Page 38 of Deathtoll
“Murph!” Kate rushed around her desk, through the puddle of spilled coffee. “Ian! Are you all right? Murph won’t hurt you. Just stay still.”
The guy seemed to listen. He wasn’t scrambling to break free. He’d given up already, the fight gone out of him. “I’m sorry.” He lay there, prostrate, his gaze searching out Kate. “I shouldn’t have yelled. This is not who I am. I swear.”
“Are you all right?”
Was Ian all right? When the hell was she going to care about herself?
Murph gritted his teeth because blowing up would help nothing and no one, but the freaking steam building up in his head was boiling his eyeballs. At least, hefinallyheard sirens in the distance. “I’m going to turn you over. Take it easy.”
He pushed up and flipped Ian to his stomach, then gathered the man’s wrists behind his back. He was ready for handcuffs by the time Bing banged on the door.
As Murph reached up to unlock it with his free hand, he caught a glance of Ian’sgunon Kate’s desk. Or what he’d thought was a gun, based on its reflection in the glass earlier. Except it was a damn cell phone. He only had time to thinkShit!before Bing burst in.
“Police! Put your hands in the air!”
Only Kate complied, more upset than when she’d been held hostage. “Don’t hurt him, please. His name is Ian McCall. He needs our help.”
Bing was watching Murph, “You too. Gun on the ground.”
“You can’t be serious.”
The captain widened his stance and set his shoulders back. “Look into my eyes. Do you see comedy?”
Okay. Fine. Whatever.Kate was safe. Relief overrode all other emotion. Murph placed his gun on the floor and slid it to Bing. “If you toss me your cuffs, I can put them on him.”
The captain reached down, grabbed Murph’s weapon, then shoved it into his belt behind his back. “My job. Up.”
“It’d be easier my way.”
Bing shot Murph a look that said he was about to lose his patience. “Show me your badge.”
“You know damn well I don’t have a badge.”
“Guess then you’re not a police officer.”
“When did you become such a hard-ass?” Murph snapped as he stood, bringing Ian with him. He would let the man loose with Kate in the room when hell froze over and they opened an ice-skating rink. And the devil served hot chocolate.
“I’ve always been a hard-ass.” The captain reached for Ian’s wrists. “You’ve just forgotten.”
Murph stepped away, following orders at last, but ready to spring again. He seriously hated not being in charge when a damn stranger who’dlockedhimself in with Kate was still within three feet of her.
To Ian’s credit, he didn’t struggle. He was like a rapidly deflating balloon. If Bing wasn’t holding him up, he might have folded to the floor, which did a lot to settle Murph’s overprotective instincts. He relaxed another notch when the captain finally slapped the cuffs on the guy.
“Ian didn’t mean any harm,” Kate insisted. “He’s just desperate for help. What’s going to happen to him?” She stepped from behind her desk, stopping next to Murph. “He came here to enter treatment. He got upset when I told him he needed a referral. I don’t want him arrested. Could he please have a voluntary psych eval instead?”
“He locked the door,” Bing said. “I’m reading that as a hostage situation that might not have come to a good end.”
“He’s desperate because he’s in pain,” Kate told him.
While at the same time, Ian McCall protested, “I wasn’t going to hurt her. I swear. I just wanted to be alone with her. People popping in and out startle me sometimes. I—”
“All right.” Bing held up a hand. “We have a guy in West Chester I can call.”
Murph could see the tension go out of Kate. She unclasped her hands. “Thank you. Ian needs treatment. He’s not going to improve in jail. I can enter a statement on his behalf. I’ll come with you.”
This was how she drove him crazy, Murph thought. Then again, this was how she’d made him fall in love with her. She sincerely, passionately cared about everyone. She had a heart a freaking mile wide that could hold lost puppies and stray cats along with family and friends and strangers she’d never met, all those kids her foster website helped.
“Don’t forget his phone.” Kate handed it to Bing.
