by Pamela Wells
Easy to open if you knew where the switch was, but almost impossible to detect. He wanted her to check the floor making sure there were no scratch marks, if there were, to cover them up with a mat. Gerhard had personally boarded up the door that led from the garage, so the police would never find that one. The police would be shown into the majority of the basement of the house, no problem, but the basement was a large one.
They no doubt wouldn’t even notice that they aren’t seeing the whole thing. The Bloone house was large, well over four thousand square feet. It wasn’t difficult for Gerhard to disguise the section of the basement he had Laura hidden in. Laura’s section was in the very center of the house. That’s why there were no windows. The remainder of the basement surrounded it. The basement door with the padlocks that Laura had found, that she suspected led to another section of the basement, did indeed. The other side of the door however was also carefully camouflaged in an old root cellar and the police would no doubt pass it by.
Gerhard asked his mother what Christine was doing.
“Oh nothing important, she’s just reading that bible you bought her. I don’t know why you wasted money on that for. We have plenty of books she could read.”
“Well at least she’s quiet. Just be sure the door is closed tight. I’ll be there in just a minute and the police are right behind me. They will want to search every room. We will just smile and be nice to them. Let them do their searching. They won’t find anything, they will go away satisfied and not bother us again.”
“Why don’t Christine’s friends just leave her alone? She’s back home now with us. Why do they have the police looking for her? It’s none of their business!” Hilda whined.
“I don’t know mom, maybe they just really like Christine and they want her to come live with them, but she’s home now, and this is where she belongs. Ok, I have to hang up now. I’m pulling in the drive way, the police are right behind me, bye!” Gerhard quickly put away his cell phone. He got out of his car, greeted the police officers, and welcomed them into his home, confident that all was secured. They would see no sign of Laura anywhere. Jim quietly drifted away from the officers that entered the house and began to explore the outside grounds. Don however, knew better than to let Jim explore the grounds on his own. He had a handful of officers scatter to search the outside of the house as well.
Jim walked around the large house, it was a beautiful home, but he didn’t notice.
All he could think about was Laura. He studied the ground around the house looking for any signs of disturbance, which might lead to a hidden entrance, but he didn’t find anything. After he finished circling the house he moved out and began to explore the rest of the grounds. The gardens were impressive and the view of the Niagara River was beautiful. Jim couldn’t help but think how much Laura would love this place, under the right circumstances. Are you here Laura? Have you seen this view? Jim continued to walk around the large property. There was a winding brick path that led through the gardens, down towards the river. Before it reached the edge of the steep river bank, it stopped at a beautiful gazebo with a Victorian arch valance design. Carefully manicured ivy grew up along the sides. Something else Jim knew Laura would love. Jim went up to the edge of the bank and looked down into the river. It was several feet down and the river rushed by with a strong current. He looked up and down the bank but could see no sign of anything amiss, he turned back to explore the property in greater detail along the sides.
Jim moved among the many trees and bushes determined that he not miss anything. He found a gardener’s shed with a locked door. He was immediately suspicious. The shed was not a small like one might find in an average residential neighborhood. This shed seemed big enough to house a riding lawn mower, all the gardening tools one might need, plus a family of four! He looked in the windows, it was too dark to make out anything but a few tools and the riding lawn mower. He was debating whether he should break down the door when one of the police officers came up with the key. He seemed to guess what Jim was thinking.
“Don’t break anything! We don’t want this guy coming after us with any law suits. I went inside and got the key. He gave it to me right away, no problem.” The officer opened the door.
The two men went inside and looked around, not finding anything suspicious.
Jim left the shed, continuing to explore the property. He wondered how the search was going inside the house. His heart ached for his wife, he longed to hold her in his arms and to hear her voice. Lord I just need to know that she’s ok. Help us find her! Jim pressed his face up to the glass of one of the basement windows and looked inside, desperate for a glimpse of his wife. He was looking into what looked like the laundry room. He strained his eyes, looking into the dark room, hoping for a sign of anything that might give him hope his wife was here, alive. One of the officers came up behind him and pulled him away from the window.
“Don’t worry Mr. Reid; we are searching the inside of the house thoroughly.
Detective Chisholm is making sure of that.”
At that moment it began to rain, just a few drops at first, then harder. Jim didn’t run for cover. He had no intention of letting the rain stop him from searching for his wife. He continued to walk through the trees that surrounded the house. By now he was completely soaked and starting to shiver. Jim saw a glimpse of something through the trees and bushes to the left side of the house; he made his way over to it. He was surprised to discover what looked like an old well. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he was instantly reminded of his nightmare several nights ago. He rushed over to the well and looked down into it, terrified that he would discover Laura’s body at the bottom. All he saw was some old boards that someone had used to cover up the opening with. Some of the boards were loose and Jim pulled at them to look down into the well.
Judging by the wood they hadn’t been touched in many years. It was too dark to see to the bottom so Jim picked up a rock and dropped it, listening to see how deep the well might be. He heard the rock splash into some water, from what he could tell it sounded pretty deep. He didn’t think Laura’s body was down there though. The boards over the opening were so old and rotted and they practically fell apart in Jim’s hands. He would tell one of the officers about the well anyway, to be thorough.
As Jim continued to walk around the grounds outside, Laura sat in her room, reading her bible, unaware of how close her husband was. She was grateful for the bible.
Gerhard didn’t have any idea of where to go to purchase a bible, she directed him to the River of Life Christian book store that she frequently shopped at. She hugged the book close to her and thanked God for it. The word of God brought her so much comfort and peace. She longed to read it to Hilda but the woman was totally closed off to the idea.
Laura tried to talk to her about her bible but Hilda shushed her and changed the subject.
Laura put down her bible and got up to walk around the basement. She tried to pace around each day for exercise, it was a good time to pray as well. It was difficult to pace with the chain, but she managed. Every couple of days Gerhard would change the handcuff from one hand to the other. Laura noticed that he kept the key in his pocket.
She wished she had the courage to take something heavy, hit him over the head with it, knock him out, take the key and make a run for it. She was afraid that all she would do was hurt him, make him mad, and then what would he do?
As miserable as Hilda was, Laura found she was developing a compassion for the woman. She led such a lonely, pathetic life. Laura could almost understand why Gerhard felt so desperate to get some company for his mother. Laura was also concerned about Hilda’s health. The woman should be under a doctor’s care, she clearly was not well. Hilda scoffed at the idea, said that doctors didn’t know anything, she was fine.
Laura watched Hilda struggle with even the smallest of tasks. She was easily out of breath, constantly wiping perspiration from her face. Her colour wasn’t right. She seemed to suffer
from indigestion too often. The woman was over weight, she didn’t exercise or eat right. At Hilda’s age she should be seeing a doctor regularly, getting her blood pressure checked or something. Laura took some time to pray for Hilda as she paced.
Jim bent over and looked into another window, wiping away some of the rain to peer inside. The room was too dark to see into and with the rain it was impossible anyway. He stood up and just then his cell phone rang, it was Pastor Brooks. He had heard the police found the man on the poster and wanted to know what had happened.
Jim filled him in quickly, not wanting to stand in the rain and talk on the phone for long.
Wilf Brooks was a good man, like many others in the church, was worried sick about Laura. Wilf and June Brooks were not just the pastor and his wife to Jim and Laura, they were also their friends. The two couples had spent many hours together outside of church functions. Jim knew that Laura’s disappearance had been hard on the couple. They were doing their best to comfort him and deal with the rest of the congregation as well.
Everyone else’s problems didn’t come to a standstill just because Jim’s world was falling apart. Some days Jim felt like everyone at the church should stop their lives, concentrate on being there for him. They should quit their jobs and get out there and hunt for Laura.
The rational part of him knew that life wasn’t like that, everyone had their own problems.
Jim filled in Pastor Brooks on the search and his feelings on Gerhard Bloone.
Jim’s phone beeped with another call so he said goodbye to the pastor with a promise to call later if there was anymore news to report. The second call was Lacey wanting the same information. Jim filled her in as well. By now the rain was really starting to come down hard. One of the police officers was motioning for him to come away from the side of the house and to get in the car. Jim hated to leave the house, he had a feeling that meant leaving Laura. He couldn’t prove that, and unless the police found some trace of her inside the house there was nothing he could do. He ran over to the police car, got in and eagerly asked the officer if he knew how the investigation was going inside the house.
“I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think they’ve found anything yet sir, I’m sorry.” The officer shook his head.
It was only a few minutes later that Detective Chisholm and the other officers came out of the house prepared to leave. The detective got into the car with Jim and turned to him.
“There was no trace of your wife in that house. It was totally clean. I want you to know that we were as thorough as I would have been if it was my wife that was missing.
We checked every room and every closet. We didn’t find anything to lead us to suspect Gerhard of kidnapping your wife.”
Jim was speechless; the disappointment he felt was overwhelming. He was so certain that if they searched the house, they would find something. He was so sure that Gerhard was guilty, looking at the man made his skin crawl. The police must have missed something, somewhere. He trusted the detective, he didn’t doubt that the man was thorough. Perhaps Gerhard took Laura somewhere else. He expressed this thought to the detective.
“We will investigate the man; I can assure you of that. I’ve got to tell you, he seems clean to me. He has no record, not even so much as a parking ticket. The man has never been in trouble with the law in his life. Listen, I’m going to take you back to your car now, and I want you to go home. I promise you that we will do a thorough investigation on Gerhard Bloone.”
On the drive back to his car Jim prayed silently, asking the Lord for direction. If it were possible that Gerhard Bloone did not have his wife, then they had no other leads.
They had no idea what other direction to turn in. He was the only suspect they had. If the police did rule out Gerhard, then they will probably turn the magnifying glass back on Jim. He didn’t really care if they looked harder at him except for the fact that it wasted time that could be spent looking for the real abductor. Jim was not ready to dismiss Gerhard as the abductor but seeds of doubt were starting to grow in his mind. Earlier he felt so certain, now he just didn’t know.
Chapter 13
It was difficult for Laura to judge the passage of time in the basement rooms.
With no window to view the changing seasons, she wasn’t even aware that fall had passed by and winter was moving in. October had changed to November, November had changed to December. The only way Laura was aware of this fact was by the date on Hilda’s TV Guide magazine. Gerhard had stayed true to his word and brought Laura numerous catalogues to shop from. She was encouraged to pick out anything she wanted.
This was any woman’s dream! A large assortment of catalogues, an unlimited spending allowance, total freedom to pick out whatever she wanted. Yet Laura took no pleasure in browsing through the catalogues, she only went through them to select what she absolutely needed. To pick the right size, and most comfortable clothes, nothing else mattered. She didn’t care about the jewelry or make up. None of those things mattered, when she was locked in this basement.
She was reminded of the times, when Lacey was little. She and Lacey had played a game where they sat on the couch together with a catalogue, going through the pages one by one. They would pretend they had won a contest and they were allowed to select one thing from each page. Sometimes they couldn’t decide so they would just pick the most expensive thing. Other times they would pick something they liked best even though it was the cheapest item on the page. They would often agonize over their decisions and then break into giggles knowing it was just a game. Now, for Laura, that game had come into a sort of freakish reality. She was free to pick whatever she wanted from the catalogues, but she didn’t care. She could pick the most expensive ring from the jewelry page, but what was the point?
Many nights Laura had fallen asleep crying into her pillow. She missed her husband and children desperately. She prayed for them everyday. She knew that they were praying for her. They must be wondering if she were dead or alive. She wished there were a way she could get a message to them, some way she could at least let them know she was alive. She had spent so many hours wrapped up in self pity that it almost consumed her. She cried out to God. He had led her to verses in the bible that had lifted her from that deep pit of depression. Verses like, “I will exalt You, O Lord, for You lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.” ii Another one that really helped her was “But You are a shield around me, O Lord; You bestow glory on me and lift up my head.”iii Laura was able to lift her head up high after she read that one. She praised God each day, whether she felt like it or not. She knew that God was there with her. His arms were around her. He was protecting her. One particular verse had an even deeper meaning for Laura was. “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” iv When the Lord led her to that verse she knew without a doubt He understood her weaknesses and didn’t love her any less because of it.
She trusted no matter what happened to her, God would see her through it. Most of the days in the basement weren’t horrible. With the Lord’s help she was finding ways of getting by.
Laura kept the basement spotless. It wasn’t hard since there wasn’t much else for her to occupy her time with. She spent the first part of most mornings cleaning. It simply became part of her routine. At first Hilda demanded it and seemed to enjoy barking out orders. She complained if Laura’s work didn’t measure up. She soon ran out of things to complain about as Laura’s work improved. Laura was a firm believer in the old adage
“kill ‘em with kindness.” She knew the best way to win Hilda over was to keep on being as nice as possible to the woman. No matter how nasty Hilda was to her, Laura would just smile at her and repay her with kindness. It wasn’t always easy; sometimes those smiles came through gritted teeth! Laura recognized Hilda’s desire to manipulate and control. She didn’t want a daughter; she wanted a puppet with strings she could pull at will. Laura spent much of her prayer time asking
the Lord for direction. She knew that God wanted to use her in Hilda’s life; she just wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do.
“Christine, my shows are starting if you want to come and watch with me today!” Hilda called from the living room. Laura sat and watched Hilda’s shows with her several times recently. It wasn’t that she had developed an interest in them; she actually found them ridiculously dramatic. Recently she began watching them with Hilda as a way of building a relationship with the woman. However, she didn’t see how that was working, since Hilda allowed for little talking during her programs. Just the same, Laura felt that it was still worth a shot. Laura got each of them something to drink from the mini fridge and the two women settled back to watch TV. Hilda must have been tired because it wasn’t long before she reclined her chair back and was sound asleep. Laura decided to make herself comfortable and lay down on the couch and soon fell asleep herself.
Laura dreamt she was in a dark forest with just the smallest trace of light coming through the trees. She could barely see where she was going and yet she felt no fear.
When she looked around, she felt that she was in a scary place, part of her knew she should be afraid and yet she felt perfectly calm. She walked through the trees not knowing where she was going, she took her time. She felt totally at peace, actually found herself singing softly to herself as she walked. There were dark shadows around her.
Some of them darted quickly away as she moved closer, some that were closer to the ground, seemed to slither and squirm. Laura even laughed to herself, amazed that she wasn’t afraid.
Laura shifted her position on the couch and opened her eyes a little, then opened them wide. Surrounding her and the couch were wings. Large bright, white wings. Laura couldn’t see Hilda or the rest of the basement for the wings totally blocked her view. Are these wings really here, or am I dreaming? As she stared at the beautiful wings, she could see the fine detail of the feathers, the shafts and the veins. She felt a total sense of peace and comfort, just as she did in her dream. She closed her eyes again and rested some more. When she opened her eyes a few minutes later the wings were gone and she could hear Hilda whimpering. She looked over and was surprised to see the woman quivering with fear, her face ghastly pale and drenched in sweat.