Mercy

The nurse covered the mouthpiece of the receiver with her hand.

“It’s some woman with a foreign accent. She says she needs to speak to someone in a position of authority and it’s a matter of life and death. She sounds a bit…”

“Okay, I’ll deal with it.”

Susan virtually snatched the phone away.

“Hallo, my name is Susan White. To whom am I speaking?”

“I’m Juanita Cortez. Are you in the administration?”

“No, I’m a staff nurse here. All the admin staff have gone home. May I ask what this is about?”

“I work for Alex Sedaka. He’s a lawyer and he’s representing a client on death row for the murder of a girl called — ”

“Dorothy Olsen!”

“You know about it?”

Susan struggled to keep her breathing under control. This was not what she had been expecting. Before, she had been paralyzed by fear. Now she was almost relieved.

“I saw a report about it on the news.”

“Then you must know that time is of the essence.”

“I know.”

“So can you give me some more information?”

Susan White was about to blurt something out, but she held back. There were data protection issues involved. She couldn’t just discuss a patient’s details over the phone with a complete stranger, not without some sort of formal authorization.

Who was this person? Was she who she said she was? Did she have standing to receive any information at all? Maybe she was a member of one of those religious “pro-life” organizations in the American Bible Belt. Could a nurse give out the information? Did the disclosure need some kind of authorization from the Data Protection Registrar? Or the courts? Or the patient — if indeed the patient was still alive?

Susan White had never wanted to think of herself as a “jobsworth” — but to disclose information about a patient over the phone was truly more than her job was worth — especially this particular patient … in the light of what had been done.

She took a deep breath and spoke.

“Look, I can’t give out information over the phone — I mean, I’ll need to speak to the Administrator-”

“But you said-”

“I’ll call him at home!” She decided not to mention that she had already spoken to him at home — and about precisely this case. “But in the meantime, can you tell me what information you need?”

“As much as you can give us. When she arrived. When she was discharged.”

“Okay, I’ll speak to our Chief Administrator and see what I can do. What’s your number?”

Juanita gave the number.

“Okay, I’ll call him and get back to you.”

“Thank you. Please hurry. It really is a race against time.”

15:27 PDT

“Okay, if she doesn’t call back in the next fifteen minutes, call her again.”

“Yes, boss.”

Juanita had called Alex while he was on his way to the Northern California Federal District Court, to brief him on what the nurse at the medical center had said. She also filled him in on what she’d found out about Edgar Olsen’s son by his first marriage and the tragic accident. Alex’s reaction to Jimmy Olsen’s death had been that it was interesting but almost certainly irrelevant.

The District Court was in fact in the same building as the governor’s San Francisco office. Alex and Nat were going in separate cars this time, so that afterward one could drive to Marin County to serve the restraining order while the other would be able to return to the office or remain at the court, depending on subsequent developments.

Alex debated with himself whether to call the governor. There was a doctrine — favored by most DAs and not a few judges — that last-minute evidence of this kind should be addressed by gubernatorial clemency rather than tying up valuable court time. But the governor had made an offer contingent upon Burrow revealing the whereabouts of the body.

Alex thought that he wouldn’t have much luck if he went back to the governor with a new appeal for clemency based on such radically different grounds as a claim of innocence based on new evidence. It would call for quite a mental adjustment from the governor. When they had met in the morning, the tacitly agreed premise was that Burrow was guilty. Now Alex was moving to the view that he might very well be innocent. It still wasn’t a strong conviction, but it was growing inside him.

The response from the clinic seemed to confirm their suspicion that Dorothy had got there. But even if she had, she might still have been killed afterward. The fact was that she had vanished off the face of the earth and there was still strong circumstantial evidence that she had been murdered.

At this stage all they could prove was that she was planning to go to London. Until they got something in writing from the clinic, there was nothing to prove — in court — that she had got there. The statement over the phone to Juanita would not be admissible. And even if Alex assured the governor that he would have the proof shortly, what good would it do him when — as far as he could say — Dorothy had still fallen off the edge of the earth after that?

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.

15:29 PDT (23:29 BST)

Susan White had hesitated before calling the Chief Administrator. Stuart Lloyd had said he would call her back