DEPUTY FRANKIE ACTUALLY sat in one of the pretty stiff-backed chairs. It was as if we’d been waiting for someone to be the first, because Duke sat down on the edge of the couch closest to her. Kaitlin sat down in the matching chair beside her.
“The suspect did start to shift in the cell with both Marshal Newman and Marshal Blake still locked inside with him,” Frankie said.
“His eyes changed, but that was all,” I said.
Livingston held up a hand and said, “Let the deputy finish answering the question before you add your two cents’ worth, Marshal.”
“No, the marshal is right about that. It was only his eyes that turned yellow like a cat’s, but we’re all trained that it’s the first sign of them changing form, so Sheriff Leduc and I told the marshals to get out of the cell. Newman did, but Blake wouldn’t leave the suspect.”
“Which is exactly what I said,” Leduc added.
Livingston said, “If Blake can’t interrupt, then neither can you, Duke. Let your deputy finish before you all jump in.”
Frankie looked at her boss with nervous eyes, her hands clutching each other a little tighter. You didn’t have to know her to figure out those were nervous fidgets. “Marshal Blake was in front of the suspect, so there wasn’t a clear shot without endangering her.”
“And you had your weapon drawn by then?” Livingston asked.
“Yes. I’m sorry, Captain. Yes, we all had our guns drawn, even Newman. We were all urging Blake to get out of the cell, but she wouldn’t do it. She told us to lock the cell door, that she thought she could talk the suspect out of changing into his animal form.”
Livingston looked at me. “Blake, why did you refuse to leave the cell when your fellow marshal did?”
“I thought they would shoot and kill Bobby Marchand, and I no longer thought he was guilty of the murder. I didn’t want to let them kill an innocent man.”
“You put yourself in harm’s way to save a suspect that a warrant of execution has been issued for?” Livingston asked.
“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,” Frankie 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.
He gave me a look. I gave him one back and said, “Normally it would be the first stop, but we were already upstairs, so we started there. Once I saw the prints, they seemed like our best bet to get a delay in the execution timeline. If we don’t get extra time, then this is all moot.”
“The warrant hasn’t been faxed to my office yet. You get forty-eight hours after it arrives—there’s plenty of time to waste on this footprint nonsense,” Leduc said.
“Most warrants start their countdown from the moment the document is written, not when it’s received,” I said.
“So, if there’s a delay on the judicial end, you could end up with a warrant that’s past due?” Frankie asked.
“I’ve heard of it happening, but most of the time, the warrant arrives with the clock already ticking on how long the marshal has to complete the job, but not expired,” I said.
“Is it just two days to complete the execution, or does the warrant become null and void after that time period, so killing the suspect would be murder?” Livingston asked.
“The ability to kill the suspect or suspects with legal impunity remains until the warrant is completed by their deaths,” I said.
“So why does the warrant have a timeline written into it?” Frankie asked.
“Some of the marshals were delaying fulfilling their warrants,” I said.
“The newer ones,” Newman said, “like me that were cops before, but had only classroom experience with the monsters. You spend years training to keep the peace and do your best to save lives, and then you join the preternatural branch and suddenly it’s all about taking lives. Not all of us can make the transition.”
“What happens if a marshal doesn’t make the deadline?” Kaitlin asked.
“If it’s a hunt and the marshal in question just can’t safely locate and destroy the target, then no harm, no foul. They may send in more experienced marshals to help with the hunt, but it remains the original marshal’s warrant, and they remain in charge of the hunt,” I said.
Newman added, “But if it’s someone like Bobby that’s already in custody, then refusal of the warrant by the marshal gets written up. If you refuse to complete three warrants, then you’re given a chance to transfer to normal Marshals Service or you’re fired.”
“Is the preternatural branch losing a lot of personnel that way?” Livingston asked.
Newman shrugged.
“Some,” I said. “Not everyone has the stomach for it.”
“But now do you understand why it’s so important for us to find reasonable cause to lengthen the warrant timeline?” Newman asked.
“So you can avoid getting written up for dereliction of duty,” Duke said.
“It’s not dereliction of duty, Duke. How would you feel if you let me kill Bobby and then we do find out he was framed? Could you live with that?”
Duke shook his head, but I’m not sure it was an answer to the question. “Let Blake see the room where Ray died. Let her smell it. Then see if she still wants to save the poor wereleopard.”
“Fine, let’s go,” I said.
We left Livingston and Kaitlin discussing if she was getting in the cage with a wereleopard. Frankie stayed behind to answer questions about what had happened back at the jail. I hoped she was willing to share that Duke had lost it, but in the end, I guess that didn’t matter. What mattered was that the state cops helped us delay long enough to either kill Bobby Marchand with a clear conscience or save him.