Chapter 3 - The Spider's Web
I drove to the hospital with the physical documents sitting on my passenger seat like a loaded gun.
Daniel met me in the hallway outside the ICU. My parents were still unconscious, kept alive by a terrifying array of machines and tubes. I handed Daniel the files. He read them quickly, his jaw clenching so hard the muscles jumped.
“He’s going to get away with this if we aren't careful, Sarah,” Daniel whispered. “He’s a cornered animal.”
“Then we push him into a trap,” I said, my voice hardening into something cold and unrecognizable.
I pulled out my phone and dialed my sister’s number. Chloe answered on the second ring, her voice thick with exhaustion. She and Greg had "rushed back" from their cabin trip the moment I called them on Wednesday night.
“Sarah? Any news?” Chloe asked.
“You need to get down here, Chloe. Bring Greg,” I said, injecting as much frantic hope into my voice as I could fake. “The doctors just did a neuro-scan. They said Mom and Dad are showing massive brain activity. They’re waking up.”
A pause on the line.
“Waking up?” Chloe asked, a mix of shock and relief in her voice. “Are they... are they going to be able to talk?”
“The doctor said yes,” I lied smoothly. “They’ll be fully lucid by tonight. They’ll be able to tell the police exactly what happened to them.”
I heard a sharp intake of breath in the background. It wasn't Chloe. It was Greg, listening in.
“We’re on our way,” Chloe said, hanging up.
I looked at Daniel. “He won’t let them wake up. If they speak, he goes to prison.”
“We need the police waiting,” Daniel said.
I shook my head. “No. The police guard left yesterday. If Greg sees a uniform, he’ll run. I want him to think the coast is clear. I want him to step right into the room and incriminate himself on camera.”
May you like
Daniel nodded slowly. He pulled a small, high-definition action camera from his backpack—a gadget he used to film his auto restorations—and walked into my parents’ hospital room, hiding the lens discreetly behind a bouquet of flowers on the windowsill.
Now, all we had to do was wait for the predator to arrive.
