“They have her!” the officer announced to the crowd waiting anxiously just outside of the barricaded area that was marked off with bright yellow tape. “She is safe and unhurt.”
Immediately electric excitement filled the area. Cheers, high-fives, and laughter replaced the strained silence that had settled over them.
News reporters were ready, and the somber scene soon became one of organized chaos.
Phones ringing, newscasters, with cameras ready and microphones in hand, hoping to catch the best angle, or the best statement from anyone willing to comment or to talk to them - they waited for anything that might give them the edge over another station!
Two days had felt like an eternity. Sandi could hardly believe that finally, it was over!
“What? What kitties are you talking about, Sweetie?”
“Mister Sam gave me a kitty, Mommy. It’s a boy, and his name is Blackjack. That’s ’cause he is black all over. Mr. Sam said that was a good name for him.”
“Blackjack is in the house with his momma. Sam said they couldn’t come with us, but I think they are lonely.”
“Mommy, Mr. Sam got mad at me, but I was being a good girl. Can we go and get them now, Mommy?”
Sandi looked at Jim, who stood beside them quietly listening. “I don’t know, Honey. The police have to look at the house, and I’m sure they will take care of them.”
Her tired little body suddenly stiffened, and she started shaking as tears flooded her eyes and freely rolled down her dirty cheeks. “No! They are my kitties!”
Annie’s mother gathered the child closely to her heart as Sergeant Parker, who had been listening, walked over.
Stepping a few feet to one side from Sandi and Annie, he talked earnestly with Jim for a few moments, and then the two men walked
away, only to return with the kitten a short time later, its mother following closely behind them.
“Jim!…”
Paramedics soon arrived and took Sam’s body away. Later, an autopsy would reveal that Sam died of heart failure. Unknowingly, Sam suffered a hereditary heart condition - the same condition that had been responsible for the early death of his father.
Sam and his brother had been just young kids. It was at that time their mother had moved herself and her boys to this property. Even back then, it was a pitiful little shack, deep in the woods near the banks of Spring Creek.
Sam always had a hard life. There had been many poor decisions, cruelty, pain, and no one had ever taught Sam compassion or how to love.
Now, there was no more time to learn. Sam literally had been “scared” to death!
“It’ll be all right honey. We will take them to the vet and have them checked out tomorrow.”
Annie squealed in delight as Jim handed her the black ball of fur. “It’s probably cleaner than she is right now anyway. What do you say we go home?”
Much later, after a long bubble bath and after everyone had the chance to see for themselves that she was safe, her mother sang to Annie and rocked her until she slept.
Jo had taken on the task of bathing the cats and, after several scratches and a couple of escapes by the momma, both were now curled up next to the sleeping child. Sandi had objected, fearing they could be sick or full of fleas, but after Jim declared them healthy and after Jo bathed them, she simply could not refuse.
Finally, Jim convinced her to come across the hallway into the Master bedroom. “We need to talk, Sandi.”
“What is it, Jim?”
“Sandi.” Since he didn’t have any other way to tell her except to just say it, Jim paused and then said, “Sandi, Sam is dead.”
“No, Jim, they arrested him. They rescued Annie and arrested him. I know he’s in a lot of trouble, but he isn’t dead—is he?”
“When we went and got the cats, Sergeant Parker told me that he just keeled over. Must have been a heart attack or something of the sort. No one even fired a shot; he was running, trying to get across the creek, and he just fell over and died. They tried CPR but he was gone before the rescue unit even got there.”
“Oh, Jim, that is just sad.” Sandi looked down at her hands, trying to hold back tears, but she was just too tired. It was too hard to take it all in.
He gathered her close to him and she cried in the arms of the man she loved. “He wasn’t all bad, you know.”
“I know, Honey, I know, but the important thing is, we have our Annie back safely!”
The next several days the family stayed close to home. Everyone seemed to want to know all of the details of their story and the news media was determined to satisfy the public interest.
With less than a week until Christmas, they made the decision to allow an in-home interview to the local news station. The 10-minute session would be carried live on the morning news shows and would be recorded to be shown later in the day.
Jo chose to spend the night before the program with Susan and the girls. Tiff and Sammy were staying with their grandmother while on Christmas break and although Joletta had talked to Tiffany on the phone they had not been together since Annie had disappeared.
With the stress of the past days, Jim and Sandi felt it would be a good thing for Jo to have time with her special friends.
They needed to be with Annie, and they knew that Jo was always very open and comfortable with Susan who had become, to Joletta and Annie, the grandmother they had never had. Jim’s stepmother Gloria was a wonderful person and friend but seemed more like a doting aunt than a grandmother.
Joletta had handled Annie’s abduction with an adult-like calm assurance, saying that God would take care of her little sister and insisting He would bring her home. Even with her amazingly calm attitude throughout their ordeal, she asked her parents to let her go to Susan’s and be excluded from the interview.
Big Jim and Gloria would be at the house to support them as well as several of the officers that had been directly involved with the case.
Jillian and Tom’s family had arrived the night before but, because of the long exhausting trip, planned to stay upstairs until later in the day. It had taken them almost twenty hours to travel from South Africa and they were all exhausted.