Afraid

I was in the trunk of a car and by the sound of the tires squealing and my body hitting both sides of the car, we must have going at high speed. I had a smelly cloth tied over my head. First thing I did was get it off and away from my nose. Thankful they did not tie my hands and legs.

I had been walking to the store when a car pulled up beside me asking me directions. I stopped walking answering as best I could, not knowing the street they were asking for. If it had been a van, I would not have gotten as close to the window, but before I had a chance to yell or run the passenger was out and had me around the neck pushing me into the trunk. How many times had I told my pupils never to go near a car if they did not know who was in it.  

I started to bang the rear lights. After what seemed like hours, I kept my feet right on, the light and hit it as hard as I could. My ankles and feet were getting numb. Finally it popped out. They had slowed down some and I wondered if they could hear my noise. I was afraid of what would happen when they stopped the car.

It sounded like we were on gravel and I could hear voices, I started banging on the lid of the trunk. I heard a strong voice telling someone to open the trunk. A gun shot. 
Then the trunk opened and all I could see was one of the men lying on the ground bleeding from the chest and the other in hand cuffs. A policeman gave me his hand to help me out. I wished it had been me who fired.

I had to go to court and testify. The fellow who had been shot died on the way to the hospital and the other one was charged with kidnapping. He was sentenced to ten years as he pleaded no contest and said he was only the driver and was not aware of what his friend had in mind. His brother got on the stand and gave a raving report of how good a person he was and had never been in trouble with the law before.

I did not know at the time that the brother had many charges against him and had spent a few years in jail. That did not come out at trial. 
However, he came to visit me and told me to recant my statement in favour of his brother as they were going after a re-trial and he would be paying me a visit late one night if I did not.

Was I going to have to live in fear for the next ten years or more? Should I go to the police and file a complaint or handle this myself? I lived alone in a small house on a dead-end street, no neighbours close and trees surrounded me. I had always enjoyed my privacy and was not going to let this criminal change my life.

The phone calls started late at night and continued for the next month. The phone would ring and when I picked up silence and heavy breathing.  Then a rock came crashing through my kitchen window in the middle of the night. I phoned the police and they came and looked around in my garden. They thought it might be kids just trying to scare me until I told them what had been happening since the trial. They boarded up the window and said they would try to get footprints the next day. Then would send patrols past through the night. 
On the other hand, would I like to go to a hotel until they got who was doing this? I told them I knew it was the brother and why did it not come out in the trial that he was an ex-convict?

I started to believe the police could not protect me. Being summer, I was off work and a plan began to form in my mind.  The re-trial neared. 

The next day the phone rang, a whispered voice told me I should not become involved with the police and this was my last warning. I was going to pay for doing it.  I was sure he would come late at night and try to get into my house, killing me so I could not re-testify in the morning.  The police told me they would come by every hour that night but I had seen them cruise by, hardly looking at my house.

I prepared for the night ahead, taking my sleeping bag and hiding it between the trees of my house where the brush was thick. Using some wire, I attached some tiny bells to my plants at the back and front doors. I would hear him arrive. I hid all my kitchen knives, and potential weapons that he could use against me, only putting my new gun in my hip holster. I would never be without this until this man was gone from my life, one way or another.

I made two thermoses of coffee and some snacks inside a pack sack. It was going to be a long night. I dressed in dark cloths as the sun went down and dusk settled in. No moon tonight. I was sure he would make the move soon to stop me from testifying  tomorrow.

My watch just reached three o’clock when I heard the bells. and a murmured curse from him.  He was carrying  a red can and had started to splash it around the front door then moved towards the back. He was planning to set my house on fire!

I ran from the bush as he came back towards me and I shot the can from his hand. It burst into flame as he tried to distance himself. I let another shot off so he could not move. He did not know where I was I pressed 9-1-1 as I changed my position. He was stuck beside the burning gas can.

Then he made a big mistake taking out a gun and started aiming into the darkness randomly hitting trees as I moved behind the trunk of my big weeping willow. I could hear sirens closing. He would be caught in moments, but I was not prepared to go through another trial for this man.

I aimed and hit him right through his head. Lucky shot.

They called it self defense. No trial for me either.