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reasons."
    Freddy shrugged. "If you say so. But he's gonna let Talon go to town on her stupid blood revenge defense."
    "Stupid?" Brunelle knotted his eyebrows. "I thought you said it was brilliant?"
    "It can be both," Freddy grinned. "It's brilliant of Talon to raise it. I mean, really, her guy's guilty as hell. He had blood on his hands, for Christ's sake. So if you can't deny it, justify it. That's brilliant. But it's stupid because that's not how it really worked."
    Brunelle cocked his head. "It's not?"
    "Nope." Freddy looked straight ahead as he explained, usual smile lost in a serious expression, hands extended to emphasize his points. "Talon's trying to make blood revenge a judicial remedy. But it wasn't judicial. It was extra-judicial. If someone killed someone in your tribe, then you killed someone in theirs and it was over. No need for the chiefs to get involved. That was the whole point. Self help."
    "Okay, but isn't that what Quilcene did?" Brunelle countered.
    Freddy shrugged. "Sort of. I don't know. I guess I'm not explaining it very well. I think if you were going to do that, really going to do that, then Talon and LeClair better realize what they're doing. Blood revenge didn't always end it. Remember, how someone killed someone in your family because you killed someone in theirs? Well, guess what? Now someone's killed someone in your family. So you get to kill someone in theirs. Now it's a blood feud. It might never end."
    Brunelle nodded. "Good point. Kind of a policy argument. We can argue that blood revenge was a bad idea and—"
    Freddy raised a hand. "Oh, I didn't say blood revenge was a bad idea." He turned to Brunelle again, his smile back and on full display. But different somehow. "I think it's a great idea. Just let them handle it. Keep us out of it. Traver molests Quilcene's niece, so Quilcene kills him. Fine. Then someone from Traver's family kills Quilcene or one of his relatives. And we stay the hell out of it."
    Brunelle shook his head. "Not gonna happen. Quilcene's in custody and my detective says Traver didn't have any family."
    Freddy's smile faded a bit. "Is that right?"
    "Yeah," Brunelle answered. "So maybe the blood feud ends here after all."
    Freddy looked straight ahead again and nodded. "Yeah, maybe."
    The conversation was starting to sober Brunelle up. He slid his beer away. "I think I'm done drinking. Wanna play a few hands of blackjack before calling it a night?"
    Freddy was quick to beg off. "No, that's okay." He tapped his hands on the countertop. "Thanks anyway, but I think I'm gonna head out. I've got some things to do. I'll see you in the morning."
    "Sounds good," Brunelle patted him on the back as they both stood up. "See you tomorrow."
    As Freddy started to walk away, Brunelle felt glad for the relief their shop talk had brought to his melancholic ruminations. But realizing that made him think of Kat again.
    "Oh, hey, Freddy!" he called out after him through the casino crowd. "Kat says 'Hi'!"
    But Freddy didn't turn around. Apparently, it was too loud in the casino between the ringing slots and the talking patrons. Brunelle watched him walk out to the south parking lot and disappear into the black night.
    Brunelle pulled out his wallet and stared at the forty-odd dollars he had left. He scanned the casino and spotted a poker table. Perfect. It would take him no time to lose forty dollars at poker.
    ~*~
    Brunelle stepped out into the south parking lot. It was starting to rain—just a light mist really. The blacktop was glistening and a fine spray tickled his face. He welcomed the sensation. One more thing to wake him up for his walk back to the hotel.
    He shook his head at himself. Part of the reason he'd walked to the casino, despite the ever-present threat of rain in the the fall, was the thought—hope?—that Talon might be there and he didn't want to take another one of her usual parking spots. He didn't want her to call him jackass again. Silly how he'd changed his