“I'll stay behind… sit on 'em for you.”
“That might help. Thanks, Brannan.” “Hey, this was my case first.”
Sharpe nodded. “Dr. Howland says they simply need more time and can't perform miracles.”
“What exactly can they hot-wire over the Net that will be useful to create a match-or hopefully a mismatch- with the DNA sample here?”
“Basic results. A replica of the DNA strand. Definitely something they can match up with what Oregon has on our man on death row.”
“OK, all right… good… You did well, here, Sharpe. Don't berate yourself. Go on to Portland with the blood- type confirmation, and don't worry. I'll stay on Howland and her people.”
“Buy you dinner?”
“Nah, better get back. No decent food in the whole damn airport, and besides I'm off fast foods-fries, soft drinks. Doc's orders.”
They shook hands again.
“Sorry you gotta fly commercial, that your field office couldn't get you a lift.”
“It'll be all right. I just have to fly to San Francisco and make a connecting flight to Portland. Seems crazy, but there you have it.” Sharpe waved him off.
“I miss my days of the red-eye flights,” Brannan shouted over his shoulder.
“Not me,” muttered Sharpe.
Even though Brannan looked to be earnestly shuffling off, the Millbrook detective turned and held up a thoughtful index finger to his temple. “Hey, pal. You mean to tell me that you informed the Minneapolis field office what this is all about, and still they couldn't get you out on something?”
“ 'Fraid so.”
“I used to be a detective in Houston, Texas, you know. Did a lot of extradition work, flying all over for the job. You think to try Flying Tigers?”
“The cargo-transport people?” “I've used them on occasion. They can be quite cooperative with law enforcement. Most of 'em are gung-ho retired military.”
“I'll give it a go.”
Sharpe, with time to kill, went in search of the Flying Tigers hangar. As he made his way through the terminal and out on the tarmac, guided by a security guard, he telephoned Jessica in Portland.
Jessica brought Richard up to date with the bad news about the stubborn idiocy of Governor Hughes. She did not want to tell him about the man's leering advances. She didn't want either Darwin or Richard to go rushing at Hughes like an angry pair of bulls. They hadn't as yet played every card, and they might need J. J.'s dubious help somewhere down the line.
“Just pray the lab has the DNA map done and forwarded by time you get here,” she told him, putting a finger to his image on the phone screen.
“I take it you've softened up the governor for our presentation.”
“You have no idea.”
“You mean he's at least willing to entertain the idea we may have uncovered new evidence and to give us a fair hearing?”
“Let's just say he's willing to listen.”
“I see. Everything hinges on the outcome of tests here. I wish we had more time.”
“Mean time this waiting period.”
“I know it's hard on you, Jess.”
“Swore I wouldn't get this emotionally involved but it's so easy to fall into it, you know?”
“Of course I do. And what's the alternative for people who do what we do, love? I certainly don't wish to return to the jaded, cold, unfeeling person I was before… well, before we met.”
“Nor I… Nor I.”
“How's Darwin holding up?”
“Convinced him to take a couple of my sleeping pills. He's out for now. It's particularly hard on him.” Jessica again brought up that Towne was in fact Darwin's half brother.
She watched as Richard stepped into a hangar and waved down someone.
“Have you given any thought, Jess, to what happens if the tests match Robert Towne's DNA? Putting his DNA under Louisa Childe's nails in that coffin all this time?”
“While I've given that possibility little air time in my brain, I admit it has floated in and out, yes. But damn it, I've come to trust Darwin's instincts, his knowledge of his brother.”
“I love you, Jess, and will see you when I get in tomorrow late, unless I can get help here from the Flying Tigers freight people. If you don't hear from me, assume around six-thirty tomorrow night.”
“God, Richard, why so late?”
“Can't get a flight out for hours, and even then, it takes me to San Francisco for a connecting flight to Portland. It's all that's flying.”
“Let's hope the Tigers can help you out then. I have so missed you, Richard. I'll be at the airport to greet you.”
“I'll call you from wherever I am. Let you know. How has Portland treated you so far?”
“I think if Christ came to Portland under present circumstances, they'd inject him with a death cocktail, too.”
“That bad?”
“That bad. Public sentiment against Towne has been whipped up to a frenzy here.”
“Watch yourself then. Take all precautions.”
“Not to worry.”
“G'night then, dear. I love you.”
“After this is over, we're going to reassess our lives, you and me, Richard. I'm considering alternatives.”
“That offer I made you? Or are you talking about the offer from D.C., to return to the M.E.'s office there, or the Virginia state lab?”
“Carte blanche I'm told. I would have total, complete control at Virginia. Don't think I could go back to D.C., not comfortably, and certainly not with what Virginia's offering.”
“Certainly, you of all people, have earned retirement from the FBI, but what about my proposal?”
“I survived the FBI for over a decade, survived the horrors and what it's done to me, what it's made of me. As for marriage, darling Richard, I–I'm just not sure we're either of us ready just yet. You still have issues with your former wife, and you've got your children to think of, and I… I still have this fear we will break what we have if we change anything.”
“You are an intelligent, articulate, giving, beautiful soul, Jessica Coran, but in this you are wrong.”
“I'm also a chicken, a fearful chicken.”
“I know of no one braver.”
“Not when it comes to relationships and getting my heart broken.”
“Sounds like perhaps you are the one with the issues.”
“Emotional baggage, it's called, and it's why I can't marry you, Richard, at least not now, not until I deal with it all. It'd only drag you down into my emotional-”
“We can work through any problems together. I can be your support, Jess.”
“Sweet… you are so sweet, Richard. I am so lucky to have you. Please be patient with me.”
“My name before I changed it was Patience,” he joked. “And you really are lucky to have me, you know.”
“Ohhh, I do know that.”
“And that you are blinded by your devotion to me? Did you know that?”
“I confess it! I confess it all!” She then closed her eyes and blew him a kiss through the miracle of the cam phone. He sent it back to her.
She thoughtfully said, “Back into private sector. No more of this screwy FBI crap for me. Sounds like peace and paradise.”
“Whatever you decide, you know I will support you, Jess.”
