Read Online Move to Strike by Perri O'Shaughnessy - Free Book Online Page B

you say was the most difficult case?”
    “Depends on what you mean. The worst were times when we got the bad guy, but the jury let him off.”
    “It must be awful, arresting a killer and then having him get off in court. Does it happen often?”
    “Less so these days.”
    The line of a woman’s body always drew a man’s eye to one part. Paul couldn’t take his eyes off her adorable knees, which people must have been patting her whole life. “Besides,” he went on, “I have found over the years that even if the legal system doesn’t work right in an individual case, society tends to provide the punishment. And that’s how it should be.”
    “What do you mean? Vigilante justice? Lynching?”
    “Not exactly. Ostracism. Inability to find a job. Divorce. The wife always knows. Loneliness, depression. Guilt. That’s the big one. And, face it, once in a while, citizens do have to take the law into their own hands.”
    “Give me an example, Paul.”
    “Oh, Ellie Nesler. Killing the guy who molested her son. Shooting him down in open court. He wasn’t going to pay like he should pay.”
    “You agree with her act of violence?” Raised eyebrows.
    “Definitely.”
    “Coming from a homicide detective, that’s an unsettling statement.”
    Paul smiled. “Ex-homicide detective. I am now a private detective. With offices right here in Carmel.” But her pen didn’t move. She wasn’t interested in putting in the plug for Van Wagoner Investigations yet.
    “Even so. You agree that a private citizen may sometimes be justified in killing another human being? I don’t mean in self-defense of course.”
    “Occasionally.” She took off her glasses, revealing disapproving bleeding-heart-liberal eyes.
    “When?” she said.
    “How did we get on this topic?” Paul said. “Of course I believe in following the law. My license depends on it.”
    “It sounds like you’re avoiding the question, Paul. Let’s talk more about Ellie Nesler.”
    “A good mom,” Paul said.
    “But she was arrested and spent many years in jail. She didn’t get to raise her son. How is that a good result?”
    “Her son understands,” Paul said, wanting to end the conversation. Why had he allowed her to stray into the militarized zone? You couldn’t convince people like her. People either comprehended or they didn’t. “She did what she had to do.” And, not that he was about to mention it ever to anybody, he had done the same.
    Seven months ago, Paul had killed a killer, not to restore honor, but simply to end a reign of terror. Nobody knew it, and nobody ever would.
    Looking back now, he saw Nina’s and Bob’s frightened eyes superimposed over a white glaze of snow and knew he would do it again. He wasn’t proud of it. Sometimes you did what you had to do.
    The cold primitive place inside himself that had committed that act had always existed and might exist in everybody, but you could go whole lifetimes without exploring this place. He hadn’t known he had it in him, and the knowledge of what lurked there did make the old homicide cop in him deeply uneasy. With that act, he had permanently severed his ties with simple notions and repudiated the ideals that had motivated him for most of his life.
    “Do you think that it was wrong of the jury to convict her and send her to jail?” the interviewer was saying.
    “Yes.”
    “But people can’t just go around and—”
    “Molest other people’s children,” Paul said, finishing for her, getting irritated. He wanted to talk about Van Wagoner Investigations. She seemed to be zeroing in on certain closely held opinions that he didn’t want his clients reading about the next day. On the other hand, he couldn’t stand weaseling around.
    “It’s a free country,” he said. “I have some personal thoughts about these things but in my work, I follow the rules.”
    “Did your personal opinions lead to your leaving the SFPD? And two years later, the Monterey Police Department?”
    “I