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“So we see,” Morrison said. “Good work, Chief.”
“Not me. Morgan. She’s got some blood on her, and it’s all his. We’ve got an ambulance coming—and here it comes,” he added as he heard the siren. “He needs medical attention. Busted nose for sure, his throat’s bruised up, and his eyes bled some. Jaw might be busted.”
“I’ll go with him.” Morrison nodded at Beck. “You got the scene?”
“I’ve got it. First, I’m going to apologize for being two steps behind.”
“No.” Morgan came back in. “That’s just not true. You stuck with me all along. And if you hadn’t, if you hadn’t let me know so much, I wouldn’t have been able to do this. To string him out. If you hadn’t been behind him, kept him running, he would’ve come here long before this. Long before I was ready.”
“I can wish we’d taken him before you had to be ready. It can wait until morning if you’d rather, but I need statements.”
“Here, Mom.” Morgan laid an ice bag gently against her mother’s temple. “I don’t know how he got in, but when I got home, just before two, he had them in those chairs. Zip ties and duct tape. Gram.” She laid the second on Olivia’s bruised cheek. “I’ll make some tea.”
“Screw tea. Get me a whiskey. A double.” She gripped her daughter’s hand. “Make that two.”
At dawn, just as light sprinkled in the east, Morgan sat outside, drinking wine with Miles. Howl, fetched by Nell, lay sleeping under the table, one paw on her feet.
“They’re finally sleeping. I wish they’d gone to the hospital.”
“No way they’d leave you, or this house. And the EMTs cleared them both.”
“I know. I know. I just…” She tried to shove it aside. “First time I’ve had wine at dawn,” she said instead.
“Long night.”
“That stupid unsafe word wasn’t so stupid after all.”
“I’d have known anyway. You didn’t use any punctuation, no uppercase letters. That’s not how you text.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d notice that. Glad you did. I knew you were coming when you said good night. You never text good night.”
“It’s not a real good one when you’re somewhere else.”
Reaching out, she gripped his hand, and her voice went thick. “That explains that.”
“Try not to cry, okay? I’m worn pretty thin myself. I’m buying Jen the biggest arrangement of flowers ever known to man.” He kissed the hand that gripped his. “You cleaned his clock, champ.”
“I was so mad, Miles. Seeing them like that, helpless, bruised, bleeding. He wasn’t going to do to them what he did to Nina. And I could see he was weak and jittery, and really angry. I just had to listen and talk and gauge. I just had to be a really good bartender.” She lifted her wine, sipped. “Then do what Jen taught me and clean his clock.”
“You beat me to it. That doesn’t seem quite fair.”
“You broke down the door.”
“Yeah. I’ll fix it. I thought I knew how much I loved you before I got that text. I didn’t. My world just dropped away for a minute. Just went out from under me. Don’t do that to me again.”
“That’s definitely not in the plans. He’ll never get out. Later, I’m going to call Sam, tell him. He deserves to know. And Nina’s family. Sam should go tell them in person. Then we don’t have to think about him again.”
“I’m taking the day off. You’re taking the night off.”
“I don’t have anyone to cover the bar.”
“Nell will find someone to cover. That’s her job. Your job right now is to get some sleep, look after your ladies, let them look after you. Mine’s to do all of that and fix that door.”
She felt a little floaty, as if she stood just an inch outside herself.
“You’re rolling over me again.”
“Because you need it. You can roll over me when I need it.”
