Chapter 36

2nd October 2015: 1:32 am.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Barbara was crouched by the small log fire that was glowing in the side of the room. I could see the fright on her face as she stopped the sipping whatever was in the cup and nearly dropped it on the floor. She was wearing a black T-shirt and matching pants as if she was supposed to be hiding. Her hair was all over the place like a bird’s nest and the tears that were streaming from her eyes were clearly those of a frightened child.

I ran over to her. “Barbara,” I choked, unable to speak. She seemed confused for a minute and then she dropped the cup and ran into my arms.

“Daddy, you’re here.”

I hugged her so tightly, thinking that my stupidity had nearly caused her death. I saw a bandage on her arm and asked, “Did you cut yourself?”

She shook her head and pointed to Zhang who was at the other side of the room. I didn’t even notice him when we came in, “He did it. With my clothes.” Her words were mumbled and I didn’t understand what she was trying to tell me. I didn’t care, knowing that she was safe and most of all alive was what mattered the most. It dawned on me, that must have been the clothes near our holiday home.

They’d really thought of everything.

Zhang grabbed a hold of Li’s hand and asked, “What are they both doing here?”

He said it loud enough for us to hear him and Will stood near the door, ready for us to escape. Whatever they planned or were thinking about doing, it was over. Will and I knew that the only thing that mattered was getting Barbara as far away from them as possible. The police were on their way. We’d called them as soon as we’d hit the area near the cabin; we’d hoped that Barbara would be here. I’d just feared that she wasn’t alive. Feeling her soft skin next to my face made me breathe a sigh of relief knowing that this nightmare was coming to an end.

I stood up as she was holding on to me so tightly, “We’ve come to take her home.”

“Look we don’t want any trouble. We just want Barbara and then we can forget the whole thing,” Will was trying to reassure them as he moved towards them. It was clear by the expression on Zhang’s face that he wasn’t going to let us leave without a fight. I didn’t know how much training Will had done as an investigator, or whether he could take Zhang on. He may have been small, but Li had told me that he had done some military training in the past. We were exhausted and it was the early hours of the morning. Detective Russell should have been here by now. I wondered if it was a mistake to have come into the cabin without waiting for him. He had said that on the phone, his instructions were clear: “Ted, just don’t go in there until we arrive.”

Yet, Li’s presence outside had startled me and I grew impatient at the idea of hanging around outside waiting for them to arrive.

I started to walk out of the cabin while they were arguing about the situation. I had put Barbara in enough danger. Before I made it to the door. Zhang swiftly stood in front of it. There was a loud bang as he shut it and Barbara started to sob even more.

I shook my head, thinking about the brother that I rarely saw. The one that Li talked about as her eldest one, the one that had helped her out so many times. Yet, whenever I had seen him, he had merely grunted or even turned to walk away. I knew nothing about this man, apart from the fact that he was dangerous.

“I just don’t understand what you were all thinking?” My question was directed to Li, but she was too busy panicking, something that I’d seen her do before. The first time was when she thought that the Russian mob wanted her head on a platter.

I turned to Zhang. “How could you kidnap my child?”

Where they planning on killing Barbara?

Having Emma framed for the whole thing?

“You don’t understand anything.” Zhang looked towards Li. “You broke my sister’s heart one too many times. Always coming up with a good excuse, after all she did for you. It was a disgrace. A grown man letting his woman sleep with clients just so that he could get ahead in business. And for what? Coming up with excuses not to leave his druggie wife.”

This was the most I’d ever spoken to Zhang in all these years. I couldn’t fucking believe that he could talk. But then it didn’t matter, nothing could justify taking Barbara.

“So, that’s a good reason to kidnap Barbara? Using Elizabeth, your own niece. Leaving her with a woman that you say is a druggie and then to make matters worse, you frame Emma. You’ve got to be kidding! I’m a jerk to women and you think that this is the best way to deal with it?”

The whole conversation was stupid, I just needed to get out of there. It didn’t matter what they thought or what they were thinking of playing out in their little scheme. It was over! I knew that, but I could tell that they didn’t want to believe it.

“You’re a fucking excuse of a man. My sister deserves better, but I need the money. So that’s all that matters to me right now.”

I was about to say something else, when Barbara whispered in my ear as I held her tightly in my arms, “Daddy, I’m scared.”

Zhang had stopped talking as his eyes fixed on Li. I should have just run out of the door, but my gut feeling told me that I shouldn’t. I needed them to agree to us leaving, before things turned out even worse. His eyes darted from Li to me. I moved closer towards Zhang hoping that he would give up and just let us go.

Instead he continued to explain, “All my sister ever wanted was to be with you. She even went to the trouble of having your child just to make sure that you two were together. Yet, nothing changed. You stayed with Emma and just kept coming back to my sister for sex. I spent so many nights just listening to you…” before he could even finish, Will punched him and screamed at me, “Get the fuck out of here!”

But we were too late as Li shouted out as she had a gun pointed at me. “Don’t anyone move!”