Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

Jamie

I almost ignored the buzzing of my cellphone. It was only a text message coming in, not a call, and I was driving, and I would have to pull over to read it. I was almost at the Aldens’ place and I could read it when I got there. Something, though, some little voice inside me, told me not to ignore this text.

I tried to ignore the feeling instead, but I couldn’t. It was niggling at me hard and I knew that I never normally felt this way about texts. It was likely my mom telling me I had to stop by for dinner or something, but the insistent voice was too much, and with a sigh, I pulled over. Another few minutes weren’t going to make much difference to my questioning William and Carlotta again .

I picked my cellphone up from the passenger seat beside me and opened the text message. I felt my heart speed up when I read it. It was from William Alden and it was only three words long, but those three little words struck fear into my heart.

Morrie here. Gun .

“Fuck,” I said, dropping my cellphone back onto the passenger seat, not even stopping to lock my keypad.

I restarted my engine and had a cursory glance each way before pulling back out fast enough to leave skid marks on the surface of the road. I wasn’t too far from the Aldens’ place now, but I was far enough away that a guy in there with a gun could do some serious damage before I got there. The super-short message told me that Morrie already had the Aldens under his control. No way would William have sent such a short message if he had merely spotted Morrie through the window.

This could easily have been avoided if the chief had taken me seriously when I asked him to put a man on Morrie Xavier, but I didn’t have time to dwell on that now. Instead, I picked up my radio.

“This is Detective Del Rey requesting urgent backup at the Aldens’ place. I repeat, I need urgent backup. The Aldens are suspected hostages and the assailant has a gun. Over.”

I drove as fast as I dared to through the streets, cursing at every red light, every stop sign, and every time I had to slow down a little bit to take a tight corner. I was getting some honking in my direction and more than a few curse words thrown at me, and I wished I had taken a police cruiser so I could cut through all of this noise.

The radio sputtered to life and I grabbed it again.

“Detective Del Rey?” the woman in dispatch said.

“Here,” I replied.

“I’ve sent out an urgent call to responding units, but the nearest squad car is a good fifteen minutes away from the property,” the dispatcher said.

I released the talk button for a second.

“Dammit,” I cursed, slamming my fist down on the steering wheel.

I pressed the talk button again.

“Understood. Thank you,” I said into the radio.

It wasn’t the dispatch worker’s fault that no one was in the area, and I wasn’t going to be the asshole who cursed her out for giving me a message I didn’t like. I should have known there would be no one close. The area the Aldens lived in wasn’t the sort of area that needed much police attention, and it certainly wasn’t an area with any sort of heavy patrol presence. Sometimes, I thought it was safer to live in a slightly rougher neighborhood where the nearest squad car was usually only a few minutes away.

With my stomach whirling and adrenaline firing through me, I made the nerve-wracking drive through the city, and finally, I pulled onto the Aldens’ block. I saw Morrie’s car sitting outside the Aldens’ property, and I knew I hadn’t misunderstood the message. I had known I hadn’t already, but a tiny part of me had been clinging to the hope that I had.

I screeched to a stop and grabbed my gun. I got out of the car and ran toward the Aldens’ house. I felt my stomach lurch again when I saw the front door kicked off its hinges and lying on the ground. Morrie meant business here. This was no empty threat, no moment for him to vent. He was here to end this thing, and I knew the nearest backup squad to me was still a good ten minutes away.

Both my own common sense and my professional training told me not to go in there until backup arrived, but I ignored both and stepped over the broken door on my way into the house. Ten minutes were too long to wait. Both of the Aldens could be dead if I waited, but if I went in there now, there was still a chance I could get the situation under control without anyone getting hurt. It was a small chance, but it was a chance all the same, and I knew I would never be able to live with myself if I didn’t take it.

I moved into range of the lounge and pressed my back against the wall, listening. I could hear Morrie ranting and raving and William trying to calm him down. I cringed. Every word William said would only serve to make Morrie angrier. I knew if I wanted to stand any chance of this ending in anything other than someone being shot, I had to go in there right now.

I turned and stepped into the room, my gun held out in front of me in one smooth movement. I quickly took in the scene. Carlotta and William stood about six feet apart in the center of the room. Morrie stood opposite them, a gun in his hands. It looked like the gun was trained on Carlotta, who was as white as a sheet and visibly shaking, but I knew it could move to William in half a second if Morrie chose to act. William looked calmer than Carlotta. He was banging on about how Morrie had no right to come onto his property and he was complaining about the broken-down door, seemingly oblivious to the gun in Morrie’s hands. Carlotta wasn’t saying anything. I thought she looked about ready to faint.

I took all of the scene in quickly, in less than half a second, and then I turned my gun to Morrie.

“Police. Drop your weapon,” I said.

Morrie turned his head slowly in my direction, but he made no effort to drop the gun.

“I told you what would happen if you didn’t lock him up, Detective,” Morrie said.

His voice was calm and steady, rational sounding. This was worse than I had thought. A hysterical man was much easier to talk down than a calm one. A calm man had thought through the potential consequences of his actions and had chosen to act anyway. A hysterical man acted rashly without logical thought, and logic can often talk them down.

“Morrie,” I started, but he shook his head.

“It’s my turn to ask the questions, Detective, as it seems to me that you’ve been asking the wrong ones,” Morrie said.

He turned back to face the Aldens. I wondered briefly why he seemed to be holding the gun on Carlotta, being that it was William he had so many issues with, but now wasn’t the time to ponder small details like that. Now was the time to appease Morrie until he dropped that damned gun. I could shoot him, of course, but he would have time to pull his own trigger if I did, and even if I took him down with one shot, he would be able to kill Carlotta before he fell.

“What do you want to know?” William asked, seeming to have gotten over his offense at Morrie breaking into his home.

“I want to know the truth. All of it. Not the half-assed version you two gave to the police,” Morrie said.

Both of the Aldens turned their gazes to me, and I realized they were waiting for me to instruct them on what to do. I had only a split second to think about it and the answer came to me almost instantly. It would be risky, but I thought the only way to diffuse this situation was to get Morrie’s anger off the Aldens and force him to focus on me.

“Well, you both know we don’t have enough evidence one way or the other to charge either of you,” I said, purposely keeping my tone casual. “And anything you say here would be classed as being under duress and would never hold up in court, so you might as well do as he says. ”

I paused for a moment to gauge Morrie’s reaction. He didn’t turn away from the Aldens for even a second, and I knew I had to push it a bit further. Morrie had always been obsessed with William; certain he was the culprit. Maybe if I made it seem as though the investigation was leaning more toward Carlotta being the guilty party, it would make Morrie angry at me.

“Come on, Carlotta, you’ve avoided jail already. You might as well just tell us what happened,” I said.

It didn’t have the desired effect. Morrie kept the gun on Carlotta. But Carlotta composed herself a little. She nodded her head and cleared her throat.

“You know what, Detective? I think it’s time I did just that,” she said.

I hadn’t managed to disarm Morrie yet, and I knew I had to keep my focus on him, but I also heard the resignation in Carlotta’s voice, and I knew instinctively that the story she was going to tell Morrie really was going to be the actual truth.