He held his ear to Tracy’s chest. Her heart was beating faintly.
“Tracy, it’s Tom! Can you hear me?”
He stared at her closed eyes expectantly but they remained closed.
Tom glanced around the room, knowing that he had precious few seconds before they came back upstairs. He looked around for a gun but didn’t see one.
He went over to the window, raised the mini blinds and looked outside. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw an eave just outside the window that jutted out a few feet. Beyond the overhang he noticed that the roof gently sloped out over the front porch. Tom couldn’t believe his good luck.
He unlatched the window and raised it up as far as he could. He then went over and placed his hands under Tracy’s armpits and pulled her body gently down to the floor. He dragged her over to the window and set her down, grabbed the blanket off the bed and hastily wrapped it around her half naked body.
He could tell from the shouts of the men downstairs that they were trying to put out the fire that he had started in the kitchen. It wouldn’t be much longer before one of them remembered that Tracy was still upstairs and run up to get her. Tom scurried over to the bedroom door, closed and locked it.
He hoisted the unconscious girl up until her back was resting against the wall directly below the windowsill. He then backed his way out through the window, carefully planted his feet in the snow and took hold of Tracy from behind. He was surprised at how light she felt as the adrenalin kicked in. He gingerly pulled her body through the window and out onto the eave of the roof. Tracy’s feet had just cleared the windowsill when Tom suddenly lost his footing and nearly fell off the eave. Fortunately, the overhang was only slightly pitched and he was able to regain his balance while still keeping his hold on Tracy.
Tom paused long enough to catch his breath and figure out the best way to move Tracy from the overhang onto the porch roof. Then he heard the sound of someone banging on the bedroom door.
Realizing that it wouldn’t take too long for them to break down the door, Tom tightened his grasp on Tracy’s body and dragged her toward the area where the overhang met the line of the porch roof. Tom’s heart sank when he heard the sound of smashing woodwork and knew that they had just busted the door down.
It would only take a second for them to discover where he was.
Just then, Tom heard the sound of tires screeching below him and saw a blast of light bathe the roof where he stood holding Tracy’s limp body.
It was the cops! Tom glanced over and saw one of the abductors appear in the window. It was the one who had dumped off the black girl in the alley. He glanced over at Tom then spotted the cruiser on the street, its spotlight trained on the window. The man spun around and was out of sight in an instant.
Tom heard sirens as another cruiser sped up to the house, followed by a fire truck. One of the cops had gotten out and was pointing a gun at him.
“Hold it right where you are!” he commanded.
“They are going to escape out the back!” Tom shouted. “Three men-they have a gun!”
Tom heard more sirens and saw the paramedics pull up in front of the police cruisers. A second officer got out, drew his gun and headed toward the rear of the house. The first policeman continued pointing his gun at Tom. A pair of firemen jumped from the fire truck and began uncoiling fire hose.
Tom suddenly heard two gunshots ring out from the rear of the house. A third police officer hopped out of one of the cruisers and hustled back toward the action. The first officer still had his gun pointed cleanly on Tom.
“Remain where you are and don’t make any sudden moves!” the cop warned.
Tom’s arms were numb from holding Tracy’s body. “I have an unconscious woman here who needs medical attention-she’s been drugged and is barely breathing!”
The cop called the paramedics over and spoke to them. A moment later, he said: “Hold on to her and we’ll get someone up there as soon as the scene is cleared.”
“Okay, but please hurry!”
Tom saw the three men appear from around the side of the house, followed by the cops. The men were handcuffed.
“Is that everybody?” the cop holding the gun asked the other officers.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure. Except for the two on the roof,” Tom heard a cop reply. “The fire is spreading pretty quick.”
On cue, the firemen began moving toward the rear of the house, followed by the paramedics and one of the officers. The cop motioned toward Tom.
“We’ll be up to get you in a moment.”
Tom watched as the three men were escorted over to the cruisers, frisked and then placed into the rear of the cars. A small crowd had gathered and was looking on curiously.
A cop suddenly stuck his head out the window and aimed his flashlight directly into Tom’s eyes.
“Hold it right there and don’t make any sudden moves,” he commanded.
“Okay,” Tom replied.
“Do you have any weapons on you?”
“No, sir.”
The cop trained his light on Tracy’s face, frowned, then disappeared. A moment later, one of the firemen stuck his head out and surveyed the situation.
“We’re going to get a ladder up to you, mister,” he called to Tom. “A medic is coming out to take a look at the woman.”
Tom nodded. The cop appeared again and managed to climb nimbly out onto the eave, despite his large size. He had his gun drawn and kept his flashlight on Tom as he made his way over. The officer gave him a quick pat-down for weapons then focused his attention on the unconscious Tracy Adams.
“What happened to her?”
“Those bastards drugged her. They gave her some kind of date rape drug.”
“And what was your part in all of this?” he asked accusingly.
“I had no part at all in this-I came here to try to save her!”
“We’ll continue this interrogation once we get you off this roof,” the cop said. He shone his light on Tracy’s face. “She doesn’t look very good.”
The officer stepped over to the window.
“You can come out now,” he said to the paramedic on the other side of the window.
Tom watched as the medic climbed out onto the roof then came over and knelt down beside Tracy. He opened each of her eyelids and shone a light into each eye, checked her pulse and took her blood pressure.
“Do you know how long ago she was given the drug?” he asked Tom.
“I’d say about a twenty minutes ago.”
“Do you have any idea what drug it was?”
“I heard them say GHB, but there were other drugs too, I think. He said that there was an anti-nausea drug added in.”
Tom suddenly heard a clatter and saw the top of a ladder appear at the edge of the roof several feet away. A moment later, a fireman came into view.
The medic said, “I’ll hold onto the woman while you go down with the fireman. We’re going to have to get her back inside and onto a gurney.”
Tom nodded and let the medic take hold of Tracy’s arms. The fireman climbed onto the roof, went over to Tom then helped him onto the ladder.
“Is she going to be okay?” Tom asked the medic.
“I think so. She probably just needs to sleep it off.”
Relieved, Tom began his descent down the ladder. He glanced down and spotted that the policeman who had kept his gun on him all this time standing there awaiting him.
CHAPTER 25
A week later, Tom climbed the stairs up to Tracy’s apartment, wondering how this was going to go. The last time he had seen her was when she had been loaded into the ambulance and transported to Riverside Hospital on that horrendous night when the shit had royally hit the fan.
He stood at her door and knocked. A moment later, the door opened and Tracy stood there with a mixture of joy and anxiety on her lovely face.
“Hello, Tom. It’s so good to see you.”