M Sellars - The Law Of Three

Albright snapped her head around at the noise and landed her frosty stare on Ben then moved it to Felicity and me.

“This is a secure building,” she finally announced, moving farther into the room as she spoke. “Don’t you think you were going a little overboard?”

“Not in my assessment, Lieutenant,” Ben returned, his voice strained. “Porter got the phone number here somehow, so I’m not puttin’ anything past ‘im.”

“I am well aware that he has the telephone number,” she said. “However, that is a far cry from him actually showing up here.”

Ben shrugged. “Judgment call.”

“Which is exactly why I removed you from this case to begin with,” she snorted. “Your lack of judgment.”

She let out an angry breath and then looked him up and down as if inspecting a soldier in formation.

“You shouldn’t even be here, Storm,” she chided as she waved her hand at him in a dismissive gesture. “Look at you.”

“I can still do my job, Lieutenant,” he answered evenly.

“How long have you been on duty today, Detective?” she pressed.

“That’s irrelevant.”

“I am not authorizing any overtime for this you know.”

“I don’t remember askin’ for any.”

She wasn’t getting the reaction she obviously wanted, so her anger grew with each sentence.

She glared at my friend and said, “I just want to be absolutely certain that you understand that. Am I clear?”

Ben spat his reply, “Crystal.”

“Feel the love,” Mandalay muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear.

Albright ignored her, but Felicity snickered, and my grin spread wide enough that I found it necessary to lower my head and turn it to the side in order to hide from the lieutenant’s scrutiny. At this point, the stress had been so cloying, for so long, that the momentary release combined with our exhaustion had made us somewhat giddy. There was still a nervous overtone to the transpiring events, no doubt about that, but it was impossible not to be amused by Mandalay’s sardonic observation. Of course, the lieutenant immediately put an end to it.

“Mister Gant,” Albright snarled. “I do not think you are in any position to find this amusing. Nor you Miz O’Brien.”

“Don’t lecture me, Lieutenant,” I answered. “I’ve had more than enough for one day, and I’m in no mood for it right now.”

She unsheathed the sharp edge of her voice as she glared at me. “Gant, if I were you I would take a different tone. As it stands now, you will be very lucky if you are not charged with accessory to murder.”

“Do what?” Ben barked.

I shook my head, and my eyes involuntarily squinted as obfuscation took control of my face. “Excuse me?”

“Your telephone exchange with Porter was utterly irresponsible,” she detailed, pointing at me with a stiff index finger. “The comments you made regarding Miss Sullivan and the lengths to which you endeavored to antagonize Porter may very well cost that young woman her life.”

“Awww, Jeez…” Ben muttered.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded. “How do you even know what was said?”

Albright folded her arms across her chest and continued glaring at me.

“The phone’s tapped, white man,” Ben said aloud as he reached up to smooth back his hair. He caught himself once again, but this time he lifted his other hand and began tearing away the gauze wrappings just as I had earlier predicted. I was mildly surprised that it had taken him this long.

“Sorry, Rowan,” Constance added. “We did it after he called the Harper residence. SOP. We didn’t really expect him to call here, but we couldn’t take the chance that he wouldn’t. I was going to tell you, but we got sidetracked.”

“Okay,” I returned. “I guess I shouldn’t be overly surprised by that. So exactly what is your problem, Lieutenant?”

“And I quote,” she said. “‘Then what exactly makes you think that I am going to give a damn about some insignificant woman’s life,’ end quote.”

I stared back at her. “You’re just as bad as Porter when it comes to taking things out of context, aren’t you?”

“Don’t you dare compare me to that sick individual, Gant,” she ordered.

“Listen to me, Lieutenant,” I took on my own hard edge. “When this SOB starts calling you and threatening your life, and more importantly the life of your spouse…” I paused to suck in a breath and try to temper my composure somewhat. “…Eviscerates and kills one of your friends, then kidnaps someone else you know and threatens to do the same to them, THEN you can say whatever you want to him. Until that happens, what you can do is get off my ass.”

“You are pushing it, Mister,” she threatened.

“Lady, the only one pushing it here is you,” I barked. “Now get out.”

Ben cleared his throat in a loud burst and then mumbled, “Calm down, Row.”

Albright raised her voice. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Get out of here before I throw you out.”

Ben cleared his throat again and shot me a warning glance. “Shut. Up. Rowan.” He quietly voiced the instruction in a purposeful cadence, but it was too late. I was already well on my way over the line.

Albright cocked one eyebrow into a shallow arch, and from where I stood it appeared as though a thin smile passed briefly across her lips.

She held her voice even as she spoke. “Did you just threaten me, Mister Gant?”

“Threat, promise, whatever,” I responded. “Take it how ever you want. What I can tell you for a fact is that if you were a man I’d be escorting you out, if you get my meaning.”

Albright reached inside the open front of her trench coat and slipped her hand toward her back. When she withdrew it, there was a bright clink of metal against metal, and a pair of handcuffs rested in her tight grip.

“Lieutenant,” Ben spoke up. “Don’t do this.”

She glanced at him with a look of contempt but didn’t respond to the plea. Instead, she snarled, “Get out of the way, Storm.”

With that, she fixed her stare on me and started across the room. She didn’t have much distance to cover, and before I could blink, she was standing in front of me. In a quick motion, she took hold of my wrist and twisted. A searing lance of pain drove inward through my left shoulder as she wrenched my arm behind my back in a rough motion. I grunted at the discomfort as she continued to lever my forearm up until my wrist rested between my shoulder blades. I quickly turned my head in defense of my nose as she shoved me forward, and my face slammed against the wall.

Felicity had been elbowed out of the way, and my gaze met hers as my head turned. I could see that another bout of fear and anger was welling behind her tired eyes.

My wife quickly darted her head away and yelped, “Ben, do something!”

I could hear my friend behind me trying to soothe her. “Calm down, Felicity. We’re gonna fix this.”

She turned back to me, her eyes wild and then panned her glare on to the lieutenant as she launched into a violent-sounding string of Gaelic. “ Fek tu S aigh! Loscadh is do ort! Damnu ort! Tu tuaireapach! An-duine! Tu striopach! Go n-ithe an cat thu, is go n-ithe an diabhal an cat! Tu fead pog mo thoin saigh! ”

I only picked up a few of the words; considering what I actually did understand, it was for the best that she had chosen Gaelic for the diatribe.

“Felicity! Honey! It will be okay.” I tried to reassure her as she spat the curses. “Call Jackie and tell her…”

Before I could get the instructions for our attorney out of my mouth, Albright barked, “Shut up, Gant!”

Felicity drew closer and launched another expletive-ridden sentence at her, “ An cac capaill, saigh! Go hifreann leat! ”