The Witness

so serious, so goddamn beautiful, and I feel the same. There’s nowhere else. No one else.”
    “I don’t know what to do with how you make me feel. And I’m afraid of what my life will be if this changes and I never feel this way again.”
    “How do I make you feel?”
    “Happy. So happy. And terrified and confused.”
    “We’ll work on the happy until you’re easy and sure.”
    She set down her wine, went to him, held on. “I may never be.”
    “You came outside without your gun.”
    “You have yours.”
    He smiled into her hair. “That’s something, then. That’s trust, and a good start.”
    She didn’t know, couldn’t analyze through all the feelings. “We can sit on the steps, and you could tell me what happened this morning.”
    “We can do that.” He tipped her face back, kissed her lightly. “’Cause I’m feeling good about it.”

19
     
    H E FILLED HER IN WHILE THE SHADOWS LENGTHENED AND her new garden soaked up the gentle shower from her sprinklers.
    She’d always found the law fascinating, the ins and outs of the process, the illogic—and, in her opinion, often the bias—infused into the rules and codes and procedures by the human factor. Justice seemed so clear-cut to her, but the law that sought it, enforced it, was murky and slippery.
    “I don’t understand why, because they have money, they should be released.”
    “Innocent till proven guilty.”
    “But they
are
guilty,” she insisted, “and it has been proven. They rented the room and caused the damage. Justin Blake assaulted your friend in front of witnesses.”
    “They’re entitled to their day in court.”
    She shook her head. “But now they’re free to use money or intimidation against those witnesses and the others involved, or to run, or to craft delays. Your friends suffered a loss, and the people who caused it are free to go about their lives and business. The legal system is very flawed.”
    “That may be, but without it, chaos.”
    From her experience, chaos came with it.
    “Consequences, punishment, justice, should be swift and constant, without the escape hatches of money, clever lawyers and illogical rulings.”
    “I imagine most mobs think that when they get a rope.”
    She frowned at him. “You arrest people who break the law. You know they’ve broken the law when you do so. You should be frustrated, even angry, knowing one of them finds a way through a legal loophole or, due to human failure, isn’t punished for the crime.”
    “I’d rather see a guilty man go free than an innocent one go down. Sometimes there are reasons to break the law. I’m not talking about our three current assholes, but in general.”
    Obviously relaxed, Brooks stretched out his legs, gave Bert a little rub with his foot. “It’s not always black and white, right and wrong. If you don’t consider all the shades and circumstances, you haven’t reached justice.”
    “You believe that.” The muscles in her belly twisted, vibrated. “That there can be reasons to break the law.”
    “Sure there are. Self-defense, defense of others. Or something as simple as speeding. Your wife’s in labor? I’m not going to cite you for breaking the speed limit on the way to the hospital.”
    “You’d consider the circumstances.”
    “Sure. Back when I was on patrol, we got called in on an assault. This guy went into a bar and beat the shit out of his uncle. We’ll call him Uncle Harry. Now, we’ve got to take the guy in on the assault, but it turns out Uncle Harry’s been messing with the guy’s twelve-year-old daughter. Yeah, he should’ve just called the cops and Child Services on it, but was he wrong to break Uncle Harry’s face? I don’t think so. You have to look at the whole picture, weigh those circumstances. That’s what the courts are supposed to do.”
    “Point of view,” she murmured.
    “Yeah. Point of view.” He trailed a finger down her arm. “Have you broken the law, Abigail?”
    It was a door, she knew, that he invited her to walk through. But what if it locked behind her? “I’ve never had a speeding ticket, but I’ve exceeded the posted limit. I’m going to check the lasagna.”
    When he wandered in a few minutes later, she was standing at the counter, slicing tomatoes.
    “I harvested some tomatoes and basil from the greenhouse earlier.”
    “You’ve been busy.”
    “I like to be busy. I completed a contract a bit earlier than I projected, so I rewarded myself with gardening. And I had