Chapter 7 - The Man in the Stairwell
Panic, cold and absolute, spiked through my veins.
"Move her," Megan ordered the nurses, her voice cracking like a whip. "Get her out of this room now!"
"We have officers posted at the maternity ward doors," Officer Hayes assured her, drawing his service weapon and stepping fully into the room. "No one gets in or out without ID."
I clutched Hope to my chest. She was perfectly swaddled, sleeping peacefully against the steady beat of my terrified heart. Dr. Evans quickly finished suturing me, his face pale.
"He's desperate," I told Hayes, my mind racing. "He doesn't want the baby. He wants the SD card that Dana took to the house. Did Dana give it to the police?"
"Dana Vance never made it to the house," Hayes said grimly. "We found her car abandoned two blocks away. Her phone was left on the passenger seat."
Eric had intercepted her.
He didn't run from the police at the house; he ran because he realized Dana was bringing the leverage directly to him, and he caught her before she could cross the perimeter. And now, he was here. He knew my room number. He knew I was vulnerable.
Suddenly, the fire alarm began to shriek, flashing blinding strobe lights in the hallway.
"It's a distraction," Hayes barked over the noise. "He pulled the alarm to force an evacuation. Nobody move! Stay in this room!"
The hospital descended into organized chaos. Nurses ran down the halls, doors slammed shut. Hayes stood with his back to the door, weapon trained on the narrow glass window.
Then, my cracked phone buzzed on the tray table. A text message.
I have Dana in the East Stairwell. Bring the card, or I throw her down four flights.
He thought I still had it. Dana hadn't told him she took the SD card. She was protecting me, protecting my baby, by letting him believe I still held the key to his destruction.
"He's in the East Stairwell," I told Hayes, holding up the phone. "He has Dana."
Hayes spoke rapidly into his radio, directing units to the stairwell. "I'm staying right here, Mrs. Davis. My orders are to protect you."
"He's going to kill her," I said, a cold determination settling over me. I looked at Megan. "Take Hope."
"Claire, no," Megan cried, reaching for the baby.
I handed my beautiful daughter to my sister. "Lock the bathroom door. Sit in the tub with her. Do not come out until Dad tells you to."
I slid off the delivery bed. My legs wobbled dangerously, the epidural wearing off, leaving raw, throbbing pain in its wake. But I didn't care. I grabbed my bloody hospital gown, pulled on a robe, and walked toward Officer Hayes.
"Mrs. Davis, get back in bed!" Hayes commanded.
"You need bait to draw him out of that stairwell," I said, my voice steady, unrecognizable even to myself. "If you breach the door, he'll push her. But if he sees me standing in the hallway holding an envelope, he'll open the door himself."
"I cannot allow a civilian..."
"He's my husband," I interrupted fiercely. "He forged my name, he assaulted me, and he nearly killed my child. I am not hiding in a room while another woman dies for my family's mistakes. You stand around the corner. I'll get him to open the door."
Hayes hesitated, studying the absolute resolve in my eyes. Reluctantly, he nodded, signaling two tactical officers down the hall.
I walked out into the flashing, screaming corridor. The East Stairwell was fifty feet away. I grabbed an empty white envelope from the nurse's station and held it up.
"Eric!" I screamed over the alarm. "I have it! I have the card!"
For five agonizing seconds, nothing happened.
Then, the heavy metal door of the stairwell slowly creaked open. Eric stood there, his designer suit torn, his face smeared with sweat and desperation. He had one hand wrapped around Dana's throat, holding her precariously close to the concrete edge.
He looked at me, his eyes wild. Then, he looked at the envelope in my hand.
"Give it to me, Claire," he demanded, his voice cracking. "And I'll let her go."
"Let her go first," I said, taking one step forward.
Eric sneered, a flash of the arrogant man I once loved breaking through the panic. "You always were so stupidly trusting."
He violently shoved Dana out into the hallway. She collapsed onto the linoleum, gasping for air.
As Eric lunged forward to grab the envelope from my hand, Officer Hayes stepped out from the blind spot.
"Police! Get on the ground!"
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Eric froze. He looked at the guns trained on his chest, then down at the empty white envelope in my trembling hand. A look of profound, crushing realization washed over his face.
He hadn't been outsmarted by the police or the mob. He had been outsmarted by the wife he thought was too weak to fight back.
