Night Comes Down: A C.T. Ferguson Crime Novel (The C.T. Ferguson Mystery Novels Book 13) by Tom Fowler

Author:Tom Fowler [Fowler, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Widening Gyre Media
Published: 2022-11-14T23:00:00+00:00

I rested and iced my face and ribs as much as my tolerance for cold would allow. The main bathroom had a bottle of Tylenol in the medicine cabinet, so I took two. After a couple hours, the swelling on my cheek and around my mouth subsided, but both bruising and pain remained. Once this whole mess was in the rearview mirror, Brubaker and I would settle our differences once and for all.

Later in the afternoon, I stashed my APT00 mobile in the fridge and called Gloria on my real phone. My goal was to catch her after her workday, but she ran her own business now. Hours were flexible. Once she heard what happened, she wanted to see the evidence, so we added video to our chat. “Oh, my god,” she said when my feed went online.

“Normally, I like hearing you say those words.”

“Different context. Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’ll manage,” I said. “I don’t think he cracked a rib. My face hurts, but the swelling is down, so it seems like nothing is broken. I’ll just look like I caught the bad end of a boxing match for a few days. So far, I know our leader is out. He lawyered up. We’re starting up again tomorrow.” I rubbed my cheek. “If anything, this helps my cred with the hackers. They think holding out on the feds proves I’m devoted to the cause.” I shrugged. “In a way, they’re right.”

“What’s going to happen to the guy who did this?” my wife asked.

“Probably not much. He’s a contractor, which gives the Bureau some level of deniability. I told him we’ll settle this once the case is over.”

Gloria frowned. “Don’t go rushing off to fight someone.”

“He has it coming,” I said. “He’s a bully, and he needs to know not everyone is going to knuckle under just because he works for the FBI.”

“Still . . . ” Gloria closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “. . . do you need to be the one to teach him that lesson?” She answered her own question a beat later. “Of course you do.”

“Of course I do.”

“I’m not going to talk you out of this, am I?”

“Nope,” I said.

She nodded. “All right. Nevertheless, I want to see you. It’s hard for me to know you’re in pain somewhere and forced to be by yourself.”

“I’m trying to be careful. Someone tried to follow me home the other night. I lost him and don’t know who sent him.”

“So be careful,” Gloria said. “We won’t meet at my house. I’ll get a room somewhere. You figure out a way to rendezvous without anyone following you.”

“I brought a cloak with me. Too bad I left my dagger at home.”

She grinned. “You said you had the rest of the day off. Come spend some time with your wife. You can go back to whatever you’re doing tomorrow.”

“All right,” I said. “Text me the details. I’ll find my way there . . . dagger or not.” We hung up, and I packed an overnight bag.

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