‘Ava is okay, she’s not injured?’
‘No, she’s in Maggie’s house over the road.’
‘Good, that’s good.’
Al looked at the two officers behind him. ‘I think we’re going to have to bring Heather in for a statement, but he’s going to need you two to babysit him at the hospital in case he kicks off.’
Footsteps outside and van doors slamming signalled the paramedics who came rushing in then stopped dead.
‘Oh.’
Morgan smiled at Nick who had attended her quite a few times in the past. ‘This is nothing to do with me.’
He nodded, then bent down to start working on Maggie. His colleague checked Luke out, but soon turned his attention to Nick and began to assist him.
‘He’s got a nasty cut on the back of his head, but he’s starting to regain consciousness.’
Morgan moved away from Maggie to let them work on her, just as Ben arrived with Cain.
‘What the hell happened?’ he demanded.
‘Luke lost it with Heather, by all accounts, for changing the locks.’
‘Morgan, are you bleeding?’ The concern on Ben’s face mirrored hers as she watched Nick working on Maggie. ‘No, it’s not mine.’ She knew he wanted to grab her and hug her, but he wouldn’t; he would wait until they were alone. She also knew he was going to be furious with her for running into this without waiting for backup to arrive.
He looked around. Heather was standing staring down at Luke. Al pointed to Heather.
‘I’ll take Heather to the station and get her booked in. Col and Lisa are going to accompany Luke here to the hospital, in case he’s still as angry when he regains consciousness.’
Morgan looked at Ben. ‘I’ll go with Maggie, see if I can get a statement from her and check on her injury.’
Ben looked unsure. She knew he was judging whether he wanted her anywhere near Luke Rigg, injured or not. ‘I’ll be fine, I have to go with her, Ben, she has no one.’
‘Okay, but as soon as you have an update on her condition, I want you out of there, Morgan.’
‘Oh God, Ava is in Maggie’s house, someone is going to have to go and tell her what’s happened and check on Maggie’s dog.’
‘We’ll go and get Ava, but really, we have to sort the dog out?’
She nodded. ‘I promised Maggie we would make sure he was okay. When you lock up take the key to the front door to the station, and I’ll get it from you so I can check on him later on.’
Ben rolled his eyes at her, and she knew what he was thinking: they already had Des’s cat, Kevin, to take care of, she wasn’t sure he would let her bring Maggie’s dog home with her too. But they couldn’t leave him in the house on his own.
Al escorted Heather out of the house to the back of his van and helped her inside. Ava came running out of Maggie’s house screaming, ‘Mum, Mum.’
It was Ben who intervened; he rushed towards her and gently took hold of her arm.
‘She’s okay, Ava, we just need to get a statement off her, to find out what’s happened.’
‘She didn’t do anything; we were eating our tea, watching the TV, when one of the stones out of the garden crashed through the living room window, covering us in glass.’
‘I’ll take you in my car back to the station to wait for your mum or until we can find someone to come and collect you. Amy will write down what happened, so we have it on file. Is that okay?’
‘I’ll wait for my mum; I’m not leaving without her. Is Maggie okay, where’s my dad?’
‘Maggie is in good hands and your dad is still inside, let’s just get you back to the station.’
Al had already driven away; Morgan was getting into the back of the ambulance with Nick and Maggie. Another was on its way to transport Luke to A&E, to get his head looked at, and two PCSOs were on their way to scene guard the house until it had been documented by CSI. Then a joiner would be called out to board up the broken window.
