Ambush

Chapter 12

The floor nurse had made the hospital policy clear to Mary Catherine, and my fiancée left without too much fuss. Although I liked having her with me, I felt better knowing she was home and would have a chance to sleep. Besides, it would be more comforting to the kids in the morning if she were there.

The drugs felt like they were starting to wear off, but I wasn’t tired. Instead I found myself staring up at the stained ceiling. I replayed my last moments with Antrole Martens over and over. The sickening sound of the hand grenade as it rolled on the rough, carpeted floor. The stinging of the dust in my eyes from the bullets winging through the wall. The sound of people in the other apartments as they scrambled for their lives. A gunfight could be a complicated and devastating business for a cop. Losing a partner was something you never got over.

I heard my phone ringing somewhere in the room. My son Eddie liked to change the ringtone every few days. For the past week, it had been Robert Plant belting out the words “And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.”

It took me a few moments to realize it was close to me, in the drawer of the night table right next to my head. I fumbled with the drawer and snatched the phone up.

I didn’t recognize the upstate New York number, so I answered it with “Michael Bennett.”

A woman’s voice said, “Mr. Bennett, this is Kathy Morris. I’m the inspector at the Gowanda Correctional Facility.”

Inspectors investigated crimes at prisons. I had a flash of fear about Brian, who was housed at the facility.

I blurted out, “Is Brian okay?”

The inspector said, “I’m sorry to say that your son Brian has been stabbed.”

I thought I might black out for the second time that day.