Chapter 9 - The Alliance and the Backup
For five seconds, Dennis looked like a man standing on the scaffold with the noose tightening around his throat. His chest heaved, his fingers twitching violently at his sides.
"You're lying," he choked out, though his trembling voice betrayed him entirely. "I wiped the hard drive—"
He cut himself off, realizing too late what he had just admitted.
"You wiped the hard drive," I echoed coldly. "Thank you for confirming intent to destroy evidence of a felony, Dennis."
Chloe broke. The carefully constructed facade of the innocent younger sister shattered into hysterical panic. She rushed over, grabbing my sleeve with trembling, manicured hands. "Claire, please! Please, listen to me! It wasn't my idea! Dennis told me he was leaving you anyway! He said you were cold, that you didn't love him, that you two were already over! I never wanted Meadow to get hurt! I swear to God, I begged him to stop—"
"Get your hands off me," I said, wrenching my arm away with such disgust that Chloe stumbled backward onto the floor.
"You slept in my bed," I said, towering over her. "You let him push my child down the stairs, and then you put on my perfume, came to this hospital, and pretended to cry for her. You are not my sister. You are nothing to me."
Dennis suddenly lunged forward, grabbing my wrists in a crushing grip. "Give me the flash drive, Claire. Right now. You hand it over, or I swear to God you won't walk out of this hospital."
"Let go of her!" a thunderous voice roared from the end of the hall.
Dennis whirled around.
Detective Lin was marching down the corridor, flanked by two uniformed Seattle Police Department officers and a burly hospital security supervisor. Their hands were resting unclipped on their duty holsters.
"Dennis Hayes," Detective Lin announced, her badge flashing under the fluorescent lights. "Step away from your wife immediately and put your hands behind your back."
Dennis let go of me as if I were made of red-hot iron. He backed away, his hands raised in surrender, his mind desperately calculating for an exit. "Detective, wait! This is a domestic misunderstanding! My wife is hysterical—she's having an emotional breakdown—"
"Dennis Hayes, you are under arrest for first-degree child assault, felony child abuse, and witness tampering," Lin stated, her voice echoing off the linoleum tiles.
The two uniformed officers stepped in with practiced efficiency, grabbing Dennis’s arms, spinning him around, and shoving him against the wall. The cold click of steel handcuffs ratcheted loudly in the hallway.
"Chloe Vance," Detective Lin continued, turning her sharp gaze to my sister, who was cowering on the floor. "Don't move. You are being detained as an accessory after the fact to a violent felony."
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"No! No, please!" Chloe shrieked, bursting into genuine, terrified sobs as an officer pulled her to her feet and secured her wrists. "Claire, tell them! I didn't do anything! Claire, I'm your family!"
I didn't say a word. I turned my back on both of them and walked into Room 412.
