Jericho went home that morning, had a long shower, and fell into bed to get some of the sleep he’d missed the night before. He slept until late afternoon and thought about taking the rest of the day off. Even as a witness rather than a suspect, he’d be kept as far away from the Wooderson shooting case as possible, so there was no pressing need for him to be at work. But things weren’t tidied up yet, and he didn’t like that.
So he put on a fresh uniform and headed to the station. Kayla looked like she’d been up all night, but that wasn’t too surprising, considering there’d been another damn murder in her jurisdiction.
“We found the kids at a friends’ place, like you said,” she told him. “And I called Detective Fernandez to let her know. She actually cried, she was so happy.”
“I don’t blame her.”
Kayla nodded. “Pretty convenient, the way this worked out. The Applebys kicked things into gear fast, and Will’s new lawyer has already been in touch. I expect we’ll be cutting Will loose tonight or early tomorrow. With the FBI investigating Wooderson in this case as well as Ohio, the evidence against Will doesn’t mean much. And it all could have been part of the frame-up. Hell, even the fingerprints on the two-by-four aresoclear they’re starting to look like an obvious plant. Wooderson must have handed the thing to Will, or maybe swung it at him, slow enough that Will would catch it, and then taken it away to bury where he knew it would be found.” She shook her head. “This is turning into a happy ever after, practically.”
“Lorraine’s still dead. Will’s still going to be fucked up from it all. I’d say it went from totally, irreversibly fucked to slightly, less-completely disastrous.”
“Well, you’re a glass-half-empty kind of guy,” she said. Her lightness was a little forced, but he didn’t call her on it. It was far from his place to tell her how she should deal with anything, let alone something like this.
“Yeah, I guess maybe I am.”
“And you don’t seem completely satisfied with this situation. I know you already answered a bunch of questions as a witness last night, but think like a cop, now. Help me figure this out. We have to assume Wooderson was killed because of this case, don’t we? We’ll look for other motives, obviously, but working theory? He was packing up to leave town, and somebody stopped him. Who knew enough about this case to know how serious it would be if he got away?”
It was a good question. Jericho wouldn’t mention Fernandez’s name, wouldn’t cast suspicion on her when he knew it was unwarranted. But Kayla was staring at him, waiting for an answer. She squinted and said, “What do you know, Jay? What are you not telling me?”
Another good question, unfortunately. “I don’tknowanything,” he said carefully. And even if he had known, he was pretty sure where his loyalties would lie, although much less certain of what that meant. “But, all the same, I typed up my resignation. I think I’ve come to the end of the line in this job.”
“Why?” She didn’t seem shocked, but it sounded like she really wanted to hear the answer. “If you know nothing about this case, why quit because of it?”
He stared out the window, looking at the summer-fresh landscape and the wild mountains beyond. “Because I think the killer was right. Because I don’t want to catch him, or be part of a system that catches him. Not because of who he might be, but because . . . the system failed, Kay, and the guy who shot Wooderson?Hedidn’t fail.”
“You know the arguments about vigilantes.” She frowned at him, waiting, then prompted, “The system is in place to protect the innocent. It’s impossible to be sure about guilt without a fair trial. Justice should be based on logic and compassion, not anger and revenge.”
“Yeah, I know the arguments. But in this case? The system wasn’t protecting the innocent, because Wooderson was going to go kill another woman somewhere. And in this case? I’m damn sure about his guilt, trial or not. And, seriously,in this case? I think the shooter acted out of logic and compassion, not anger and revenge. I don’t think he was trying to avenge a murder, I think he was trying to prevent another one. He did what had to be done to protect people.”
“You’ve been a cop for almost a decade. You’re going to throw it away over one case?”
“Looking back, though, it’snotjust one case. This one got under my skin a bit more, but there have been other times when I knew someone was guilty and couldn’t do anything about it. Other times when that person probably went on to kill again. And I let it go. I tried not to think about it because there was nothing I could do. I shut the door and pretended it was a wall, but it never was, and the door is open now, and I don’t think I should shut it again.”
She frowned at him. Possibly that last metaphor had been a bit much, but he was pretty confident in his decision, overall. Confident enough that he didn’t feel like it needed to be discussed, really. But she was his friend as well as his boss, so he waited. And finally she said, “So what’s the alternative?”
“I’m not saying we should overthrow the system. I just think it’s best if the people who work for it truly believe in it, you know?”
“I don’t mean for the justice system, I mean for you. If you’re not being a cop, what are you going to do?”
“I have no idea.”
“Noidea?” She leaned back in her chair. “No plans to go riding off into the sunset with a certain old friend? No schemes about shutting yourself away from the rest of the world and just being a big glob of romance for the rest of your life?”
Sometimes he wished she didn’t know him quite so well. “I don’t think I was planning to be a ‘big glob’ of anything. But, yeah, okay, maybe I was thinking of something along those lines. Would it be so bad?”
“It’d probably be great for a week or two. Assuming you could convince him to leave his current life, which doesn’t seem like an automatic thing, to me. Just because you’re having a big crisis of faith doesn’t mean he is. But, okay, assume he went along with you. How long do you think you could do that for? How long before it starts creeping into your brain that you’ve abandoned a world that needs you? How long before your companion gets bored and pulls a Wade, messing everything up simply for the challenge of trying to fix it again? Jesus, Jay, think about it! The man is theoppositeof laid-back. He’s always got to have a plan, or seven, always got to be manipulating things and playing the angles. How long’s it going to last, you and him in your peaceful new life? You’re going to throw away your career for something that temporary?”
“This isn’t about Wade. Not most of it. I’m quitting because I don’t think I’m right for the job anymore. Why are you resisting this? I’ve been a pain in the ass since I got here. I mean, you suspended me not long ago—obviously you know I’m not an ideal cop!”
“You have been a pain in the ass,” she agreed. “But you’ve also gotten things done. You saved the kids—and do I want to know how they fit into your escape plan? You going to walk away from them, leave them with Nikki?”
Just like he’d already let them down by not protecting them from Eli. Sure, he hadn’t known they existed, but theworldhad needed to be protected from Eli, and Jericho hadn’t done a thing about it. Jericho hadn’t, but somebody else had. His brain stuttered over that for a moment. Someone had stopped Eli. Someone had taken care of what Jericho hadn’t.
Kay seemed to think his distraction was a sign that she was gaining ground. “The biker situation was a mess in all ways—I can’t say you solved anything, there, but neither did anyone else. This case? In this case, you’re the one who realized there was something going on! If you hadn’t been on the case we would have convicted Will Archer for murder,andKeith Wooderson would have gone on to kill again. I’m not saying any of it’s tidy, or as clear as might be convenient, but, come on, buddy! You make a difference—you’re helping people.”
He dragged his mind back to the conversation. “I wonder how your dad justified it at the start.” It felt like a low blow, but he hoped she knew him well enough to realize he didn’t mean it that way. “Did he tell himself that he was helping people, so it wasn’t really that big of a deal if he took some cash on the side? Wasn’t hurting anyone to pass along a bit of information now and then, and why shouldn’t he make a decent living for doing a tough damn job?” He paused long enough to make sure his voice was gentle when he asked, “You think that’s how it went with him?”
His caution either worked or wasn’t necessary, because she didn’t flinch when she said, “That’s a completely different situation. You start bending the rules for your own benefit? We’ll have a problem. But bending the rules for the good of the community?”
