FOUR

ANISHA'S POV

Since Liam was not in his car seat, he fell on his tummy with his cheek pressing hard on the leather seat. Both tears and sweat drenched the little boy's face. He was struggling to get into the sitting position, using his little hands to carry the weight of his body.

I kept throwing quick glances at him, and I could tell that his patience was thinning out. He urgently needed my help, so I parked the car on the side of the road and jumped out. I opened the back door.

"I'm very sorry Liam, I'm sorry", I said as I held the baby up.

I lifted him up only to see that his diaper was seriously messed up, the child was literally socking in urine and his own waste. I had to make a quick debate on whether to continue to the police station or to try and clean him up first. But then I had no diapers with me. I had nothing to clean him with, not even baby wipes.I looked around and saw across the road a supermarket, and since I had a few dollars in my bag, I thought to rush there and get a diaper, some wipes, and something for Liam to eat.

I had barely taken a step in the direction of the supermarket when a man dressed in a black trousers and green shirt, wearing very dark shades and a hat, stopped me. I halted in my steps in panic, and he held my shoulder. Behind him stood a short obese man whose face was very scary, and he too stared at me.

"W—who a-are you? What d-do you want?" I stammered.

At the corner of the building next to us stood a policeman whose gaze was fixed on us. I looked up to him with pleading eyes, hoping that he was going to help me, but he did not move. Seeing no movement from him, I thought he had not realized that I wanted help, so I resorted to calling out,

"Officer, please help me!"

"He won't help you, he's part of our team! Whose car is this?" the man in the green shirt demanded.

The police officer showed me the nozzle of a gun and motioned with his finger for me to remain silent.

"Whose car?" the green shirt man screamed.

I was about to respond that it belonged to sir Lucas, my boss, when the big man turned to the short man and uttered in a merciless voice, which I believe was meant to be a whisper, but I heard it:

"Rama; that is la Martina' car. That boy must be his child. Kill him!"

I cannot explain how I found myself back in the car with Liam in my hands. I must have acted too fast for the short man, for he remained fixed to his sport for a while longer, staring in amazement at me. I knew I had one chance of survival, and wasting it was going to be my life's greatest error. They could not possibly kill me or Liam in the middle of the city, with many people walking up and down the streets. A police officer was right there looking at me, but I lost all confidence in him; not knowing whether to scream for help or to run.

My option at that time was to run. With no time to ensure that Liam was seated well, I simply threw him on my laps and sped the car as fast as I could. I almost beat a red light and sped off, not even knowing where I was going. The speed of the car and the sudden breaking that I was doing caused poor Liam to fall off my laps and ended up landing in between my feet, sitting there while facing me. He was squashed between my seat and the car foot leavers, but there was no time to fix anything.

Hungry, soaked in the diaper and probably scared, the poor boy was screaming at the top of his lungs. It was at that moment that sir Lucas' words rang in my mind "run. Leave Southrain city. Do not report to the police! Run!"

Oh no!! If only I had listened to him! If only I had taken the cash!! It seemed sir Lucas had been right all along!My idea was to get home and hide while I waited for Eden to come and help me. I had placed a lot of trust in Eden at that moment, because he was all that I had. Him and I were not friends; we were nothing more than housemates. Besides the morning and end of day greetings, Eden and I hardly spoke about anything; he was rather a very private person who usually kept to himself.

I kept glancing in the review mirror and I saw that a small white car was trailing me. The bad thing was I had driven far out of the city centre and I was headed in a direction completely opposite to where home was. The road was still very busy with many other vehicles going in all directions, and I liked it that way. If I were to drive to a secluded place, then the men after me would surely find it very easy to get to me and kill me and Liam. I had to fight for our lives.

"Shh, Liam, we will be fine soon," I pleaded with the baby as he screamed even louder and held on to my leg.

As I kept checking my rearview mirror, I realized there was a huge haulage truck behind me, blocking the small white car. I took the chance to quickly turn into a side road and I followed it before I turned again, almost making a U-turn. I made yet another turn and I had driven for about fifteen minutes when I noticed that the small white car was no longer in sight.

I kept driving until I saw a sign post ahead of me written "Southrain City Lodge", with an arrow pointing to the left.

I drove towards that road and arrived at the lodge, parked the car and walked slowly inside.

"Good day ma'am", the lady at the reception smiled at me and I forced a smile back at her.

She suddenly became alert and asked me,

"Are you okay, ma'am? You look terribly upset…did someone beat you up! Tell me, should I call the police for you?"

"No no no, no-one beat me up. I don't want you to call the police."

"Why not? Is someone threatening you?" the girl's face was full of worry.

I had to shake her off, for I knew that if I failed to give her a meaningful reason for my refusal to call the police, she was never going to drop that issue.

Think, Anisha, think!

Nothing seemed to come to my mind. I did not want the police to be alerted, so I had to think fast. I wanted to say I was just going on a vacation with my son…hmm? She was going to ask, why do you look so depressed? What was the best explanation?Why is she even asking me a lot of questions? Can't she just give me access to a room and I can clean the child and myself too? Now I'm struggling to come up with a lie, and if I fail to come up with anything soon, she will…

"Ma'am? Are you being threatened by someone?" came the receptionist's voice.

"No, not at all. No-one is threatening me. I…I just…"

"You can tell me. I can help you, ma'am," the lady did her best to convince me to talk.

"I…umm, it's a bit too personal. I really do not wish to talk about it." I finally found my tongue.

"Really?" the girl gave me a doubtful eye. The eye was telling me to try harder, and indeed I tried harder…

"I've just been in a huge fight with my husband and he is the last person I want to see right now. But I don't wish to call the police on him. I just left home in a hurry with my son. And in my anger, I carried nothing with me. Please, I need a room to clean my baby up, and a meal. I don't have any money on me; please help me". I lied.

"Is it something that the two of you can't talk about? I think domestic violence should be reported to the police" the receptionist would not let the issue rest.

"We are going to talk about it, but just not today. I am on my way to my parents' house and I am still a long way off. Please just help me out". I did my best to dismiss the police issue.

How on earth could I have allowed her to call the police. The receptionist's eyes remained fixed on me and Liam, and she did not say a word.

"Are you going to help me?", I asked as I walked closer to the counter, hoping to have the girl lead me to a room.

How could I have started to tell her that at that moment I was scared of the police? It was evident to me that someone in the police force was conniving with whoever wanted me and Liam dead. Although it was obvious that all the whole police force could not want me dead, my fear was in not knowing who among them was my enemy? How on earth was I to detect the bad cops from the good cops? How then could I walk into their offices not knowing whether the person I would report to was clean or was the one after my life? For now the best option is just to leave all of them.

Great fear enveloped me as I failed to think of what exactly could have led to someone murdering ma'am Larissa, and according to sir Lucas, the same person wanted Liam and myself dead too? Why? Who was it? I was just a child minder, and I failed to understand how I was involved in such a mess.

While I was engrossed in my thoughts, I was brought back to reality by the receptionist,

"Why do you appear to be in a hurry? It seems like you are running away from something or someone. Let me just call the police".

"If you won't help me it's fine. I am leaving!" I said angrily as I started towards the door.

"Wait!" the lady stopped me. "I will call my manager now".

She picked a phone which was on her desk and dialed.

"Sir, I have a lady with me here...it's a woman and a child…they need help...a room to clean her baby up, and a meal too, sir… Could you kindly come and see her, or should I bring her to you….yes…yes…thank you, sir!...ok..."

After a while of listening, the lady nodded her head and said "understood". She put the phone down and said to me, "follow me".

We walked into a corridor with many doors on each side. I looked around and saw that the place was very old but well maintained. The floors and walls were clean.

I held Liam close to me. His tiny arms were holding to my shoulders. He held me so tightly that it almost felt like a pinch. I guessed that his young mind was telling him that all was not well. Somehow he could tell that we were in danger. The way he looked around the space told me that he managed to pick that we were in an unfamiliar environment. He was probably wondering where his many toys were, and why on earth I had neither bathed nor fed him yet. The little boy's diaper was still holding the mess in, but at the stage that it was, there was no telling when it was going to let go.

"That's the door, ma'am," the receptionist pointed at a half open door.

"I brought them, sir," she called out but remained standing outside.

"Bring them in," I heard a male voice coming from inside the room.