The Way to Yesterday (23 page)

Both little girls bolted up from where they'd been crouching and ran up the
steps, already screaming for help, just as Mary had told them.

A low groan came up and then out of How and Lee's lips as he slowly came to.
Almost immediately, he realized what she'd done and grabbed Mary by the hair,
yanking viciously as he struggled to get free. "You bitch! You bitch!
You're ruining everything. Let me go!"

Mary ducked her head, shielding her face from his blows and tightened her
grip.Howard
Lee struggled to sit up, but couldn't shake
Mary's grasp. Then he heard the sound of little girls screaming and realized
they were gone. Rage swamped him.

"What have you done? What have you done?" he screamed, then
doubled up his fists and began raining blow after blow upon her shoulders and
the back of her head as they rolled from side to side on the wet floor. Mary
cried out in pain, adding her own screams for help and prayed for a miracle.

"How far away from

Raleigh Avenue

?"
Daniel
asked.

"About three blocks. The house should be in the middle of the block on
the left," Bobby Joe said, downshifted to pass a biker,
then
shifted back into high gear as soon as they were past him. "Think we
should call Arnaud?"

"And tell him what? That we're looking for the man from a dream?"

"Yeah, right," Bobby Joe said and then suddenly braked when two
little girls darted out from between some shrubbery and ran into the street.

"Son of a-"

.He swerved sideways, bringing the car
to a sliding halt
only inches
from the little girls' feet. Immediately, he and Daniel were
out and running.

"Help!
Help!" they screamed.

"
It's
okay, it's okay," Daniel said, and
went down on his knees, gathering both girls in his arms.

"You're all right. The car didn't hit you." Then he looked up and
around, expecting to see a parent somewhere nearby.

"Where are your parents?" he asked. "We don't know. The man
took us. He wouldn't let us go home. Mary grabbed him and told us to run. She
said to yell for help, so we ran and ran. You have to call the police before
the man finds us again."

Daniel's heart skipped a beat as he took her by the arms and held her still.

"Who's Mary? Please, baby... who's Mary?" he asked.

Justine shivered. "The man brought her. She slept with us and she
yelled at the man. She made him mad."

Daniel started to shake. "Honey ... what's your name?"

"Justine." Then she tugged on the other girl's hand. "This is
Amy Anne. Mary said we could go home."

"Sweet God," Daniel said, and then picked them up in his arms and
ran toward the car, yelling at Bobby Joe as he went. "Call 9-1-1. Tell
them we found the missing girls and tell them to contact Arnaud."

Bobby Joe yanked his phone from his pocket as Daniel slid into the seat,
still holding both girls in his arms.

"Honey, are you okay? Did the man hurt you? Is Mary okay?"

"Do you know our Mary?" Justine asked. It was all Daniel could do
to answer without coming undone.

"Yes, honey, I know Mary. She's my Mary, too." Justine smiled.
"She wants to go home."

"Where is she, honey? Did the man keep you in his house?"

"Not exactly," Justine said.

"Then where. You have to tell me, honey, so I can go find her."

"Kind of like a basement, only nicer than the one at my house."

"Okay. That's a good girl. Mary will be proud of you."

Bobby Joe jumped into the car.

"The dispatcher patched me through to Arnaud. He's already on the way,
and there was a cruiser only a couple of blocks from here. They'll be here any
minute."

Daniel could hear the sounds of an approaching siren, but Mary had obviously
put herself between the children and danger to make sure they escaped. He owed
it to her to make sure they were safe.

"You stay with the girls," he said. "I'm going after
Mary."

Bobby Joe frowned.
"No way, man.
Don't leave
me alone with two kids."

Daniel set both the little girls in the seat
beside ,Bobby
Joe.

"They won't hurt you," he said. "Consider them little women
in waiting, use your considerable charm on them until the police get here and
you'll be fine."

“Damn it, Daniel, don't-"

Daniel was out of the car and running before Bobby Joe could finish. The
last thing he heard was one of them telling Bobby Joe that he shouldn't say bad
words. If he hadn't been so scared, he would have laughed.

Howard Lee couldn't believe what was happening. He'd beaten this woman
almost senseless and she still wouldn't let go. With unfettered rage, he thrust
his hands into her hair and pulled, yanking her head backward and baring the
tender underside of her throat. At that moment, he remembered his knife.
"I'll show you," he shrieked. "You'll be sorry you came between
me and my girls." He turned loose of her hair and began trying to get his
hands in his pockets, while Mary struggled to stay conscious.

Every bone in her body throbbed from the beating she was taking and her
vision kept going in and out of focus. She was so tired and too weak to hold on
much longer, but letting go meant certain death. She heard him muttering and
cursing and closed her ears to the sounds. She couldn't think about what he was
doing to her. All she could do was hold on.

Daniel ran, his long legs marking off the distance between him and Mary
Faith. He took shortcuts through lush, green lawns and down the alleys between
houses, startling one lady who was in her backyard watering flowers and causing
dogs in neighboring yards to start barking. The woman jumped back in fright, thinking
she was about to he attacked. When Daniel ran past her instead, she dashed into
her house and locked the door. Daniel ran with Mary's name in his heart,
remembering what Justine had said, that Mary grabbed the man by the legs and
then told them to run.
God.
He'd never known she had
that kind of strength. He needed to find her. He needed to find her alive-so
that he could tell her how proud he was to call her his wife.

He lengthened his stride, and moments later come out of an alley from
between two houses to find himself in the middle of

Raleigh Avenue

. He paused briefly, his
heart pounding and gasping for breath, uncertain of which way to go. The houses
in front of him had no house numbers and the one behind him was missing two and
the others were so faded he couldn't read them. He turned in place, trying to
find a numbered house on which to fix his location, and as he did, saw an
elderly man coming toward him on the sidewalk with a small dog on a leash.

"Which way to 1449
Raleigh
?"
he yelled. The man pointed over his shoulder. Daniel bolted past him, praying
for strength as he ran.

Halfway down the block, he began hearing the faint, but persistent, shriek
of sirens. Although help was on the way, it didn't slow his steps. Moments
later, he saw the numbers he'd been looking for, then the front door standing
ajar at the house. He remembered the panicked looks on those little girls'
faces, imagining their terror as they made their escape. In two long steps,-he
cleared the curb and was running through the yard.

Even before he was inside, he heard them fighting. Male rage mingling with a
woman's weak, high pitched shrieks sent a rush of adrenaline through his body.
He hit the porch on the run, shouting Mary's name as he went.

Howard Lee's shirt was stuck to his body. His straight, Dutch-boy haircut
was wet with sweat as he struggled to get the hunting knife out of his pocket.
"Move, bitch, move," he screamed, and whacked at Mary's shoulder with
his fist. He felt her flinch, but she wouldn't let go and he couldn't get his
hand in his pocket.

Mary continued to fight, screaming when she could gather the breath. A few
seconds ago she'd thought she'd heard Daniel's voice and knew that was
impossible. Daniel didn't know where she was. Maybe she was dying.

Suddenly, Howard Lee bucked and she went flying across the floor before
hitting the wall in a sliding thump. Instantly, she rolled to her hands and
knees as Howard Lee was pulling the knife from his pocket.

She struggled to her feet and looked around for a weapon, but there was
nothing. When he started toward her, she began backing up, using her hands for
a shield as Howard Lee slide the blade from its sheath.

The sight of the weapon splintered her courage. "Oh God... no, please
no," Mary begged, and reached behind her, her fingernails raking the
concrete surface of the walls as she faced her mortality. "You destroyed
my family!" Howard Lee shrieked.

Mary couldn't believe what she was hearing.
lie
was
going to kill her and then blame her for her own death? Not while she had
breath in her body,
She
yanked the spread from one of
the beds and wrapped it around her arm as he came at her.

"You're crazy! You don't have daughters. You stole someone else's. I'm
not your wife! I belong to-"

"Mary! Mary!"

Mary gasped. That was Daniel! She hadn't imagined it before. She could hear
him calling her name.

"Here!" she screamed. "I'm down here!" Before Howard Lee
could turn around, Daniel hit him from behind in a tackle worthy of the NFL.

Howard Lee grunted. The knife went flying out of his hands. Once again, he
went down, this time reaching outward and bracing himself for the fall. As he
hit, his neck popped and he bit his own tongue. The coppery taste of blood
spurted inside his mouth as he struggled to right himself beneath the weight of
the man's body, but it was no use. Instead, he covered his head with his hands
and started begging for mercy.

Reese Arnaud and Bobby Joe Killian came to a sliding halt in front of the
house on

Raleigh Street

at almost the same time. They both came out of their cars, armed and running.

"Look for a basement," Bobby Joe yelled, as he vaulted onto the
porch. "The kid said he kept them in a basement."

They entered the living room, one only a half step behind the other and then
followed the sounds of the high-pitched screams into the bedroom, then down the
cellar steps.

Reese was the first to reach bottom.

"Get Mary out of here," he yelled, and stepped aside as Bobby Joe
dashed past. Then he holstered his gun and moved toward Daniel. He needed to
pull him off the man before he killed him.

"Daniel! Daniel...let him go!"

But Daniel didn't relent, which left Reese with the job of making it happen.
He wrapped his arms around Daniel's upper body and pulled, wrenching the beaten
and bloody man out of Daniel's grasp and leaving him limp and moaning on the
floor. Daniel spun, his fists still doubled, at the ready to throw another
punch when he realized it was Reese.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered, and then took a deep, shuddering
breath.

"Leave enough for me to arrest, and go tend to your wife."

Mary! Daniel
spun,
his gaze wide and frantic. Then
he saw her slumped over on the bed. Bobby Joe stood between them, his gun still
drawn. Daniel's legs were shaking as he took the first step. Was she all right?
Had he come too late?

"Ah God...Mary."

She staggered to her feet and into his arms. The moment Daniel's arms went
around her, Mary started to cry-huge, choking sobs that ripped up her throat
and burned the back of her nostrils. She threw her arms around his neck and
pressed herself fast to his strength, praying that this wasn't another horrible
dream and that he was really, truly here. "The girls ... the girls ... did
you find them? Are they okay?"

"Yes, baby ... the girls are fine. We found them few minutes ago."

"Thank God," Mary muttered,
then
felt the
world going black.

Daniel caught her as she fainted, then swept her up in his arms. He looked
down at Howard Lee, his rage still intact. "Consider yourself lucky, you
miserable son of a bitch. I would have killed you for what you did." With
Reese Arnaud already in the act of handcuffing the man, he sidestepped what was
left of Howard Lee and carried Mary up and out of the basement, knowing Bobby
Joe was right behind him. Sunlight hit him full in the face as he walked out of
the house. He looked down at Mary, wincing at the array of bruising that he
could see, and started to cry.

"There's an ambulance on the way," Bobby Joe said.

"I won't let her go."

Bobby Joe put a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "That's all right, buddy.
You don't have to. You'll be with her all the way."

Mary woke up in the ambulance and began to struggle. "Let me go. Let me
go," she mumbled.
"Got to find the girls."

Daniel leaned over and cupped her face. "Mary ... honey... the girls
are fine. You're on your way to the hospital and I'll be with you every step of
the way."

"Can't close my eyes... don't close my eyes. He'll take them
away."

"He can't touch you, baby. He'll never bother anyone again."

"Don't drink the juice. It will put you to sleep."

"God Almighty," Daniel said, and laid his face against her
shoulder.

The paramedic put his hand on Daniel's shoulder. "Hey, mister, she's
going to be okay." Daniel nodded through tears. "Yes, I know, but I'm
not so sure about myself."

 

Chapter Fifteen

Mary woke up once in the night, panicked at the unfamiliar surroundings,
then she saw Daniel slumped over in a chair beside her bed. Is this real or am
I dreaming?

"Daniel?"

He jerked. Seconds later he was on his feet and at her side.

"Baby... what's wrong? Are you in pain? Do you want me to get the
nurse?"