Page 52 of Shadow Justice

Reid came to stand behind the chair beside Holly, one hand resting on the back. “What do you mean?”

Linc studied his grandson. “Why are you asking?”

Reid shrugged. “Curiosity.”

“That’s your cross-examination voice.”

Holly glanced up at Reid. He didn’t deny it.

Linc’s gaze moved to her, then back to him. “Davies prosecuted one of the last cases in my courtroom. Assault that became a homicide after the victim died in the hospital. The defendant was a bad man. No question in my mind then, and none now.”

Holly’s stomach tightened. “What happened?”

“The primary evidence had problems. The chain of custody was broken in two places. The defendant’s statement was taken after he had asked for counsel but before it arrived. There was a search that went beyond the warrant. Individually, maybe some of it could have survived. Together?” Linc shook his head. “No.”

Reid’s voice stayed careful. “You excluded it.”

“I did what the law required.”

“And the case collapsed,” Reid said.

“My evidentiary ruling gutted Allen’s prosecution.” Linc’s mouth pulled flat. “The jury never heard things they likely should have, because the state didn’t do its job cleanly enough to put them in front of twelve citizens. The jury acquitted. Allen was furious and left prosecution shortly after. He took it as a betrayal. Not of him, I don’t think, but of the victim and the family. Of justice itself.”

Holly knew Allen as calm, kind, and capable. She couldn’t picture him furious in a courtroom, watching a case fall apart because Lincoln Fleming had chosen process over outcome.

“What happened to the defendant?” she asked.

“Walked out,” Linc said. “Died two years later in a bar fight in Idaho, from what I heard. Mean life. Mean ending.”

“And Allen?” Reid asked.

“He stayed with the prosecutor’s office a little longer, but not long. Left before the next election cycle. I heard he went into advocacy work.”

Linc reached for the muffin again, but his appetite seemed to have faded. “Davies wasn’t a bad prosecutor. He cared, and caring can make a man dangerous if he starts believing it gives him permission to bend the world until it looks like justice.”

Holly rubbed her thumb along the seam of her coffee cup. “Allen’s always been good to me.”

“As he should.”

“But you didn’t like him.”

“I didn’t say that.” Linc’s voice softened just enough to take the sting out. “I’m saying he had a wound where the law was concerned. Some people heal around wounds. Some make a religion out of them.”

Reid’s hand flexed once on the back of the chair.

Linc watched him for several seconds. “You didn’t come here just to deliver muffins.”

Reid’s answer was quiet. “Today, I did.”

“You can’t fool me, boy. What’s going on?”

“You called me, remember?”

Holly looked down at her coffee because she could feel Linc’s concern turn toward her.

“Are you in some kind of trouble, Holly?” he asked.

The lie came automatically. It wasn’t the first time she’d said it to him either. During her teenage years, she’d said it dozens of times. “I’m all right.”