Mercy

standing there.

“What are you doing here?” asked the man.

“Nothing.”

“What have you got in your hand?”

Jonathan looked down. The platters seemed so small and fragile, it was hard to believe that anyone could even notice them, especially in this light. But when he looked up he noticed that David Sedaka’s eyes were still on the platters. And he knew what he had to do.

Quick as a flash, his free hand formed a fist and shot out, flooring David Sedaka with a single punch.

21:37 PDT

Lee Kelly picked up the small rectangular piece of white cardboard that had fallen from the passport and flipped it over. It was a photograph of a young woman in her twenties looking at the camera with a bright, sunny smile on her face.

He couldn’t tell when or where the picture was taken. There were people in the background, but the woman filled the foreground and the people in the background were too small to glean any information from. It looked like it was taken at a party. It had that sort of look and feel to it. But it was impossible to be sure.

For a second or two he thought that it was a picture of Dorothy. But looking back at the passport picture he had second thoughts. The eyes were similar, but the bone structure was different.

But the question was, why was it inside Dorothy’s passport? Just having the passport was suspicious enough, but why the picture? Putting it inside the passport suggested that it was there for safe-keeping — an important picture inside an important document.

But why? Why was it so important?

And who was the woman?

21:41 PDT

Alex was driving to Jonathan’s place. Juanita had convinced him that he couldn’t just give up on Burrow, but the problem was where to go from here. Jonathan seemed like a potential weak link. Esther had told Alex that she had heard Dorothy and Jonathan talking just a few days before Dorothy vanished — indeed, a few days before Edgar Olsen had committed suicide.

That couldn’t have just been about the rape. The rape was six weeks earlier. So they must have been talking about the pregnancy, rather than the rape itself. But if it was about the pregnancy, then it would probably also have been about the abortion, or at least the question of whether or not to have one.

Jonathan could therefore not have been ignorant of Dorothy’s plans to go to England.

And if he knew, then Alex had to find a way to break him and get him to admit the truth. Clayton Burrow’s life depended on it.

The cell phone rang in the hands-free kit. Alex looked at the display.

“Hi, David.”

“Hi, Dad, listen, you’re not going to believe what’s happened!”

“What?” asked Alex, excitedly.

“Someone broke into the lab and stole the platters from the hard disk!”

“What?”

“We had a little bit of a confrontation.”

“Who?”

“Me and the guy who did it. The fire alarm went off and as I was leaving the building I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I looked round and saw this guy running toward the lab instead of toward the exit.”

“What did he look like?”

“By the time I looked round he was walking away from me so I only saw his back.”

“Did you tell anyone?”

“Not exactly. I went back myself to see what he was up to.”

“Wasn’t that a bit risky?”

“Well he went in and I couldn’t see what he did, but he came out of the lab like three seconds later holding something in his hand. So I challenged him.”

“That was dangerous.”

“Not really. I mean, he wasn’t so big.”

Alex was surprised that his son was being so blase about it. He wasn’t exactly noted for being the world’s best action hero. Debbie had always been the athletic one. David was the nerd with his nose in a book half the time.

“So what did he say?”

“He said he wasn’t doing anything, but I could see he was holding something in his hand. I wasn’t too sure what it was, but it was clear that it was something he wanted to hold on to.”

“So why did you let him go?”

“I didn’t exactly let him. While I was looking down at whatever it was he had in his hand he caught me with a sucker punch.”

“Holy shit!”

“Don’t worry, I’m okay. I think he just broke my nose.”

“Good God, hadn’t you better get to a doctor?”

“It’s not the first time I’ve broken my nose, Dad. Remember the baseball game?”

“Now you’re not still going on about that, David! You know she didn’t mean it.”

“I’m not blaming her, Dad. All I’m saying if I could take a broken nose as a child from Debbie’s Little League baseball bat, then I can take one as an adult from some punk who manages to catch me with a sucker punch.”

“Okay. Well just take care of yourself.”

“I will, don’t worry.”

A motorbike sped past Alex’s car, just as he was about to pull out to overtake.

“Asshole!” he muttered.

“What?”

“Just some guy on a Suzuki.”

“You okay?”

“Sure I’m okay. It’s you I’m worried about.”

“Don’t be.”

“All right. Just one thing, David. Do you think there was anything more to be gleaned from those hard disk platters?”

“I don’t know, but there’s still one left.”

Alex was surprised.

“I don’t understand.”

“There was one left in the microscope. He missed it.”

21:44 PDT

Nat was worried. Things were getting out of hand. He had made several calls but wasn’t getting an answer. Every time he called the landline, it rang for several moments and then went to voicemail. With the cell phone it