Chapter 15 - THE MAN IN THE HALL
The pounding stopped.
Then came the sound of running feet.
Real security arrived less than a minute later.
They caught the man in a stairwell.
He wasn't Diane.
He was her cousin, Robert, a sixty-two-year-old retired paramedic with a suspended license.
In his backpack were scrubs, a copied badge, infant blankets, and a printed map to the service elevator.
I stared at the detective when he told me.
"He came for my baby?"
"We believe he came to gain access to the floor. We're still investigating intent."
I didn't need the lawyer version.
I looked at Emma sleeping against me and felt rage settle into my bones.
Diane had crossed from cruelty into something else entirely.
At noon, police found her.
She was parked three blocks from the hospital in a rented minivan.
Inside were an infant car seat, cash, disposable phones, and directions to the hunting cabin.
She was arrested for offenses related to stalking, fraud, identity misuse, and the attempted unauthorized access to the maternity floor. The exact charges, Maya warned me, would depend on what investigators could prove.
I didn't care what they called it.
I cared that she was behind a locked door and my daughter was in my arms.
Then Mark called Olivia.
He asked one question.
"Is the baby okay?"
Olivia looked at me.
I nodded once.
"She's okay," Olivia said.
Mark started crying on speakerphone.
"Can I see her?"
Every muscle in my body tightened.
Maya had told me that unless a court restricted him, Mark still had parental rights. But rights were not the same as trust.
I told Olivia, "Ask him where he was this morning."
She did.
Silence.
Too much silence.
Then Mark said, "At the police station."
May you like
The detective standing beside my bed looked up sharply.
"No, he wasn't," he said.
