At least he won’t be able to follow me without a car.
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 seconds behind me. Wild with fear, 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, confirming my suspicion that Trevor had planned everything 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 dashed 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 jabbed the buttons as I entered my security code, but there was no beeping response to let me know it had turned on.
Trevor must have disabled the alarm when I was unconscious. But how did he get the code? Did he find 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 bolted up the stairs to her room and into her closet. With Natalie held in one arm, I slid the closet door closed, then crawled into the hidden room. 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, 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.
The front door crashed 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, my chest constricted in a panic I’d never experienced before and I found I couldn’t breathe. I prayed Natalie wouldn’t make any noise.
The floor boards creaked as he walked around the room, then the closet door slid open. I held perfectly still, 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?” His voice betrayed his impatience. “Come out of hiding.” It sounded like he’d gone into my bedroom. “I want Natalie back,” he said.
I held her closer and looked down at her. She had fallen asleep.
“It will be better if I don’t have to track you down,” he said, his tone menacing. “Now come out.”
I could tell he was getting agitated.
Once he realizes we’re not hiding in my bedroom, what will he do? Will he start a more thorough search and find the hidden room? What will I do if he finds us? Finds Natalie? I have to do everything within my power to keep him away from my baby. Even if it means risking my own safety.
Doing the only thing I could think of to protect her, I set her on the floor, 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?” His voice was a roar of fury.
Though hesitant to leave Natalie alone in the room, in my panicked state I didn’t know what else to do. Then I heard the faint sound of Natalie waking.
I have to draw Trevor downstairs and I have 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. The front door hung open, the dark night beyond beckoning.
I turned to face him.
“There you are, Lily. Where’s my baby?” He stood about five feet away.
“You can’t have her.” Tears threatened, but I 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 lure 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 two steps, he had locked his arm around my neck.
I had broken a cardinal rule of self-defense: Never turn your back on your attacker.
The strength of his arm cut off my air supply. Using both of my hands, I grabbed the inside of his elbow and yanked, allowing my airway to open, but he held on. I snapped my head back as hard as I could, hitting his face. With a grunt of surprise, he let go of me. I spun around and saw his nose gushing blood.
He came at me again, his eyes broadcasting his fury. 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 without a doubt that he would kill me if I didn’t stop him. Fresh adrenaline pulsed through me and I took a deep breath. This time when he rushed me, he tackled me. I fell on my back with him on top of me.
“Now we’ll see who wins,” he said as he wrapped his hands 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 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 when I realized she would grow up without a mother as I had, debilitating grief crushed me. I felt myself fading away even as my eyes remained open.
Without warning, 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. Dragging in lungfuls of air, I heard him scream. I turned my head and saw Greta on top of him, her jaw clamped onto his neck. Abruptly, his voice went silent.
I lay there, trying to recover from my near strangulation, the
n I slowly sat up and looked around, trying to understand what had happened. The front door hung open, 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.
After a long moment, Greta let go, then came and sat by me. I crawled to Trevor and pressed my fingers against his neck. I didn’t feel a pulse. I was surprised 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 eyes. “Where is she?”
“She’s fine now,” I assured him through my tears. “But Trevor.” I motioned toward 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 tried to stand and 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 waited, 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-Seven
Within 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. In addition to 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.
Once Natalie was back in my arms, she settled down.
As we stood in the baby’s room I recounted the events of the evening, starting with Trevor knocking me unconscious and tying me up, ending with him strangling me and Greta saving my life. They took careful notes, then told me a detective was on his way.
We went downstairs to wait for the detective to arrive, but with Trevor’s body still on the living room floor, the officers suggested we wait in the kitchen. I quickly agreed.
The officers turned to Marcus. “What is your involvement in this?”
“Lily left a message on my cell phone earlier in the evening telling me that Trevor had taken the baby,” Marcus said.
“Is that message still on your phone?”
“Yes,” he answered, then he pulled out his phone and played the message for them.
Marcus put it on speakerphone and it was obvious that I was near hysteria when I’d left the message. Hearing my voice, the emotions slammed into me and I held Natalie tighter.
“And when did you arrive here?” the officer asked Marcus.
“Right before she called you.”
“Where were you before that?”
“I was working late. There was a crisis at work and I’d been called into an emergency meeting.” He turned to me. “That’s why I didn’t answer my phone when you called.”
The officers seemed satisfied with his answers.
A short time later a pair of detectives arrived with a crime scene investigation team. The officers told us to stay in the kitchen, then they went into the living room to speak to the detectives. I held on to Marcus’s hand like it was a lifeline, but didn’t speak.
The detectives came into the kitchen to talk to us while the crime scene investigators took pictures and gathered other evidence in the living room.
“Ma’am, we’d like you to tell us exactly what happened tonight,” Detective Towers said, pulling out a notepad and pen.
I told them how Trevor had come over to play with Natalie like he had been doing for the last few weeks, and at first everything was fine, but then he suddenly announced he was going to keep the baby. Then after making me put the dog out, he punched me in the head, which knocked me out. When I’d woken, my hands and feet were tied, but I was able to get the ropes off.
“Why didn’t you call the police once you were free?”
“Maybe I should have, but I had an idea of how to get him to bring Natalie back.” I paused, reliving the despair I’d felt when I’d realized Trevor had taken Natalie.
“Go on.”
Pulling myself back to the present, I told them about finding the SD card and digging up the money and how I’d thought if I told Trevor about the money, he would be willing to give me Natalie back.
“Then what happened?” Detective Towers asked.
I told them how Trevor had agreed to trade the baby for the money and told me to meet him at the park, and what had happened there.
“Why did you come back to the house?”
“I don’t know. I was in a panic and I didn’t realize I’d left the keys to my car at the park.”
“What happened when you got to the house?”
I recounted what had happened. When I got to the part where Trevor was strangling me, I felt Marcus’s hand tighten on mine. “I knew I was going to die,” I said as tears filled my eyes. “But then Greta came running through the front door and saved me.”
“Is that Greta that I hear barking?” Detective Towers asked.
“Yes, I put her in my room so she wouldn’t get in the way.”
“What kind of dog is she?”
“A German Shepherd.”
“And where is the money that you mentioned?” Towers asked.
“I don’t know. I guess in my car.”
“Let’s go take a look,” Towers said.
They followed me out to my car. Trevor had left the keys in the ignition. Detective Towers took them out and opened the trunk where we found the gym bag.
“And you don’t know where the money originally came from?”
I shook my head. “It was buried where Trevor had put it.”
Towers took the bag out of the trunk. “We’ll need to do some investigating, but if it legitimately belonged to your husband, we’ll give it back to you.
I almost told them I didn’t want to have anything to do with it, but decided to keep my thoughts to myself.
We went back into the house and more people arrived. One of them was the coroner and he took Trevor’s body away. Then a tow truck came and took Trevor’s car. A third vehicle came. It was animal control.
“Why is animal control here?” I asked Detective Towers, panicked about what they would do to Greta.
“It’s just routine to test her for rabies. After the investigation you should get her back.”
I wasn’t sure if I believed him. I’d heard of cases where a dog was put down after attacking a person. “How can you be sure?”
“It seems pretty clear that she was defending you from an attempted murder. I think in this case you’ll be able to keep her,” he said.
Feeling somewhat assured, I went upstairs, first putting a sleeping Natalie in her crib, then getting Greta from my room and bringing her downstairs.
The man from animal control took her out to his truck and I watched as he put her in the back and drove away. Tears filled my eyes and I swallowed hard to keep from crying.
Eventually the crime investigation team finished gathering the evidence and left. Detective Towers and his partner walked out to t
heir car.
“We’ll be in touch,” he said as he and his partner got into their car and drove away.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Marcus walked with me back into the house. I was exhausted, but still in shock about what had happened. He sat with me on the couch.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Marcus asked. “Or do you want to go to sleep?”
“I just can’t believe he’s dead,” I said. Though Trevor had taken my baby and tried to kill me, I was saddened by his death. He had been my husband and there had been a time when I loved him.
“I’m really sorry this happened,” Marcus said, taking my hand.
The warmth from his hand warmed me. I felt so cold. “He told me he was going to give my baby to his girlfriend.”
“I heard you saying something about that to the detectives, but I didn’t understand what that was all about.”
“There was this girl named Amanda that he was always flirting with before we started dating and I guess when I left they got together. Apparently she can’t have children of her own so he promised her he would get Natalie and give her to her.” I stopped as my voice broke. Marcus put his arms around me and I leaned against him.
“It’s okay,” he murmured in my ear. “Everything’s okay now.”
We sat that way for several minutes and I felt myself drifting to sleep.
“I’ll carry you upstairs, Lily,” Marcus whispered.
I nodded as he lifted me in his arms and carried me up the stairs. He set me on my bed and helped me take off my shoes before tucking me in.
My eyes flew open. “What about the front door?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll stay in the living room while you sleep, and as soon as the hardware store opens, I’ll put in a new door.”
“Oh, Marcus,” I said, as exhaustion overtook me. “You’re wonderful.”
Late the next morning I woke up feeling somewhat rested. The first time Natalie had cried after I’d gone to bed, I’d brought her into bed with me and she’d slept next to me for the rest of the night. Stroking her head, I smiled at my beautiful baby, then my heart clenched as I thought about how close I had come to losing her to Trevor.
Lily's Story: The Complete Saga Page 45