COPYRIGHT © SARAH MARTIN 2015
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THIS BOOK OR ANY PORTION OF THIS BOOK THEREOF MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED OR USED IN ANY MANNER WHATSOEVER WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. ANY UNAUTHORIZED COPYING, BROADCASTING, MANIPULATION OR INFRINGEMENT OF THIS COPYRIGHT IS PUNISHABLE BY LAW.
Part Twenty-Two
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Lilah
"What the-" Lilah heard the man say as her body crashed against the stranger, knocking the wind out of her, the momentum causing her to fall backwards. "Where the fuck did you come from?" The man questioned, as Lilah lay immobile on the ground. He was a small man – not much taller than her, but he was still large enough to send her flailing. "Did you get away from Steve or something?"
He knows Steve? Lilah asked herself. He must have been working with him or something. Still on the ground, she glanced back at the van that she saw previously and she decided that it must have belonged to him.
Lilah caught her breath and tried to get onto her feet, but stumbled. She then began scampering away, but he grabbed onto her ankle. Now why does this seem so familiar? she thought. "Now wait a minute!" He exclaimed, his hand gripping onto her tightly. "You can't get away that easy."
She whirled her head to gaze at him with a convincing glare. Then Lilah gasped, and the man's eyes widened when they suddenly heard sirens in the distance. He let go her ankle in one swift motion, "Or maybe you can..." His head jerked in all directions, trying to hear where the sirens were coming from.
But that's not possible...Lilah thought, I haven't even called the cops yet!
The sounds grew closer and the man panicked, sprinting to his van. Lilah stayed on the ground in shock as she listened while he tried to start it. As luck would have it, it wasn't. She could hear him swearing loudly. "GODDAMNIT!" He cursed, swinging the drivers side door open and tumbling out in a rush. He stumbled in the process, hitting the cement with a grunt. He picked himself back up and started to run. With shaky legs, Lilah stood, brushing herself off.
She stared wide eyed at what seemed like hundreds of police vehicle's and SWAT men pulling up to the house, when in reality, it couldn't have been more than 5. As the cars skidded to stops, the man sprinted towards Lilah, but instead of directly approaching her, he turned and ran between the two houses. He bounded over the fence and into the forest beyond. It all happened so quickly. Lilah stood starstruck with her mouth agape. It was then that a wave of police officers escaped from the vehicles. Some came towards her, and some ran between the houses, chasing after the bad guy. A man who she vaguely recognized was the first to speak to her. He was medium height and rounded with wild, greying hair and dark sullen eyes.
"Whats your name?" He asked her, staring right into her eyes. For a moment she was spellbound and couldn't find the words. "Can you speak?" He looked at her questioningly, "Just take a deep breath." In the distance, Lilah could hear the police in the forest shouting after the man. She couldn't tell what they were saying but it sounded like he wasn't stopping.
She took his advice and consumed a large intake of breath and then gulped. "L-l-lilah," she stuttered. "Lilah Hayw-w-ward." Her eyes widened, "My brother is inside! You have to help him!" She exclaimed.
"Please try to be calm, Miss Hayward. We will do everything we can," he said. Tears began to flow down her cheeks. "I'm Chief Malick from the Dallas Police Department," he told her. "Are you hurt?" Lilah shook her head. "We'll have someone look over you just in case. Afterwards, we need to ask you some questions."
She hiccuped, then responded, defiant, "Fine, but you need to get my brother out. He's injured."
The Chief's expression went stone cold in an instant at her words, "What happened?"
"Steve shot him. It grazed him on the hip."
"Steve? Is that the kidnappers name?"
Lilah shrugged, "I don't know, but that's what they were calling him."
Malick looked over his shoulder at the other police officers and the one or two SWAT men, who were standing near them, eyeing the house and them cautiously. "Men, we've got an injured hostage, which means we'll be pressed for time. We know that our suspect is capable of hurting the hostages. We need to get to work immediately to make sure the situation doesn't get any more out of control." With a final nod, he turned back to Lilah, putting his arm over her shoulder, saying, "Come on, Lilah. Let's get you checked out."
Weary, she followed him as he led her to the back of an open ambulance.
--
Steve
Lying dormant on the floor, Steve opened his eyes as he came back into consciousness. He groaned when he moved only an inch and started to feel the ache his body was experiencing from falling down the stairs. Enduring the pain, he began to stand up, with mechanical and jerky movements. He wasn't a pussy. He could handle a little pain.
What he maybe couldn't handle, was the realization that Lilah was no where to be seen. He swore and then barked at himself, "So help me if she got away."
His eyes darted to the door and he stumbled towards it, still in pain but trying to ignore it. As he got closer, he noticed that there were voices outside. "Wait a minute!" He heard, the voice frantic. Quickly, Steve realized that it was Howard. Just as he stepped forward and glanced out the window, the unmistakable sound of sirens could be heard in the distance. He saw on Howard's face that he heard them too. Howard swore then made a beeline for his van, leaving Lilah behind on the porch.
Steve cursed, reeling his arm back and punching the front door as hard as he could, letting out all his frustrations. Wincing, he held his fist, wondering how lashing out at walls and bruising himself was going to help matters.
Steve couldn't leave now – he was in too deep. For some reason, the police's involvement never occurred to him. This was one of those moments when he thought maybe his foolproof plan wasn't so foolproof, and maybe he was the fool. Steve didn't think things through very thoroughly. He only thought about Katheryn and the money. Unfortunately since the cops were coming and Howard most likely wouldn't get very far before being caught, Steve probably wouldn't be able to send the DVD's to the rest of the families. Maybe he would have to demand more money from Kath-Katelyn's parents. 5000 was probably enough, but he was greedy.
Not sticking around to see how things panned out outside, he turned and headed to the stairs. He wasn't sure what he was going to do next, but he wasn't going to back down, no matter what happened.
He ascended the stairs with large, quick strides, not pausing until he reached Katelyn's bedroom. He was about to enter until he had a strange feeling and backtracked, heading for the laundry room where Lilah had escaped from.
He stood in the entryway, looking down at the floor where there was a nice puddle of laundry detergent from the previous assault.
Everything was how he had left it, except for one important detail.
Trace's body was gone.
Confusion etched on his face, Steve's jaw dropped and he exclaimed, "What the hell?!"
--
William Finley
His left hand at 10 on the steering wheel and his right hand resting on his lap, William sighed and looked up at the sky momentarily, seeing the sun that was beginning to come up over the horizon. He was on his way to 94567 Westwood Street where the girls were being held. He couldn't seem to keep still. He tapped his fingers on the wheel repeatedly and squirmed in his seat, over and over again.
What kind of suspect did they have on their hands? Was he a repeat offender? Had he done this before? William wouldn't know anything until he arrived and his boss filled him in on the situation. He couldn't imagine any man who would do something like this to be in his right mind - Meaning he was undoubtedly mentally insane.
The ambulances and cop cars were already there by the time he pulled up. There was so many of them, that it looked like he would have to park quite a ways from his destination. As he got out of his unmarked police vehicle, he noticed the neighbours peeking out windows and standing on porches trying to see what all the commotion was about. Police tape kept them from getting too close, which only made their curiosity heighten.
William walked aimlessly towards the house, weaving his way between all the vehicles, until he spotted his boss standing in front of a girl who sat at the end of an open ambulance, her feet brushing the asphalt. She looked nervous and flushed and also like she couldn't wait for all the people to leave her in peace.
His boss looked away from the girl for a moment as William approached and spotted him. He said something to her quickly and then began to meet William halfway. "You're here," Chief Malick stated when they stood in front of each other.
William nodded, "Fill me in?"
"Great," the Chief placed his hand on Will's shoulder and steered him away from the girl, "we've got no time to waste." His boss revealed an envelop that William didn't notice he was holding until now. He explained, "The girl is Lilah Hayward, the next door neighbour. She said she was coming home from a party when she found her brother wasn't in the house. Their parents are in Hawaii on vacation," he paused, "Anyway, apparently Trace, her brother, is good friends with one of the hostages, Katelyn Morris, who lives in the house. So Lilah went over to look for him and felt like something was wrong. She climbed into the house through the first floor bathroom window," he stopped again, eyeballing William to make sure he was following. Then continued, "Lilah says she found the kidnapper with Katelyn and Trace in one of the bedrooms. He had a knife and a gun. Katelyn was tied to the bed," William's eyes widened at his next words, "I guess the kidnapper, who they know as Steve, by the way – apparently he panicked and fired and it hit Trace."
"Is he-?" William started to question.
"No, Lilah says she looked him over and it only grazed him on the hip but he's losing a lot of blood."
"We'll need to get him out of there," Will declared.
"Yes, he's high priority. Though we don't know if anyone else is injured. Lilah said she was locked in the laundry room most of the time so she doesn't know everything that went on."
"Alright," William responded, "what about the other hostages?"
"Right, well, they were gathered for Katelyn's 16th birthday. We're guessing there's about four extra girls. Three of them are friends of Katelyn's and one is her sister, Julia."
"How old is she?"
"Thirteen," he answered, solemnly.
William muttered, "Damn."
Chief Malick shook his head, "We don't have time for compassion right now," he stopped, holding out the folder again, "Listen," He pulled out a drawing of an intimidating looking man. "We got a description from Lilah. This is where you come in, William."
He nodded in response and the Chief of police continued, "Our perpetrators real name is Daniel Kennedy." The chief's expression turned grave. "Sound familiar?"
William gasped as he realized that he recognized the name.
"Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never be really any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too."
-Frederick Buechner