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Double Jeopardy
God saved me once. Could I ask him to do it again?

by Cathy L. Reese

The phone rang as I plowed through a stack of documents in my law office in Wilmington, Delaware. Hoping to escape early on a sunny Friday afternoon in late March, I winced as my secretary's voice buzzed over the intercom: "The FBI for you on line one."

"You're kidding," I said. Thinking that April Fool's Day was just around the corner and smelling another of my husband Rob's pranks, I picked up the receiver and, with a chuckle, pressed line one.

This was no joke. An FBI agent identified himself and asked to meet with me immediately. "We've received a communiqué from Europe that your life is in immediate danger," he said bluntly, but refused to say more until we met.

I hung up and then called my husband to tell him the frightening news. Our lives were about to turn into a Robert Ludlum novel.

Not knowing how immediate the danger was, I shoved my hair into a cap borrowed from one of my partners and threw on dark sunglasses. Whispering a prayer, I raced over to the FBI offices, feeling nervous and a bit ridiculous.

I met with two agents. They asked whether I had any reason to believe that someone wanted me dead. I paused; my nightmare was coming true.

Litigation turns nasty
My law practice focuses on resolving business disputes. When those disputes can't be worked out amicably, they are often litigated in the Delaware courts, particularly the Court of Chancery, the country's leading business court.

One case we handled was particularly nasty. Our client thought his former friend and current business partner was stealing money from their company. His friend controlled the financial records and refused to let our client look at them. So we requested the Chancery Court's help to obtain the records.

The records not only confirmed that our client's business partner was embezzling, they also showed that he had never put in the initial investment he had agreed to—making our client the sole owner of the company. So, we brought a second court action to establish full control of the company for our client.

The court ruled in our client's favor and ordered the partner to pay our attorneys' fees. Soon after, our client told me he was being followed and had received death threats.

That's when I began having nightmares in which assassins, paid by the ousted business partner, were stalking me. When I woke up, I dismissed them as irrational. I told the FBI agents about the business dispute and the nightmares.

They looked at one another, nodded, and handed me the "communiqué from Europe." Suddenly, the nightmares didn't seem so irrational.

Forced into hiding
The ousted business partner had paid Irish assassins to eliminate six people, including me, my co-counsel, our client, and the company's new board of directors, which included my husband. The communiqué listed my home address, noted one of the assassins had entered the United States, and stated that the assassinations were to be carried out within the next week. The FBI labeled the status of this threat "Def.Com.One."—its highest priority.

After talking with the FBI for several hours, they escorted me home, waited while Rob and I packed, and then took us out of town into hiding, where we remained for two weeks.

When we reached our hideout, Rob and I held hands and prayed: "Father, we know that you work all things together for good for those that love you, as we do. We don't know who these assassins are, but you do. We pray that you would give us peace, as we trust in you to work this out to your glory." Afterward, we both felt a calm assurance, knowing everything was in God's hands.

Later that first night, I telephoned our pastor and prayed with him. I remember saying that I had no idea how the Lord would work this one out—the assassins had been paid, had detailed information about us, and had entered the country with orders to eliminate us within a matter of days—but I knew God had it under control. After all, he had spared my life once before. And like the Israelites, God's provision in the past gave me confidence in his continuing care.

God's earlier deliverance
Twenty years earlier, in August 1979, I was 19 years old, living in Mt. Shasta, California, and desperately in love with Rob. Since Rob lived in Wilmington, Delaware, our telephone bills were incredibly high. My father wasn't happy about my monopolizing the family telephone or the resulting bills. So one night, I made a nearly fatal mistake.

At 9 p.m. I stopped at a pay phone to telephone Rob after I got off work from waitressing. The phone booth seemed safe enough, located under a street lamp on a main street. I called the operator, gave her Rob's phone number, and began pulling coins from my purse. I barely noticed as a truck drove up alongside the phone booth and a man got out. When he pulled open the door to the phone booth and shoved the barrel of a long handgun into my side, I noticed.

I cried for help, but the street was deserted. The man pulled me from the booth, leaving my purse open and the receiver dangling. He pushed me into his truck, placed the gun on the seat between his knees, and shoved my head into his lap. The floor of his truck was littered with empty liquor bottles.

Normally, my instinct would have been to pray silently, but I prayed aloud as he drove away: "Father, I know that you love me and that nothing bad will happen to me unless it is your will. And I know that you love this man, too, Father, and understand why he is doing this. I pray that you would be in this truck with us at this moment."

Seemingly unfazed, the man continued driving. Before long we were on a dirt road in the mountains. I prayed now in silence.

Suddenly, the truck made a three-point turn. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"You can get up now," the man said. "What you said to God at the beginning there was right. I'm taking you back."

The man told me about his Christian mother and then explained how he'd messed up his life. I witnessed to him, gave him the name of my church and pastor, and urged him to call for counseling. Eventually, he dropped me off back at the phone booth, unscathed. He apologized and handed me 40 dollars to replace my purse and its contents, now missing.

Since my parents were away for the weekend, my younger siblings and I were staying with family friends. I ran to their house and told them the story. They called the police.

Within a few days, the police had picked up the man, whom I identified in a line-up before I flew back to college in New York. Later at the preliminary hearing, I testified before the man and his wife that I reported the incident so that he would get help before it happened again. The man later pled guilty and was given probation and mandatory counseling.

The next summer, I was working part-time in the intensive care unit at Mt. Shasta Community Hospital. One day, while visiting an elderly woman, a local pastor saw me and asked if I were the girl kidnapped last summer. When I nodded, he told me my kidnapper and his family now attended his church. The man had recently testified in church that the aftermath of the kidnapping had led to his conversion. The elderly woman the pastor was visiting was the kidnapper's mother-in-law.

Two hours later, the man and his wife walked into the ICU. I panicked. But the two smiled and shook my hand. The man told me my prayer and witness that night had changed his life.

Deliver us from assassins
Remembering God's miraculous intervention in the kidnapping gave Rob and me courage to brave the long days in hiding. After several days, an FBI agent informed us there had been a breakthrough—the former partner had been arrested in London and had kept detailed notes of his meetings with the assassins. Using those notes, the FBI, working with Scotland Yard and the Irish Police, apprehended the paid hit men.

Steadily, the threat was downgraded from Def.Com.One. to Def.Com.Two, Three, Four, and finally to "Ivory soap"—no threat. We were permitted to return home on Good Friday. Rob and I knelt in thankful prayer as we walked into our home and returned to our normal lives.

The FBI put out a press release about the incident, noting the "unprecedented" collaboration among the Irish Police, Scotland Yard, the FBI, and Swiss authorities. Agent Taylor confided in us, "I've never in my 20 years seen an operation like this. Someone up there has been watching over you."

We told him He certainly had.

A Christian Reader original article.

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
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