Mercy

one who shot me down in flames.”

“I didn’t have a choice. You wanted to know where Dorothy Olsen is. I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

“I don’t like being lied to, Clayton.”

“I’m not lying.”

“Lying, holding out. It’s all the same! If you’re not straight with your lawyer, you can kiss your ass goodbye.”

“Well it looks like I’m not the only person who’s been lying to you.”

“And just what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means Dorothy Olsen didn’t get me canned. Her brother did.”

14:19 PDT

He had made sure not to catch the woman’s eye as he entered the deli. He lined up with his tray and ordered his hot pastrami on rye, realizing he’d have to be quick. Even though she had found a newspaper and was casually browsing it, she would soon finish her Caesar salad and leave. Then the opportunity would be lost.

It seemed to take an eternity and he regretted asking for mustard, even though it only added a few extra seconds. While waiting in line at the checkout, he added a bottle of mango juice and then paid with a twenty. He dumped the change on the tray and swept off in the direction of the table in the corner.

He wondered when she would notice him. She seemed so absorbed in her thoughts that maybe she wouldn’t. She had effectively screened out the background noise of the deli, so why should she look up now? Even when he reached the table, she seemed more absorbed in the newspaper than she was in the movement round her.

“Is this place taken, Miss Cortez?”

Juanita looked up.

“Oh hi, Jonathan.”

14:22 PDT

David was frustrated by his lack of progress. Ordinarily, he would just take this sort of thing in his stride. Finding the right user ID was as much an art as a science. It called for both diligence and patience.

But patience was a virtue only when the luxury of time was available. In this case, David knew, they were operating under a sparse chronological budget. They had less than ten hours before Burrow was scheduled to die.

The worst part was that there was no guarantee that there was anything worth finding. But at least now he had something specific to look for. That was better than groping in complete darkness. The problem was that even if he could get the user ID, there was no guarantee that he would get the password. In the meantime, it was painstaking work. All he could do was keep trying.

Fortunately, his father’s enthusiasm and tenacity were contagious. That was why David had skipped lunch to carry on working on this. This was, after all, an emergency. Only in this type of emergency there was no 911 number they could call to bail them out.

Suddenly David was struck by an off-the-wall idea. He didn’t really place much hope in it, but he typed in “dorothyolsen911” and hit the enter key. Only this time, he didn’t get an “Incorrect User ID” message. Instead he was greeted by the words “Incorrect Password.”

He selected the password reminder online option and found himself confronting a series of questions: “Date of Birth,” “Mother’s maiden name,” and “Name of High School.” He had already made sure that he had all this information. Once it was typed in, he found himself in Dorothy Olsen’s Compuserve account.

14:28 PDT

Nat was holding down the fort at the office.

“Alex Sedaka’s office.”

“Oh hi, this is David Sedaka. Could I speak to my father?”

“He’s not in the office right now. Can I take a message?”

“Is Juanita there?”

“No, she isn’t. But I can take a message for her too.”

“Is that Nat?”

“Yes.”

In the short time that Nat had been there, he had never actually spoken to David. He knew that David was a few years younger than himself — twenty-four to his twenty-seven — but there was no time for pleasantries.

“Okay, well, look,” said David, “do you know when he’s getting back? This could be important.”

“Well he should be back within the hour, but you can call him on his cell.”

“Maybe you could do that. I want to get back to the computer and see what else I can find. I have to leave the lab every time I need to make a call. Basically, just tell him that I’ve managed to log in to Dorothy Olsen’s old email account and I’ve found the EasySabre receipt.”

“Holy shit!”

“My sentiments exactly,” said David. “It shows that she booked a one-way flight from Mexico to Luton Airport in the UK. The booking was made on May 19, 1998 and the flight date was May 24 of that year — the day after she disappeared.”

14:34 PDT

“So how do you manage when there’s only three of you?”

The crowd in the deli was thinning out, but Juanita and the young man were still engaged in earnest conversation.

“We’re a small office. Sometimes even three’s a crowd.”

“Yes, but I mean … in a case like this? One minute, you’re running up to DC to argue a motion before the Supreme Court, next minute you’re meeting the governor here in San Fran.”

“That’s the way Alex likes to operate. At one time he didn’t have anyone, it was a one-man band. He did everything, research, interviews, drafting briefs, litigation.”

“Why?”

“He’s an individualist. He likes to run his own show.”

“But isn’t it risky? I mean, what if something comes up and he needs to go back to the Capitol to get a ruling?”

“We can go to the Federal District Court. But we’ve also got a partner firm on standby up in DC.”

“But I thought Mr. Sedaka went there in person to argue the motion? He was on the TV outside the court afterward.”

“Yes, he went there for that because that was the last-chance saloon as far as the court proceedings were concerned. But if anything new comes up that the District Court can’t or won’t handle, we’ve got another firm on standby to file a motion and even argue it if it’s called for.”

The young man shook his head.

“That seems like kind of a strange way to operate — for a big case like this.”

“You have to remember that until recently we didn’t have any cases as big as this.”