Chapter 7 - THE DESPERATE CORNERED BEASTThe phone slipped from my numb fingers, bouncing off the hardwood floor.
"Mom?" Emily looked up from the kitchen table, where she had been organizing her legal documents for the upcoming divorce proceedings. "What's wrong? Who was that?"
"David," I whispered, my voice barely audible over the hum of the refrigerator. "He’s out."
Emily froze, the pen dropping from her hand. "Out? What do you mean out?! Thomas said his bail was set at ten million dollars! He couldn't post that! All his assets are frozen!"
"It was an emergency medical furlough," I said, grabbing my phone off the floor with hands that wouldn't stop shaking. "He faked an illness or had someone on the inside help him get transferred to a hospital. And now... he’s vanished."
"We need to call Sergeant Miller right now!" Emily panicked, standing up so fast her chair scraped loudly across the floor—a sound that instantly brought back the horror of The Copper Lantern.
I dialed Sergeant Miller’s direct line. It rang four times before she picked up.
"Evelyn, I was just about to call you," Miller’s frantic voice cut through the line. "Are you and Emily at home?"
"Yes! The automated system just notified me that David was released! How did this happen, Miller?!"
"He bribed a transport guard at County Hospital during a routine CT scan," Miller explained rapidly. "He slipped out through the service basement twenty minutes ago. We’ve issued a statewide manhunt, but Evelyn, you need to leave your house IMMEDIATELY. He knows he’s going to federal prison for the rest of his life. He has no money left, no future, and no leverage. Men like David Parker in that state of mind are extremely unpredictable."
"We’re getting in the car right now," I said.
"Go straight to the 18th District station," Miller ordered. "Do not stop for gas, do not stop for red lights if it’s safe to clear them. Just get here!"
"Mom, look!" Emily suddenly screamed, pointing at the front living room window.
Through the glass, I saw the dark shadows of my small front yard. The streetlights outside were flickered once, twice, and then went completely black.
Click.
The power inside my house cut out simultaneously. The refrigerator stopped humming. The digital clock on the microwave vanished into darkness. The only light remaining was the cold moonlight filtering through the blinds.
David hadn't just escaped. He had come straight to us.
"The back door!" I shouted, grabbing Emily’s arm and dragging her through the dark hallway toward the kitchen exit.
THUD.
A heavy shoulder slammed violently against the wooden back door, shattering the frame with a sickening crunch.
"EMILY!" David’s voice roared through the dark house, sounding warped, demonic, and completely unhinged. "EMILY, WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"Run!" I screamed, pushing Emily into the small pantry off the kitchen and pulling the heavy solid-oak door shut behind her. "Stay in here! Don't make a sound!"
"Mom, no! Don't leave me!" Emily cried from behind the door, but I slammed the exterior deadbolt into place, locking her safely inside.
I turned around into the pitch-black kitchen just as the back door swung open, splintering into pieces.
A shadow stepped into the moonlight.
It was David. But he didn't look like the polished corporate heir in the charcoal suit anymore. His clothes were stained and torn from his escape, his hair was matted with sweat, and his eyes were wild, bloodshot, and bulging with pure, manic insanity.
In his right hand, reflecting the pale silver moonlight, was a heavy steel crowbar.
"Where is she, Evelyn?" David growled, stepping slowly into the kitchen, his boots crunching on the shattered glass of the door window. "Where is my wife?!"
"She isn't your wife anymore, David," I said, stepping backward slowly until my hands touched the edge of the kitchen counter. My fingers searched frantically in the dark for anything—a knife, a pan, a heavy bowl. "It's over. The police know you're here. They're already on their way."
David let out a horrifying, high-pitched laugh that chilled my blood. "The police?! You think I give a damn about the police now?! You destroyed my life! You destroyed my family! My mother is sitting in a holding cell because of YOU!"
He swung the crowbar wildly, shattering a wooden cabinet door next to my head. Wood splinters flew through the air, cutting my cheek.
"I had fifty million dollars!" David screamed, his breathing heavy and ragged as he took another step toward me. "I was going to be the CEO of Vantage-Parker! I was a god in this city! And you... a pathetic, broke nurse... you ruined it all with a stupid phone call!"
"You ruined yourself, David!" I yelled back, my fingers finally closing around the heavy wooden handle of a cast-iron skillet sitting on the stove. "You stole from innocent people and you hit my daughter! You brought yourself down!"
"I'm not going down alone!" David roared, raising the crowbar high above his head and lunging at me. "I'm taking both of you with me!"
He brought the steel bar crashing down.
I ducked to the left with every ounce of strength in my sixty-year-old body. The crowbar slammed into the granite countertop with a deafening CRACK, sending sparks flying into the dark.
Before he could pull the bar back, I swung the cast-iron skillet with both hands, channeling thirty years of grief, rage, and maternal love into a single, brutal arc.
CLANG!
The heavy iron pan struck David squarely across the side of his jaw.
David gasped, stumbling backward into the kitchen table, knocking over chairs as blood burst from his lip. He hit the floor hard, groaning in agony, dropping the crowbar.
"You... you crazy old bitch..." David wheezed, spitting blood onto my linoleum floor, trying to push himself back up.
I didn't wait. I grabbed the heavy crowbar off the floor, holding it like a bat, standing over him in the moonlight.
"Get up," I whispered, my voice dripping with pure ice. "Get up so I can hit you again."
David looked up at me from the floor. For the first time since I had met him four years ago, the arrogance was completely gone. He saw a mother who was ready to tear him apart to protect her child. He shrank back against the wall, clutching his broken jaw, trembling with fear.
Suddenly, red and blue lights illuminated the living room windows. The sounds of screaming sirens filled the street outside. Tires squealed on the pavement, followed by the heavy thud of multiple boots sprinting up my front porch.
"POLICE! OPEN UP!"
The front door was kicked off its hinges. Sergeant Miller and four armed officers burst into the dark hallway, their flashlights blinding as they illuminated the kitchen.
"DON'T MOVE!" Miller ordered, aiming her weapon at David on the floor.
David raised his bloodied hands, weeping like a pathetic child. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! Help me! She's crazy! She tried to kill me!"
Sergeant Miller looked at David cowering in the corner, then looked at me standing tall over him, holding the crowbar.
Miller slowly lowered her weapon, a small, subtle smile touching her lips. "Nice swing, Evelyn."
Two officers grabbed David by his torn collar, dragging him out into the night to a waiting armored transport. He was sobbing, clutching his jaw, completely undone.
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I turned around, unlocked the pantry door, and pulled Emily out into my arms. We held each other in the dark kitchen, listening to the sirens slowly fade into the distant Chicago night.
It was finally, truly over.
