“Be quiet.”
His palm slammed against the wood, a dull, heavy thud that made Noah flinch. “Rachel, open this door. You’re making yourself sicker. Let me help you.”
The sickening irony of his words made my stomach heave, a brutal reminder of the chemical burning its way through my system. He had sat across from us at the dining table just an hour ago, watching us eat the chicken in green sauce, smiling as he spooned more onto our plates. It was only when I went to the kitchen for water and caught his muted conversation on the deck—“It’s done… soon you’ll both be gone”—that the sudden, violent cramps in my abdomen and Noah’s sudden vomiting made horrifying sense.
I had grabbed Noah, locked us in the master bathroom, and dialed 911.
“Ma’am, I need you to stay completely silent,” the operator’s voice buzzed like an insect against my ear. “Officers are turning onto your street now. They have sirens off.”
Outside the door, the woman’s heels clicked impatiently. “Daniel, look at the counter. Her phone isn’t in the kitchen. She has it with her. What if she called someone?”
A heavy silence fell over the hallway. The handle stopped rattling.
Then came the weight of his shoulder throwing itself against the solid oak door. The frame groaned. Noah let out a tiny, stifled whimper, and I threw my body over his, covering his mouth with my hand, ready to use myself as a shield.
Thud.
“Rachel!” Daniel’s voice dropped all pretense, turning sharp and manic. “You think you’re smart? You think you’re going to ruin this for me? Everything is in my name. The insurance, the house, the accounts. You were supposed to just go to sleep!”
Thud. The wood near the deadbolt began to splinter.
“Daniel, stop! Let’s just take the bags and leave!” the woman screamed. I recognized her voice now. It was Vanessa, his firm’s junior accountant. The one he claimed was “like a niece” to him.
“We can’t leave them alive, you idiot!” Daniel roared back, his composure completely shattering. “If they survive, the toxicology report ruins everything! Hold this!”
I heard the distinct sound of metal scraping against metal. He had gone to the garage. He was getting the crowbar.
“Operator,” I breathed into the phone, the poison making my vision blur at the edges, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. “He’s going to break in. He has a tool. My son… please…”
“They are entering the driveway now, Rachel. Hold on. Just hold on.”
A sharp, violent splintering sound tore through the bathroom. The tip of a black iron crowbar pierced through the white-painted wood of the door, right above the lock.
“Daniel, please!” Vanessa shrieked from the hallway. “There are headlights in the driveway! Someone’s outside!”
“Shut up and help me pry it!”
The crowbar wrenched downward, throwing a shower of wood chips onto the bathroom tile. The door gaped open an inch, revealing Daniel’s sweating, frantic face through the crack. His eyes were bloodshot, completely devoid of the man I had married seven years ago.
“You should have just eaten your dinner, Rachel,” he hissed, jamming the bar deeper into the frame.
Suddenly, the front door of the house downstairs was obliterated with a deafening crash.
“POLICE! K-9 UNIT! STAY WHERE YOU ARE!”
The shouts boomed through the lower level, followed by the heavy, synchronized thud of tactical boots rushing up the stairs.
Daniel froze, the crowbar still wedged in the door. His face went from murderous rage to absolute, paralyzing terror in the span of a single second.
“Drop the weapon! Drop it right now!” a voice bellowed from the top of the stairs.
Vanessa screamed, throwing her hands in the air and dropping to her knees on the hardwood floor. Daniel hesitated, his knuckles white on the iron bar, looking at the bathroom door, then back toward the stairs where three red laser dots instantly painted his chest.
“Drop it!..
The crowbar clattered loudly against the floorboards. Daniel sank to his knees, his hands slowly rising above his head as officers swarmed the hallway, pinning him to the floor.
