In the Shadow of His Wings

by Pamela Wells

  “It was about 5 years ago. I hired a woman, Judy, to help us with the books at work. Making sure everything was legal and accurate. We worked together a fair bit and became good friends.”

  “So you had an affair with her?”

  “NO I did not. At least not in a sexual way. I spent time with her and Judy and we really seemed to connect and understand each other. We went out for coffee a few times and once for lunch.”

  “And….?”

  “Laura found out I was spending time with this woman. She called it an emotional affair. Talking about personal things was wrong. She felt betrayed as if I had actually slept with the woman. The whole thing caused a huge strain on our marriage. We started fighting with each other, arguing over the smallest things. We did eventually get past it. I apologized to my wife, promising to never let something like that happen again.”

  “Where is Judy now?”

  “Ok come on, I know you guys are desperate for clues. Judy really was a very nice lady, and she would never have done anything to hurt Laura. Judy died of cancer last year so you can rule her out as a suspect.”

  “We understand you recently talked to the bank about a rather large loan?”

  “I just made some enquiries about qualifying and terms. I’d like to expand my business. I discussed this with Laura.”

  “When, Sunday morning?”

  Jim moaned, “What? You really think I’d kidnap my own wife for ransom to expand my business?”

  “Jim, we want to eliminate you as a potential suspect as soon as possible, and to do that we need your fullest cooperation.”

  “My fullest cooperation?” He’d already volunteered everything. Phone bills, credit card statements, bank information. Police had been sent to the Reid house to do a thorough search including every detail on their computers as well, tracking every email and all internet activity. Forensic experts went through his truck, Laura’s car, they even went through the garbage. More officers searched through the house, going through all their personal belongings.

  Jim slapped his hand down hard on the table and stood up, “I AM cooperating.

  What I want to know is, what are YOU doing to find my wife? Why aren’t you out there looking for her? You are wasting time questioning me while the real kidnapper could be getting farther and farther away!”

  “Jim I can assure you we are doing the best we can to find your wife. I could go over every detail but that will just cost us time. What I will tell you is that we will open every door, follow every lead, without favor, in order to find Laura.” Jim’s anger with the detective eased off as he sat back down. He realized he was just doing his job and resigned himself to do whatever they asked of him. He had nothing to hide. He apologized to the detective for his anger, the detective understood his frustration and told him not to worry about it. Then he offered Jim a ride home.

  “Jim I know this is a very difficult time right now, my gut instinct tells me you had nothing to do with your wife’s disappearance. We still have to follow procedure.”

  “I understand, detective. I’m just frustrated AND worried! I want to know where my wife is!”

  “Of course you do. If this thing drags on, you and I will be spending a fair bit of time together so please, call me Don.”

  “Sure, no problem but please don’t be offended if I say I hope I don’t have the time to get to know you very well.”

  The detective smiled and nodded as they left to head for the Reid home. Outside the police station a number of reporters with TV cameras had gathered and shouted out questions, such as: “Is Mr. Reid a suspect?”

  Jim wondered how the news had spread so fast!

  “Did you kill your wife Mr. Reid?

  “Do you know where she is?”

  Jim tried to pull away from them and get in Don’s car, Don stopped him.

  “The reporters are just doing their job. Why not use them to your advantage? Make a plea for information regarding Laura. Who knows, Laura may even see the news broadcast.” Jim hadn’t thought of that, the two men turned back towards the reporters.

  The detective started off with, “At the moment Mr. Reid is not a suspect. We just brought him in for routine questioning.”

  More questions were shouted out but Jim held up a hand to quiet them so he could speak.

  “My wife is missing, I just want her back. Please, if anyone has any information that could help us, call the police station. Laura, if you are watching this.” Jim’s eyes filled with tears as he tried to get the words out, “I love you, we are doing everything we can to find you and bring you home.”

  Chapter 4

  It was dark and her head throbbed, feeling like someone had taken a hammer to it as Laura slowly opened her eyes. There was just enough light for her to see that she was in the back of a van. She struggled to sit up and look out of the window but it was too dark. Her mind raced trying to make sense of her situation. What on earth happened?

  Where am I? Who did this, WHY?? Laura couldn’t come up with any answers. This all seemed so unreal, like a nightmare.

  The garage lights came on and the side door of the van opened. Laura blinked her eyes at the sudden light and looked at the man in the door. He was tall, clearly over six feet with reddish brown hair. It took a few moments for her to recognize him. The stranger from church, the one who stared at me so much a few weeks back!

  “I’m sure you are wondering what is going on. I will explain everything to you in just a minute. Let’s get you a little more comfortable first.” Gerhard pulled Laura into a sitting position on the floor of the van with her feet hanging out the door and resting on the floor of the garage.

  Gerhard was just about bursting with excitement but tried to remain calm in the hopes that Laura would stay calm and cooperate with him.

  “I know you are scared but please relax, I don’t want to hurt you. I’m not going to remove the tape yet. I want to explain things to you first. After I’m done explaining, if you agree to cooperate, then I will remove the tape. Do you understand?” Laura was trembling from top to bottom but she nodded.

  “Ok, good. Good start.” Gerhard was shaking with nervousness, hoping this wild plan of his would work. He started to pace in front of Laura, his mind racing. His mother was inside watching her shows, still unaware that he had brought someone home.

  “First of all I want you to know that I haven’t kidnapped you in order to rape you or anything like that. As a matter of fact, if you cooperate with me and my mother we will treat you very well.” Gerhard waved his hands, gesturing wildly as he talked. This did little to put Laura at ease. She was relieved to hear that Gerhard wasn’t planning to rape her but he sounded far from rational and calm. It was clear the man was very nervous which made her fear level rise even higher. Gerhard had a stocky build. Some might call him ‘big boned.’ His stomach protruded over his belt, but his arms looked muscular. He definitely looked strong enough that he would have no trouble at all overpowering her if he so desired, which he obviously already had. With reddish brown hair he looked like he might have had a lot of freckles when he was younger but there were just a few visible now. Under normal circumstances Laura would have said he was not a bad looking man. However at this moment, with the look in his eyes, he looked crazed and Laura wished desperately that she could move farther away from him.

  “You are here to live with us. You are my sister. What I mean is you look like my sister so my mother will think you are my sister. You look so much like her, it’s amazing! Your eyes are the same color and so is your hair. You even have the same little mole on the left side of your neck like she did. My eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw you that Sunday!” Gerhard was practically jumping up and down with excitement while talking very fast. Laura must have looked confused because Gerhard stopped and took a deep breath. He realized he was rushing it. It was a lot for the woman to take in all at once. By the look in her eyes, he could easily see she was terrified.

  Gerhard tried to calm dow
n, “Ok, let me back up a little here. You must be wondering what on earth I’m talking about. Thirty years ago my sister ran away from home. She was only about fifteen years old at the time. For thirty years I’ve listened to my mother agonize about Christine and long for her return. We have searched and searched for her and now, with your help, she has come home. You are here to fill in for Christine. You will live with us and we will give you anything you want. All you have to do is be Christine. You look just like her! My mother hasn’t seen Christine in thirty years. She will believe you are her because she will want to believe you are her. Do you get it?” He asked excitedly.

  Gerhard paced back and forth in front of Laura, continuously moving. He couldn’t wait to show this woman to his mother. She would be so happy. His mother was getting older and he didn’t know how much longer she would live, over the years she seemed to sink deeper and deeper into depression. All she wanted to do anymore was watch TV and read magazines. He just knew that bringing Christine home would do wonders for her.

  Laura sat there stunned. Her mind felt numb as she tried to take in all that Gerhard was saying. He wanted her to pretend to be his sister. If that made him happy, kept him calm and prevented him from hurting her, she guessed she could do that. She wondered how long of a time he was thinking of. Her arms were starting to stiffen and cramp up from being held behind her for so long. She tried to shift her position a little on the side of the van. She didn’t take her eyes off of Gerhard for a moment.

  “Ok, so in a few minutes I’ll remove the tape from your legs and I’ll take you inside. You’ll be staying in the basement. That’s where your room is. We moved it downstairs after Christine ran away. We kept most of her things but got rid of the clothes. After all, they won’t fit you anymore.” He laughed, nervously. “Mom insisted on keeping your stuffed animals and horse figurines. Do you still like horses? All the posters you had are still up on the walls too. Wow! Mom is going to be so excited to see you. This is so great!”

  Laura was getting more and more frightened. Gerhard began explaining things to Laura like he understood she was Laura. She was going to pretend to be Christine but now he was talking like he believed she actually was Christine. She was beginning to understand that this man was not completely sane. She had better watch her step very carefully. She decided she would just play along with him as much as possible and watch for an opportunity to escape.

  Gerhard bent down and gently removed the tape from around Laura’s ankles. He took a hold of her elbow helping her stand up.

  “You might feel a little dizzy at first so just walk slowly.” Gerhard led Laura through the door and down the basement stairs. Laura desperately did not want to go down those stairs. She felt that by actually entering the house and going down the steps she decreased her chance for escape tremendously. But she could see no alternative. She expected to see a dark, damp basement but was surprised to see a rather cozy, pleasant looking living room. There was a large overstuffed matching couch and love seat set.

  Also a pair of reclining chairs as well as a large screen TV. Along two of the walls were large built-in book cases that were filled with an assortment of books. On either side of the stairs there were entrances to two other rooms that Laura had not yet seen. She looked around for a window, already thinking of the possibility of escape, but didn’t see anything.

  Gerhard led her to the door on the right. “This is the room we moved your stuff to.

  I think you’ll like it. Mom insisted we paint the walls yellow, so even though it has no windows, it’s nice and bright. We used florescent lighting too, so that helps.” He pulled Laura into the room and helped her sit on the edge of the bed. Then, to Laura’s horror he pulled out a single handcuff and a long chain. He proceeded to remove the tape from her wrists and clamp the handcuff to her left wrist. The other end of the chain was attached to a bolt in the center of the floor.

  “I know you aren’t going to like this Christine, you ran away once and so it will take awhile before we will be able to trust you again. This chain is unbreakable, I can assure you. I was quite thorough when I planned this room so you will find there is no way out. The walls of the basement have been completely sound proofed as well. So you can scream and yell all you like down here and no one will hear you, even if they are sitting right upstairs.” Gerhard pointed to a door across the room, “There’s a bathroom for you. I made sure the chain is long enough to reach all the way to the shower. I stocked it with everything you should need. There is a pad of paper and pencil on the dresser. If there is anything at all you want that you can’t find here just write it down and I will get it,” Gerhard paced nervously as he talked, “I mean that Christine, anything at all. There are clothes in the closet. I could only guess at what size you might be now so I probably have some of it wrong. Just let me know what you need, or want, and I’ll be happy to get it. I’ll go out tomorrow and get some catalogues, so you can have some thing to get ideas from. Also, if there are any books or movies you think you might like, write them down too. I’ll get anything you want. Just let me know.” Gerhard was still quite animated as he related all this information to Laura. He was making her dizzy with all his moving around. She wished he would just be quiet for awhile and leave her alone. How could this be happening to her? She was a housewife and church secretary for goodness sake! Things like this happen in the movies, not to someone like Laura Reid! She just couldn’t take it all in. It had to be a bad dream. Any minute the alarm would go off and it would be time to get up. Oh if only that were true.

  The weight of the chain pulling at her arm together with the tape across her mouth was uncomfortable. The headache from whatever he had used to knock her out were evidence enough that this was definitely not a dream. Laura pointed to the tape across her mouth and with a gesture she asked if she could take it off.

  “I can take it off if you promise not to scream. I already told you no one would hear you anyway, I just don’t want to listen to you yelling, Ok?” Laura nodded and Gerhard reached forward and yanked off the tape. Laura winced as she put her hand to her mouth.

  “Sorry, I know that seemed cruel but it’s much easier if you take it off quick and I just knew you were going to pick it off slowly. So, now that I’ve explained the situation to you, do you have any questions?”

  “How long?” Laura whispered.

  “How long for what?”

  “How long do you want me to stay here and pretend to be your sister?” Gerhard, who looked like he was starting to relax, flared up at this question and yelled, “You don’t get it! I don’t want you staying here PRETENDING to be my sister.

  I want you to BE my sister! You ARE Christine! Understand!? That’s your name! It’s who you are! Thirty years ago you ran away and I found you and now you are home.

  Look around! Do you see anything here with any other name on it? Is there anything here with any other name at all? No! Of course not, because there is no other person staying in this room. Any life you had outside this room is over. This is your life now.

  Mom is upstairs doing some baking. In a few hours she will be coming downstairs to watch her TV shows. She will be very happy to find that you are down here to watch TV

  with her. This is something you can do everyday. Each day I go to the hotel office and you can keep mom company. This will be fantastic! Life is going to be so much better around here.”

  Laura couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. She could think of nothing to say at that moment that would make one bit of difference to this deranged man. Her eyes simply filled up and overflowed as the tears streamed down her face. Gerhard softened some when he saw the tears and stopped yelling. He passed Laura a box of tissues and tried to think of something to reassure her.

  “Look Christine, it’s not that bad. Mom’s getting pretty old. She’s in her seventies now. Since you left she’s been really depressed and hasn’t been eating so well.

  She’s gained a lot of weight and doesn’t exercise. Her health isn�
��t so good. She’s been to the doctor a few times but she doesn’t like what the doctor says so she stopped going.

  To be honest, I don’t think she’s going to live that much longer. When she dies then you can go live where ever you like. In the mean time you can have anything you want.

  Remember how mom was so tight before? It’s not like that now. We have lots of money and you can have whatever you want, just write it on that paper and I’ll buy it for you, ok?”

  "I’ll tell you what, I won’t tell mom you’re here for another hour or two. Why don’t you lie down and take a nap. You look like you could use one. In the other room there is a small fridge beside the TV. There are some soft-drinks in there as well as bottled water if you want a drink or anything. Just help yourself.” Gerhard backed out of the room and softly closed the door. Laura sat on the edge of the bed stunned. Slowly her situation was sinking in and she was realizing how hopeless it was. It was no wonder she felt so awful about not wanting to go down the basement steps. Now she was chained down here! She got up and walked into the bathroom, over to the toilet and vomited her breakfast.

  Chapter 5

  Laura knew full well there was no way she would be able to take a nap. She decided to explore her surroundings and see if there was any possible way out. Her worst fears were confirmed however when a quick look around revealed no windows. There was another door on one of the walls with the book cases. She hadn’t noticed it when she first entered the basement. It was a thick wooden door and had a couple of heavy duty locks on it. Laura suspected it led to another part of the basement, perhaps a section of the basement that contained the furnace, laundry room etc. She didn’t go up the stairs to try to doors at the top of the stairs. One door she already knew led to the garage and the other no doubt led to the upper part of the house. Both doors would be locked, and she was sure her chain wouldn’t reach that far anyway.