Robert Walker - Absolute Instinct

Sharpe, traveling light with only a carry-on, found them and he and Jessica hugged and kissed for a long, warm reunion.

Darwin hung back, standing at the open driver's side door. In a moment, Jessica put the two men together to shake hands.

A deepening dusk had fallen over Portland. By midnight tomorrow night, Robert Towne would be executed. Time seemed now to be pouring through the hourglass like a flash flood through a baked dry, thirsty ravine. Unstoppable, unless Jessica's plan could be made to work. She feared letting Richard know of it, feared he would on the one hand oppose it as too dangerously criminal, outside the bounds of the law and their duty, and on the other hand he might agree to it almost as quickly as Darwin had, which would make him another accomplice in the act, another culpable party.

They would have to broach the subject carefully with Richard or attempt it without his knowledge. The decision was hers entirely. Darwin had made it clear that, with or without Richard's assistance, he would break his unlawfully prosecuted, unlawfully convicted brother out of prison if only for a few days, until they could prove conclusively via DNA evidence out of Minnesota that Robert Towne was indeed not the Spine Thief.

“Why don't you two just hug as well as shake one another's arms off,” she said of the two men greeting one another with mutual admiration and a kind of benevolent pissing contest as to which would stop shaking the other's hand first. To end it, Jessica pushed them into one another for a hug, saying, “After all we've been through, we could all use a group hug.”

“I just got off the phone with Howland at Cellmark, and they're unsure,” Sharpe told them. “I've bugged this Dr. Howland there repeatedly, and Eriq has stationed men on their doorstep.”

“What's taking so damn long?” pleaded Darwin.

“Dr. Howland refuses to let anything out until she is satisfied, and apparently, it takes a great deal to satisfy her.”

Jessica gave him a glare. “I hope you don't mean she came at you the way the governor of the great state of Oregon came at me.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” he asked. “Did that man lay a hand on you?”

She groaned. “No… no, but not for lack of trying. He is a sexual predator, it would seem, not above selling his principles for a cause, if a girl is willing. He likely seldom gets turned down, and it didn't please him any.”

Darwin got in her face. “Why the hell didn't you tell me about this, Jessica?”

“I don't want either of you two going into this meeting with Hughes like a pair of raging, insulted bulls, damn it. Just forget about that crap for now. Richard, we've worked out something that will spare Towne should the governor rebuke us again, and should the DNA evidence not materialize by tomorrow afternoon.”

“What sort of duplicity are you planning, Jess?”

“You know me and authority figures, and particularly assholes in authority… like Hughes and his lackey, Warden Donald Gwingault. Also a real charmer.”

“I want to hear all about it.”

When she and Richard climbed into the rear of the car, Darwin behind the wheel, Jessica's eyes met Darwin's in the rearview mirror, and she shrugged and said, “I could never keep a secret from Richard.” She then launched into her and Darwin's plan.

“Stalling the execution isn't in the cards anymore, so far as I can see. No reprieve. Not with the way these people twist reality and facts, like they've done with news coming out of Chicago,” she told Richard.

Richard's phone rang. He opened it. “Oh, good, Dr. Howland from Cellmark,” he announced for the others. “Tell me you have good news for us.”

Silence as Richard listened to the voice at the other end.

“What? A lab mishap… spoiled test… had to start over? When did this all occur?”

Again he listened, fuming. “So this is what you told Agent Santiva? And all along you've been stalling for time. Well now, Doctor, time is fast, fast running out here in Oregon.”

He cut her off, afraid of what he might say next, afraid it might jeopardize any further attempt to get the DNA to them at the last.

“More bad news,” commented Darwin.

“Pour it on,” she agreed.

“Some idiot in Howland's lab has, she fears, destroyed what little sample they had to work with, and she-heroically, she feels-has salvaged a minuscule microscopic spec of it from the bottom of the vial it had been transported in.”

“Some fool photographed the sample on an electron microscope, no doubt,” said Jessica, trying to understand this lab “accident.” “That process will destroy any sample for further analysis.” “What does that mean for Robert?” asked Darwin, certainly knowing the answer.

“It means that they lost another day,” said Richard. He then nervously cleared his throat and added, “It means you've got a hell of a lawsuit when… I mean if…”

“We've still got the news out of Chicago for help,” said Jessica, “but I fear it is not going to be enough to dissuade this governor.”

“As it turns out, Chicago authorities let Keith Orion walk, not having enough evidence on him,” Richard informed them.

“Damn, you've got to be kidding,” said Darwin. “Didn't anyone look at his artwork? And he's got a crate with his name on it with a dead girl inside minus her spine, and… and shit!”

“We've been so busy setting up meetings and getting shunted off,” Jessica said to Richard, “that we didn't hear this latest.”

“Orion showed off to the crowd when released, and he gave a series of 'exclusive' press interviews.”

“God, I hate that about our media. This has all been a boon to the sonofabitch's career,” Jessica complained through gritted teeth.

Placing a hand in hers, Richard replied, “No doubt about his reveling in the attention. People are buying his work now as never before. Amazing but true. Kill somebody and you're fifteen minutes of fame is assured in the U.S. of A.”

“Power of the press,” said Darwin.

“Power of the tube,” added Jessica.

“Orion did prove he's not as stupid as first glance. He did not send the crated body to himself. The paperwork was forged by another hand, someone slick enough to get a UPS clerk to attach Orion's corporate number to make it look like Orion sent the crate to himself from his Milwaukee show.”

“You learned all this in airports while between flights?” she asked.

“CNN nonstop at the airports, yes, along with what I learned from Eriq. He's been closely monitoring Chicago.”

They drove to the governor's mansion, the thrum of the car the only sound for some time. The darkening countryside pressed in around them. A shrieking hawk sounded in the distance.

Richard broke the silence. “Eriq tells me that questioning of the Milwaukee-based UPS clerk has led to a composite drawing of a man who bears no resemblance to Orion. The sketch is in all the newspapers and the search is on in earnest for Lucinda Wellingham's killer. There is a real disparity here. Earlier victims, save for Sarah Towne in Portland, were hardly noticed by media and the public, — while Lucinda has been made the darling of the dead victims, a poster child for them by CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and the print media as well. Lucinda's rich father has put up a quarter million dollars for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his daughter's slayer.”

Darwin turned into the driveway for the mansion. They were waved through by guards at the gate after a show of badges.

“We spent some time today with Towne's lawyers,” Jessica said. “They've tried to make the case that while he is of sound mind, he is driven by depression in turning down an appeal defense. At this point, I believe in strength in numbers.”