High Stakes

Chapter 5

Nick's POV

The vibrating noise coming from my mobile phone has awaken me from mu slumber. "Porter." I answered with a yawn.

"It's Lex! You need to get to the hospital."

"Anything wrong partner? What happened?"

"Ben's dead!"

Her last words awoken me up. "Shit! I'm on my way."

"What happened?" My wife questioned in a groggy voice. I must have been woken her up.

"Ben's dead." I dead panned.

"What happened?"

"I dunno so I need to go to the hospital. Lexi and Sandy's on their way." I removed the sheets that covered my naked body to leave. "I'm sorry for waking you up." I kissed her forehead before heading to the bathroom.

"It's okay. I'll prepare you something to eat." She responded.

"You don't have too. Just go back to sleep." I insisted.

"It's okay. I don't think I'll be sleeping anytime soon."

"I'm really sorry for waking you up."

"Stop apologizing and get ready." She smiled as I nodded. I heard her put her robe on then the door opened and shut.

It only took me less than ten minutes to brush my teeth, took a very quick shower and put on my work clothes.

The scent of newly brewed coffee greeted me as I walked towards the kitchen.

"Here, I made you a to go and a sandwich." Emilia handed me a tumbler and a brown bag.

"Thank you."

"Don't forget to eat."

"I won't." I kissed her in the temple then in the lips. "Kiss the boys for me." I kissed her some more before finally getting my keys and went out the door.

Since it was still too early, the road were almost empty so the drive to the hospital was quick.

When I reached Ben's floor, his room was being crowded by a lot of people. There were at least two uniformed police officers, probably the pair that should be guarding him. A nurse sitting on the chair at the corner being comforted by another nurse. I wonder what happened. Lexi was just standing on the foot of the bed while Sandy was observing the body.

"What the hell happened."

All people looked at me but it was Lexi who answered. "He committed suicide via embolism."

"How the hell did he do that? He was restrained right?" I then noticed that Ben's wrist wasn't restrained anymore. "Or not..."

Lexi then pointed at the crying nurse at the corner. "Come on..." I followed her outside to talk. "Apparently, the nurse received a call from Ben. He asked the nurse in a 'very' polite manner..." She emphasized the word very. "... if she could remove his restraint because his wrist hurts and if he could give him a mild sedative. He even told him that she could remove the restraint after he fell asleep."

I nodded for her to continue. "The nurse gave him sedatives then he asked again if she could open the blinds. The nurse removed his restraint then proceed to open the blinds. Ben took that opportunity to steal the injection that the nurse carelessly placed on the bed table."

"So Ben didn't fall asleep with the mild sedative then he injected himself with air." I tried to conclude.

Lexi shrugged. "Yes. We don't know how he managed to fight the sedatives but his plan was really to kill himself."