A Banshee and a Bookshop (Patricia Fisher Mystery Adventures Book 4) by Steve Higgs

Author:Steve Higgs [higgs, steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

Oops

‘I think you broke my ribs,’ he gasped from the floor.

Big Ben and Tempest loomed over the fallen figure, ensuring any thoughts he might have of escape would quickly be dismissed as foolhardy.

I didn’t think he wanted to escape. This was his shop after all. Holding my hands to my face in horror, I asked, ‘Mr Foggarty, what are you doing here?’

He groaned in response then gasped for breath as if fighting against pain. ‘What am I doing here? This is my shop! What are you doing here?’

My eyes were wide with the shock of what we had done. ‘You hired me to catch the person trashing your shop, Mr Foggarty. That’s what I am doing here. I thought we had them.’

‘Oh, God. I think I need an ambulance.’

Tempest pulled an ‘oops’ face. ‘This is your client?’

I nodded. ‘Yup.’ I knelt on the carpet next to him as Barbie went the other side to examine how badly hurt he might be.

Barbie felt down Chris Foggarty’s ribs and got a torrent of expletives in return even though she was being gentle. She locked eyes with me. ‘His ribs really are broken.’

‘You think?’ Chris yelled through clenched teeth.

Tempest swore too. ‘Call an ambulance, Ben. This is a bust.’

Still wondering how this came about, I asked, ‘What were you doing here at this hour, Mr Foggarty?’

He turned his head to fix me with an angry scowl. ‘It’s my shop. I hired you yesterday and got broken into again last night. I’ve spent a bunch of nights here already, Julia all but kicked me out for getting arrested and whoever it is never makes an appearance while I am here. Since Julia is already upset with me, I figured I might as well stay here for the night and maybe I could actually be open for business in the morning. Thanks to you, now I won’t be.’ He groaned again to drive home how much pain he was in.

‘Medics are inbound. ETA ten minutes,’ announced Big Ben, sliding his phone back into a pocket.

Chris glared up at the man who had broken his ribs. ‘Who are these two anyway? They look like extras from a cheap Batman movie.’

‘Batman?’ echoed Big Ben, making it clear he didn’t like the comparison. ‘Why do people keep saying I look like Batman? Batman wishes he looked like me.’

To pass the time while we waited for the ambulance, I asked Chris how it had gone with the police. I shouldn’t have bothered because it was all bad news. The Sutcliffe’s wanted to throw the book at him. In all their years running their bookshop there had never been so much as a raised voice inside it. Then earlier today they witnessed a fight involving one of their staff and they were very upset about it. Chris had half a dozen charges levied against him and most of them would stick. He could go to jail, but at the very least, he would have a criminal record and be sued for damages.

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