Little Girl Gone Page 24

  Lieberman reached in his pants pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He waved it in front of me. ‘You should always charge your phone. In case of an emergency, you know.’ Lieberman smiled.

  ‘Is this a joke to you? Is this a game you’re playing?’ I took a step forward and picked up the chair on the porch. ‘I will scream so loud the entire neighborhood will hear me.’

  Their faces were blank, not as much as discomfort in their demeanor. Anna turned and disappeared into the house.

  ‘Go ahead,’ Lieberman said and put his hands in his pants pockets. ‘For someone who goes around knocking on doors and accusing people, you’re not very convincing. I’m just trying to help you,’ he said and shook his head.

  ‘Someone help me,’ I screamed as loud as I could, ‘they have my baby. They took my daughter from me. Help.’ I lifted the chair up in the air and pointed its legs towards the window next to the front door.

  Lieberman looked at me in disbelief. He stepped forward and grabbed my left wrist and shook it until the chair landed on the porch. I jerked away from him but he held on to my fingers and bent them backwards, making me wince.

  ‘HELP! I NEED HELP!’

  Lieberman pulled me towards the front door. I managed to leave bloody streaks down his forearm, when a flashing light made both of us turn around.

  A police cruiser came to an abrupt stop and two uniformed officers walked towards us. One of them spoke into the radio attached to his shoulder as he hurried towards us. Lieberman let go of my wrist.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ asked the older and heavier of the two officers.

  ‘You need to search the house. They have my baby,’ I said and ignored his hands gesturing me to step back further.

  ‘I need you to calm down and follow my instructions. Please step off the porch. I need to see some identification.’

  ‘You asked what was going on. I’m trying to tell you—’

  ‘Identification?’

  I pulled my driver’s license out of my wallet and I handed it to him. He glanced back and forth between me and the picture.

  ‘Now tell me what’s going on.’

  ‘I need you to search the house. They have my daughter. I was here earlier and now they pretend they don’t know me.’

  ‘Just explain the situation to me, don’t tell me what to do.’

  ‘My baby is in there, I need you to—’

  ‘Please, I can’t just conduct a search of a private property, it doesn’t work that way.’

  ‘How does it work then? How can I get you to search the house?’

  ‘Who called 9-1-1?’

  ‘One of the neighbors must have heard me scream and—’

  ‘I did, I called.’ Anna stepped back onto the porch and folded her arms in front of her body. Her voice was shaky. ‘This woman knocked on our door. She’s not making any sense. Please tell her to leave.’

  ‘Sir?’ The police officer looked at Lieberman. ‘What’s going on there?’ he said and pointed at Lieberman’s arm. ‘Your arm’s bleeding. Are you hurt?’

  The second officer gestured me to follow him and led me onto the front lawn, away from the house. ‘Tell me what’s going on.’

  ‘He’s my neighbor,’ I said, pointing at Lieberman. ‘I found a figurine from my daughter’s room in his apartment. He took my daughter. She’s in this house.’ I pointed at 126. ‘I heard her cry through the window and I—’

  ‘You were in his apartment? So you know each other?’

  ‘No, no, no, you don’t understand.’ I took a deep breath in, hoping it would allow me to sound more coherent. ‘Look,’ I said and reached into my purse for the Tinker Bell figurine.

  He stepped back and put his hand on the holster of his gun. ‘Do not reach inside your purse again. Take your hand out and calm down so we can make sense of this.’

  I jerked my hand back. I watched the first cop glance left to the ‘For Sale’ sign in the yard of the house next door. He turned towards David Lieberman. ‘Is this your residence, sir?’

  ‘That’s correct. I live here with my wife.’

  ‘Come back over here, Mrs Paradise. But keep your hands to yourself and follow my instructions.’ The junior cop and I joined them on the front porch. ‘You live on …’ He studied my driver’s license again, ‘517 North Dandry, in New York City. This gentleman,’ he pointed at David Lieberman, ‘lives at 126 Waterway Circle, Dover. Hours away from your home address.’

  ‘He’s my neighbor, he lives above me. There’s a dumbwaiter and I found—’

  ‘Just answer my question. How is he your neighbor if you live hours apart?’

  ‘He’s my upstairs neighbor at 517 North Dandry. Why won’t you believe anything I’m telling you?’

  ‘Ma’am, let me assure you, I’m not making any assumptions. It’s just that you’re not making any sense. We received a call about a trespassing violation. You trespassed onto their property and—’

  ‘Why don’t you ask them for identification? This is David and Anna Lieberman; they are brother and sister, not husband and wife.’

  ‘I don’t need to identify myself,’ Lieberman interjected. ‘I can’t help crazy people coming to my door. I have rights, you know.’ Lieberman threw the officer an I told you she was crazy look.

  ‘This back and forth is not helping. Let me just finish questioning the lady.’

  We moved down the driveway. I realized that my clothes and hair were soaking wet and that, with every step, my feet made a squishing sound. I was afraid he’d ask me to hand him my purse, where he’d find the gun. If he did, I’d be handcuffed and in the back of the cruiser before I could explain anything else.

  ‘Okay, Mrs Paradise, one thing at a time,’ the first cop said and took out a small green notepad. ‘You are reporting that they have your baby and that he’s your neighbor. Is he the father of the baby? I’m not sure I’m following you.’ He closed his notebook. ‘What I can tell you is that I have no legal cause to search a house. You’re hours away from where you live and I can’t make sense of your story.’

  ‘Why won’t you just search the house?’

  ‘Because—’

  ‘Because it doesn’t work that way, I remember.’

  ‘Officer,’ Anna called over from the front porch, ‘this is just a mix-up. I think she’s got the wrong address.’

  ‘We’ve been telling her that all along,’ David Lieberman said and put his arm around Anna.

  ‘I understand, sir, I’ll be with you in a minute.’

  When the officer turned towards me, I continued, ‘Mix-up? This isn’t a mix-up. He took my child. I was here earlier, not even an hour ago. She told me to leave and I heard my baby cry. I tracked him down and came here to confront him.’

  ‘Why didn’t you go to the police where you live?’

  ‘I did, I tried, but …’ I was going in circles. I knew that if I continued this route, I was going to end up in a psychiatric ward in this godforsaken town.

  ‘Ma’am, is there anyone we can call to pick you up? Your husband, a friend, anyone?’

  ‘I don’t need anyone to pick me up.’

  ‘I’m doing you a favor here. This can go either way and I’m offering you to call someone to pick you up.’

  ‘Let me just show you what I found—’

  ‘I told you before not to reach into your purse. Are you on any medication? Are you in treatment for any kind of mental illness? Now would be the time to tell me.’

  ‘No, no, no. I’m … why are you asking me this? Why don’t you ask him what kind of medication he’s on? Ask him if he’s crazy. He took my child. He’s the one—’

  ‘Mrs Paradise, honestly …’ Then his face lit up. ‘Ah, now I get it.’ He closed the notepad and turned a dial on the radio attached to his shoulder.

  ‘I’m telling you the truth. If I—’

  ‘Relax, Mrs Paradise. I know what this is,’ he interrupted me. ‘You’re the girlfriend. You probably stood in the rain watching the house. You f
ollowed him out here and you realized he’s married. He,’ and he pointed at Lieberman, ‘is pretending he doesn’t know you. Which, by the way, is not a crime. You, on the other hand, you could be charged with disturbing the peace and trespassing. And that doesn’t include the scratches on his arm, that’s an assault charge. And the fact you’re accusing this man of kidnapping. You are potentially in a lot of trouble.’

  I had seen Lieberman earlier getting clothes from the backseat and with any luck … ‘His car, can you check his car, just look through the window. If there’s anything like baby clothes, diapers, formula, anything, then you know I’m telling the truth.’

  I turned around. Everything about Lieberman was wrong. He stood in the same spot, seemingly paralyzed, yet his smile was pasted on and there were dark wet patches under each armpit.

  ‘Please, just look through the car window, you’ll see,’ I said and watched Lieberman’s face change from superiority to fear. His shoulders were hunched, his movements uncoordinated. He kept moving towards me, yet his body seemed to be going sideways at the same time. His face was paper white. He leaped off the porch causing the officers to put their hands on their holsters.

  ‘My husband isn’t feeling well,’ Anna Lieberman pulled him back, holding on to his arm while wrapping her other arm around his waist. ‘We haven’t done anything wrong. I think we’re done here.’

  ‘Sir,’ the cop called over to the porch, ‘do you want to file charges for assault against this lady?’

  ‘We’re not filing any charges, officer. This is just a mix-up.’ Anna Lieberman sounded convincing. If I didn’t know any better, I would have believed her myself.

  ‘Please check their car, you’ll see—’

  ‘That’s enough.’ His voice was harsh, his eyes stern. ‘Either you get in your car and leave or I’m going to put these cuffs on you,’ he said and pointed at his duty belt.

  I wanted to drop to my knees. I felt discredited like a little child whose parents insist that there are no monsters under the bed. No one was going to help me because they believed me to be a lunatic. Again, I had failed. There was nothing else I could do. Lieberman had won. I gave the police officer a half-hearted smile and held up my car key.

  ‘You folks are free to go about your business,’ he called to the front porch. Then he turned towards me. ‘I’m going to consider this issue resolved. I will escort you to 434 and we forget about all of this. Just a lot of paperwork over nothing and these good folks over there have somewhere to be. 434 will take you straight back to New York City,’ he said and motioned me to get in my car.

  We reached exit 434 and the officer in the passenger seat in the car alongside me waved to the right. I took the exit that would lead me back to New York City and the cruiser disappeared from my view. I wondered if they were going to follow me, make sure I’d leave town, but in my rearview mirror I saw the cruiser take off in the other direction. I had no intention of leaving Dover, none. The force of Lieberman’s hand on my wrist pulling me towards the house still felt real even though it hadn’t left a bruise. Something inside of me couldn’t shake the fact that the police showing up might have kept me from a more sinister fate.

  I had to give it to the Liebermans: discrediting me in front of the cops and getting away with it was bold. My appearance, wet and disheveled, hadn’t helped, I was sure. Lieberman’s face when I mentioned the baby clothes in the car to the officer, the way his features froze, was proof enough for me of his guilt. But what was I to do? Enter the house, gun in hand, and demand my daughter back? There was only one thing no one would be able to discredit me on: DNA. I just needed to prove to the police that the baby in Anna’s house was mine, and science was on my side.

  In order to get DNA I had to return to Anna’s house and that posed a serious problem − now the police had been alerted and there was no telling what David and Anna were going to do if I were to show up again. While I thought about how to proceed − a dirty diaper maybe from the garbage sitting on Anna’s curb − I quickly realized I had missed my turn and passed the Dover exit altogether. I pulled over on the curb and turned off the ignition. I switched on the overhead light and unfolded the map, struggling with its size. After a few minutes I gave up.

  Daylight had faded and traffic had gone from sparse to nonexistent as the autumn night turned thick with darkness, sticky almost, as if covered in ink. The moon, like a ghostly apparition in flight, on and off, appeared and disappeared behind thick clouds.

  I didn’t make out any movements behind me − it was more a hunch than anything − but suddenly my heartbeat went into overdrive. I reached for the gun in my purse without taking my eyes off the mirror.

  A set of headlights appeared out of nowhere as if a car had approached me with the lights off and had just now turned them back on. Slowly the car pulled up behind me but no one got out. It rolled another one or two feet forward, then stopped. The car’s lights went out and it was dark again. I kept staring in the rearview mirror. Finally, a car door opened.

  Before my mind realized what was happening, my body reacted. My elbow hit the central locking mechanism. I hit it again, twice more, then again, until I was no longer sure if it was engaged or not. My brain messaged my body to start the car. At that very moment, the back window shattered and shards of glass rained on the backseat. Then all went quiet.

  I sat paralyzed with fear. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow by the driver’s window. I grabbed my purse, scooted into the passenger seat and reached for the door handle. The driver’s side window shattered next and I covered my face with my arms. As I reached to open the passenger door, someone tugged at my hair through the driver’s window and yanked me back in the driver’s seat. My scalp pounded with pain. I turned my head and a shadowy man stood next to my car.

  Fate may visit unannounced, but once it knocks, you know nothing will keep it from entering. The Prince of Darkness had come for me. And he was mad.

  Chapter 22

  My breath comes in short spurts. I press the palms of my hands against the cold leather of the couch, next to my thighs. I try to concentrate on Dr Ari, but my eyes scamper, unable to focus. I can’t contain the panic, like unfurled yarn it remains, holds no true form, yet it reaches through my entire body.

  ‘I need to speak with the detective. They are looking for them, right? What are they doing to find them? All this here, what we’re doing, doesn’t matter at all. We have to find Lieberman and Anna. Mia is with them.’

  ‘Let me reassure you that the police are doing everything in their power to locate them.’ He pauses for a moment as if something is irking him. ‘I don’t believe we’ve reached the end.’

  ‘The end?’ I ask.

  ‘We have to continue on, the end being … there’s just too many questions unanswered,’ he replies.

  I feel the need to retreat for a short while, seek shelter like an animal before birthing her young. ‘What does Islam say about fate, Dr Ari?’

  ‘Muslims call fate one of the pillars of faith. I know what befalls me couldn’t have missed me, and what misses me could not have befallen me.’

  Dr Ari wipes his forehead with the palm of his hand as if to remove invisible pearls of sweat, maybe even his way of clearing his mind. He has the tapering fingers of a scientist.

  Reliving the moment when Lieberman’s hand reached through the shattered window and unlocked the car door coats my entire body in a layer of sweat. I recall Lieberman’s unnaturally long fingers grasping for me, like some offshoot of a bloodsucking plant. Suddenly it’s all so clear. Bright as daylight, my memories reconcile, gather like oil on top of the ocean surface. Suddenly I realize he is as much afraid of the truth as I am. And that we are nowhere near the end.

  Lieberman’s eyes were feverish, dark and intense. The overhead light bathed us in a golden glow and the moonlight caught bits and pieces of lunacy in his eyes and reflected them towards me.

  ‘And so we meet again,’ he said.

  Wanting Mia bac
k was the only thought left inside of me. The thought of having to kill him horrified me, but I was determined. I wasn’t shaking, I wasn’t crying. I took my fear and hauled it into the darkness. Whatever panic took over my body, I would not allow it to reach my mind. I would contain it and use it to my advantage. This moment was as inevitable as the darkness around me.

  ‘You worthless piece of shit.’ Lieberman’s voice was sharp. His comment seemed out of sorts, I didn’t know where it was coming from. He was light years away from the man who had lied to the cops earlier, beyond the man who had leaped off the porch. His eyes darted about as if spoken commands in his head were tossing him left and right.

  ‘Next time you visit my home without an invitation, you should be more careful.’ His voice had turned into a hiss.

  Occupying the same space with him was electrifying. What had I ever done to him? Did he think it was his God-given right to take someone’s daughter? Was I supposed to just let it be? Not knowing how to respond and watching his eyes dart about, I realized logic might not be anything familiar to him. There were moments when his face switched from normalcy to lunacy, his eyes became more piercing, started to shift about.

  ‘Get out of the car.’

  My lack of fear was mutinous as he reached for the door and opened it. I didn’t move. ‘Where is my daughter?’

  ‘I told you to leave us alone. Why did you come all the way out here and harass my girlfriend?’

  We had just begun, but already I was lost. Anna Lieberman was the girl in the paper, his sister. She looked just like the photo in the newspaper.

  ‘What girlfriend? The one you called your wife earlier? You mean your sister, Anna?’

  ‘Who are you to tell me who we are? Why’d you have to come out here? Everything was fine until you came up here.’ With these words, he motioned me to get out of the car. As if by sleight of hand, a gun appeared that he waved in my face.