Mercy

21:04 PDT

“We’ve done our best,” said Alex solemnly. “There’s nothing more we can do.”

For a long while, no one said a word. They could have been Buddhist monks in a state of meditation. As they stood in the reception area, they formed a triangle. Juanita looking at Alex and Alex at Nat. Nat, though, was looking at the ground.

It was Juanita who broke the silence.

“Are we just going to give up?”

There was a hint of defiance in her tone. But what good was defiance when they had run out of ammunition?

Alex spoke softly.

“We’ve tried everything. There’s nothing more we can do.”

“What about the medical center in England?” snapped Juanita.

Alex studied Nat for even the slightest reaction. There was none.

“You said the nurse you spoke to is no longer on duty?”

“That’s right.”

“Are any of the administrative staff there now?”

“I doubt it. It’s the wee small hours of the morning in London.”

“Then there’s nothing we can do. Unless David comes up with something.”

“Do you think he will?”

“I don’t know. But he’s still looking. And if he managed to hack into Dorothy’s bank account who knows what else he might find.”

Juanita sniffled, but held back the tears this time. She forced herself to speak.

“Don’t you think someone should be with Clayton now? He must be desperately lonely.”

Alex was touched by Juanita’s compassion. The fact of the matter was they all knew that Clayton Burrow was a rapist as well as a bully who had made Dorothy’s life a misery and who had beaten up her younger brother when he tried to defend his sister. In his youth he had been a truly repulsive character and, whatever suffering he was going through now, it was hard to escape the view that he had brought it on himself one way or another.

And yet … he was still a human being and they couldn’t abandon him. Not because it was their job, not because there was kudos and prestige in saving a man from the death penalty, but because he was a human being and in the years during which he had been under the threat of death, he had changed in some way to become some semblance of a decent person.

“Look, I don’t expect you guys to hang round here,” said Alex slowly. “You can go home.”

Juanita gave Alex a pained look.

“But what if they send a fax through from London?”

Alex shook his head.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“But what if it does?” Juanita persisted.

“Okay, look, I’m not telling you to go home. I’m simply saying that you don’t have to stay … either of you.”

“I’m staying!” said Juanita, flatly.

“Nat?”

Nat looked up and met Alex’s eyes.

“I’ll stay too. But I need to do something first. I’ll be back in an hour.”

Alex smiled. Juanita had been right — not with her original suspicions but with the explanation she gave afterward. Nat was trying to get the information from the medical center by pretending to be Dorothy’s legal representative. He couldn’t do it in front of them because it was unethical and could get Alex disbarred. So instead, he was going to stick his neck out and put his own career on the line. He was the same fiery idealist that he had been when he first badgered Alex into giving him a job. He still had that youthful passion that had so impressed Alex.

The trouble was that Alex was not sure if he should allow him to do it. True, they had a client on death row who was just three hours away from execution yet probably innocent. And for an innocent client facing death, a decent lawyer should be ready to go the extra mile. But breaking the law by misrepresentation was a serious matter. What good would it do him to save one innocent man if he lost the capacity to save anyone else thereafter? That was why as a lawyer he could go so far but no further. He could bend the rules but not break them.

And letting Nat go off on his own so that he could contact the medical center and misrepresent himself as Dorothy’s lawyer was bending the rules right the way round.

But what of Nat himself? What if he was caught? Should he lose his budding career for Clayton Burrow? Did Clayton Burrow deserve that much help? Hadn’t Clayton Burrow done enough damage?

But at the end of the day, it was Nat’s decision.

“Okay,” said Alex. “You do what you have to do.”

21:09 PDT

Jonathan was eating a microwave dinner. He knew that he had plenty of time, but he wanted to get to San Quentin early. The place would be crawling with reporters and it might take a long time to get in and he didn’t want to get held up.

It had been a roller-coaster day for him, first hearing the news about the governor’s offer, then seeing the news, before visiting Alex Sedaka and talking to Juanita.

In some ways he felt that he could no longer hate Clayton Burrow. Yes, Burrow was a bastard. Yes, he had deserved to suffer. But it was almost as if he had suffered enough — as if his execution would be an anti-climax. Jonathan still felt the anger that he had felt toward him nine years ago. But somehow he couldn’t experience it with quite the same intensity.

Time heals every wound, so they say.

The phone rang.

“Hallo.”

“Hi, Jonathan.”

Jonathan froze.

“Where are you?”

“I’m in my car.”

“You’re calling me on a cell phone.”

“It’s okay, I’ll keep it brief. Look, everything’s going okay, but from what I’ve been told, someone is getting too close.”

“Who?”

“Alex Sedaka’s son, David.”

“What’s his son got to do with it?”

“He’s a computer geek at Berkeley. He’s got hold of the computer and he’s been reading the wiped files using a scanning tunneling microscope.”

“Oh I know that.”

“You do?”

“Yes, Sedaka told me. But what can he find?”

“I don’t know. I’m probably worrying over nothing. It’s been such a long time. But he’s found quite a lot already.”

“Is there any way we can stop him?”