Page 49 of Gone in the Night (Detective Morgan Brookes #16)
FORTY-NINE
Ben was searching Stefan’s office when his phone buzzed. He read the text and frowned.
Nothing in garage. Got to go to the hospital Amy is in a bad way. Xxx
He straightened up and read the message again. Dialling Morgan’s number, it went straight to voicemail, and he realised the service wasn’t great as his signal went from one to zero bars of service. He texted her back.
Okay, let me know what’s happening when you get there. I can’t spare two of you at this moment, Morgan. One of you will have to come back as soon as you know how she is. Xx
He went to the door to see the plain car had gone.
Worried now about Amy, he wondered if he should ring the hospital, but they wouldn’t tell him anything – he wasn’t family.
He carried on, even though he was more than a little bit perturbed that Morgan had taken off without even coming to speak to him first. Clearly she was still annoyed with the way he’d been with her earlier but what was he supposed to do?
Ignore the fact that she’d met Fin Palmer behind his back?
He trusted Morgan but he didn’t trust Palmer. He was a weasel.
‘Anything?’ Marc was leaning against the doorway.
‘Nothing, for a house this size it has very little stuff in it. I was hoping we’d find some rope that matched the one at Jack’s crime scene.’
‘I guess they follow the Marie Kondo way of living.’
Ben turned to look at him. ‘What does that even mean?’
‘She’s big on getting rid of clutter and streamlining your life, had a bestselling book about it.’
‘Oh, right. Never heard of her. By the way, Amy’s not good. Morgan had to go. She got a call from the hospital.’
‘Really, that’s bad news. What’s Morgan going to do that Cain can’t?’
Ben shrugged. He didn’t actually know, that was a valid question.
‘Did she find anything?’
‘Said the garage was clear.’
‘Damn it.’
Loud footsteps and shouting from the hallway outside filled the air.
‘Who said you could come in here and what are you doing in my house?’
Stefan was back and sounded furious. Marc side-eyed Ben and they both headed towards his voice. He was red-faced and shaking, shouting at Amber.
‘Where’s Marie? Who let you bastards into my house?’
Ben stepped between Stefan and Amber. ‘We have a search warrant; this is all legal.’
‘The fuck it is. What’s your cause? Why are you here invading my privacy? Marie.’
He yelled her name so loud it echoed around the house. Marie appeared at the end of the hallway, her face red. She looked as if she was about to burst into tears at any moment.
‘I couldn’t stop them; they have paperwork.’
She rushed towards Stefan holding out the warrant for him, and he snatched it out of her hands so violently that she quickly stepped away from him. He read it, then tore it in two and threw the pieces onto the floor.
‘Get the fuck out.’
Ben shook his head. ‘No, we are here legally and if you cause any trouble, I’m going to have to arrest you for obstructing the course of justice, and I really don’t want to do that, Stefan. Let’s just be calm about this, the quicker we get done the faster we can leave you in peace.’
Stefan sucked in a deep breath as if trying to control his temper, but his knuckles were clenched hard.
Out of nowhere he threw a punch at Ben and smacked him in the face, hitting him hard on the right eye socket.
Ben stumbled back as the two task force officers who were standing halfway down the stairs rushed at Stefan, who began throwing punches at anyone and everyone.
Ben saw the red dots of the taser line up on Stefan’s chest through his left eye, which was open, his right one had swollen shut, and before he could shout no to whoever had their taser centred on Stefan’s chest, he heard the static buzz as the barbs were released.
They hit the target dead centre and Stefan let out a shocked scream as he fell to the floor twitching.
‘Holy crap,’ Marc shouted, and Ben turned to see Amber standing there holding a taser that was attached to the task force officer’s belt.
She shrugged. ‘Wasn’t going to stand by and watch you all get battered.’
Ben’s eye was smarting and he didn’t know whether to clap or yell at her to get out of the house. Marc was staring at Stefan who was still twitching, then turned to Ben who was clutching his eye and muttered, ‘What a clusterfuck.’
Ben wasn’t used to hearing his boss swear. He had to stifle the laughter that was threatening to explode because it really was a clusterfuck. Instead, he said, ‘Somebody call an ambulance for Mr Montgomery.’
And then he sat down on the bottom step and wondered what the hell had just happened.
Marie was staring down at her boss in horror; she looked at Ben. ‘Is he going to be okay? I mean he doesn’t look okay. Let me get you some ice.’
‘He’ll be fine, in bit.’
Then she rushed towards the kitchen area.
When she came back with a tea towel filled with ice, he thanked her and pressed it against his aching eye.
It wasn’t the first time he’d taken a punch in the line of duty and wouldn’t be the last, but it had taken him by surprise which annoyed him more than being punched.
He’d let his guard down big-time. What else had he let slip because he wasn’t paying attention?
Stefan was taken away in an ambulance, and Amber went, too, keeping an eye on him. Ben declined medical treatment but did agree to let Marc drive him back to the station. They left everyone else behind to finish the search.
Back at the station, Ben went straight to the toilet to look at the damage to his eye. The ice had helped a lot. It was purple and black, still swollen shut but it wasn’t cut or bleeding. That had been a good punch. When he went into the empty office, he sat down and sighed.
Marc came in with two mugs of tea and put one on the desk in front of Ben.
‘Good for shock, stuck a couple of sugars in it for you.’
‘Thanks. I’m okay, that will teach me to let my guard down.’
Marc was bending over him staring at his eyes. ‘Yep, he got you good. What the hell do you think is going to happen now?’
‘Not a lot if we don’t find any evidence at the Montgomerys’ house then we’re back at square one, no killer in custody and three dead bodies in the mortuary. Let’s hope they don’t decide to make it four whilst we’re running around like headless chickens with no idea what’s going on.’
‘Have you heard from Morgan or Cain? Do you think we should phone the hospital?’
Ben took out his phone, he had no new messages. ‘I don’t know what to do, boss, they’re not going to discuss Amy with either of us.’
‘Surely one of those two can give us an update. I feel as if I’m walking on eggshells waiting.’
Ben lifted his phone, snapped a picture of his eye and sent it to Morgan and Cain.
You missed all the fun, how is Amy? Let me know ASAP.
‘Do you need to go home, Ben? Sorry, I should have asked you earlier, it was just a bit much, you know.’
‘No, I’m fine. I can see out of my left eye so it’s all good, and besides, we’re already two, no three detectives short, so I don’t think me feeling sorry for myself is going to help anyone.’
Marc nodded. ‘Thanks, I appreciate that.’
The door opened and in walked Stan holding an evidence bag with a length of blue rope inside of it. Marc jumped up and clapped him on the back.
‘Where did you find that?’
Stan was grinning at him. ‘You’ll never believe it, we searched the entire house and garage, then I realised we’d missed the maid’s living quarters above the garage, so I got her to let us in and this was coiled up in a drawer hidden underneath some newspapers.’
‘Well done, thank God you did. Where’s the maid now?’
‘Waiting to be booked into custody. I didn’t think you’d want me to leave her free to roam around. I tried ringing you, boss, to ask if it was okay but there wasn’t much signal.’
Marc took out his phone and saw he had a missed call off an unknown number.
‘Well done and yeah, it all got a bit mental, didn’t it.’
Ben smiled at Stan. ‘Seriously, well done. That was a lucky find.’
Stan shrugged. ‘Was a bit of a fluke if you ask me, but I’ll take it if it means we have the killer behind bars and hard, forensic evidence to prove it.’
For the first time in days, Ben felt the tightness in between his shoulders begin to loosen itself and they dropped an inch lower than they’d been five minutes ago. Now all they needed was an update about Amy and some good news that she was fine and the baby was doing well.