Weeks to Wait
Chapter 05 - Weeks to Wait
Daniel's guest room had once been his home gym.
A treadmill still folded against one wall behind a linen screen, and the closet held three kettlebells beside neatly stacked towels. Chloe lay beneath a pale blue quilt while late-afternoon traffic murmured twenty floors below.
Dr. Reyes had prescribed bed rest with bathroom privileges and short walks around the apartment.
Daniel interpreted that as a federal order.
He placed water, crackers, medication, a phone charger, and a legal pad within reach. Then he stood in the doorway studying the arrangement as if preparing a witness room.
"You forgot something," Chloe said.
"What?"
"Air."
He looked at her.
"I'm allowed to breathe without written approval."
"Doctor's orders were vague."
"They were not."
Daniel adjusted the blinds anyway.
Poppy rolled beneath Chloe's hand, then kicked twice. The movement had become Chloe's private clock, more reliable than the digital display beside the bed.
She touched the damaged locket.
Daniel had looped its chain through a safety pin so she could keep it near her without the bent clasp giving way. The cracked glass divided the childhood photograph between her face and his.
"I'll take it to a jeweler," he said.
"Not yet."
"Why?"
"I want it the way it was on the steps."
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
"For evidence?"
"For me."
He accepted that.
A grocery delivery arrived at six. Daniel unpacked yogurt, soup, bread, oranges, and four kinds of herbal tea he had chosen after searching pregnancy safety warnings.
"You bought enough for a small clinic."
"You'll eat."
"I am eating."
"Half a piece of toast isn't a meal."
Chloe watched him line cans in the pantry with their labels facing forward.
He had been moving since dawn.
Calls. Motions. Messages to Detective Okafor.
A locksmith sent to Chloe's house. A court filing preserving the marital assets.
Not once had he sat still for more than a minute.
"Daniel."
He closed the pantry.
"What?"
"Come here."
"I'm making soup."
"The soup is in a carton."
"It still requires heat."
"Come here."
He sat at the far end of the kitchen table.
Chloe had wrapped the quilt around her shoulders and walked slowly from the guest room. The apartment smelled of onions from the carton and coffee burned onto the bottom of a pot.
"You haven't asked how scared I was," she said.
His gaze dropped to the wood grain.
"I know."
"No. You've asked about pain, medication, statements, and fetal movement."
"Those matter."
"So does this."
He pressed his thumb against the edge of the table.
For years, Daniel had known how to make silence work for him. This silence looked different.
"I saw you at the bottom of those stairs," he said.
Chloe waited.
"You weren't moving. There was blood by your head, and your dress was..." He stopped.
The refrigerator clicked on.
Daniel rubbed one hand over his mouth.
"I thought I was looking at both of you dead."
His voice cracked on the final word.
Chloe reached across the table.
He took her hand but looked toward the window.
"I promised Mom," he said.
"You were eighteen."
"I promised."
"You couldn't follow me through every bad choice."
"I could've looked harder at Ethan."
"I married him. You didn't assign him to me."
Daniel's fingers tightened around hers.
"I was so angry at the top of those stairs that I couldn't feel my hands."
"But you came to me."
"I wanted to go through him."
"You came to me."
He nodded once.
That was enough.
Chloe sat with him until the soup began bubbling over.
---
Detective Okafor called the next morning.
Chloe answered from the guest-room chair while Daniel put the phone on speaker and opened a notebook.
"We received a preliminary review of the exterior camera," Okafor said.
Daniel's pen stopped above the page.
"And?"
"It caught the confrontation."
Chloe pressed her palm against Poppy.
"Did it catch the push?"
"Contact, yes."
"What does that mean?" Daniel asked.
"The camera is mounted high and left of the entrance. Ms. Cross's back partly blocks her arms."
Okafor paused.
"We can see her move toward you, and we can see you fall."
Daniel leaned closer to the phone.
"Does Chloe move backward before contact?"
"No."
"Does she reach for Ms. Cross?"
"Not that I can see."
"Then why are you calling it ambiguous?"
"Because defense counsel will."
Okafor's tone remained even.
"They'll say Ms. Cross tried to catch you after a misstep. They'll say the wet stairs explain the fall."
Okafor's voice softened.
"The clip is useful, but it isn't the clean angle I hoped for."
Chloe stared at the safety pin holding her locket chain.
"Can I see it?"
"Not yet. It hasn't been formally released."
"When?"
"Days if the DA authorizes it. Weeks if they don't."
Daniel stood and walked toward the windows.
"Who controls the full system?"
"The sheriff's courthouse unit."
"Exterior only?"
"There are multiple feeds."
He turned.
"Multiple cameras?"
"At least four around the entrance. The review I received covers one."
Chloe looked at him.
Okafor continued.
"I'm requesting the rest. I also found the woman who dropped her umbrella."
Paper shifted on Okafor's end.
"She saw Ms. Cross's hands strike you but was looking from below."
"That's a witness," Daniel said.
"It is. It's not the same as a clear recording."
Daniel's jaw worked once.
"Any luck with the courier?"
"Not yet."
After the call ended, Chloe closed her eyes.
Not defeat.
Calculation.
One angle was blocked. Other angles existed.
A witness saw contact. Vivian's version required Chloe to step backward before being touched, which Camera One did not show.
*Not enough yet.*
Daniel remained by the window.
"I can move for immediate release."
"Will that help?"
"It might."
"Or it tells Vivian exactly what we have."
"She already knows there are cameras."
"She doesn't know the angle."
Daniel looked back at her.
Chloe turned her wedding ring three times.
"Let her build her defense around the wrong footage."
A slow stillness settled over his face.
"You're suggesting we wait."
"I'm suggesting we act impatient about Camera One and quiet about the others."
"Okafor won't play games with evidence."
"She doesn't need to. She keeps requesting the feeds. You fight loudly for the one Vivian thinks matters."
Daniel sat again.
"Remind me why you teach art instead of evidence law."
"Teenagers lie about unfinished assignments more creatively than adults lie under oath."
His phone buzzed on the side table.
Lena had sent a message.
*Emergency financial hearing set for Thursday. Ethan's counsel claims transfers were business-related loans.*
Chloe read it twice.
"What business?"
"That's what we ask Thursday."
She looked toward the rain beginning against the windows.
Ethan and Vivian were preparing for an unclear video.
Daniel and Chloe had other cameras, missing money, and time.
For once, weeks to wait did not feel like helplessness.
It felt like room to set the trap.
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The camera had caught Vivian, but not yet clearly enough to save Chloe from the story Ethan was helping her tell.
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