Rough Justice (Cainsville 5.5)

Gabriel tossed the knife aside and picked up Johnson by the shirtfront, lifting him until he was on his tiptoes.

"Would you like mercy?" Gabriel asked.

Johnson blinked hard. Then, "Y-yes. Yes, please."

"Tell the truth." He held the man out to Olivia. "To her."

Johnson swallowed. When he said nothing, Gabriel whistled, and Lloergan's ears perked up. The alpha hound started forward, his head lowered. More cwns slid from the dark forest.

"It--it happened so fast," Johnson blurted. "The accident. With Kathy. And then...I don't know what came over me. I passed in and out of consciousness, and I was confused--"

Gabriel shook him. "The truth."

Another pause. The hounds inched closer.

"S-she wanted a divorce. We'd been fighting, and I was angry. Okay? The accident happened, and I just--I snapped. I didn't think. I wanted a way out, and I saw it, so I... I waited. I just waited. I didn't do anything to her."

"And then Heather Nansen contacted you..."

"They started this. They hit our car. It was their fault, and that bitch was going to tell the police. I knew she was. I'd suffered enough--all those nights worrying that someone would find out about Kathy. I didn't do anything to her, and now I might go to jail for it? That wasn't fair, not when it was their fault. But I never touched that bitch. I broke in the first time and got spooked. I tried a couple more times, but she kept hearing me, so I gave up. I didn't steal anything from her. I didn't text anyone or call the police about anything."

Gabriel looked at Olivia. "Is that enough?"

"I already had enough," she said.

He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. She might have had enough to be reasonably certain. Now that certainty was absolute, and he could see the relief on her face.

"Enough for mercy?" Johnson croaked.

Olivia stepped forward. "Your wife had a punctured lung. You watched her die. You listened to her die. At first, you weren't sure how badly she was injured, but eventually, she'd have begun wheezing. Slowly suffocating. Gasping for breath. And you watched and waited. I will give you the exactly the amount of mercy you gave her."

She took another step forward. "Run, Mr. Johnson. Run as fast as you can. And when you can't run anymore--when your lungs give out, and you lie there gasping for air, remember your wife."

Gabriel threw Johnson aside. The man stumbled to his feet. Then the alpha cwn leapt at him, snarling, and Johnson looked up to see the pack of red-eyed giant black hounds, ringing him, leaving only a gap into the forest.

He bolted for that gap, and the hounds pursued.

Twenty-seven

Olivia

So the Cwn Annwn were not infallible after all.

After Johnson died in the Hunt, Ioan and I convened with Ricky and Gabriel, and we figured out what had happened. First, I got the "discovery" story--how the Cwn Annwn found Johnson. One of the Huntsmen had an Audi, which he'd taken in for its annual servicing. There, he'd bumped into Johnson and gotten the twinge that put a target on Johnson's head.

Ioan had picked up the vehicle for the Huntsman, and he'd sought out Johnson in a casual conversation. When he looked into his eyes, he got a memory flash of the newspaper headline, along with a surge of guilt that confirmed he was a Cwn Annwn target. So Ioan concluded Nansen must have had fae blood and Johnson killed him. An incorrect deduction. Yes, Johnson had felt some responsibility for Nansen's death, thinking that his attempts to break in had caused Heather to shoot her husband. But the death that warranted Cwn Annwn justice was actually that of Kathy Johnson, who must have had fae blood.

A crossed wire, which caused Ioan to accuse Johnson of the wrong murder. But when it came to what counted, he'd been absolutely correct. Johnson was a killer who deserved Cwn Annwn justice.

As for Heather Nansen, Gabriel's independent investigation suggested there was a very good reason Johnson had denied stealing her phone, sending those texts and contacting the police. He hadn't. The simple explanation was, it seemed, correct--that no one had framed Heather for murder. She'd taken advantage of the break-in attempts to obtain a gun, and then she'd lured her husband home.

Gabriel wasn't going to drop her case. We now believed she was guilty, but proving it was up to the prosecution. And I was fine with that. This was not my case to judge.

My case had been Keith Johnson, and I had my answer there.

Gabriel and I spent the drive to Cainsville talking about Heather's case, which meant we didn't need to discuss our own issue. Not until we got home, and the door closed behind us.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Seanna," he said. "I thought I could handle it by myself."