David Kessler - Mercy

Besides, Dusenbury was probably still pissed off about the leak. Even if it had been just a careless word from Burrow to a prison guard, it was still Alex’s responsibility. He was not exactly in the governor’s good books. Dusenbury may have been willing to spare Burrow in return for the location of the body. But if it was a case of “Burrow is innocent — and we’ve got new evidence to prove it” then the governor would probably say that that was the business of the courts.

It was frustrating, but Alex realized that he’d have to wait it out.

Dvorak’s New World Symphony rang out on Alex’s iPhone.

“Hi, David. What’s up?”

“I’ve found something else on the hard disk.”

“Tell me.”

“It’s a poem.”

“A poem ?”

“Or at least part of one.”

Alex felt a trace of irritation.

“I’m looking for evidence to prove that Dorothy Olsen went to England and you’re giving me poems ?”

“This isn’t just a poem. It’s something very personal and I think it might be relevant to her disappearance.”

“Why? What does it say?”

“I think it’ll be better if you see it. I’ll email it over.”

“Okay.”

Alex put the phone down, feeling guilty that he had snapped at his son.

Susan White had hesitated before calling the Chief Administrator. Stuart Lloyd had said he would call her back hours ago, but he hadn’t. She had tried to put it out of her mind, but that call from Juanita Cortez had brought it all to the forefront again.

The phone in her hand felt cold and the clock on wall looked forbidding.

How would he react to being called at this time?

But then again he had promised to call her back and hadn’t. If she disturbed him now it would surely be his own fault.

There was no alternative. A man’s life was on the line and, as Juanita had told her, it was now a race against time.

Taking a deep breath, she dialed the number.

“Yes!” a female voice snapped.

“Hallo, Mrs. Lloyd. It’s Susan White here. Could I speak to Mr. Lloyd?”

“Do you know what time it is!”

She was about to apologize when she heard a man’s voice in the background.

“I’ll take it.”

There was a brief, muffled exchange and then Lloyd came on the line.

“Hallo.”

“Hallo, Stuart. It’s Susan here.”

“I know. Look, I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you. But the truth of the matter is we really can’t tell them anything.”

“But they called !”

“What? Who?”

“The lawyers … of the man on death row. They called and asked us about Dorothy.”

“They know ?”

“They know that she came to the medical center. They know that she had a ticket to England and that she came to the center.”

“How do they know?”

“They must’ve found records of some sort.”

“So what do they need us for?”

“They just need some sort of confirmation or proof.”

“We can’t give it to them.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“All the files are on the computer so we can tell them that it’s covered by the Data Protection Act. ”

“But there’s a human life at stake, Stuart!”

“That may be. But we have to be careful about what we give out. Aside from the data protection issue, this could open a whole can of worms about how we cut corners — ”

“I know about that! So what are we going to do? Just let an innocent man die?”

“I took a look at some of the coverage on one of the American news channels. He’s not so innocent.”

“It’s not for us to judge. We’re sitting on evidence that his lawyers need! We don’t have the right to play God!”

She was breathing so heavily that only now when she held her breath did she realize that Stuart was short of breath too.

“Okay, look, what I think we should do is tell them to submit their request in writing. Then we’ll try and get a lawyer to give us some advice.”

“At this time?”

“We’ll wake someone up if necessary. But get them to fax us in writing exactly what information they need.”

“Okay. I’ll call them now.”

As soon as she had broken the connection, she started dialing again: 00 1 415…

“Alex Sedaka’s office.”

“Hallo, is that Juanita?”

“Yes.” The voice was excited.

“It’s Susan White here. Nurse White. I’ve just spoken to our Chief Administrator and he told me to ask you to put in a request in writing stating exactly what you want.”

“Are you…?”

The voice sounded embarrassed and had trailed off.

“What?”

“Look, I’m sorry for asking it this way. But are you stonewalling us?”

Susan White didn’t know what to say. This woman at the other end of the line had twigged it perfectly and it would be futile to deny it. But Susan had to play it carefully.

“I … I know it might seem as if we’re being a bit … It’s just we have certain laws here to do with confidential data. You can get court orders, but it takes time.”

“Just tell me this: will we get this information in time?”

Susan White hesitated for a moment.

“I’ll do my best.”

“Your Honor, the airline booking receipt clearly shows that on May 19, 1998 — less than one week before Dorothy Olsen vanished — she booked an airline ticket for London.”

Alex was speaking, while Nat sat there quietly with the documents, ready to hand them over when Alex introduced them.

“The date of the flight was the 24 thof May, just one day after she vanished. And remember that she vanished in the evening. So she could have hidden the night before or gone to the airport.”

The District Court judge — a man in his sixties who had pretty much seen it all — looked skeptical.

“Did she take a suitcase or any baggage with her?”

“Not as far as we know, Your Honor. But she had received an inheritance from her grandfather and she had just turned eighteen less than two months before that. That would have given her enough money to buy new clothes wherever she ended up.”

The judge sighed wearily.

“Is there any evidence that she took the money? Where was this trust fund?”

“It was at a bank, Your Honor. She liquidated the trust fund a few days before she vanished and bought some expensive jewelry with the money.”

“Expensive jewelry?” the judge repeated, surprised.

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“And was any of this known at the time of the trial?”

Alex hesitated. He would have loved to answer this question in the negative. But as an officer of the court, he couldn’t lie.

“It was known about the trust fund and the jewelry — including the fact that it disappeared.”

“So it doesn’t qualify as new evidence.”

The judge sounded almost disappointed.

“Not the trust fund or the jewelry. But the airline booking is new. We’ve only just discovered that — and that was through sheer luck. There was no way we could have known it. The police or FBI should have discovered it when they quizzed the airlines. They apparently limited the search to flights from the US. It appears that she drove to Mexico and then caught the flight.”

“And what about this medical center you mentioned?”

“Well there again, it was a matter of luck. We only obtained Miss Olsen’s old laptop computer today. We didn’t even know of its existence until today.”

“But none of this actually shows that she was on the flight. All it shows is her intentions. Maybe someone stopped her. Maybe she was trying to get away with someone.”