The DCI Morton Crime Thriller Box Set by Sean Campbell

Author:Sean Campbell [Campbell, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime, Serial Killer, Murder, murder mystery, Thriller, Suspense, psychological thriller
Publisher: De Minimis Crime Fiction
Published: 2019-06-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29: Not Your Fault

Saturday April 11th 11:00

Mayberry wasn’t in the intensive care unit when Morton arrived at St Peter’s on Saturday morning. He found in his stead an elderly man who seized the opportunity to talk to a visitor with aplomb, and Morton was only able to extricate himself when the nurses came around to dish out the eleven o’clock medication.

They hadn’t moved Mayberry too far. Morton found the room in no time and rapped smartly on the locked door. A woman’s voice replied, inviting him in.

For a moment Morton thought he had once again found the wrong patient, and then he saw that Mayberry had visitors. It had slipped his mind that Mayberry was engaged, and that his fiancée was the superintendent’s daughter. Normally that fact would send Morton’s mind racing, annoyed at the potential for nepotism in the force, but today he could focus on only one thing: Mayberry’s fiancée, Annie, was the spitting image of her father. In drag.

Morton sucked in his cheeks in an effort to stifle a smile. Father and daughter were sitting side by side, staring at Morton’s unexpected arrival.

The superintendent stood and said gravely, ‘David. Could I have a word, please? Outside.’

Did he see that? Morton wondered.

The superintendent gestured towards the door with an ‘after you’ expression, and Morton allowed himself to be led out of the room and down the corridor. They stopped by the vending machines at the end of the hall. From here Morton could see out of the vast plate glass windows and across the hospital car park.

‘Sir?’ he prompted.

‘I’m not happy, Morton.’

Uh-oh. Morton mustered a quizzical expression.

‘You sent my future son-in-law into danger.’ He glared in Morton’s direction as if daring him to challenge the accusation.

It wasn’t what Morton had been expecting. Up until now the superintendent had never given any indication that he cared for Detective Mayberry at all. He had seemed to have that casual contempt that father-in-laws often had for the men their daughters chose.

‘Yes, sir. I did.’

‘What the hell were you thinking? It was utterly irresponsible. How dare you risk my daughter’s fiancé?’

Morton sighed inwardly. It was a question he’d expected, though he hadn’t expected to have to answer it so soon. The situation had left him with no choice but to send someone in. If he’d ignored the kidnapper’s demands, then there was every chance that Vanessa Gogg would be in the morgue right now.

But by choosing to send Mayberry in, he’d risked them both.

It was easy to make a logical case for what he had done. Mayberry was the closest approximation to Niall Stapleton they had, and if they had any chance of fooling the kidnappers, he was it.

Morton’s priority had to be to try to bring the innocent victim home safely. Sending Mayberry in had been a simple risk/reward calculation – and it had backfired.

‘Answer me!’ the superintendent demanded.

‘Sir, you know why I made the call that I did. Detective Mayberry is well-trained and capable, and, given the circumstances, I thought he was the best chance of getting our hostage home safe.

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