Chapter Seven #4
“I think I’d notice a heart lying around. Not that it would look like that. It had been worm food a long time ago.”
Elizabeth sat back, and she was so full, she was going to explode, but everything had been delicious.
She needed that meal.
Desperately.
“I mean, maybe she meant something else. You said you guys found things in the renovation.”
They considered it.
“The only thing we found were her letters to Duncan, saying she was wrong not to love him, and she was sorry. We don’t know why she changed her mind. Duncan’s letters basically called her a shrew.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
“The poor woman is married off as a teenager, her husband goes off to war, and she’s forced to have a baby in the sixteen hundreds. People died from childbirth. She had every right to be a shrew. How much more should she carry?” she asked.
At her tone, they all glanced over.
That hit close to home, and Michael knew it.
“You’re right. She should have had him there when his child was being born. That was pretty shitty, but no one said Duncan was a good guy. He had his sister-in-law, and his ex-wife, who were the same person drawn and quartered. He also killed her baby, so…”
Finn went there.
“Yeah, after she tried to get him killed so she could get all of his money. I think the whole lot of them is bad,” he admitted.
“This family has been a non-stop death match all the way through their lives. Dad killed her, sister killed dad. Then, sister tries to kill ex-husband for the money, only to get killed by him and dumped in a lake. Then, he goes on a rampage and kills all the people who hurt his lover, including a child, and finally, we think, offs himself to be with Ciarán Begbie after death. He didn’t seem to give a shit about anyone, including his son. ”
Yeah, that was a lot.
Michael could see Elizabeth’s eyes, and she was taking all of that to heart.
She’d just killed someone to avenge dead family. Michael had to get them off this trail before it went bad. This was beyond dangerous territory.
Plus, he was worried about Elizabeth’s well-being. Her mental state was shaky over all of this.
Graham went there.
“It was justified.”
Finn stopped that.
“Killing is never justified. Then, you become just like the person you kill. It’s evil, and it eventually destroys you as a human being. You become that monster you chase.”
As soon as he said that, Elizabeth put her fork down and felt the room closing in on her. It felt like a panic attack, and all she wanted to do was run.
FURTHER.
“Excuse me,” she said, grabbing her sunglasses and getting up from the table.
Then, she was gone.
As she evacuated the space as quickly as she could, Finn watched her leave.
“Uh, what’s wrong with her?”
Graham sighed.
“Sometimes, Fineas, you’re good at stepping in it. Read the room,” he said.
The man still didn’t get it.
Only, no one was filling him in. The two men needed to go after her to ensure she was safe.
Michael tossed some money down, and he and Graham got up to go find Elizabeth.
When they were gone, Finn lifted a brow.
“What did I do?” he asked, genuinely confused.
She kept her voice down. Now, she was beginning to think she should have given him a heads-up earlier. Only, Gene had told her to keep it on the DL, and that had been the plan.
This was on her, just as much as it was Finn.
“Elizabeth just came off a bad case. The killer took out one of her Marines, her secretary, one of her Marine’s girlfriends, and his father. He caused all of their deaths. Plus, he’d been planning to hurt her children.”
He still didn’t get it. That was all horrible, but Elizabeth dealt with this kind of a thing all the time.
What changed?
“And she brought him in?”
Gabby stared at him, and she wasn’t saying anything to incriminate her friend, but that wasn’t what happened.
“Oh,” he said. “Gabby, I can’t condone that. We’re cops. We wear badges. She’s one of the United States ' highest-ranking cops. There’s only one above her.”
Well, yeah, no duh.
Oh, her sweet, dear Fineas. May he never be put in a decision where he had to make that choice. It was clear someone led a sheltered life here in Scotland.
That was probably for the best.
Only, Gabby knew what might put it into perspective.
She rested her chin in her hand and stared into his eyes. They were beautiful, and filled with so much love and strength, but he was thinking with his badge again.
The law wasn’t black and white.
There were shades of gray.
“So, I’m abducted, cut open, tortured, and I have my eyes cut out while I’m alive, and my body mutilated after he rapes me. What are you doing when you find out?”
The second she said it, he crossed himself.
The whole idea horrified him to no end. That was terrible, and he didn’t even want that put out into the universe.
“Jesus Christ.”
She wasn’t done.
“What do you do, Finn? You find me mutilated, and you’re standing in my blood. You have to make a choice, so again, what do you do?”
He closed his eyes.
Well, hell.
“I get justice for my wife no matter the cost. I find that piece of garbage, and I kill him.”
EXACTLY.
This was the gray area.
Gabby kept talking.
“And you see these deaths over and over, and you wear the brains of a man you call son the day before. You walk in that gore daily, and you see justice NOT prevail. Now, multiply that by twenty-five years of cases, of victims, of death. You chase one killer at a time, and let’s face it, mostly it’s vehicular homicides or domestics.
She chases serial killers with ten victims at a time. ”
He got it.
It was a different animal.
Truthfully, the things he saw weren’t nearly as traumatic. They had deaths, but nothing like what Gabby had just described.
“I didn’t mean to make her upset. I’m not judging her. I haven’t walked in her shoes. I’m just a cop who...”
She touched his cheek.
“She’s here because she had to cross that line, and she’s not sure she’s going back to do her job.
Just give her grace. When I lost our baby, she called, and she comforted me.
She got me through it and helped you. I’m not asking you to condone it.
I’m asking you to see that she’s suffering because the weight of it is crushing her.
We all make choices, and sometimes, they are easy to carry, and sometimes they’re not.
Now, she’s here alone and struggling. Be kind. ”
He kissed her knuckles.
“I get it, my love. I’m sorry. Let’s find her. I didn’t know,” he said. I would never hurt someone by judging them. I haven’t walked a mile in her shoes.”
She was aware, and that was why no one blamed him. Maybe she should have warned him, but she didn’t want to air Elizabeth’s business.
It was hers to tell.
Helping his wife up, he threw more money down for his wife’s food, even though Michael paid. It looked like their waitress was getting a good tip.
Then, they headed outside.
He’d hurt a woman, and he’d not meant it.
Now, he’d fix that.
Because Elizabeth was a good person, and she didn’t deserve to hurt over this.
Not because of his words.