by Inia Jardine
I have been listening and start crying even harder. 'Jonah please tell her we will get the next flight out. I have to go and look for Kiki!'
'Of course Lilia, there is no other option. Bella, just get the police out so long to stay with you, we will be home in a few hours'.
With the efficient assistance of our concierge flights are booked home, vacation flights and accommodation cancelled, Sir and Lady James informed and we are packed on our way home within the hour. What awaits us back home?
13
'My babies, my lovely babies, thank goodness you are okay!' I hug and kiss Willow, Rainbow and Flower and turn towards Bella and give her a long hard hug. 'Please don't think for a minute that we blame you Bella my friend, thanks so much for all that you have done. We will find the devil that did this. First we must find Kiki. Is Howie back yet, has he seen any signs of her?'
'He is due back soon because I didn't want to stay here alone, he looks for about 20 minutes, then comes to check on me and leaves again. He said he would just be gone for a short while. I think he drove to Naledi. When he comes back we can go in pairs to search in the woods.'
The land line shrills and I jump on the phone. As I hear Violett's voice all the way from South Africa I cry out. 'Violett, are you guys OK?’
‘Yes thanks Lilia but I just got the strangest phone call from our friends the Richardsons back in Arumvale. They volunteered with us at the shelter while we still lived there and they remembered that we rescued a husky. They say that a farmer just brought one in, she was hit by a tractor in one of the lanes leading towards the castle.
The tractor just clipped her and it seems her one leg is broken. She is filthy and very scared. They want to know what to do as they don't know who her owners are. Can it be Kiki? Did you report her missing?'
As I motion for Bella to take over the call Jonah and I rush to the car and speed towards the shelter, me alternatively crying and swearing at whoever did this. 'I will kill them Jonah, I promise you. I will find these assholes and kill them. Nobody, but nobody, harms my animals. Nobody. Some fucker must have chased her off as she was safe in the courtyard!'
Jonah just drives and nods. ' I share your sentiments Lilia but let's just get Kiki looked after before we do anything else OK?'
After an emotional reunion with my beloved, hurt and sedated dog, I leave her in the care of the veterinarian on duty. I give explicit instructions to spare no costs for her care, and we drive to the police station.
'Who is in charge here?' Jonah demands. 'I am Professor Hibbert and this is my wife. We would like to know what is being done to find the perpetrators of the crimes on our property, Xanadu.'
We have only ever been inside this station once and that was when we had to get the firearm licensed.
'Oh Prof Hibbert yes, Detective Langdowne is in charge of your case. He is out at the moment but I will ask him to contact you. Will you be at your home number or the University? Is there a mobile number he can phone?'
We give the detective on duty our numbers and leave for home. As we near our turn-off we see a Jeep turn out of the woods nearby. Jonah gives chase and we lose it a few miles further after it tuned off into another part of the National Park. 'Let me get you home Lilia and get my bike, I will come back and investigate this further. Who the fuck gave these idiots the right to be on our land? It is closed season for the crater visits and the public access is very well marked CLOSED. I will have a good talking to them, I need to vent.'
'Please take the gun and be careful Jonah. I can't bear it if something happens to you as well' I say pleadingly, hug and then kiss him with.
'No, I will be okay; I am not going to shoot anyone. I have the urge to stay right here with you Lilia, I have vowed to protect you, but you know that I have to do this. For us. I am also going to Violett & Nan's old farm to look around there. As far as I know it is still vacant but it could be used as a base for this kind of criminal activity. If the detective phones, please tell him where I've gone. He can catch up with me, but I am not going to wait for him.'
If I could I would stop Jonah as this whole situation has a bad vibe for me. I don't trust anyone right now and I want Jonah and Kiki home with me, but I know that I can't control the world. So I just do what I can, go inside to unpack, calm the cats and wait to hear from Jonah.
14
We have been ripped apart cruelly. Formerly peaceful Arumvale is now a war zone. It is a war zone because of my Jonah. What just happened was this.
A few hours before.
Jonah has not come home after giving chase to the intruders. I am pacing up and down in the lounge waiting for him, worrying about him. Suddenly a brick is thrown through the window shattering a huge pane.
I run to it and pick it up checking it for incendiary devices, it may be a Molotov cocktail. I spot the note tied to the brick and after shakily untying it, read some instructions and notice a photo printed on the paper. I stare numbly at the photo, a photo of Jonah lying in the corner of some room, a dark pool beneath him - which I immediately suspect is blood. His leg seems to stick out at an unnatural angle. I have no more information than that.
I straight-away move to pick up the phone to inform the police but stop myself – the instructions are explicit, no police involvement or he dies. Jonah is not coming home. The ransom note tells me to sell our land to V, L & F as well as immediately call off the police or I will not see Jonah alive again. My mind is in turmoil, how did all of this get out of hand all of a sudden? Is this the point of no return? Could it be the last of Jonah and me? Why didn't they rather take me?
I can't even talk to Bella or Howie, I am afraid to involve them in any way and have locked myself in the house to try and think. I have to try and come up with a plan. The only thing I can do is take action myself, action that may or may not work.
On the spur of the moment I decide to retaliate. I'm going to take the wives of these despicable foreign traders V, L& F, also known as Derec Vatjer, Herr Leibenstein and Mac Forsten hostage. I ask them to attend an emergency meeting at the crater - promising them a solution to their husbands’ demands to purchase our land. I doubt that they are aware of Jonah's abduction as they all arrive willingly.
Their husbands have made a very big mistake in harming Jonah, they are now my arch enemies. Hell hath no fury like a woman deprived of her soulmate.
I have locked these socialite women up the crater, practically concentration camp style but that I do not give a fuck. They can die of exposure for all I care. I am sure that Jonah would not approve, he would have found a better way, a gentleman’s way of making things work out. But Jonah is not here. I am on my own for the moment, I have to make do with what I can. In the short time that I have. Jonah needs medical attention and I have to resolve this and find him as quick as possible. I must get Bella to help me keep these women from escaping. I phone her and she comes over immediately.
‘Lilia! Why are you doing this to us, involving us? Bella, you can lose your job!’ Howie exclaims as I ask Bella to help me.
‘Leave then. Jonah’s life is in your hands though. You are our only friends, I need help.’
Bella agrees and goes to the crater with me. Howie reluctantly agrees.
‘Lilia, you are being crazy. What is wrong with you? Let us go and I am sure we can work something out with Derec, Gerald and Mac. We are all adults here, we are not playing cowboys and crooks. You are treating us like prisoners. I am cold and thirsty. I demand to be let out!’ Marcia, the wife of Vatjer grumbles.
‘Look at us, we are not animals. I am cold from sitting on the ground. This might be fun for tourists but I hate roughing it.'
'You know what Marcia, tell your story of woe to someone who cares. I did not cause this. Your asshole husband did. He can fix it quickly by giving Jonah back. Just talk to him.'
I have confiscated their mobile phones and Marcia refuses to talk to her husband if I make the call. They mill around me as I hand out their bottled water, all I could come up wi
th at such short notice.
‘Take it or leave it Marcia, I really couldn’t care less about your comfort. I doubt that Jonah is this well looked after. At least I have not harmed you. Your idiot husband hurt Jonah. Sorry to have inconvenienced you but your dumb-ass husbands kidnapped mine! And stay away from the electrified fence it will burn you badly if you so much as touch it’ I reply angrily.
I slam the gate and double lock it. We are so far from civilisation and protected from all sides that nobody will hear them shout and scream. The only access is past our house and I have locked that too.
I send an angry message to Vatjer's phone. Jonah will be returned to me or their loved ones will die. Not just get hurt but I will kill them if anything happens to Jonah. I don't care. I will go to jail for the rest of my life with pleasure if they take Jonah away from me. I am so primed to even kill for Jonah, it is like something hard has come over me to replace the peaceful Lilia I was before.
I must keep my cool until I find him. Vatjer messages me back and I have to go to a meeting with him now. I leave an astonished Bella in charge of the women, armed with my gun and explicit instructions to take no nonsense from them.
Vatjer sits down as I enter the offices of V, L & F.
‘Lilia my dear, would you like something to drink? Mac my friend - hand her a beer’. Vatjer smirks at me.
'Do you really think that I will take anything offered by you, you liar and criminal? You talk to me straight about where I can find Jonah or your wives will be hurt today’ I inform the bald German. ‘Where is he, is he OK?’ I will gladly die for him. He is my life force. But I have to be strong for him. I must have his back now, he has always been there for me.
This is so far from my normal demeanour and my heart is beating so loudly that I am sure they can see through my bravado. I force my hands to stop shaking, these men cannot perceive me weakening.
‘He is in confinement at the insistence of the new partner of V, L & F, or shall we rather say B and V, L, & F. He smirks. Do you know everything about your blackamoor husband Mrs Hibbert? I don't think so. You have until today end of business. If my attorney here does not have the deed to your land signed over to Vatjer, Leibenstein and Forsten on his desk by then, Jonah Hibbert will die’.
‘Then so will all of your wives Vatjer, your wife the precious slut Marcia will die first. How will you explain that to your young children?’ I am blindly bluffing as I don’t know whether I am able to kill a person but I am desperate, feeling like this - I just might be.
I am faced with a poisonous snake. It’s me or him.
Forsten speaks up for the first time since my somewhat tense arrival. ‘Be reasonable Mrs Hibbert, this is a great deal we are offering you. Only your hard headedness has put Jonah in this predicament. Were it not for your refusal to sell V, L & F your measly portion of useless land for £3 million he would still have been...'
’ Mac shut the fuck up! I am dealing with this bitch. We should have taken her and not her big lug of a husband, we could have had some fun with her. I have had enough of pussyfooting around.'
'Lilia my dear, sign this shitty piece of paper now and I will take you to your husband. He has already signed. I am sure he will be really glad to have your tender loving care at this moment. He might just need lots of it...think of how you can take him back to Jamaica with the money. That is where he belongs.’
I lash out across the desk to jump on the bastard but he is too quick for me. ‘Don’t call me that - you immoral asshole! It is Mrs Hibbert to you and we have lived at Xanadu for more than a year! It is our home and we don't bother anyone. Why do you so badly want us to leave?’
‘Mrs Hibbert then, L i l i a,’ he spits through his teeth enunciating every letter clearly, ‘my reasons are my own. Go now or I will kill you both and make it look like an unfortunate mishap. Maybe a wild boar attack while you wandered onto my recently acquired land. I will think of something. Remember that you are officially a kidnapper now and I have friends in the local law enforcement office. They do not know about this situation yet - but that can change. We both know what will happen then. So Go! – get out of my sight’.
He releases his iron grip on my arm. ‘I will see you within 6 hours from now or the deal is off. Then it is your precious Jamaicans head on a silver platter. Remember bitch, today at close of business. Not a second later. Mac, show her out, my office is a place for industry not games. And let our wives go, you stupid girl, don't try and play with the big boys. You are out of your league.’
I can feel my tears starting, a burning behind my tired eyes, ‘Can I see him, can I at least talk to Jonah before I go?’ I so badly need to know that he is alright, alive.
‘I said get the fuck out of here!’ Vatjer screams. 'Or I will have him killed right this moment!’
‘Then I will kill you, you brainless idiot. Nothing will stop me.’
I will gladly stab Vatjer between the eyes with his stupid pen right here and now but I have to find Jonah first. I spin around and flicking a determined look at Forsten, I suspect the weaker of the two, I dash out of the office. I have to get away without being followed because if they intrude on my property and release the hostages I would have lost all means of getting Jonah back. I run towards the building behind which I left my car.
‘Shit, shit, shit’ I protest to myself as I see the flat tyre. One of Vatjer’s goons must have seen me park here. Everyone knows our car in this small town. I glance behind me and see Forsten hurrying after me.
‘Mrs Hibbert! I need to talk to you!’ he calls urgently.
I run toward the building where Howie has his book store. I know that there is a service entrance through to the far side and there is a chance of Howie’s Austin Martin being parked there.
Yes! There it is! I grab the key from its hiding place in the rear fender and pull away slowly. No need to attract undue attention to the car. With Howie’s cheeky driving cap on and my hair quickly stuffed under it Forsten might not recognise me. I will phone Howie later to explain...
Howie will understand that I had to take the car, that I don't have time to ask.
As I round the corner I see Forsten enter Howie’s store. It will not be long now before he puts two and two together so I floor the gas pedal. I don’t know why I have suddenly acquired the attitude of a criminal; I guess it is because the person who is undoubtedly the love of my life is being threatened.
While rushing towards the relative safety of Xanadu I suddenly remember why I love Jonah so much... oh how I wish I could hear him laugh now. I am sure that I told him repeatedly that I loved him before he disappeared, I hope that knowledge will keep his spirits up. I also know he will try everything to get back to help me, but I fear that precisely that fact, might get him hurt even more.
‘And how can our love succeed, a miracle is what we need...’ yes surely. A miracle is what we need now.
I need to find out what is driving these people to go to such extremes to get hold of our land. It cannot only be development rights. With the correct permissions in place, they can develop any other unspoilt natural land. There must be something else, something unique to our land.
As I arrive home in a mud spattered car (Howie is going to be sooo mad at me) I phone Bella on her mobile.
‘Quick, tell me, it is life or death. You work for those assholes V, L&F, I know, but I am your best friend. What is it that they want with our land? Please, I beg of you, tell me.’
‘Lilia, I was just about to phone you. What the hell is going on? Howie just phoned me in a huff and told me that someone saw you steal his car! Are you insane? And what must I do out here with the women? What did you mean about life or death? Where is Jonah?’
‘Please just know that I am only doing what I am because I am forced to. They have Jonah. Help me please. Please tell Howie I will make it up to him. Can you help me with that info please Bella?’
‘I really don’t know but if it is that important I can try and find out from one of thes
e bitches. I can lose my job though, but if I find out anything I will phone you right back. Just answer your bloody phone.’
