Dogs all around the neighborhood started barking. A light came on across the street.

Mendez cuffed one wrist then the other behind Steve Morgan’s back, then turned and spat a mouthful of blood across the hood of the car.

“Thanks, man. You just gave me an early Christmas present,” he said.

He pulled Morgan up off the car hood and marched him toward the Taurus at the curb.

“Steve Morgan, you’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent ...”

Chapter 39

39

“Did you have it coming?” Vince asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“Hell, yeah.”

Mendez tried to grin with only partial success. He had come up to the ICU straight from the ER. A little centipede line of fresh stitches knitted his swollen upper lip on the left side. Lidocaine still had a firm hold on that side of his face.

Vince had to laugh. “You look like a freaking half-wit, Detective Frankenstein. What the hell happened to you?”

They sat down at a corner table in the otherwise-empty ICU family lounge.

“I had a little run-in with Steve Morgan,” Mendez said, talking out the right side of his mouth. “Turns out he has a temper.”

Vince raised his eyebrows. “What triggered that?”

“I guess it was something I said.”

“Like what? Your mother was a junkie whore?”

“How’d you know?”

“You said that to him?” Vince laughed.

“Yeah. I said a whole lot of other shit before that, but he didn’t turn a hair. That one—he went off like the fucking Raging Bull.”

Vince felt a surge of pride. “That’s my boy! You wanted to find his hot button and you did. I hope you gave a good accounting of yourself in that fight, young man.”

“He came after me. I had to protect myself. I might have broken his nose, and the one eye was swollen shut. He’s still downstairs getting patched up. I left a deputy with him.”

“Has Cal heard about this yet?” The sheepish look told Vince the answer was no. “He’ll have your ass.”

“I was defending myself!”

“You—an ex-marine, Golden Gloves boxing champion—versus a lawyer.”

“Hey, he had a hell of a swing!” Mendez protested. “He golfs and plays tennis.”

“He’s gonna sue your ass.”

“He assaulted a law enforcement officer.”

“You called his mother a whore.”

“Did I? I don’t remember. Too bad he doesn’t have any witnesses to testify to that.”

“Let’s back this up, Rocky,” Vince said as the red flags started popping up in his head. “What were you doing in his face in the first place at O-dark-thirty in the morning?”

Mendez glanced down for just a second before he started his story. And he glanced down several times more as he told about going to the Morgan house and talking with Sara Morgan.