She’d wanted to tell us, many times, but she was afraid of how we’d react. “Now you probably hate me and think I’m a horrible person,” she wept.
We held her and loved on her. “No, honey, we don’t think that at all,” Randy told her. “If anything, we love you more than ever. We’re so proud of you, how you turned your life around and what a wonderful person you’ve become. We’ll get through this. Tell us what you’re afraid of.”
“I’m afraid of him,” she said. “I’m afraid he’ll get me back in his clutches and Andie… Andie… God, I’m so afraid!”
I knelt down in the floor in front of her. “Baby, do you trust us?” I asked her.
She nodded fearfully. “Yes, but you don’t know how evil he is.”
“No, but we know how good you are,” I said. “We’re going to go and get your things. We’re going to get Andie’s things and Cat’s things. You’re going to stay with us until we figure out what to do. Will that make you feel better?”
She sniffed and nodded again. “I need a tissue, Randy,” she said. “Thank you guys so much. I’m so sorry, but I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know who else to turn to.”
“We don’t want you to turn to anyone else,” Randy said. “We love you, Syndy. You’re family to us and we’ll always be here for you. Let me talk to some people and we’ll figure this out, okay?”
She stayed with us for the next three weeks. It turned out that Marcus had been released from prison and he had filed a motion with the court to visit Andie. Of course, he had absolutely no interest in Andie. This was a way to locate Syndy so he could work on her. Randy knew a lot of people in law enforcement and he also hired private detectives and got our attorney to work. Our attorney got protection orders and the detectives soon tracked him down.
Marcus was living at a halfway house and one condition of his release was that he find employment. He hadn’t even tried very hard; he obviously hoped to live on Syndy’s earnings. We knew he would turn up like a bad penny, and sure enough, he did. Two weeks later, Randy took Syndy by her house to get the mail and there was a strange car sitting across the street from her house. Randy made Syndy duck down in the seat and drove on by. She was nearly hysterical and it took us a while to get her calmed down. Randy called his detective friend and he worked a plan out with Randy. They got Randy’s police detective friend involved and in two hours the private detective and the police were parked on Syndy’s block. Syndy and I took my car and parked behind our detective while Randy pulled into Syndy’s driveway. We saw him get out to walk down to the mailbox. The door of the strange car opened and a man got out.
“Is that Marcus?” I asked her.
Her face was a mask of terror and she nodded. I couldn’t see anything particularly frightening about him, but I didn’t have her experience.
He walked up to Randy and we could see them talking, but we couldn’t make out what they were saying. Marcus got right up in Randy’s face and suddenly, it became violent. Marcus slapped Randy on the right side of his face and Randy rubbed his face for a second while Marcus continued to threaten him. Almost before I could tell what was happening, I saw Randy’s knee smash forward into Marcus’ groin. We heard a groan and Randy had Marcus by the throat. He lifted him completely off the ground, slamming him to the concrete on his back, and began punching him in the face. The police car shot forward and three officers jumped out. One of them dragged Randy off Marcus, and the remaining two pinned Marcus to the ground.