Rough Justice (Cainsville 5.5) - Page 47

e Nansens did. He sat in that car and waited for his wife to die.

And then he went after the Nansens?

That didn't make any sense. Especially not if he waited two years to do it.

The only reason he would target the Nansens was if they were in danger of being arrested. That would reopen the case, and the lawyers would be all over it, analyzing details in a way the police hadn't needed to. But I saw absolutely no suggestion that the police had reopened the investigation.

What happened, Keith?

I turned my attention to his phone data and began excavating. Phone calls. Texts. Calendar appointments. E-mails.

And that's where I found it. A deleted e-mail, dated two weeks before the first break-in attempt, sent to Johnson from an anonymous account.

I sent a quick text to Gabriel and took off.

Twenty-three

Gabriel

On leaving Gwylio Consulting, Gabriel pulled out his phone. He'd left Olivia a message earlier, and she'd texted back, saying she'd been at Patrick's, using his books. Her research confirmed Ioan's claims--there was no evidence the solution they'd uncovered should warrant Cwn Annwn justice. But Gabriel was still certain they were on the right track. They were merely missing elements.

Gabriel had wanted to talk about that, but Olivia had been racing off in pursuit of another angle. Disappointing, yes, but it did give him the chance to do what he'd failed to manage earlier: surprise her with new data.

Before Olivia, Gabriel had acted as investigator for all his own cases. He'd considered contracting one for the more mundane work, such as surveilling witnesses, but that would have meant giving an outsider access to his defense strategy, and while other attorneys did so, his personal methods made that more complicated.

As for the not-so-mundane points of investigation, he'd never considered relinquishing those. He told himself it was even riskier to contract those out, but the truth was that he liked that part. He liked digging for clues, following the trail, solving the mystery. Only one thing proved better than investigating by himself--investigating with Olivia.

Ioan's office was close to Gabriel's condo, so he went there to think in peace and find that new data.

Ioan didn't like their solution. And there was one part that Olivia hadn't liked either, initially.

Heather Nansen.

As a defense lawyer, Gabriel knew there were many ways one could react to the death of a loved one. He could attribute Heather's reaction to shock. Yet given the fact that she was responsible for her husband's death, even Gabriel had expected a stronger response.

Their solution to the crime exonerated Heather Nansen as much as she could ever be exonerated. That is, it said that Keith Johnson had deliberately staged the break-ins in hopes of driving Heather to shoot her husband. Her guilt, then, was only that of a person who made a fatal and tragic mistake.

Or was it?

What if this case had been presented to Gabriel without the Cwn Annwn claiming another person was responsible? What if he removed Johnson from the equation?

He would have thought Heather guilty. Her story was simply too odd. Gabriel and Olivia had acknowledged that--repeatedly--yet knowing that Ioan blamed Johnson, those oddities had only seemed proof that a third party was indeed involved.

But if Gabriel removed Johnson from the game board, he would never have accepted the case. It contained far too many weak points.

Someone broke into our house. And then tried twice more, and no, he didn't succeed, but I was so terribly worried that I bought a gun.

You think I lured my husband home? Gracious, no. Didn't I tell you someone stole my phone? That person must have sent the texts.

Heather had believed that herself until Olivia corrected her, which showed a poor understanding of technology. Gabriel himself had a better one, but it still wasn't his forte. For that, he did reach out and get external expertise.

Gabriel placed a call to Lydia's grandson, a nineteen-year-old student at Caltech, who had absolutely no interest in the defense strategy of some Chicago lawyer, but a very vested interest in his bank account, which grew whenever he received phone calls from said lawyer.

"It's Gabriel Walsh," he said when Bryant answered.

"You do know that your name appears on the little screen when you call, right, Gabriel?" Bryant said. "If you don't want it to, I can fix that for you."

"I announce myself because I cannot presume everyone checks the screen first."

Tags: Kelley Armstrong Cainsville Fantasy
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