Fair Game (The Clifford-Mackenzie Crime Series Book 2) by R.D. Nixon

Author:R.D. Nixon [Nixon, R.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hobeck Books
Published: 2022-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

Maddy shifted in the hard plastic hospital seat, and the prison officer by the door glanced at her and looked away again. She frowned; how was she supposed to talk to Gavin about his plea, when she couldn’t so much as rub her eyes without drawing attention? She was lucky to be able to visit at all in the middle of the day, and she was grateful for it, but what was the use if she couldn’t speak freely?

Gavin’s hand twitched, and she dutifully covered it with her own, feeling a little self-conscious. ‘Do you want me to fetch someone?’

He shook his head and winced. His face was severely puffed up on one side, his left eye a single, livid line, and she knew, from her nursing days as well as what she’d been told, that he would be immobile and hooked up to the morphine drip for some time yet. But her sympathy for him was the same she would feel for anyone who’d been badly treated, and who now lay helpless, and that realisation both puzzled and dismayed her.

She had tried to think back to that fun casino night, to resurrect the feelings that had been re-born then, but all it conjured up was the reminder that it had indirectly led to him being here, now. She’d wanted to hiss into his ear as he slept: It’s all your own fault! but now he was awake she couldn’t say the words. He was still Gavin. Still the father of her son. Still the man she’d agreed to marry, and gladly too, at the time.

She gave him a faint smile. ‘It’s good to see you awake at last.’

His good eye slipped closed, and Maddy couldn’t tell whether he’d drifted off again, but she removed her hand from his anyway. It felt stupid to leave it there, as if she thought she were the only thing anchoring him to the world. He would recover soon enough, barring unforeseen complications.

Which meant, of course, that he would be sent back to face more of the same, and the more Maddy thought about that, the more she realised, with increasing hopelessness, that there was no way he’d agree to plead guilty. He’d be mad to.

But he had to know what the consequences would be if he didn’t, and in order to tell him that, she had to be alone with him. She got up stiffly and went over to the door.

‘Look,’ she said in a reasonable voice, ‘he’s not going anywhere. I’m not going to be springing him from hospital, or pulling out his tubes. He’s not on life-support, so I can’t kill him by turning anything off, and I frankly don’t have the energy to smother him with one of his own pillows.’

Throughout this tight little speech, the officer had been looking increasingly uncomfortable, and Maddy realised how junior he was. She felt sorry for her sarcasm and spoke plainly. ‘Could you just let me close this door for a few minutes?

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