Chapter 10 - The Midnight Knock
The storm had rolled in over the city by 3:45 AM. Rain lashed against the windows of my suburban home.
The house was completely dark from the outside. The street was quiet, glistening with wet asphalt under the yellow glow of streetlights.
Inside the living room, Officer Rivera and three plainclothes detectives sat silently in the shadows. I stood in the kitchen doorway, wearing a discreet wireless microphone clipped to my collar. Detective Grant had positioned two patrol cars around the block, waiting for the trap to snap shut.
A white commercial laundry van rolled slowly down the street, its headlights switched off. It pulled into my driveway, engine idling before cutting out completely.
Footsteps sloshed through the wet grass.
Then came the soft, rhythmic tapping at the back patio door.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Jackson? Sweetheart, open the door,” Lorraine’s muffled voice hissed through the glass. “It’s Mom. I have the money. Bring the baby!”
I stepped into the dim light of the kitchen and unlocked the sliding glass door.
I slid it open.
May you like
Lorraine stood on the porch, drenched in rain, wearing an oversized dirty raincoat, her gray hair plastered to her skull. Her eyes were wild, bloodshot, and wide with manic desperation. In her right hand, she clutched a heavy canvas bag containing the stolen cash.
When she saw me instead of Jackson, her face twisted into an expression of pure, unadulterated hatred.
