Chapter 6 - The Pursuit in the Snow
Nora stumbled into the elevator lobby, her breath coming in ragged, freezing gasps.
Behind her, she could hear Vanessa pounding frantically on the locked office door, screaming profanities.
Nora pressed the call button for the service elevator, holding her stomach with one hand and the heavy handgun with the other. Blood was beginning to stain the inside of her thighs—her body was going into full labor.
"Not now," Nora wept, sliding down the elevator wall as the doors closed. "Hold on, little girl... please hold on..."
When the elevator reached the basement parking garage, Nora stumbled out into the cold, concrete expanse.
Headlights flashed through the darkness.
A dark sedan accelerated toward her, tires squealing against the concrete floor. Nora raised the gun with shaking hands, but the vehicle screeched to a halt ten feet away.
The driver’s door opened.
"Nora! Get in!"
Nora blinked through her hazy vision. Sitting behind the wheel of an unmarked police cruiser was Detective Caleb Ross.
"Get in the car, Nora! Now!" Caleb barked.
Nora scrambled into the passenger seat, pulling her legs inside just as the basement stairs door flew open and Vanessa ran into the garage, her face bruised and bleeding from the lamp strike.
Vanessa saw the police cruiser, froze, and turned to run back up the stairs.
Caleb didn't chase her. He threw the car into reverse, slammed on the gas, and radioed the units waiting outside.
"All units, this is Ross! Suspect Vanessa Cole is armed and fleeing north through the 5th Avenue service exit! Intercept immediately!"
Caleb turned to Nora, his eyes wide as he saw the blood on her pants and the gun in her lap.
"Are you okay?" he demanded, pulling a clean towel from his back seat and tossing it to her.
"She... she did it, Detective," Nora gasped, thrusting the USB drive into his hands. "It's all here. Ethan’s audio logs... the shell accounts... Apex Bio-Tech. She planted the paprika... she tried to kill me..."
Caleb looked at the USB drive, then looked at Nora’s sweat-drenched, pale face.
"I know," Caleb said quietly.
Nora blinked. "What?"
"We pulled the security footage from your neighborhood three days ago," Caleb explained, hitting the siren as he sped onto the street. "Vanessa’s car was parked outside your house for forty minutes while you were at the grocery store. My partner missed it, but I went back and checked the traffic cams. She had a duplicate key."
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Nora let out a sob of pure relief. "You... you believed me?"
"I believed the evidence," Caleb said, glancing at her abdomen. "And right now, the evidence says you’re going to have a baby in about ten minutes. Hold on!"
