Reilly stood by Chris’s hospital bed, her thoughts going a hundred miles a minute as he lay there immobile. A nurse stood at the head of the bed, the white of her uniform stark against the crimson syringe she’d used to extract his blood.
‘How long has he been out?’ she asked Kennedy, when the nurse, having finished tending to Chris, had left the room.
‘It’s a couple of hours since we left Kildare.’ He ran a hand through his hair exasperated. ‘Jesus, Reilly, I don’t know what the hell happened back there.’
According to him, Chris had been edgy and distracted on the way to the farmhouse, but seemed to regain focus by the time they were ready to enter the building for the takedown.
‘He completely froze, Reilly,’ Kennedy continued. ‘Darcy was just about to release the dogs ... I was trying to talk him out of it, trying to distract him so that Chris could get to Webb. But Chris just stood there, doing nothing. It was almost as if ... almost as if he didn’t care if the dogs got to the guy. Then all of a sudden he just collapsed in a heap.’ He shook his head. ‘Thank fuck the cavalry arrived when they did.’
He went on to explain how, fortunately for Webb, the response team had arrived just in time, their gunshot frightening the vicious Rottweilers into a retreat.
Webb was now laid up in another hospital, still alive but in a bad way from his injuries.
Luke Darcy was under arrest for a catalogue of charges: the murders of Coffey, Crowe, Jennings, Fitzpatrick and Morgan, and the attempted murder of Ricky Webb.
Reilly struggled to figure out what had happened based on Kennedy’s outline of events. Had Chris been rendered immobile by a moral dilemma about rescuing the rapist because of Melanie’s experience?
The thought was deeply unsettling. Chris Delaney was one of the good guys, she’d always been certain about that, and whatever his misgivings about Webb (projected or otherwise) she just couldn’t imagine that he would stand back and condemn the man to such a horrible fate.
Then again, didn’t Reilly know better than most the terrible things people were capable of – irrespective of how well you knew them, or how much they were loved ...
Kennedy seemed to be struggling with a similar notion. ‘In all my time working with the guy I’ve never seen that side to him. But thinking about it now, all throughout the case he was acting weird. You saw the way he was with Reuben. It’s my job to be cranky Chris is usually good cop.’ He looked sideways at Reilly. ‘Did he say anything to you? Was there something going on with him that I don’t know about?’
She swallowed hard, not sure what to say. She couldn’t very well tell Kennedy about her discovery concerning Melanie, when it was pretty obvious that Chris had never confided in his partner about it. ‘Well, he never actually mentioned anything but reading between the lines ...’ she took a deep breath, ‘... I do know he was having some personal issues lately.’
‘Personal issues?’ Kennedy frowned. ‘What kind of issues? He isn’t seeing anyone as far as I— Oh ...’ His voice trailed off and he looked at her questioningly. Reilly was quick to assure him that Chris’s issues had nothing whatsoever to do with her.
‘His ex-girlfriend got married this week,’ she said. ‘I get the impression it was something he was still dealing with.’
‘His ex?’ Kennedy made a face. ‘What ex? Only one I’ve ever heard about is some crackpot he dumped years ago.’
‘Well, maybe there’s a little more to that story than meets the eye – who knows?’ Reilly replied diplomatically. ‘In any case, I doubt it has anything to do with what happened earlier,’ she finished quickly, just as Reuben fresh from a questioning session with Luke Darcy came into the room.
His eyes widened. ‘What’s this? I would have thought that by now our Prince Charming would have been awoken by a kiss from the Fairy Princess,’ he said in his usual mocking tone, but Reilly could hear genuine surprise in his voice that Chris was still out.
‘Shut it, Knight,’ Kennedy spat. ‘That’s our mate you’re talking about.’
‘Indeed. I’m rather sorry I missed all the drama earlier,’ Reuben continued, referring to his arrival at the farmhouse just after Darcy had been apprehended. He looked at Reilly. ‘However, seems like I was right about our good detective’s personal stake in this unhappy story. Why else would he have faltered?’
‘Look, I’ve had just about enough of your bullshit,’ Kennedy began, rounding on Reuben. ‘Spouting shite might be the name of the game for you, but Chris Delaney is a good cop and a great man ...’
‘Hmm ... if he’s such a good cop then why didn’t he save the day?’ Reuben countered. He cast a surreptitious glance towards Reilly. ‘Of course, some of us understand better than most the capability for darkness inside us all, don’t we?’ he continued, and she looked away, unnerved.
She turned her attention again to Chris lying unconcious on the bed. ‘You said he just collapsed?’ she asked Kennedy, briskly changing the subject.
‘Hit the ground so fast, I thought he’d been shot at first, but our guys only fired a warning shot to scare off the dogs. Paramedics said it was some sort of blackout.’
‘And the doctors can’t say what caused it?’ Reilly asked, thinking about Chris’s problems from before, and the crippling pain he used to endure. What if this was a recurrence of it? Whatever ‘it’ was.The blood tests she’d run last year on his behalf were inconclusive, and when in the meantime he’d confessed that the symptoms had stopped, and he was feeling great ... Reilly realized now that she needed to mention this to the medical staff, at least let them know that there was a precursor. Granted, by doing so, she ran the risk of breaking Chris’s confidence, but what was she supposed to do when he was lying unconscious in a hospital bed, and everyone was baffled as to what was wrong with him?
Kennedy shook his head. ‘Well, one good thing about today at least is that the investigation is over. The less we have to look at your ugly mug, Knight, the better.’
Reuben smiled. ‘Worry not, Detective Dinosaur, now that our unsub is no longer unidentified, I shall be out of your hair soonest – tomorrow, actually.’
‘Can’t come fast enough for me,’ Kennedy replied, giving the profiler a dark look. ‘I’m going outside for a fag. Catch you later, Reilly.’
‘Sure. I’m going to stay on for a while, see if I can find anyone who’ll tell me what’s going on with Chris.’
Kennedy nodded, and without another word to Reuben, he turned on his heel and walked out of the room.
‘Another conundrum for the inimitable Ms Steel to solve?’ Reuben teased. ‘I’m impressed. I appreciate your talents are extensive, but even I wasn’t aware they extended to medicine.’
Reilly was startled. Unbeknownst to himself Reuben had just given her an idea...
Her mind flashed to her kitbag, tucked safely under her seat in the GFU van parked outside, and inside, the syringe not dissimilar from the one the nurse had just used.
The nurse had finished her rounds, Kennedy was gone and no doubt Reuben would be leaving soon. All it would take was one tiny blood sample ...
Could she risk trying to figure out this particular puzzle all by herself? Or more to the point, should she?
She looked again at the prone figure on the bed. With everything she and Chris had been through together, and how much they’d shared ...
For Reilly Steel, it was a question that only had one answer.