Mercy

“That’s it?”

“Then he starts asking about why we took the case and did we really think that Burrow was innocent.”

“It seems funny to wait till today and then come round in person asking dumb-ass questions like that.”

“I think he was using that as a stalking horse for what he was really after.”

“And what was that?”

“He wanted to know about the deal Dusenbury offered.”

“I hope you didn’t tell him anything.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“Oh Juanita!”

“I told you! I had to, I was pumping him for information too.”

“Like what?”

“Like the airline ticket Dorothy bought just before she disappeared.”

“You know about it?”

“Yes, David Sedaka told me.”

“So how did Jonathan react?”

“He was jumpy.”

“Did he admit to knowing about it?”

“No. He said he didn’t know where the ticket was to… acted all innocent and asked me where it was to.”

“Did you tell him?”

“How could I? I don’t know.”

“But I thought you said David Sedaka told you.”

“Yes, but he doesn’t know. He was only able to recover partial information.”

“Oh, but he told me-”

“What?”

Nat looked embarrassed.

“Sorry, I forgot. He called again. He managed to hack into Dorothy’s old Compuserve account and he found the EasySabre receipt. It was for a flight from Mexico to London.”

Juanita’s heart skipped a beat.

“London? We’d better tell Alex! We need to check if she made that flight!”

15:06 PDT

While Nat was telling Juanita about David Sedaka’s last success, David’s tenacity was beginning to pay off in yet bigger dividends as he made yet another discovery on the hard drive. Again, he had to leave the lab to go to the phone. The office they had let him use, had a computer on the desk. He switched it on as he called his father’s office.

“Alex Sedaka’s office,” Juanita answered.

“Oh hi, Juanita. I’ve found something else that could be of interest.”

“What?”

“Well after I found the receipt, I decided to check the hard disk on the computer doing a word search for London and one of the things I found was a deleted PDF of a brochure from something called the Finchley Road Medical Centre.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a private medical center in London, catering to wealthy clients — mostly women.”

“What do they do?”

“Anything from cosmetic surgery, liposuction and gastric bands for weight loss to abortions.”

15:14 PDT

“Okay, we’ve got less than nine hours left and the name of the game is saving our client from death by lethal injection, even if he’s less than enthusiastic about saving himself.”

They were sitting round the conference table. Alex had finally made it back to the office and things had taken on a new urgency.

“Surely we’ve got enough for a stay already?” Juanita ventured.

Alex was shaking his head.

“I wish we could be sure. But the fact is, the way things are, we don’t even know if she made that flight.”

“What about the medical center?” Juanita reminded him.

“A bit of information on her computer?”

“It shows that she had some interest in the medical center.”

“Yes but what interest? For herself? For a friend?”

“She didn’t have friends.”

“That’s a pretty slim argument Juanita.”

“If you take the ticket and the brochure together it shows intent to get to London.”

Nat chipped in his two bits.

“The prosecution will argue that the intention was thwarted by Burrow’s action in murdering her.”

Juanita felt like she was in a minority of one.

“So are we just gonna sit on our asses till evidence drops from the sky like manna from heaven?”

Alex looked at her sympathetically.

“I didn’t say that. But we shouldn’t get our hopes up either. We need to keep digging. In the meantime, I’m going over to the District Court to file for an ex parte temporary restraining order based on the proof of ticket purchase and downloaded brochure on her computer.”

Nat nodded.

“You could also try and make something from the fact that the information was deleted from her computer.”

“Technically she reformatted the entire hard disk, Nat. But I take your point. We can argue new evidence.”

“And what am I going to do?” asked the intern.

“Actually, we’re going together, Nat. I need you there.”

“Isn’t that kind of.. like… duplication of resources?”

Alex shook his head.

“If we get the TRO ex-parte, I’ll need you to serve it on the warden while I wait for the State to show up. They’ll try and get it overturned ASAP, so we’ll need to be there for a full hearing.”

“What do you want me to prepare?” asked Juanita.

“I’ll need copies of the airline receipt and a statement from David. If he can get it notarized by someone at Berkeley that’ll help, but it isn’t vital. Also get him to email over the brochure.”

Juanita looked edgy.

“Do you think they’ll grant it — the TRO?”

Last minute temporary restraining orders on executions were common in capital cases. Sometimes lawyers even waited till the eleventh hour to apply so as to give the court no choice. Of course strictly speaking the court always had a choice. But judges were reluctant to refuse such a request when they didn’t know what might come out of it. And to rule against a defense petition ex parte — when the State wasn’t even present — meant they