EMBRACE YOU Lone(liness Book Two)(18)
Do you want to stay?
Yes, Marcus. I want to be here every day. I need to know what's happening so I can protect you and our little girl.
Okay. I'll be here with you, too. I'll work at night and on breaks here in court.
We smile at each other, then face the front of the courtroom.
During the trial, the barrister prosecuting the case presents evidence that shows how Cara worked to track Marcus down. He calls us both to the stand and takes, first, me through my testimony.
I describe how I first spotted Cara and alerted Marcus to her presence.
"What did your husband say about the defendant?"
"He said he didn't remember her."
"At what point was he able to remember her?"
"After we found out that they had attended the same secondary school, he looked through the school's yearbooks. Once he saw her, he vaguely remembered who she was."
"Did he tell you his impression of her?"
"Only that he had no memory of who she was or of anything she did in school. He didn't even remember what she studied."
A few days later, Marcus is on the stand, describing how Cara would find out where we lived at the time, what we drove and what our daily schedule was.
"My wife was dumping our rubbish in the bin outside when she saw Cara across the street, just staring at our flat."
I happen to glance over at Cara. The sight makes me go cold all over and shiver. She's staring vacantly at Marcus with her mouth wide open. Nothing else gets her attention, not even when someone drops a pad on the floor.
"What did you do when she told you she had seen Cara outside?"
"Made sure the sheers were closed and called my dad. We moved to a temporary place that same day. I was not going to expose my family to anything she might be capable of," Marcus says.
I sigh in relief. He had promised not to mention the baby and he stuck to that.
"How did the defendant next track you down?"
"I was at home - in the temporary place - working. My wife had gone to buy food. She walked out of the shop and saw her - the defendant - across the street, just watching our car. She had managed to find out what we drive," Marcus said.
"How did she do that?"
"She waited down the street for us to get into the car, then she would follow us."
"I want to talk about the day your child was almost kidnapped. Would you take us through that day?"
This is where things get really dicey for us. We don't want to mention Lizzie's name, so we have decided we would just say, "baby" or "child."
"I had decided to start driving my wife and our child to the group's practice studio. It is safer that way. We got to the studio and they were practicing. I was set up in a corner with...the baby's play pen set next to my table. My wife had just finished feeding the baby and changing her nappy. Shortly after she put her into her play pen, I got a call from a client who was trying to get more in his tech articles than what we had contracted for. I was trying to explain that he had paid for one package and he wanted the higher priced package - without paying the additional price. Our discussion became heated, so I moved slightly away from the play pen. I didn't want to wake the baby, who had by now, fallen asleep. That's when...she...the defendant moved in. She was waiting just inside, hidden in a small alcove. She saw that my back was to the baby and she moved to the play pen and grabbed her, then ran outside. I heard Johanna scream and saw her run outside. The boys - the band members all ran out with Johanna, behind the defendant. She pushed the baby into the back seat of her car, dropping her blanket. It...it was a cold day that day, so she grabbed the baby's blanket. That's when one of the boys moved in and grabbed the defendant, to keep her from leaving. Laslow, my brother, opened the car from the other side and grabbed the baby and gave her to Johanna. One of us called the police and, from there, the defendant was taken to jail. That's when all of us found out about her friend, Melanie, who had helped her to plan the kidnapping in the first place. Ever since then, we've been just waiting for the trials to begin," Marcus finished.
The defense attorney begins the defense portion of the criminal trial for Cara. All throughout, he tries to allude to parental neglect and even abuse, saying that Cara's actions were all due to the lack of loving parental care in her childhood.
Oh, boo-hoo! I call balderdash. What he's not saying is that Cara was warned, repeatedly, that her actions constituted stalking. She kept stalking my husband. Listen, I may be only 22 years old, but I damn sure know what "stalking" is. And she damn sure stalked Marcus!
When I hear the defense attorney's assertions and excuses, I really have to work to keep a neutral facial expression. I watch Marcus' hand, which tightens when he hears the excuses.
Cara is called to the witness stand and is walked through her testimony. She talks about how she first noticed Marcus in school - her accounting sounds like a bad romance novel.
"I was a school girl in secondary school. I was fat and the kids didn't notice me. They ignored me, so when I saw Marcus and his beautiful, kind green eyes, I liked him immediately. I saw that he was kind to all the kids, even me. I dropped a book. And...and he picked it up and returned it to me. Nobody else would even acknowledge my presence, but Marcus! He gave me back my book! Then we graduated and lost touch. I don't know where he went to university. I went on to vocational school, where I earned my certificate in cooking for large groups. Then, I saw Marcus' name in the paper. He'd married some musical star. Well, it was easy to find out where he'd be, so I bought a ticket for one of the concerts. That's when the police made contact with me - I honestly don't know why! All I wanted to do was to see Marcus, not do any harm to him! Uh, or to his kid. I was able to find where he lived by visiting the public works office. That's when I showed up across the street from his flat. And, when I saw what he drove, it was just that simple to follow him to the store, to the studio, just everywhere."