Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 27)

“Yes.”

“Why?” he asked.

“One, because I think he didn’t kill anyone. Two, because I didn’t want the other officers to kill him and then find out later he was innocent. That’s a level of guilt that no one deserves.”

“Are you speaking from experience?” Livingston asked.

“Not for sure, but in the early days of the warrant system, I took it on faith that if the law declared them guilty, it was fact. Let’s just say that without evidence collection or any proof but he said/she said or eyewitness testimony, I’m beginning to wonder if some of my early executions were justified.”

“You had a warrant of execution. That makes them legal,” Livingston said.

“You and I both know that legal isn’t the same thing as justice.”

“We aren’t in the justice business, Marshal. That’s for the lawyers.”

“There won’t be any lawyers to help us find justice for Ray Marchand, or for Bobby if we kill him as soon as the warrant arrives.”

Newman said, “I’m not asking to let Bobby go free. I just want another couple of days to make certain he deserves the bullet I’m going to put in his brain.”

“And if the prints are his?” Livingston asked.

Newman sighed. “Then he’s a lying bastard, and he probably did it. If the prints come back as his, I’ll execute the warrant, but if they aren’t his, then I’d like your help to convince a judge to grant a forty-eight-hour extension on the warrant.”

“Why just forty-eight hours?” Kaitlin asked.

“Because that’s all the law allows,” I said.

“You can’t refuse a warrant even if you find out the person isn’t guilty?” Deputy Frankie asked.

“We can refuse a warrant if there are other marshals in the area that it can go to,” I said, “but even then, you have to have a good reason why you want to pass on it.”

“I was the only marshal in this area not already on an active warrant, so I couldn’t pass it along,” Newman said.

“You could pass it to Blake now,” Frankie said.

“Theoretically he could sign the warrant over to me,” I said. “They will let personal involvement with the target of the warrant be grounds for refusal. Newman knows Bobby as at least an acquaintance, and that makes it hard to put a bullet in him.”

“What would you do if Newman tried to sign it over to you?” Livingston asked.

“I already told him that I stopped taking over warrants just because the newer marshals found it morally or emotionally difficult. The only grounds that I would accept a warrant on now are if I thought my expertise would be a better fit for an active hunt, or if the first marshal is incapacitated so that they cannot finish their own warrant. Neither of these circumstances is true in this case.”

“So why did Newman ask you to come in on his warrant?”

Newman answered, “I wanted a more experienced marshal to double-check me. The facts of the case just didn’t add up from the beginning, but since this was my first time having a warrant of execution for someone I knew, I didn’t trust myself. When Marshal Blake had the same reaction to the evidence at the scene of the crime as I did, then I knew I had to find a way to make sure that this warrant of execution had the right name on it. I don’t mind killing murderers who are going to keep on murdering people, but I don’t want to be manipulated into being someone else’s murder weapon.”

“What do you mean, murder weapon?” Frankie asked.

“If Bobby has been framed for Ray’s murder, then whoever framed him is the real killer, and they are using the preternatural branch to kill Bobby. They are using me and my badge, my duty, to finish their murder plot. That, I do not and will not be a part of if I can legally avoid it.”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Fran

kie said.

“I don’t know why you both have such a problem with the bloody footprints he left at the scene, but before Blake goes all soft on the beast that did this, I think she should see the room where Ray was slaughtered,” Leduc said.

Livingston looked at me. “Have you not been in the actual room?”

“No,” I said.