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Destroyed by evil

My family was happy until a stranger walked into their lives...


Published by: Will Stewart & Amy Thompson
Published on: 9th August 2010

My daughter Lena’s brown eyes lit up as she bounded through my front door.
It was always the same when she came home. For the past 10 years, Lena, 33, had been a single mum to her daughter Emily, 13, after her husband tragically died of cancer.
She’d struggled to find work,
and resorted to getting a job in a bar in Holland.
Not wanting to uproot Emily, I’d agreed to have her live with me.
Every chance she got, Lena would visit, but sometimes we didn’t see each other for weeks. I knew that it crushed her spending so much time away from her little girl. But she had to earn a living.
Now, though, it looked like things were finally going right for her. ‘There’s someone I want you to meet,’ she beamed, grabbing my hand and pulling me outside.
On the driveway was a white caravan, a tall man with dark hair standing beside it. ‘This is Peter,’ Lena smiled. ‘My fiancé.’
‘Y-your fiancé?’ I spluttered.
‘Nice to meet you,’ he smiled politely. ‘I’ve heard so much about you and Emily.’
‘Wish I could say the same!’ I chuckled, shaking his hand.
‘Sorry, Mum,’ Lena smiled, curling an arm around Peter’s waist. ‘I wanted to take things slow, didn’t want to jinx it. Then Peter asked me to marry him, and I said yes.’
‘And…’ she added. ‘We’re moving here. We’re selling the caravan and buying a place so Emily can live with us.’
Turning to face Peter, she grinned. ‘That’s great!’ I cried.
Only, when Emily arrived home from school, Lena looked concerned. ‘Do you think she’ll be okay with this?’ she said to me nervously.
I gave her an encouraging smile. ‘She’ll just be glad you’re happy,’ I reassured her.
As I suspected, Emily was thrilled to see her mum, and even more so when she found out she wouldn’t be leaving. Emily and Peter got along great, too.
Lena put an ad in the paper to sell the caravan, and they started looking for a house.
A week after Lena got back, though, Emily came home late from school carrying a huge bunch of roses. ‘Where have you been? And where did you get those?’ Lena demanded, hands on hips.
‘I met my mates after school,’ Emily shrugged.
‘These are from a boy in my class who fancies me. I’m not into him, but he won’t take the hint.’
 ‘You shouldn’t have taken them, then,’ Lena scolded.
‘What was I supposed to do? Humiliate him in front of everyone?’ Emily huffed.
I could see Lena softening.
‘Hmm,’ she said. ‘Well, maybe have a word with him if you don’t like him? It’s not fair to let him spend all that money on you.’
‘Okay,’ Emily agreed.
A few nights later, however, she came home with chocolates and perfume – more gifts from her young admirer.
Lena decided to take matters into her own hands, going to see Emily’s teacher. When she came back, she was fuming!
‘It’s not a boy in her class giving her this stuff!’ she said. ‘Apparently, some bloke in his 50s has been picking Emily up from school. Her teacher got a note from you saying he’s Emily’s uncle, giving permission for him to collect her.’
‘I-I never wrote them a note!’ I said, baffled.
‘That’s obvious, Mum,’ Lena rolled her eyes. ‘He or Emily must have faked your signature.’
As soon as Emily got home, Lena confronted her.
‘Who is he?’ she asked. ‘And why does he buy you things?’
Emily shifted awkwardly.
‘I met him in the shop when I was buying groceries for Nan,’ she admitted. ‘His name’s Nik, he was behind me in the queue and I didn’t have enough money, so he lent me some. He’s just a nice man… he’s like a dad to me.’
Lena winced. It’d always worried her that Emily didn’t have a father figure –
but now at least Peter had solved that problem.
‘It’s not right,’ she sighed, shaking her head and stroking Emily’s long dark hair. ‘You’re not seeing this man again.’
Emily nodded. Lena didn’t leave things, though. She contacted the police while Emily was at school the next day, telling them everything she knew about this Nik person. ‘She says nothing untoward has happened, but I’m worried,’ she added. ‘He’s bought her gifts, and never introduced himself to us.’
They agreed to look into it, and sent an officer round later that day. ‘He seems like a genuine bloke,’ he shrugged. ‘He’s married with two grown-up daughters, owns a few local businesses and donates money to children’s charities. I’ve spoken to him, he says he’s sorry for worrying you, he was just trying to help Emily.’
I looked at Lena’s confused face, her brow furrowed as she listened intently. ‘Well… maybe I overreacted,’ she said. ‘Sorry for wasting your time.’
She didn’t say much over dinner, just glanced up at Emily every now and then, a worried expression on her face. I knew that look – she didn’t think she’d overreacted at all. Something was going on, and she was determined to figure it out.
It didn’t take her long, either…
The following day, I walked into Emily’s room to find Lena in a heap on the floor, crying.
‘Love, what’s wrong?’ I gasped.
Holding up a white plastic
stick, her eyes widened in despair.
‘It’s a home pregnancy test,’ she sobbed. ‘I found it under Emily’s pillow… it’s positive!’
Since Lena had come home, I’d got one shock after another, but this one really knocked me. How could my 13-year-old granddaughter be pregnant? ‘It’s him,’ Lena spat through gritted teeth. ‘I know it.’
Once again, she confronted Emily. ‘It’s true,’ she sobbed, breaking down. ‘Mum, I’m scared. I didn’t know what to do…’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Lena asked, rocking Emily gently.
‘H-he said he’d kill us if I told anyone,’ she explained.
Suddenly, she sat bolt upright, her eyes filled with terror.
‘He’s going to murder me, isn’t he?’ she panicked, shaking.
‘Of course not,’ I promised. ‘We won’t let anything happen to you.’
When Peter found out, he was livid. ‘I should go round and throttle him,’ he fumed.
‘We can’t take the law into our own hands,’ Lena reasoned.
Lena took Emily to the police station to give a statement.
When they got home, Emily was still a bag of nerves. Then, Lena got a call on her mobile. ‘Someone wants to look at the caravan,’ she told Emily. ‘He can only see it tonight. Peter’s going out, so will you be okay here with Nan?’
They’d left the caravan on a nearby campsite and moved into mine while they looked for a house. ‘Okay,’ Emily nodded.
‘You’ve been so brave,’ Lena murmured, kissing her forehead. ‘I’m so proud of you. It’ll all be over soon, I promise.’
As Lena raced out of the door, I perched on Emily’s bed, letting her snuggle into my arms. ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said quietly. ‘I should have noticed, I’ve let you down.’
‘No,’ Emily said. ‘It’s my fault.’
I cupped her pretty face in my hands. ‘None of this is your fault, darling,’ I said firmly.
I stayed with her, hugging her until she fell asleep.
When Peter came home from the pub at 10pm, I hadn’t even noticed two hours had flown by. ‘Where’s Lena?’ he asked. ‘I’ve been trying her mobile, but it’s switched off.’
I checked my watch, a horrible feeling beginning to niggle in my stomach. ‘She only went to show someone the caravan,’ I muttered.
‘Wait here,’ Peter said. ‘I’ll go and check.’
Ten minutes later, he called.
‘Lena’s nowhere to be seen,’ he panicked. ‘I’ve called the police.’
They showed up minutes later. All I could think about were Emily’s words when she’d told us the truth about Nik – ‘he threatened to kill us if I told anyone…’
‘My daughter reported a paedophile earlier today,’ I told an officer. ‘Was he arrested?’
He phoned the station to check. At the end of the call, his expression had become serious.
‘Someone was sent out to arrest him earlier,’ he started. ‘But he wasn’t home, they haven’t been able to find him.’
‘S-so you mean he’s still out there!’ I cried, horrified.
He nodded.
Police hunted for Lena all night, but still hadn’t found her by the morning. Breaking the news to Emily was awful. ‘He’s got her,’ she sobbed. ‘It’s all my fault, I should never have told.’
I hugged her tight.
‘We’ll find her,’ I soothed.
Leaving Emily with the two police officers, I went upstairs to get some rest, hadn’t slept a wink all night.
I felt like I’d just dozed off, though, when the officers burst
into my room.
‘Where’s Emily?’ they asked, frantically.
‘She was with you!’ I said, startled.
In an instant, they were calling for reinforcements.
‘She went to the kitchen to make coffee, and when we went to look for her, she was gone,’ the female officer explained.
My mind reeled. In less than 24 hours, the two most important people in my life had vanished.
What the hell was happening?
For two weeks, the search for Lena, Emily and Nik continued. Me and Peter went out of our minds with worry.
As each day passed, I was more convinced Nik had carried out his threat to murder my family.
Then, one morning, Emily’s schoolfriend Tania showed up at my front door in a frantic state.
‘I got a call from Emily,’ she gasped. ‘She said she was in the kitchen when that Nik guy came in and grabbed her. He took her to this flat…’
She handed me a piece of paper with an address scribbled on it.
‘I think she was calling from
his mobile while he was asleep,’ Tania added.
Police officers had been guarding my house constantly since Emily had disappeared.
Instantly, they jumped into action, organising an armed squad to go to the address Tania had given me.
They even got a retired policewoman to dress up as an old lady so Nik wouldn’t be suspicious about answering the door.
It worked – the second he opened it, police burst into the flat and discovered Emily crying in
the bedroom.
At the same time, police were on their way to me with the news I’d been dreading…
‘I’m so sorry,’ they said, gravely. ‘We found Lena’s body this morning, buried in ground surrounding
Nik’s country home. We believe she was strangled.’
As Emily raced into my arms, relief and pain flooded through me all at once.
‘Mum’s dead,’ Emily wept before I could tell her.
‘How did you…?’ I gasped.
‘He told me,’ she sniffed. ‘At first, he said he’d kidnapped her, and if I didn’t do as he said, he’d kill her. Then I realised he never went anywhere to give her food.’
Police still don’t know if Lena met the man who called about
the caravan.
It could have been Nik himself who phoned, or was waiting to pounce on her afterwards.
My heart broke as I thought of everything that monster had put my family through.
He’d ripped away Emily’s innocence, murdered her mum, all for his own twisted enjoyment.
At last, Nikolai Petrov, 53, was in custody and tried in court.
Luckily, Emily didn’t have to face him, giving evidence from behind a screen. Worse was still to come – aged 13 she had to go through an abortion to get rid of that monster’s baby.
At the end of the trial, he was found guilty of murder, abduction and rape.
The final insult, though, was the sentence – just 13 years! Thirteen years for murdering my daughter and raping my granddaughter!
I left the courtroom in disgust.
Sadly, Peter couldn’t cope and moved home to Holland.
Almost a year has passed, Emily’s now 14 and doing well in school in spite of everything.
I’ll always feel guilty for not noticing what was going on sooner.
Maybe I could have prevented it. My daughter might still be here if I had.
But I can’t change that now, all I can do is be here for Emily.
I’ll never let her down again.
Nina Tvarskaya, 60, Dneprovsky, Ukraine