The Perfect Child(75)
CASE #5243
INTERVIEW:
PIPER GOLDSTEIN
Luke slapped the picture on the table. “What kind of a husband does this?”
Who had told them about the incident? I knew the way they would look at Christopher now—the same way I looked at men who hit women.
“He only hit her that one time.”
“Let me guess—he’d never hit a woman before?” He couldn’t keep the disgust off his face.
I hung my head like I was the one who’d been hit. “Yes.”
“And he was so ashamed, right? Promised to never do it again? Probably even brought her some beautiful flowers too.” He snorted. “Seriously. You know better than that.”
He was right. I couldn’t deny it. Men didn’t hit women no matter what. Period. It didn’t matter if a woman was beating up on a man—he took the hits. There was nothing that justified hitting a woman. It was what I taught perpetrators in all of my domestic violence education classes.
FORTY-SEVEN
CHRISTOPHER BAUER
I was doing my best to calm down on the short drive to the house. A few minutes ago, Hannah had called me while hysterical again. I couldn’t understand anything she was saying because she was sobbing incoherently. There were few words, mostly just sounds. I was so tired of leaving work to calm things down between Hannah and Janie. Dr. Chandler had put Janie’s name on the waiting list for a place called New Horizons, but she’d said it could take weeks. I didn’t know what I was going to do until then. I hadn’t even bothered giving Dan an excuse this time.
It’d been three days, and we hadn’t talked about what had happened. I couldn’t believe I’d slapped Hannah. I’d never laid a hand on a woman. Ever. I wasn’t that kind of man. I had just reacted. I would never look at myself the same way, but I couldn’t bring myself to apologize, even though I knew it was the right thing to do.
The house was still when I walked inside.
“Hannah?”
No answer.
“Janie?”
Nothing.
I walked through the living room and into the hallway. It was eerily quiet. I checked in both bedrooms, but they were empty. The bathroom door at the end of the hallway was ajar. Something was wrong. I could feel it. I rushed down the hallway and into the bathroom, throwing open the door.
Hannah sat in front of the bathtub with her feet straight out, holding Cole’s body against her chest and staring into space. Janie was on the other side of the room against the wall, rocking with her legs pulled up to her chest. Her clothes were drenched. Why was she soaked? I looked back and forth between the two of them.
“Hannah?” I said cautiously, taking a step toward her.
She didn’t even blink.
“Hannah?”
Nothing.
I moved toward Janie. “What’s going on?”
Janie looked up and started crying immediately. Heaving sobs shook her body. I walked over and put my arms around her. She crumpled in my arms, her body trembling.
Hannah sprang to life. “Get away from her! Get away! She’ll infect you with her evil. It’s everywhere. Her evil is everywhere.”
“Hannah, stop. Enough. Sit down,” I ordered.
She inched her way across the tiled floor, never letting go of the baby. “Cole. My baby Cole.” She started sobbing. Her wails joined Janie’s and reverberated off the bathroom walls.
I scooped Janie up and carried her over to Hannah. I crouched next to them. That’s when I looked at Cole’s face. His eyes were open wide and unblinking. His lips were blue.
“Oh my God, what’s wrong with him?”
“My baby. My baby Cole.” Hannah only sobbed harder.
“Give me the baby.” I tried to grab him, but she jerked away.
She hugged him closer to her. “My baby. My baby Cole.”
I grabbed her and pulled her toward me as she struggled against me. She tried to hold on, but I pried him out of her arms. His body was cold. His chest wasn’t moving. I set him on the floor, felt for a pulse. No heartbeat. I pushed on his small chest with my two fingers.
“Call 911! Call 911!” I didn’t recognize the sound of my voice.
Breathe. One. Two.
Breathe. One. Two.
I pushed on his chest again.
“Hannah!”
She sat motionless while Janie sprang into action. She sprinted out of the bathroom and came running back with Hannah’s phone. She handed it to me. No way I was stopping CPR. I tossed it to Hannah. She missed, and it clattered to the floor.
“Hannah! Hannah!”
She picked up the phone, still moving slowly. “I can’t. I don’t know. I can’t.”
“Call 911!” I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, holding back the urge to smack her again. “Do you hear me? Call 911!”
CASE #5243
INTERVIEW:
PIPER GOLDSTEIN
Why did we have to talk about everything? Couldn’t they just read all the medical reports? The clinical case summaries? It was all there, written down in black and white. I didn’t know why the words had to come out of my mouth.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about those days. I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I ran through them like movie clips playing out over and over again, always starting with my trip to the hospital.