Page 68 of Sentinel's Kiss
“Just read it. Read about the cases that have cropped up about unexplained murders and disappearances happening to scumbags who have gotten off on technicalities or escaped jail time.”
“Like Bryce Fallon?” Ashley said.
“That was a fiasco,” he said. “But yes, exactly like that.”
“Who is a suspect in his murder?” she asked. “His victim?”
“It’s not her on the tape.”
“Can I see the tape?”
Munson looked uncomfortable. “The evidence was destroyed through an operator error. The case is stalled.”
“So there is a murderer on the loose. Do you think she’ll strike again?”
“I don’t know. I think she knew Bryce. I think he harmed her in some way and she got revenge on him by cutting his brake line. He’s dead and not going to harm anyone again. And maybe she doesn’t kill again until the next time something goes wrong in her life.”
“It’s also possible that she thinks justice is done and she moves on with her life.”
Munson nodded. “It doesn’t change the fact that she, whoever she is, murdered someone. And she needs to be brought to justice. We can’t have citizens taking the law into their own hands.”
Ashley tended to agree with him, but Bryce had been brought to justice and justice let him go with a slap on the wrist. “I have a feeling his murderer wouldn’t be given a slap on the wrist like he received for his crime. Perhaps she should have raped him instead of cutting his brake line.”
Munson sighed. “We don’t live in a perfect world. If we did, Bryce would be behind bars now instead of in a grave.”
“You understand, I’m having a hard time drumming up sympathy for that piece of shit.”
“You’ll have an equally hard time with the murder victims in that file.” Munson gestured to it. “So try to find compassion for the people they left behind. Their wives, their children, their parents.”
Ashley shifted uncomfortably. “You want me to investigate Bryce’s murder?”
“If you want. I don’t think you’ll get a lot of ratings from it, though. By all accounts, the little jerk-off was a real tool. What I’d like to see is a report on how Bryce’s murder fits in with the other missing people or unsolved murder cases of these lowlife dirtbags.”
“I can shake a few trees and see what comes up,” Ashley said. “But I think trying to make Josh and his friends into killer vigilantes is a stretch. What makes you think it’s them instead of their victims or friends of the victims?”
“The murders are untraceable and clean. They were done by people who know how to mess up a crime scene or make one disappear. The members of the SOBs have the skill sets, the connections to pull off jobs like this, and the temperament.”
“Or the victims could have hired a professional hit man.”
“Either way, it’s a good story.”
It definitely bore looking into. “Why are you involved in this investigation? Evil is no longer a cop.” She flipped to his file and scanned it briefly. “Doesn’t look like Internal Affairs ever investigated him for anything.”
“It’s personal.”
“How so?”
Munson tapped his fingers on the desk. “I don’t believe in an eye for an eye. That leaves the whole world blind.”
“Gandhi might have said that, but he also preached nonviolence. I noticed you are wearing a sidearm.” Ashley pointed to the shoulder holster he was wearing.
“I protect myself and this city with my sidearm. I do it within the limits of the law. These vigilantes are becoming the law, and while up until now they’ve been killing people who deserve to be punished, who’s to say where that line is being drawn? This is why we have trials and courts and jails. So that punishment isn’t meted out by a bunch of thugs with an agenda. Right now, the police don’t have the manpower or the desire to put an effort into stringing these cases together. Everyone in that file of dead bodies has one thing in common. They were violent criminals. What happens when the vigilantes make a mistake?”
“You mean if they kill the wrong bad guy?”
“Or someone who was wrongfully accused. They kill an innocent man or woman. What happens then? It will escalate and it doesn’t have to.” He leaned across his desk. “If you have any sway over Josh Lehmen, tell him to stop before it’s too late for him and he either has a vigilante of his own coming after him for killing someone’s brother, or we take him away in handcuffs.”
Ashley had a moment to wonder again where Josh went last night. Then she shook her head. Munson wasn’t going to get her to buy into his conspiracy theory that easily. She stuffed the file into her backpack. “You got the wrong club. You’ve got a whole island of people who could be doing this and you’re concentrating on a group of friends who’ve been together through thick and thin. All you see are the motorcycles and the tattoos and the bad attitudes. You don’t see who they really are.”