she didn’t know what Nat had been doing in the meantime and she didn’t want to step on his toes. If she phoned them up and contradicted something that he said, it would be disastrous.
But the problem was she couldn’t call Nat either. If she asked him about his progress with the medical center then she would have to admit that she knew what he was doing. This would be all right if she was correct. But what if she was wrong? She still couldn’t be sure. And, if she was wrong, then she was just wasting time by holding off.
She knew what she had to do. She couldn’t wait any longer. If he had called them in the guise of Dorothy Olsen’s legal representative, it would be to tell them to give the information to Alex Sedaka’s law firm. And if that was the case, then there was no reason why she shouldn’t call them as Alex Sedaka’s secretary and ask them for the information again.
She dialed and tapped her fingers nervously while she waited for an answer.
“Finchley Road Medical Centre.”
“Hallo, my name is Juanita Cortez. I’m calling from the law offices of Alex Sedaka in San Francisco.”
“Oh hi, I spoke to you earlier.”
“Yes, you’re not Nurse White, are you?”
“No, like I told you, she’s off duty.”
“Listen, it’s not actually Nurse White I need to speak to. It’s the administration. As I explained to Nurse White, we desperately need that information about Dorothy Olsen.”
“And, as I explained to that man who called earlier, we cannot release that information without authorization.”
Juanita got angry.
“You do understand that this is a matter of life and death, don’t you? You do understand that we have a client who’s scheduled to be executed in less than two hours for the murder of Dorothy Olsen unless we can prove that she was alive after the date he’s supposed to have killed her!”
“I can’t give out that information without permission. It would be more than my job’s worth.”
“Well in that case, can you let me speak to someone in authority — someone who
“The best person to talk to would be Stuart Lloyd. He’s the Chief Administrator.”
“So can I talk to him?”
“Well he isn’t here yet. I mean, it’s only six twenty. But he should be here by eight o’clock.”
“But that’ll be too late! Our client is scheduled to die at one minute past midnight.”
“Well that’s plenty of — ”
“I mean
“Look, there’s nothing I can do. If you like, you can give me your number and if he comes in early then he can call you.”
Juanita was about to give it, when a call came through on another line. She looked at the display and saw that it was from Nat.
“I’ll have to call you back.” She pressed another button on the switchboard. “Hi, Nat.”
“Hi, Juanita. You sound harassed.”
“I’m holding the fort alone here. Where are you?”
“I’m sorry. I went home for a change of clothes.”
“A change of clothes?”
She was incredulous.
“Yes, I was feeling uncomfortable. I’m sorry.”
“Well are you coming back now?”
“Not yet. I have something else to do.”
“I don’t suppose you can tell me what this ‘something else’ is?”
“Not right now. Look, Juanita, there was an incident at my house.”
“What sort of an incident?”
“There was a burglar.”
“A burglar? What is this, an epidemic?”
“What’s that?” he asked, apparently oblivious to Juanita’s use of humor to relieve the tension.
“Nothing. So what did this burglar get away with?”
“He didn’t get away at all. I caught him.”
“Oh my God! Are you all right?”
Juanita realized now who the burglar was — and she was worried.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“When you say you caught him?”
“He was kind of old and he didn’t put up much of a fight.”
“So what happened? Did you call the police?”
“Yes. They arrested him. And I’m supposed to go to the station to make a statement.”
“Can’t it wait?”
There was a brief hesitation. Then Nat spoke again.
“Is there anything that I can do at this stage anyway? I mean … look, I don’t mean to say this, but we seem to have run out of options.”
Juanita was silent. She was trying to read his words … and his tone. Had he really given up? Had he tried to get the medical center to give the information? Had he run up against the same obstacles as she had? And what about the burglar? It must have been Lee Kelly. Alex hadn’t been able to contact him to call it off and now he had been caught red-handed. Would he snitch on Alex? Or would Nat figure it all out? He may not be an experienced lawyer like Alex, but he’d been round the block a few times.
“Okay, look, you do what you have to,” said Juanita. “I’ll see you when I see you.”
“Okay. Wait, listen, did you say you were holding the fort alone?”
“Yes, why?”
“So did Alex go back to San Quentin?”
Juanita wasn’t sure whether to answer this. If Nat had figured out that Alex had sent Lee to spy on him, then it might be better to hold back, or even lie. But on the other hand, if their suspicions were unfounded, then wouldn’t it be better to rebuild the bond of trust by telling him the truth?
“No, he went to see Jonathan Olsen.”
“What for?”
Juanita noticed the unusual intensity in his voice.
“He thinks Jonathan knows about Dorothy’s flight to England.”
“When did he go there?”
“About forty minutes ago.”
“Has he called in yet?”
“No. And I can’t call him either. It’s like his phone’s switched off.”
“Okay. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
When Nat rang off, the feeling of desolation returned to Juanita. She wanted to do something. But they had already tried everything. She had hoped that she might get somewhere with the medical center, but had run up against the same brick wall as before.
The thing that was nagging away at her was that they had sent
But the fax wasn’t there now.
So where was it? Had Nat taken it? Thrown it away? Shredded it?
Of course!
She raced over to the shredder, lifted off the grinding mechanism and began fishing out papers. She remembered reading how the Iranian students at the American embassy had spent hours sticking shredded documents together at the time of the embassy siege in 1979 after Khomeini seized power in Iran. They had hoped
