Lost Souls by Kelley Armstrong

Author:Kelley Armstrong [Armstrong, Kelley]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi

TWELVE

GABRIEL

Gabriel rarely regretted his rhetorical style. It was not showy or flashy, and on seeing a lawyer stage the courtroom equivalent of a melodrama, while he could appreciate the effectiveness, it did not appeal to him. He watched lawyers gesture and mug and cast the defendant in the role of saint—or misbegotten sinner—and he felt a moue of distaste. That was showmanship, not skill. Like a pickpocket who shouts, “Fire!” in a crowded room because he’s not good enough to empty a pocket with light fingers and a nudge of misdirection.

Gabriel did his best work outside the courtroom. Building the case. Gathering the evidence. Arranging it to fit his narrative and, yes, sometimes filling in the holes with carefully constructed fictions. In the courtroom, while he certainly employed some legal sleight of hand and misdirection, his defense seemed simple and straightforward, and it was given in the same tone. Direct. Economical. Confident. No flourishes or digressions.

That was his natural style both in and out of the courtroom. Which meant that he was not the best person to turn interesting facts into a compelling narrative. As Rose talked to him about ghosts, he imagined relaying the information to Olivia and hearing it sound about as captivating as a graduate-level lecture on cellular biology.

He did take notes, though. Lots of notes.

Gabriel had not yet told Rose the exact nature of the case. Even with a woman who made her living as a psychic, he feared he’d get as far as “hitchhiking ghost” and she’d burst out laughing.

In fact, her career made him even more wary. Rose wasn’t some fortune-teller who honestly believed everything she told her clients. She might have the Sight, but she was also a Walsh, which meant she did some “filling in the holes” with her own carefully constructed fictions. Like Gabriel, she took the basic facts and massaged them into a pleasing narrative, one designed to make her point—whether it was that the client needed to give up smoking or kick out ungrateful offspring.

So he began by asking about vengeful ghosts in folklore.

Rose did not share his rhetorical style. Nor was she a psychic of the “wait, I see your future, slowly appearing, taking form before my eyes” variety. But the ability to tell a good story ran in the Walsh family, being one of the traits that had apparently bypassed him. So when he took notes, he made a concerted effort not to only record facts—as was his inclination—but to add the more colorful details for Olivia.

The vengeful ghost was a horror-genre staple, and for very good reason. If one was going to postulate the existence of spirits, it made sense that a reason they would return was to avenge a wrongful death. He’d had a case, years ago, involving a cat that did indeed seem to have nine lives, returning after each supposed death to stalk and torment his client—the cat’s killer. Gabriel had even used that to convince his client to accept a plea bargain by giving him a choice: prison or the cat.

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