Mercy

Juanita was praying that David would come back with an affirmative reply.

‘I don’t expect to find the other half of the receipt. I’ve pretty much covered the disk swap area. It was the first thing I checked, after the file allocation table and directories.’

‘Wouldn’t she have downloaded the receipt?’

‘Maybe yes, maybe no. But if she reformatted the whole disk that suggests that she was being secretive. So the answer is probably no.’

‘And there’s nothing you can do?’

Again there was a brief hesitation in David’s response.

‘Nothing on the computer itself.’

Juanita smiled to herself.

‘Why do I hear that sound in your voice?’ she asked.

‘What sound?’

‘Like the vocal equivalent of a gleam in your eye?’

‘Well…let’s just say that I have an idea of one way I might be able to get it.’

‘How “might” is “might”?’

In the time it took him to take a breath, her heart skipped a beat.

‘I won’t bullshit you. It’s a long shot.’

12:53 PDT (#ulink_c5fa3ab2-bb21-59c6-858e-1e9104d5db2d)

‘How long are we going to hang round here?’ asked the driver.

Martine looked at her watch. He was right: they’d been here a long time and nothing was happening. It wasn’t just that nothing was happening, it was also that there was no sign that anything was going to happen. Worse still, some of the other news crews were starting to appear. They were parked further up the street and trying to make it look like they weren’t interested. But it was obvious that they were.

They were actually parked more strategically than Martine’s crew. If anyone left the governor’s office building, they’d have to follow the one-way system toward Larkin Street. That meant that CNN just up the road had a better chance of staying on their tail.

‘So what do you think we should do?’ asked Martine. ‘Go back to San Quentin?’

They’d have a full crew there later on in the day as the execution time loomed nearer. But the question was, should they sit it out there now or stay here in the hope that something broke from the governor’s office?

Martine knew that she could call in another team to cover the governor’s office and get back to the penitentiary. But this was her story and she wanted to be in the right place at the right time when the story broke. Her gut told her that she was closer to the story here outside the governor’s office than treading water back in Marin County.

But nagging away at Martine was the thought that the real story was with Burrow’s lawyer Alex Sedaka.

He was the one who had to carry the message of the governor’s conditional offer of clemency to Burrow. If Burrow was reluctant, he was the one who would have to persuade him. If Burrow accepted the offer then he would be the one who had to convey that acceptance to the governor, along with any details of where the body was buried. Before the day was done, many people would know one way or the other. But Alex Sedaka would be the first to know.

And Martine intended to be the second.

‘Change of plan. We’re going to pay Alex Sedaka a little visit.’

13:11 PDT (#ulink_2f89b790-f0ba-5936-aa6a-87b2f473ad1e)

Nat was driving back to the office from the mobile home park in San Pablo, wondering how he was going to summarize his meeting with Sally Burrow. He decided not to tell Alex about the leading question that had led to the premature termination of the interview. But the question was, what would he tell him?

Sally Burrow’s attitude—if it was sincere—suggested that she would not have done anything to help her son, least of all kill for him. She sounded convincing when she said that they had led separate lives and she hadn’t noticed what her son was turning into.

This strengthened, all the more, Nat’s conviction that it was Sally Burrow’s hands-off approach to both love and discipline that had led Burrow down that slippery road to become the bully that he was.

But a bully was one thing—a murderer was another thing entirely.

Nat knew that he had to concentrate on how he summed this up for Alex. The boss was in a very tense mood at the moment, and Nat felt that he was likely to snap at any moment. He had shouted at Juanita over something that wasn’t her fault. How would he react to Nat coming home empty handed from his visit to Clayton’s mother at the trailer park?

But then again, it had always been a long shot. Alex knew that. All Nat could do was report back on what Sally Burrow had said.

He was getting near the building when he noticed activity. It looked like some news people staked out by the building, one with a shoulder-mounted camera. The annoying thing was their van was parked in his reserved parking space! He drove past, glaring at them angrily. Then he noticed someone entering the building—and he recognized the face.

He decided not to go in just yet.

13:19 PDT (#ulink_f7f51919-5cf8-5170-a323-23f7b93128c7)

‘So why exactly did you want to see me?’ asked Alex.

He had led Jonathan into the meeting room and got Juanita to make coffee for both of them. But Jonathan Olsen didn’t seem too anxious to talk. He seemed more concerned with looking round, almost as if he was admiring the décor.

‘I saw on the TV about the governor’s offer to Clayton Burrow.’

‘Yes,’ said Alex matter-of-factly, ‘I think everyone in the state has heard about that offer by now.’

‘The thing that surprised me is that it was my mother who persuaded him.’

‘She didn’t tell you beforehand?’

‘I’m not in contact with my mother.’

Alex remembered that Esther Olsen had told him that she was estranged from her daughter. He didn’t know that this estrangement extended to her son.

‘Is that by…?’

‘By my choice, yes. We kind of fell out with Mom—both Dorothy and myself.’

Alex felt a pang of sympathy for Esther Olsen. It seemed as if the world was collapsing on top of her head.

‘For the same reason?’

‘More or less.’

Alex knew he had to tread delicately here. But then again, Jonathan had come to him.