggled with someone, there are even marks where it looks like she might have been dragged!” cried June.

  “You didn’t touch anything, did you?” questioned Wilf Brooks.

  “No – I was careful. I kept my distance. Have you called Jim yet?”

  “I was just about to.” Wilf reached for the phone with a heavy heart.

  Just then the police arrived so June went to the front entrance to greet them and show them Laura’s car as Wilf called Jim. When Wilf got off the phone he went outside to talk to the police. The police agreed that the situation seemed suspicious and they were eager to talk to Laura’s husband. They also had questions for Pastor Brooks about what kind of man Jim was and what type of marriage the Reids had etc. Pastor Brooks was quick to assure them that in his opinion the Reids were a fine couple who loved each other. They had their share of difficulties but for the most part he and June both agreed that the Reids had a wonderful marriage, were devoted to each other as well as to their children. The police just nodded taking notes on everything they said.

  One of the police men asked if the church had any security cameras around the building.

  “Security cameras in our small church? Good heavens, no. Who would ever think we would need them?” responded Wilf.

  Jim Reid arrived soon afterwards and was noticeably upset. The police officers started questioning Jim about his wife and whether or not they had been fighting recently.

  Jim assured the officers that they had a good marriage, completely forgetting the fight they had had just that morning. He assured them that Laura had no reason to run away or to want to escape, that he had no reason to want her out of his life. He was worried sick about his wife and just wanted her found. It was driving him crazy that they were wasting so much time asking him all these questions when he just wanted them to get out there and look for his wife!! So much time was being wasted! Shouldn’t they start questioning the neighbors? Maybe someone saw something! If only they would just get busy!!

  Jim sat on the edge of the church front step with his head in his hands.

  This can’t be real. Something horrible did NOT just happen to my wife. I was speaking to her less than an hour ago. Oh yeah, it was more like shouting but still it was just a silly argument and didn’t mean anything. We do stuff like that all the time. But where is she?

  She couldn’t have run off, not with her purse and car here. Maybe she just fell and was wandering around the property hurt and confused. Police were searching the grounds, they’ll find her and then we can all have a laugh at how scared we were and get back to our day.

  One officer used the word kidnapped. That has to be a mistake.

  It’s not real because things like that don’t happen to people like them. We aren’t rich enough to pay a ransom. Who would take my wife? Oh God, please let her be ok!

  During the confusion outside June slipped inside the church and got on the phone.

  She called Elizabeth Jenkins the head of the church prayer chain.

  “Elizabeth – I don’t want to take the time to go into a lot of detail right now. I just want to get you and the others on the prayer chain to start praying right now for Laura. Something awful has happened to her and I don’t know exactly what. All I know is that she is missing. Please get the prayers going for her right now. Pray for her to have strength and courage. Also pray for God to give the police wisdom on how to handle this.”

  Elizabeth’s mind filled with a dozen questions but she could hear the urgency in June’s voice and knew this wasn’t the time for questions.

  “Ok, you’ve got it. I’ll make the calls right now. Please keep me informed if anything new develops June.” responded Elizabeth.

  “I will. Thank you so much.” June hung up the phone and fought back some tears.

  She sure would like to see Laura come walking out of the ladies room wondering what all the fuss was about, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that it was going to be a long time, with many prayers and tears before this was going to be over.

  The police insisted Jim come back to the station with them for more questioning and advised him of his rights; one even mentioned he might want to call a lawyer. What did he need a lawyer for? He didn’t DO anything. He was frustrated that the police were spending so much time questioning him when they should be busy looking for Laura! However he would do whatever he could to cooperate with the police because he knew they were doing their job and would hopefully find Laura.

  When Jim arrived at the police station he was greeted by an officer wearing plain clothes.

  “Good morning. My name is Detective Don Chisholm and I’ve been put in charge of the case of your wife,

  Jim was led to a small room by Detective Chisholm along with another officer that had questioned him at the church. The all sat down and began right from the beginning, going over the same stuff that was all said that earlier.

  “How many times do I have to tell you? How many times do we have to go over the same details? Why are you so certain that I know more about Laura’s disappearance?” yelled a frustrated Jim.

  “We’re not, but there’s always the chance that the person behind this has had contact with you or your family, even in some small way. Do you know of anyone who paid unusual attention to your wife, other than the man you mentioned seeing at church a few weeks ago?”

  “No”

  “Any recent altercations with anyone? Anyone who threatened you or Laura in any way”

  Jim shook his head.

  “Anyone lost looking for directions, hang-up calls, anything?”

  “Nothing like that”

  “Do you know anyone who might have a grudge against your wife, yourself, or even your roofing business?”

  “No”

  “Do you or your wife use drugs, or gamble?” Do you have any outstanding debts to anyone for drugs, gambling anything like that? Anything illegal?

  “What are you suggesting?” Jim asked through gr
itted teeth.

  “We need to know everything Jim,” the detective said. “We will find out either way but if you are honest with us now, it’ll save time that may help us find your wife faster.”

  “The answer is no.”

  “Any vindictive girlfriends from your past?”

  “No”

  “Have you kept a secret from your wife that may be a factor in this?” Jim shook his head.

  “Any criminal history in your family?”

  “Oh come on, I’m sure you have already done a thorough computer search on all of us and you know the answer to that one is no.” Jim’s frustration was growing.

  “Please, I’m just asking you to cooperate”

  “I just don’t get you people. Someone has kidnapped my wife and you treat me like I’m involved.

  “It’s been known to happen,” the detective said. “I did notice that just a few months ago you doubled your wife’s life insurance policy.”

  “Yes I did that. My wife and I talked it over and agreed to double both of our policies. We want to be sure there is enough money for our kids to go to university if anything were to happen to us.”

  “Have you or your wife ever had an affair?”

  This time Jim hesitated and said, “Well no, not really.” The other officer pounced on that statement, “You hesitated, and what does ‘not really’

  mean?”

  Jim sighed, he really didn’t want to go through all this knowing it had nothing to do with Laura’s disappearance and he wished the officers would stop questioning him and get out there and find his wife.