Justice Served: A Barkley and Parker Thriller by R. Barri Flowers

shed no tears over the deaths of these men coming
as they did. It sounds as if they only received what they gave. But
I played no part whatsoever in their deaths.”
    “If you didn’t, then someone else in here
probably did,” Ray told her brusquely.
    “Proving that might be quite a task,” Esther
said brashly. “You see, we’re all victims here—the staff and
occupants alike. You’ll get no help inside these walls in trying to
nail someone who would be viewed by us as a hero.”
    Ray glanced at Nina. The look on her face
told him she reluctantly agreed with Esther’s assessment.
    “Maybe we will be stonewalled,” he conceded,
“for now. But that won’t stop us from eventually bringing the
killer to justice, wherever she might be holed up—along with anyone
who helped her.”
    “If you’re trying to scare me, detective,”
said Esther courageously, “save it for someone who is easily
intimidated by police tactics...or perhaps brutality. I understand
enough about the law to know search warrants and court orders are
necessary to get information that otherwise won’t be volunteered to
you. On that note, I think I must now ask you both to leave.”
    “We were kind of hoping to have a chat with
some of the residents and staff,” Nina uttered sanguinely.
    “You’re welcome to,” Esther stated
colorlessly. “Just not inside the premises. I won’t have anyone
here being made victims again—not by you!”
    Nina’s nostrils flared. “Listen, we’re not
the problem and I think we both know that! If you’re sheltering a
psychopathic killer, she’s making every woman here a victim all
over again. And each time she takes out a batterer, it will be on
your head. I just hope you’re prepared to deal with that!”
    Ray felt he couldn’t have said it better
himself and thus did not even try. It would certainly give the
director something to think about.
    Esther saw the detectives out the front door
and was left alone with her thoughts. She sensed trouble ahead.
They weren’t going to let up until they found what or who they were
looking for.
    She was determined that they would not find
it there.
     

CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    “What do you make of her?” Ray turned to his
partner as they made their way from the shelter.
    Nina wrinkled her nose. “I’m not really sure.
Other than the fact the lady obviously has a chip on her shoulder
and is in sore need of a major attitude adjustment.”
    He nodded. “Amen to that on both counts!”
    She squinted at him. “She definitely doesn’t
have any sympathy for dead batterers. Not that I can blame her for
that. Alive, the assholes wouldn’t be very welcome at my house
either. Dead, they more or less dug their own graves.”
    “The proof may have been in the pudding,” he
muttered uneasily, “so to speak. But the fact is none of those men
were actually convicted in a court of law of anything, much less
the crimes for which they may have been executed.”
    Nina took her keys from her purse. “Come on,
Barkley,” she scoffed. “We both know they were probably as guilty
as hell.”
    Ray sneered. “Since when have people in this
country been put to death based on probable cause rather than solid
evidence of guilt? Domestic violence, for all its brutality, isn’t
a death penalty crime in and of itself, short of murder. Not in
this state anyway.”
    “You’re missing the point,” Nina said
lamely.
    He glared at her over the hood of the car.
“No, you are! Those men no more deserved to die than the women they
allegedly abused. Someone forgot to tell that to their
executioner—”
    Nina was suddenly at a loss for words.
    During the drive each clung to their thoughts
before Nina said in a sorrowful tone: “Okay, those men didn’t
really deserve what they got, even if they gave nearly as
much.”
    “Obviously there’s a killer out there who
would beg to differ,” Ray said sourly. “My guess is she’s somehow
affiliated, past or present, with that shelter. If