by Kay Gordon
“Steph,” Jared whispered, his cheek pressing to the side of my head. “They’re going to find him. He’s going to be okay.”
I couldn’t even reply as I cried softly against his shoulder. I silently hoped, wished, and prayed that Angela had taken him with the intention of loving him and not for any other reason. The thought that Chris could be in danger made my stomach hurt.
Jared and I were ushered to a small break room that had a table, some chairs, and vending machines. I held an untouched cup of coffee in my hand as I leaned my head against his shoulder, both of us quiet and unmoving.
I don’t know how long we sat there before I spoke. “He’s probably so scared.”
“He’s okay. She’s taking care of him, I know she is.” Jared’s grip on my thigh tightened. “He’s okay.”
Chris had been gone for four hours when Alice Murphy appeared in front of us, speaking words and phrases I didn’t hear. It wasn’t until Jared touched my face and said my name that I snapped out of my daze.
“What?”
He gave me a weak smile. “The police department is going to do a press conference and they want us to speak.”
“You should,” I replied, my voice hoarse. “You’re his dad.”
“I want you up there, too.” He used his thumbs to wipe away the tears that fell down my cheeks.
I nodded my head and let him pull me to my feet as we went to Alice’s office to go over what would be said and done. She asked us for a couple of recent photos of Chris and we both sent her several from our phones.
Another hour later, five after Chris had been taken, Jared and I were standing behind Alice as she spoke in front of the media. It was ironic, honestly, because we were standing in the same spot I had when we’d done the first conference asking for information on Angela. It was different this time, though.
We were begging.
After giving a brief overview and history, Alice gave descriptions of Angela and Chris as well as the information regarding the car the surveillance cameras had seen her getting into. When she was done, she glanced back at us.
“Jared Hart, Christopher’s father, and Stephanie Gibson, a close family friend and the social worker who found Christopher in January, would like to make a statement.”
Jared’s hand was crushing mine, or maybe I was crushing his, and we stepped forward to the podium together. I glanced around and had to stifle a sob when I realized that pictures were up on the screen behind us. Angela’s mugshot, the photo of her getting into the car with Chris, and three photos of Chris, two of him by himself and one of all three of us, were enlarged for the public to see.
“Please,” Jared was saying into the microphones. “Please help us find our son. He’s probably scared and confused, which is not normal for the happiest kid in the world. Angela, if you’re watching this, please bring him back. If anyone has information to where we can find him, don’t hesitate to call.”
Tears continued falling down my cheeks as I cleared my throat. “Please don’t hurt him. Please bring him home. He needs to be home.”
I didn’t say anything else and Jared tugged me to his chest as we stepped back. Alice moved back to the podium and spoke again before wrapping up the press conference. Once we were off the stage, she hugged us both and took us back to the phone bank. About twenty phones were spread out amongst a few conference tables and most of them were in use.
“Tips are going to be rolling in and we’ll work every single one. I promise.”
And they did. Jared and I watched people answer the phones for about an hour before we were sent back into the small break room with food. Neither of us ate, though. As our phones rang, we let Valerie and Kevin answer them for us, just in case. I wasn’t sure I could formulate a conversation anyway.
It was just before seven and Chris had been gone for almost eight hours when several people came in the little break room and whispered to Val and Kevin. They both glanced at us before moving to their feet and I could tell… They knew something.
“Did they find him?” I asked, pushing to my feet, too.
“We think so.” Kevin shook his head. “We don’t know for sure but we’re going to go check it out.”
Jared stood up next to me. “We’re coming with you.”
I knew they were going to deny us so I shook my head before they could.
“Please. We’ll stay in the car. Let us come.”
Alice had entered the room and she nodded once. “Let them come. We need to move now.”
Quite a few people rushed out to the parking lot and Jared and I got into the backseat of the sedan Kevin was driving. Valerie turned in her seat to look at us as we drove through the streets with lights and sirens blaring.
“There’s an abandoned house off Van Buren that the car is parked in front of,” she explained over the noise. “They’re trying to make contact with whoever is inside right now.”
“Oh, god.” I closed my eyes and crushed Jared’s fingers as we drove. He pressed a kiss to my shoulder but didn’t say anything else.
The car pulled up into a part of the neighborhood that had been barricaded off. Several police cars were in the street and an ambulance was just pulling up. Different officers had guns drawn as they surrounded the house and both detectives turned to look at us.
“Stay in the car,” Valerie instructed as she pushed open her door. Kevin nodded in agreement and did the same. Both of them went to where their commander was coordinating with someone and the car was quiet as we watched.
The house looked like it had been condemned. Most of the windows were broken and had sheets of plywood covering them. The wood was obviously rotting and the thought that Christopher could be in there made my stomach hurt.
“He’s okay, right?” I asked Jared, turning so I could look at him. His green eyes met mine and he nodded as he pulled me to his side.
“He’s fine. In just a few minutes, we’re going to have our baby with us and this will all be over.”
Five minutes later, officers stormed the house, causing me to gasp. Jared leaned forward and we waited. And waited. And waited.
It felt like an hour went by before officers started to exit the dilapidated home. Without thinking, I pushed open my door at the same time Jared did. We were both standing at the front of the hood when a man was brought out, his hands restrained behind his back. A moment later, Angela was led out in the same manner. Her eyes found where Jared and I were clinging together and she scowled. My gaze didn’t stay on her, though. I inhaled a sharp breath when another officer appeared in the doorway.
He had a crying baby in his arms. His little face was red as he screamed, desperately looking around for anything familiar. His torso was bare, lacking the dinosaur onesie I’d put on him that morning, and a flimsy receiving blanket was wrapped around his waist. Jared and I rushed towards him at the same time but an officer tried to stop both of us from getting too close.
“That’s our son,” Jared growled and I just shook my head quickly.
“Let us through. Please.”
“Let them in,” Alice yelled from where she was holstering her gun. “They’re his parents.”
The officer dropped his hands and we surged forward again, meeting the other officer holding the baby in the front yard. Chris did a double take when he caught sight of both of us and his crying increased immediately.
“Christopher.” Jared pulled him into his arms and I stifled a sob as I wrapped my own around them both. Chris buried his face into his father’s shoulder, babbling angrily while crying at the same time, and I couldn’t stop the hysterical laughter that bubbled in my throat.
“You’re okay, sweet boy. You’re okay.”
Kevin appeared in front of us with a grin. “He looks okay but we want to take him in the ambulance to get checked out anyway.”
I threw my arms around him and then Valerie before pulling back so I could wipe my face.
“Thank you both. I
can’t…”
My words trailed off as commotion came from where they were putting Angela in the back of a police cruiser. She had fallen to the ground and one of the officers was waving over the EMTs frantically. I watched as they hovered over her, trying to figure out what was wrong, and the officer did something to remove her restraints so they could lay her flat.
Suddenly, Angela was on her feet, quicker than I would have thought possible. She grabbed for the gun in the officer’s holster, meeting little resistance because he was so shocked. She pointed it directly at where I was standing with Kevin and Valerie, a snarl on her lips.
“You’re not his mom!” she screamed and a loud bang could be heard before several others followed immediately. I watched as bullets hit Angela in the chest, causing her to stumble back before falling to the ground again. An officer kicked the gun away as he approached her, still pointing his at her.
“Stephanie!”
Jared’s voice broke me out of my shocked daze and I turned to look at him, confused for a moment at his panicked face. That’s when I realized that something warm was running down my stomach. I looked down and saw blood soaking the bottom, right side of my pink blouse. I covered the spot with my hand and stared at it curiously for a second. Suddenly, pain registered in my nerves and I felt lightheaded as my body swayed.
Someone, I think Kevin, caught me as I fell to the ground. Jared’s face appeared over me, Chris still screaming in his arms. I couldn’t hear what anyone was saying but I could see their horrified expressions.
The coppery smell of blood was overwhelming and I held my hand up to look at the warm, sticky substance that coated it. Paramedics appeared and they tried to push my struggling boyfriend away.
“Jare. I… I think I’m going to pass out,” I mumbled, unsure of how coherent I was. “I think…”
He shook his head desperately and said something I couldn’t hear before being pushed away so I couldn’t see him anymore. It didn’t matter, though, because the dizziness won and darkness took over.
Chapter Thirty-One
Jared
I watched as Stephanie hugged both detectives, thanking them profusely. I bounced Chris, trying to calm him down, but I knew he needed to get out of the chaos and into a more sedate environment before he’d even consider it.
Stephanie was saying something when officers yelled off to the side. I watched Angela fall to the ground. As the officers and EMTs began to rush towards her, a bad feeling settled in my gut. I was about to voice my concerns when Angela jumped up with a gun in her hand and pointed it right at Stephanie.
That moment was absolutely the hardest moment of my life. Every cell inside of me screamed to protect the people I loved. That meant I wanted to shove Stephanie to the side, out of the way, and to duck behind a car with Chris.
I couldn’t do both.
I did what I knew I had to do and turned my body so Chris was shielded. When the gunshots went off, I tensed up and waited. Once I heard the police yell that the suspect was detained, I turned back around and looked.
At first I thought that Angela hadn’t been able to get a shot off. She was the only person down and Stephanie looked fine when I ran my eyes across her body. As I was sweeping my gaze back up, I did a double take.
Blood was soaking the bottom of her shirt.
“Stephanie!”
She turned her head to look at me and her expression was extremely confused for a second. Her hand slowly came up to touch where the blood was and she suddenly teetered. I rushed forward as she began to collapse but Kevin beat me to it, laying her gently on the ground while yelling for the paramedics.
“Steph? Sweetheart?” I fell to my knees next to her with Chris still crying in my arms. She turned those pale blue eyes on me and blinked several times. “Stay awake, Steph. Stay with me.”
“She’s losing blood too fast,” Kevin said, his voice frantic as he covered her wound with his hand to try and staunch the bleeding. “Damn it.”
Stephanie held her bloody hand up and looked at it curiously before it fell limply to her side. Her eyes locked on mine again. Paramedics grabbed me by the shoulders to move me but I couldn’t leave her.
She mumbled something but the only thing I could make out was my name. Her eyes slowly started to close and I shook my head.
“No, baby. You have to stay awake. Stay awake, Stephanie!”
“Jared, you need to let them work.” Valerie pulled me away and I watched in horror as they lifted my girlfriend onto a stretcher. They yelled something about an IV, blood loss, and a heartrate as they began to wheel her to an ambulance and I followed automatically. A hand on my arm stopped me.
“Another ambulance is coming to transport you guys to the hospital,” Valerie told me in a gentle voice. “We’re going to the same place they’re taking Steph.”
The realization of what had just happened hit me hard. An hour ago I thought I might lose my son and now I had him back but could possibly lose the love of my life. I’d traded one horror for another.
“Breathe,” Valerie commanded. Her hand rubbed across my back and I sucked in a deep breath. Chris was still crying in my arms and I ripped my eyes away from where the ambulance had been to stare at my son.
“Sorry, buddy,” I whispered hoarsely. “You’re okay. Stephy is going to be okay. We’re all fine.” I pulled him to my chest and pressed my lips to the top of his head while trying to keep my emotions in check.
Another ambulance, the third of the night, showed up and I stepped up inside with Chris still in my arms. Both Val and Kevin told me that they’d meet us at the hospital and all I could do was nod. The doors were closed and we started moving as someone began examining Christopher.
“Besides needing a bath, a new diaper, and some food, he seems okay,” the EMT said as she sat back in the chair across from us. “They’ll be able to get you supplies at the hospital. They might want to admit him but I doubt it.”
I nodded and hugged my son to my chest. His cries had subsided for the most part but the pitiful whimpers were killing me. I knew he had to be starving and his diaper was disgusting, basically useless at that point. But he was okay. That was what mattered.
We arrived at the hospital, a different one than where I’d visited Chris all those months before, and a small team of people met us at the back of the ambulance. A doctor tried to direct me into a curtained-off area but I shook my head.
“My girlfriend was brought here. She was shot. How is she?”
“They just took her up to surgery, Mr. Hart,” the young doctor told me with an apologetic look on his face. I tightened my hold on my son, trying to find some comfort, and let them usher me into the exam room.
I sat on a hospital bed with Chris in my lap as he was given a more thorough examination. His screams picked back up again and he clung to my shirt desperately, as if he was afraid that he was going to be taken from me again.
“He looks okay,” the doctor told me as a nurse appeared with a basin of soapy water. “Perhaps slightly dehydrated so I want to get some formula into him. He’s going to need a bath but I know you want to get upstairs.”
I nodded gratefully and took the washcloth from the nurse. I ran it over Chris’s hair, torso, and legs. When I had to pry my shirt out of his grip so I could lay him down, his cries intensified until he was screaming bloody murder.
We got the soiled diaper off and my chest hurt when I saw how red his skin was underneath. We cleaned him off the best we could and the doctor gave me some diaper rash cream to slather over him. Once he had the clean diaper on and a pediatric hospital gown, the only clean clothing they could find for him, I was given a two-ounce bottle of ready-made formula. Chris saw it and cried a bit louder and whimpered even after it was in his mouth and he was sucking it down.
“There are several more two ounce bottles in this bag,” the nurse explained as she put a bag on the bed next to me. “Along with another gown, some more ointment, and
some diapers. He’s eating that so fast that he’ll likely spit most of it up. The next bottle should go down a bit easier when he’s not as frantic. I’ll take you upstairs and you can call down here if you need anything more, Mr. Hart.”
I thanked her, took the bag with Chris in one arm, and followed her to the elevator. She pressed the button for the second floor, wished me luck, and stepped back. When the elevator chimed to let me know we had made it to the surgical floor, I moved quickly towards the desk were a woman was sitting.
“Any news on Stephanie Gibson?”
“Are you family, sir?” she asked with a curious look on her face. I bounced on my feet when Chris started to whimper again around the bottle.
“I’m her boyfriend. Is she going to be okay?”
She raised her eyebrows and glanced around me. “Are you sure? Because that’s the line that gentleman used.”
I turned, extremely confused, and my eyes quickly settled on a big man that I recognized from the bar all those weeks before. He saw me at the same time and stood up.
“Shit, I’m sorry.” He moved forward to the desk and shook his head. “My name was listed as her emergency contact and I didn’t think they’d tell me anything if I mentioned we had broken up.” He looked at the woman and shook his head. “I’m her ex-boyfriend. This guy right here is really her boyfriend.”
She looked between us both suspiciously before glancing at her computer and then giving me an apologetic look. “I don’t have any updates. She hasn’t been back there long. A doctor should come out to update you when we know more.”
“Okay.” I swallowed and took a deep breath. “I don’t have my phone but I need to figure out some way to let her family know what’s going on. Do you have a computer I can use?” I knew I could at least send off an email to Marco and go from there.
“I did it,” Troy said quietly from beside me. “Richard and Elaine are on their way. Do you want me to call anyone for you?”