Innocent Hostage (28 page)
Harley Max looked as though he’d like to sit down. Breck gestured to the place where he’d been sitting and Max collapsed on to it. “Ingrid. I’d resigned myself to never seeing you again,” Max began.
Ingrid interrupted. “Before you go any further, I know that Marla and you made a bargain that you’d stay away. But I’m not four years old anymore. For the past month I’ve been poking around trying to find out where you were. You’re not in the phonebook. You’re not on Facebook. I was going to try to coerce Breck to find out which branch of the police you worked in. But I see you know each other.”
Breck felt his face heat up. “Hell, he’s my boss, Ingrid.”
Ingrid’s expressive eyes lit with unholy glee. “Oooh, that’s awkward.”
“Used to be his boss, Ingrid. He’s in the detective division now.”
“I know. I guess you’re the person who gave him the wrong application form.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” Breck and Ingrid said in unison.
Max smoothed his receding hairline. “How are you really, kiddo? This is the second time you’ve been in hospital in the past week. What’s going on?”
“Have you been keeping tabs on me?” Ingrid stared at her father with her head on one side.
“Of course I have. What do you think I did? Walk away?” Max’s voice rose in indignation.
“I’ve never been sure.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That cops make terrible fathers. That you were never home.”
“Sounds familiar,” Breck commented, even though he was not part of the conversation.
Harley Max looked up from where he was drawing patterns on the bedspread. “You and that Tania woman? Did she say the same thing?”
“Yeah. And more.”
“That terrible father thing is a load of bullshit,” Ingrid intervened. “Kit has never been so happy than since he’s been with you. Bet he couldn’t sleep like the dead if he’d still been with Tania. Probably have to keep one eye open to see what was going to happen next.”
Max got up and walked over to Kit. “So this is the young guy some of the drama has been about? Looks peaceful.”
Breck knew Max was trying to divert attention away from the awkwardness of meeting his daughter. He could understand that. Must be damned difficult. It was damned difficult for him, too. Now he didn’t know where he stood. Would Max try to intervene in the burgeoning relationship between Ingrid and Breck? After all, Max knew some of Breck’s secrets and insecurities. Probably already decided that his daughter needed someone better.
Breck tried to rub the headache away from between his eyebrows.
Ingrid, being Ingrid, refused to be diverted. “Where do we go from here, Dad?”
“Uh…wherever you want to.”
“That’s a cop-out and you know it.” She grinned at her father.
She’s gonna wrap him right around her little finger
.
Breck watched Max regroup. “Yeah. I guess it is. Can I say you get your directness from your old man? Definitely not your mother.”
Ingrid snorted in amusement. “Oh, I agree. The other night I was bleeding all over the place and feeling sick as a pig and Breck got to watch me hurl. I figure any man who can hang around during that is a keeper. So I told him about Marla’s insistence on behaving like a lady even when feeling ill.”
Max whitened beneath his tan. “I didn’t hear about that. What happened? Are you telling me you’ve been attacked
twice
by that nutty woman?”
“Relax, Dad. It’s all over now. At least it will be when they catch her.” Ingrid absentmindedly patted her father’s hand.
He held on to her fingers. “You’d better tell me what this is all about. I can’t make head nor tail of it.”
“Okay. Breck, could you tell him? I’m a bit woozy. Don’t forget to tell him there are two of them.” Ingrid settled back against her pillows, the bruises standing out purple on her waxy skin.
“For heaven’s sake, Ingrid! Will you lie down and rest!” Breck rushed forward and eased a pillow out from behind her. “There. Sleep.”
Her face was becoming more and more distorted as the swelling over her cheekbone intensified around the bruising. He turned down the bedside lamp and Harley Max clicked off the main switch by the door, just as the nurse bustled into the room.
“Two men to look after you,” she said brightly.
“Mmm,” Ingrid mumbled.
“Just a little pinprick…and there!” The nurse sounded triumphant.
Breck wondered if she’d expected Ingrid to leap out of bed and say, “No, no, I don’t want pain relief!” He rolled his eyes at Harley Max who grinned back.
“Would one of you hold this, please?” The nurse held out an ice pack.
Harley Max looked at Breck.
Breck tried a tired grin. “You do it, Dad.”
Max knelt down by the bed and tenderly pressed the pack to Ingrid’s swollen cheekbone.
As the nurse bustled around the room flicking infinitesimal flecks of dust off the bedspread and cabinet, Breck picked up Kit and settled himself in the chair. With the lights lowered, the room took on a more peaceful air, less like a hospital room and more like someone’s bedroom. The door shut behind the nurse and Breck allowed himself to relax. Harley Max could take up the vigil now.
****
He woke with a jolt an hour later.
“Daddy! Bathroom.”
“Uh? Oh…okay.”
He staggered to his feet still clutching Kit, but Kit was happy to scramble down and potter off to the bathroom by himself. Breck stretched and glanced across at the bed. Ingrid’s eyes were open and she was watching him, smiling a little. Her father was stretched out on the floor, fast asleep, using one of her pillows as a headrest jammed up against the wall.
“Good morning,” Breck whispered. “How do you feel now?”
“That injection sure worked. I can’t see straight, but I don’t feel any pain.”
The rattle of crockery outside the door had Max scrambling to his feet just as Kit came out of the bathroom. A nursing assistant shoved open the door and edged her way in with a cup and saucer. Kit screamed and threw himself at Breck. “It’s her!”
The ‘nurse’ flung the cup away and launched herself on to the bed. But Harley Max beat her to it. By the time Breck had managed to grab the flailing arm holding a knife, Max had covered her like a sticky blanket. He pinned her other arm and both of her legs beneath him and hung on like a limpet. Breck pressed the red alarm button, and juggled with his phone to redial Raker. Shaking, Ingrid pulled herself up as far as she could in the bed, perching on top of her pillows.
Angela’s strength was amazing. She heaved like a wrestler trying to dislodge Max. Without a qualm Max angled back and kicked her in the back of her knee. Her feral snarl alerted Breck just in time as she snapped her head around to bite his hand. He punched her. No Marquess of Queensberry rules for this bitch. Even so, it took the combined efforts of Harley Max, Breck and Raker to subdue her. Raker was the only one who had handcuffs and they were grateful when hospital security and a constable rushed in three minutes later.
Breck left them to it and raced to his mother’s room. But all was serene. His mother was still unconscious, the suction machine muttering to itself as it kept her lung clear. Angela must have made Ingrid her first port of call. For some reason, Tania and Angela thought of Ingrid as their Nemesis. He glanced out the window down into the courtyard where Raker and a couple of constables were struggling to stuff Angela into a police van. From four stories up he could see her lips moving as she screamed invectives.
Thank God for that. He scorned the elevator and hurtled back upstairs to Ingrid’s room. Poor Kit and Ingrid had had a fear-filled three days and he could only hope that Harley Max had toned down his abrasive style enough to soothe them.
He needn’t have worried. As he walked along the corridor he could hear a buzz of excited conversation. Ingrid’s room was so full of nursing staff agog to hear her story, that there was scarcely room for Breck to fit in a corner. Kit was enthusiastically munching fingers of toast while Ingrid, holding fast to her father’s hand, was giving a blow-by-blow account of how her father and her ‘fiancé’ had saved her. She had the grace to look embarrassed when she caught sight of him lounging in one corner, grinning at her antics. Over the past few weeks, in spite of everything that had happened, her self-confidence had taken a huge leap upwards. Not surprising when you considered what she had been through and survived. Disagreements with her parents and the challenge of running a preschool took second prize to fighting off a couple of murderers. He watched her as she persuaded Kit to sit on the bed beside her. Kit, too, had grown in confidence over the past few weeks.
Then he caught a scowl from Harley Max and decided to make himself scarce. He wished Ingrid hadn’t jumped the gun and mentioned her ‘fiancé.’ He and she had a lot of problems to sort out before their relationship went anywhere permanent. And judging from the look on Max’s face, he intended to keep them well apart. Okay, couldn’t blame the man. He’d only just met his daughter after a space of twenty-four years. He wanted to spend time with her. And he wanted her to have the best future possible which might not translate to being Brechon Marchant’s ‘fiancé.’
Breck pushed himself away from the wall and scooped up Kit. “Let’s go visit Grandma, then we’ll go home and have a sleep and a shower.”
Kit pouted at having to miss some of the excitement but he went willingly enough. Like Breck, he had had enough of being confined in a hospital room.
Breck blew Ingrid a kiss and turned to leave.
“Just a minute, Marchant.”
Uh, oh. Looked as though Harley Max was about to play the heavy father.
“What’s this thing between you and my daughter?” Max demanded as soon as they were out in the corridor.
Breck grabbed a fistful of confidence and held on fast. “Still feeling our way, sir. Been too busy fending off weird people to discuss a future together, but that’s what I want. Even if you or her mother objects.” Breck looked his ex-boss in the eye. Hell, this was the first time he’d felt glad he’d resigned from the AOS. Max wouldn’t be able to rip chunks off him every time he got into one of his moods. And after Ingrid’s little mention of her ‘fiancé,’ Breck figured he was in with a chance. It amused him to see Harley Max assume the role of father as if he’d always been in Ingrid’s life, but it was good, too. The interesting thing was that Tom Rowland hadn’t come to visit her. Perhaps when Marla had contacted Harley, he’d felt de trop.
As he and Kit climbed into the SUV, Breck thumbed his cell phone. “Hull, it’s Marchant here. Heard anything from my father yet?”
“Nothing at all. We’ve got a cordon around the house because we’re still sifting through the evidence, and he hasn’t come home. He works from home, doesn’t he?”
“He used to. I don’t really know. I can’t ask Mother because she’s in an induced coma. Might be able to ask her tomorrow.”
“Today or tomorrow?”
Breck looked at the volume of traffic on the road and the streaks of sunrise in the sky. “Yeah. Today.” He yawned. “I’ll let you know if I hear from my father, but I doubt he’ll come anywhere near me. Seems to me he and Tania might have—oh, I don’t know. Just my suspicious mind.”
“Crossed my mind, too. He won’t have heard yet that Tania’s died and that her sister’s been arrested.”
“Tony, I don’t really give a shit.”
“I understand. Get some sleep. If I see your father, I’ll give him your love.”
“A roundhouse followed by an uppercut was more what I was thinking.”
Hull chortled and clicked off.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Five hours later Breck was dragged out of sleep by the ringing of the phone. “Got him,” Hull said.
Breck heaved a sigh and blinked. “Who? What?”
“Your father. Trying to skip the country.”
Breck sat up in bed, dislodging Kit who was stretched across his legs. “Whaaa-at? Nah. He hasn’t got the guts. Why?” He had so many questions he couldn’t get them all out.
“Apparently he and Tania were headed for Australia.”
“Oh, of course. Poor old Billy. He did the dirty work, and then Tania and my father were going to disappear. Still don’t understand where Angela fits in.” Nor could he get his head around the idea of his father deserting his mother for Tania.
“We’re slowly getting to the bottom of it. Let you know more as it happens. How’s your mother?”
“Should be off the suction machine by now. I’ll phone and find out. She’ll be in a lot of pain for the next couple of weeks.”
“He never even asked about her.”
“No. He wouldn’t.”
“My father would go nuts if anything happened to my mother,” Hull said.
“He’s never been what you’d call an attentive husband or father. I thought most fathers were like that till I went to school.” Breck hadn’t meant to spill his guts but for some reason he found himself trying to explain his dysfunctional family to Tony Hull.
“He’s shattered about Tania’s death though. Just looked at me when I told him. Said I was lying because that’s what cops did.”
Ingrid interrupted. “Before you go any further, I know that Marla and you made a bargain that you’d stay away. But I’m not four years old anymore. For the past month I’ve been poking around trying to find out where you were. You’re not in the phonebook. You’re not on Facebook. I was going to try to coerce Breck to find out which branch of the police you worked in. But I see you know each other.”
Breck felt his face heat up. “Hell, he’s my boss, Ingrid.”
Ingrid’s expressive eyes lit with unholy glee. “Oooh, that’s awkward.”
“Used to be his boss, Ingrid. He’s in the detective division now.”
“I know. I guess you’re the person who gave him the wrong application form.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” Breck and Ingrid said in unison.
Max smoothed his receding hairline. “How are you really, kiddo? This is the second time you’ve been in hospital in the past week. What’s going on?”
“Have you been keeping tabs on me?” Ingrid stared at her father with her head on one side.
“Of course I have. What do you think I did? Walk away?” Max’s voice rose in indignation.
“I’ve never been sure.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That cops make terrible fathers. That you were never home.”
“Sounds familiar,” Breck commented, even though he was not part of the conversation.
Harley Max looked up from where he was drawing patterns on the bedspread. “You and that Tania woman? Did she say the same thing?”
“Yeah. And more.”
“That terrible father thing is a load of bullshit,” Ingrid intervened. “Kit has never been so happy than since he’s been with you. Bet he couldn’t sleep like the dead if he’d still been with Tania. Probably have to keep one eye open to see what was going to happen next.”
Max got up and walked over to Kit. “So this is the young guy some of the drama has been about? Looks peaceful.”
Breck knew Max was trying to divert attention away from the awkwardness of meeting his daughter. He could understand that. Must be damned difficult. It was damned difficult for him, too. Now he didn’t know where he stood. Would Max try to intervene in the burgeoning relationship between Ingrid and Breck? After all, Max knew some of Breck’s secrets and insecurities. Probably already decided that his daughter needed someone better.
Breck tried to rub the headache away from between his eyebrows.
Ingrid, being Ingrid, refused to be diverted. “Where do we go from here, Dad?”
“Uh…wherever you want to.”
“That’s a cop-out and you know it.” She grinned at her father.
She’s gonna wrap him right around her little finger
.
Breck watched Max regroup. “Yeah. I guess it is. Can I say you get your directness from your old man? Definitely not your mother.”
Ingrid snorted in amusement. “Oh, I agree. The other night I was bleeding all over the place and feeling sick as a pig and Breck got to watch me hurl. I figure any man who can hang around during that is a keeper. So I told him about Marla’s insistence on behaving like a lady even when feeling ill.”
Max whitened beneath his tan. “I didn’t hear about that. What happened? Are you telling me you’ve been attacked
twice
by that nutty woman?”
“Relax, Dad. It’s all over now. At least it will be when they catch her.” Ingrid absentmindedly patted her father’s hand.
He held on to her fingers. “You’d better tell me what this is all about. I can’t make head nor tail of it.”
“Okay. Breck, could you tell him? I’m a bit woozy. Don’t forget to tell him there are two of them.” Ingrid settled back against her pillows, the bruises standing out purple on her waxy skin.
“For heaven’s sake, Ingrid! Will you lie down and rest!” Breck rushed forward and eased a pillow out from behind her. “There. Sleep.”
Her face was becoming more and more distorted as the swelling over her cheekbone intensified around the bruising. He turned down the bedside lamp and Harley Max clicked off the main switch by the door, just as the nurse bustled into the room.
“Two men to look after you,” she said brightly.
“Mmm,” Ingrid mumbled.
“Just a little pinprick…and there!” The nurse sounded triumphant.
Breck wondered if she’d expected Ingrid to leap out of bed and say, “No, no, I don’t want pain relief!” He rolled his eyes at Harley Max who grinned back.
“Would one of you hold this, please?” The nurse held out an ice pack.
Harley Max looked at Breck.
Breck tried a tired grin. “You do it, Dad.”
Max knelt down by the bed and tenderly pressed the pack to Ingrid’s swollen cheekbone.
As the nurse bustled around the room flicking infinitesimal flecks of dust off the bedspread and cabinet, Breck picked up Kit and settled himself in the chair. With the lights lowered, the room took on a more peaceful air, less like a hospital room and more like someone’s bedroom. The door shut behind the nurse and Breck allowed himself to relax. Harley Max could take up the vigil now.
****
He woke with a jolt an hour later.
“Daddy! Bathroom.”
“Uh? Oh…okay.”
He staggered to his feet still clutching Kit, but Kit was happy to scramble down and potter off to the bathroom by himself. Breck stretched and glanced across at the bed. Ingrid’s eyes were open and she was watching him, smiling a little. Her father was stretched out on the floor, fast asleep, using one of her pillows as a headrest jammed up against the wall.
“Good morning,” Breck whispered. “How do you feel now?”
“That injection sure worked. I can’t see straight, but I don’t feel any pain.”
The rattle of crockery outside the door had Max scrambling to his feet just as Kit came out of the bathroom. A nursing assistant shoved open the door and edged her way in with a cup and saucer. Kit screamed and threw himself at Breck. “It’s her!”
The ‘nurse’ flung the cup away and launched herself on to the bed. But Harley Max beat her to it. By the time Breck had managed to grab the flailing arm holding a knife, Max had covered her like a sticky blanket. He pinned her other arm and both of her legs beneath him and hung on like a limpet. Breck pressed the red alarm button, and juggled with his phone to redial Raker. Shaking, Ingrid pulled herself up as far as she could in the bed, perching on top of her pillows.
Angela’s strength was amazing. She heaved like a wrestler trying to dislodge Max. Without a qualm Max angled back and kicked her in the back of her knee. Her feral snarl alerted Breck just in time as she snapped her head around to bite his hand. He punched her. No Marquess of Queensberry rules for this bitch. Even so, it took the combined efforts of Harley Max, Breck and Raker to subdue her. Raker was the only one who had handcuffs and they were grateful when hospital security and a constable rushed in three minutes later.
Breck left them to it and raced to his mother’s room. But all was serene. His mother was still unconscious, the suction machine muttering to itself as it kept her lung clear. Angela must have made Ingrid her first port of call. For some reason, Tania and Angela thought of Ingrid as their Nemesis. He glanced out the window down into the courtyard where Raker and a couple of constables were struggling to stuff Angela into a police van. From four stories up he could see her lips moving as she screamed invectives.
Thank God for that. He scorned the elevator and hurtled back upstairs to Ingrid’s room. Poor Kit and Ingrid had had a fear-filled three days and he could only hope that Harley Max had toned down his abrasive style enough to soothe them.
He needn’t have worried. As he walked along the corridor he could hear a buzz of excited conversation. Ingrid’s room was so full of nursing staff agog to hear her story, that there was scarcely room for Breck to fit in a corner. Kit was enthusiastically munching fingers of toast while Ingrid, holding fast to her father’s hand, was giving a blow-by-blow account of how her father and her ‘fiancé’ had saved her. She had the grace to look embarrassed when she caught sight of him lounging in one corner, grinning at her antics. Over the past few weeks, in spite of everything that had happened, her self-confidence had taken a huge leap upwards. Not surprising when you considered what she had been through and survived. Disagreements with her parents and the challenge of running a preschool took second prize to fighting off a couple of murderers. He watched her as she persuaded Kit to sit on the bed beside her. Kit, too, had grown in confidence over the past few weeks.
Then he caught a scowl from Harley Max and decided to make himself scarce. He wished Ingrid hadn’t jumped the gun and mentioned her ‘fiancé.’ He and she had a lot of problems to sort out before their relationship went anywhere permanent. And judging from the look on Max’s face, he intended to keep them well apart. Okay, couldn’t blame the man. He’d only just met his daughter after a space of twenty-four years. He wanted to spend time with her. And he wanted her to have the best future possible which might not translate to being Brechon Marchant’s ‘fiancé.’
Breck pushed himself away from the wall and scooped up Kit. “Let’s go visit Grandma, then we’ll go home and have a sleep and a shower.”
Kit pouted at having to miss some of the excitement but he went willingly enough. Like Breck, he had had enough of being confined in a hospital room.
Breck blew Ingrid a kiss and turned to leave.
“Just a minute, Marchant.”
Uh, oh. Looked as though Harley Max was about to play the heavy father.
“What’s this thing between you and my daughter?” Max demanded as soon as they were out in the corridor.
Breck grabbed a fistful of confidence and held on fast. “Still feeling our way, sir. Been too busy fending off weird people to discuss a future together, but that’s what I want. Even if you or her mother objects.” Breck looked his ex-boss in the eye. Hell, this was the first time he’d felt glad he’d resigned from the AOS. Max wouldn’t be able to rip chunks off him every time he got into one of his moods. And after Ingrid’s little mention of her ‘fiancé,’ Breck figured he was in with a chance. It amused him to see Harley Max assume the role of father as if he’d always been in Ingrid’s life, but it was good, too. The interesting thing was that Tom Rowland hadn’t come to visit her. Perhaps when Marla had contacted Harley, he’d felt de trop.
As he and Kit climbed into the SUV, Breck thumbed his cell phone. “Hull, it’s Marchant here. Heard anything from my father yet?”
“Nothing at all. We’ve got a cordon around the house because we’re still sifting through the evidence, and he hasn’t come home. He works from home, doesn’t he?”
“He used to. I don’t really know. I can’t ask Mother because she’s in an induced coma. Might be able to ask her tomorrow.”
“Today or tomorrow?”
Breck looked at the volume of traffic on the road and the streaks of sunrise in the sky. “Yeah. Today.” He yawned. “I’ll let you know if I hear from my father, but I doubt he’ll come anywhere near me. Seems to me he and Tania might have—oh, I don’t know. Just my suspicious mind.”
“Crossed my mind, too. He won’t have heard yet that Tania’s died and that her sister’s been arrested.”
“Tony, I don’t really give a shit.”
“I understand. Get some sleep. If I see your father, I’ll give him your love.”
“A roundhouse followed by an uppercut was more what I was thinking.”
Hull chortled and clicked off.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Five hours later Breck was dragged out of sleep by the ringing of the phone. “Got him,” Hull said.
Breck heaved a sigh and blinked. “Who? What?”
“Your father. Trying to skip the country.”
Breck sat up in bed, dislodging Kit who was stretched across his legs. “Whaaa-at? Nah. He hasn’t got the guts. Why?” He had so many questions he couldn’t get them all out.
“Apparently he and Tania were headed for Australia.”
“Oh, of course. Poor old Billy. He did the dirty work, and then Tania and my father were going to disappear. Still don’t understand where Angela fits in.” Nor could he get his head around the idea of his father deserting his mother for Tania.
“We’re slowly getting to the bottom of it. Let you know more as it happens. How’s your mother?”
“Should be off the suction machine by now. I’ll phone and find out. She’ll be in a lot of pain for the next couple of weeks.”
“He never even asked about her.”
“No. He wouldn’t.”
“My father would go nuts if anything happened to my mother,” Hull said.
“He’s never been what you’d call an attentive husband or father. I thought most fathers were like that till I went to school.” Breck hadn’t meant to spill his guts but for some reason he found himself trying to explain his dysfunctional family to Tony Hull.
“He’s shattered about Tania’s death though. Just looked at me when I told him. Said I was lying because that’s what cops did.”
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