Howard Fast - The Case of the Kidnapped Angel

“I worshipped Mike. I adored him. He was my lover and my child at one and the same time. Bill Ranier was as guilty as Angel of Mike’s murder. She pulled the trigger, but he was an accessory before the fact and after the fact. And I’ll tell you something, Mr. Detective, in three years he’ll be out of jail. You lied about Lena Jones. She’s no witness. So what will they get Ranier for? Conspiracy to defraud the government? Resisting arrest? You said it yourself. He’ll be out in three years or less.”

“Possibly,” Masuto agreed. “Unless you testified against him.”

“You do so want life to fit your fantasies. But, you see, I wasn’t in the library and I did not kill Angel, and I’m afraid we must leave it there.”

Masuto stood up. “I don’t believe in revenge, Miss Newman. The person who takes the revenge pays too great a price.”

“But justice? Do you believe in justice, Detective Masuto?”

“I’m not sure that any of us are wise enough for justice. I’m not sure I know what justice is.”

Elaine walked with him to the door. “I wish I could know you better, Mr. Detective. You’re a very strange and interesting man.”

“We never truly know another person,” Masuto said. “Even Angel Barton had a spark of something human and wonderful buried inside her. Perhaps no one ever tried to find it.”

“Whatever you think I’ve done,” Elaine Newman said, “you’re not making it any harder for me to live with it. I knew Angel Barton. You did not.”

She stood at the door, watching him as he walked out and over to where his car was parked.