“Come on, Goliath.” She urged the big tomcat to come up for a cuddle. Almost as if he understood the problem, Goliath took his massive girth and laid it across Izzy’s and Isaac’s laps. In spite of herself, Izzy smiled, even though she quaked with fear. Isaac cried out in joy, as he wrapped his arms around the big cat and hugged him tight. Doreen winced, wondering if Goliath would let him get away with that, but he seemed totally okay with it. Her own throat was tight, and she hated to say she was afraid, but, right now, it was all about getting these two people away from that man.
Just then the guy came at Mack, pointing a gun at him. Mack took a step back, his hands up. She couldn’t hear the conversation, but she knew exactly what was happening. She looked at Izzy, who stared at the man in horrified fascination. “Did he ever pull a gun on you?”
Izzy nodded slowly. “All the time,” she said.
“Well, look at that,” she said, “we’ll have to deal with this bully then.” She looked down at Mugs and looked at Thaddeus. “You’re not going anywhere,” Doreen said, as she picked up Thaddeus and plucked him off her shoulder and onto Izzy’s. “Isaac, you look after these animals and your mom, okay?” And, with that, Doreen slid out of the truck, locked and slammed the door, hoping that the woman wouldn’t leave. This was Izzy’s one chance at freedom, and they needed to take it.
Doreen raced down the sidewalk where Mack was in a face-off. The man glared at her. But instead of stopping with Mack, she walked right past the gun in the man’s hand, making him back up, as she shoved her face into his. Then she hauled back with her right arm, and she smacked him hard across the face. He started yelling. Mack started yelling. Then suddenly she was airborne, as Mack picked her up and moved her off the sidewalk. Out came his fists, and he hit the gunman hard and dropped him where he stood.
She turned to looked at Mack, then grinned. “See? We make a great team.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “He had a gun,” he roared.
“I don’t care,” she snapped. “He spent all these years tormenting and terrorizing that young woman with that gun,” she said.
All of a sudden the neighbors were out all over the place. Some of them were looking at the man on the ground, and one of them called out, “Hey, what’s going on here? This is police harassment.”
She spun on her heels and glared at them all. “Are you people aware he’s kidnapped and raped a young woman and then kept her captive inside that property for ten whole years? That Isaac’s mother has been a prisoner in one of those huts in the back?” Arms outstretched, Doreen asked, “Is that the kind of people you are? That you let that happen right here under your noses? That you never once gave her any assistance or called for help for her?”
All the people just stared at her in shock.
She glared at them. Just then, the door of the truck opened, and the animals came running to her side, standing all around her. And slowly moving toward her were Izzy and Isaac. Doreen immediately opened her arms, and Isaac ran toward her. Izzy stepped up, shaking and trembling. She looked at the others, standing around.
“Neighbors, this is Izzy. She was kidnapped as a twelve-year-old and kept here as a prisoner for all these years. For ten years,” Doreen said, roaring into the crowd. “Do you have any idea how this little girl feels knowing that all of you people knew she was here and didn’t help her?”
One of the men blustered and said, “We didn’t know anything. We had no idea.”
“What did you think? That Isaac just appeared out of nowhere?” she snapped back at him. “Did you think that he just appeared out of fairy dust?”
The people looked at each other and then looked at Izzy, as if they’d never seen her before.
Then Doreen realized that it was probably the truth. “Oh, Lord. You guys really haven’t ever seen Izzy, have you?”
They slowly shook their heads. Doreen looked down at the man still on the ground and pointed. “Well, this is the man you guys have been keeping deep in your bosom, protecting Isaac, yes, but you forgot about Isaac’s mother,” she snarled.
At that, another neighbor started to protest. “We didn’t know. We didn’t know anything,” she said. “We wondered, of course, but we didn’t know what happened.”
Doreen looked at the gunman, and Mack gave him a shake. “Are you the man who kidnapped her?” he roared. The guy looked at Izzy, then back at Mack and said, “Izzy, what lies did you tell them?”
“The truth,” she said, her voice quiet but getting stronger as she spoke. “That for ten years you’ve kept me a prisoner, using the gun and your fists to keep me petrified.” She looked at the crowd. “He is Isaac’s father. He’s raped me for all these years,” she muttered to the horrified crowd.
At that, Mugs started barking and raced up to the man Mack was holding, chewing on his ankle. He started to scream and cry out. In exasperation, Mack tried to hold Mugs back.
Doreen looked at Mack and said, “Mugs knows exactly what he is. Nothing more than a piece of meat,” she said. “I hope the inmates in the jail take good care of him,” she said. “Mack, you leave us here so you can take that trash down to the station.”
He looked at her in surprise, as she shook her head. “This young woman shouldn’t have to be in the same vehicle as him.”
“Not a problem,” he said, “we’ve already got a cruiser coming.” And, sure enough, within minutes, Arnold and Chester pulled up. As soon as they hopped out, they took one look and spotted her in the crowd and groaned.
“Why are you always in the middle of trouble?”
“She’s not,” Izzy said, crying out, defending her.
They looked at her in surprise.
“She saved me,” she said quietly. “I’ve been a prisoner on that property, mostly in those horrid sheds for ten years. She saved me.” She turned and looked at Doreen and shot her a beautiful smile.
Doreen’s heart melted as she raced over and gave Izzy a gentle hug. “And now you’re free,” she said, wrapping Isaac up in her arms too. “You both are.” She looked at the neighbors and said, “Next time, do a little more than look after a little boy.”
Then Randy stepped forward. “We didn’t know,” he said in his booming voice. “Honestly, we didn’t know.”
Jerry, the man with all the animals, stepped forward and said, “We’re private people, but we would have helped her, if we’d known.”
“Maybe so,” she said. “Maybe that’s true, but this was allowed to continue under your noses for a decade.” They shook their heads and looked at the guy in custody.
Randy spoke again. “Martin. Is this true?”
He just stiffened his back and glared at everybody.
“Jesus,” Randy said. They all looked at each other, then back at Martin, disbelief and shock clear on their faces.
“Izzy,” someone called out. “If you want to live in the house—”
At that, Mack stepped forward and said, “It’s not that easy. Izzy was kidnapped from Vancouver ten years ago. She has family, we hope, people who need to know she’s alive. And Isaac? He needs a better life.”