Blake and his group were only too relieved to care about this though. They jumped out of the van and thanked the old man profusely, while proceeding to engage the help of the paramedics for the old woman.
Then Jared asked permission from the hospital staff to make a phone-call, so that he could contact his parents.
After briefly explaining his situation to his parents, Jared and his companions awaited the arrival of his folks with a sudden sense of tiredness overcoming them all.
***
It was two o' clock in the morning when Blake arrived at his home and found the house without any occupants except for the nanny who was out in the staff quarters.
She was asleep in her room when he knocked on her door.
When she woke up and opened the door for Blake, she told him about how alarmed she had become when no one had showed up yet.
Only Blake's parents had turned up with Monique four days ago, because nobody had picked her up at the day-care center.
Blake felt as if his world was caving in around him. Where was Laura?
Back in the main house, Blake sat at the kitchen table with his head in his hands, for a complete half hour, before he realized that he had to phone the police and his parents to report Laura as missing.
He also had to lodge a complaint about his own kidnapping.
Before he did this though, he realized that his parents might already have reported both him and Laura as missing, when they collected Monique to take her to their house.
Blake called his parents and they were relieved to learn that he was okay. Then they realized that he was not with Laura and they began to panic.
They understood that they now had a new case to report to the police.
So, together with Blake this time, they realized that they had to get to the police and update them.
Blake decided to go to the police station in person though, and to save his parents the extra trouble.
Meanwhile, Carminda and the others had already gone in to lay a charge against kidnapping. They did not know that something else was also afoot.
Blake made himself some coffee before he went to the police station because he needed the strength. He could not believe what was happening.
After spending about two hours with the police, Blake returned home and fell asleep on the couch, in his lounge.
He woke up at twenty minutes past ten in the morning. Then he ran the events of the past few days through his mind again.
Blake began to feel certain that Laura had also been kidnapped and was being held on the farm still.
He assumed that, since he has escaped, the people there would most probably hold her hostage if the police went there.
Blake did not know what to do, so he decided to visit his parents and reassure himself that Monique at least, was well and unscathed. She might only be distressed, because she would most certainly be missing her parents terribly.
***
After a five hour drive around Sandton, Laura was returned to the lodge from which they were supposed to leave for Johannesburg International Airport.
Apparently, there were communication problems between Edward Hendricks and his associates in Greece, which was where, she now knew, they were planning on exporting her to. This communication problem was the reason why she had to be returned to the lodge.
This filled Laura with an unexpected surge of hope.
Something good could come out of this, she thought, although she was not sure what that could be.
Back in her lodge room, she suddenly just yearned to have a bath. So, she did this without asking for permission.
After her bath, she went to bed. Driving around for hours had been tiring.
Laura fell asleep and began to dream. She had a dream about Blake being at home and that he was praying for her.
When she woke up afterwards, she did not understand this dream because she had never before seen Blake like she saw him in the dream. Blake did not pray.
So why was he praying? Was it only from desperation, or was the dream a message for her to start praying herself? She wondered. Without pondering this for too long Laura decided that, in her situation, she should long ago have started doing this. Her grandmother had taught her this as a child.
It was the most logical thing to do under these circumstances of helplessness. She had also learned this years ago in Sunday school.
So Laura started out trying to memorize those old, partly forgotten prayers and she tried to quote some positive statements to herself, "Don't quit, don't give up."
This activity made the little bit of hope within her burn with a much brighter spark. If she gave up she would never see Monique again.
Nobody was going to separate her from her family, she told herself fiercely.
Even though she might have to leave for Greece on the following morning, something had to change, Laura felt strongly.
***
Blake eventually found out that the reason why he was kidnaped was merely because Jared had to be kidnapped.
Nobody actually needed Blake. He was kept there because he happened to be accompanying Jared at the wrong time.
Was this a sign that, perhaps he and Jared should not be together as friends? Blake wondered. Recently they had run into all kinds of weird situations, whenever they were together. But then again, Blake thought, something good came out of their meeting up with Carminda. At least, for him it did.
So what happened to Laura then? Blake wondered. While he was asleep he had dreamt of her being somewhere in a bedroom, where she slept by herself.
He did not understand this. Why was she sleeping and was this a reflection of reality?
Then, something truly amazing happened. He was praying, late in the afternoon, as had recently become his habit, after having returned from the police station. He had gone there to sort out their problem concerning Jared's family.