Mercy

“Then someone else must have put the gun in his hand.”

22:36 PDT

Juanita had isolated the strips that she felt were most likely to form part of the fax from London and was now making the first strides in sticking them together. Because she had been so careful about skimming the strips off the top of the pile, she was actually finding it surprisingly easy. The hardest part was sticking the strips together.

So far she had managed to align fourteen strips. They appeared to be from the left of the page; they included the signature. The signature itself was illegible. But the name typed underneath it was unmistakable: Stuart Lloyd. And underneath that was the title “Chief Administrator.”

So that nurse was wrong. He hadn’t gone home early. He had sent them this letter.

22:41 PDT

“Look, Jonathan,” said Alex quietly. “I meant what I said before: I can’t condemn you for what you did. It it’s not my place to judge you. But what you did then was on the spur of the moment. And it was against a man who had wronged your sister. But I haven’t wronged Dorothy… or you.”

Jonathan looked at him, confused.

“I never said you did.”

“Then would you…?”

He raised his restrained hand as high as the handcuff could allow. There was a tinkling sound as the other cuff rattled against the radiator pipe.

“Oh! Yes… sorry!”

Jonathan crouched down with the key and unlocked the handcuff round Alex’s wrist. Alex rubbed it.

“Look, Jonathan. I can’t represent you myself. There would be a conflict of interest. But I have friends in the legal profession and I can get you a good lawyer.”

“Thanks,” said Jonathan absently. He seemed to be in a trance.

“I don’t suppose I could have my phone back?”

“Sure,” said Jonathan, handing the iPhone back to him. Alex switched it on and noticed that there were several messages. He called his voicemail to hear them. Several of the messages were from Juanita. She didn’t say what she wanted, just asked him to call her whenever he could. There was no particular urgency in her tone.

But then there was one from another familiar voice.

“Hi, Alex, listen it’s Lee — Lee Kelly. I’m at the police station again. Look … I’m sorry… I got caught. I mean, Nat caught me.”

Alex froze.

“I don’t know if he was suspicious of me. I mean, he called the police and held me until they came for me, but I don’t know how much he figured out. I just wanted to let you know, because he might be onto you. I mean, he might have realized that you’re onto him.

“But the point is, I found something and it’s something quite incredible. I don’t want to say over the phone, but I just want you to know that I’ve found something that’ll just about knock your socks off! So please get here ASAP!”

22:46 PDT

When Alex got into his car, a pair of eyes was watching him. Even if the man who watched him hadn’t seen Alex’s car outside the apartment building, he’d known that Alex was going to be there because Juanita had told him.

It didn’t take long. Within a few minutes of his arrival, he saw Alex leave the building, get in his car and drive off. Nat waited a few moments longer and then entered the building. He walked up to the third storey and rang the doorbell.

“Who is it?” asked Jonathan.

“It’s me,” Nat replied.

The door opened in a flash and they stood there face to face. There was a moment of tension when neither of them spoke, then Jonathan smiled.

“Come in.”

He stepped aside and Nat entered. Jonathan closed the door.

They looked at each other awkwardly, as if neither wanted to be the first to break the ice.

“So…” said Nat hesitantly. “We finally get to meet.”

“Yes,” said Jonathan with a smile. “Finally.”

Again the awkward silence. Again it was up to Nat to break it.

“So … er … What did Alex want?”

“He wanted to know about Edgar’s death.”

“Does he suspect something?”

“More than just suspect. He was sure it was murder even before he came here.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“I told him the truth.”

“What?”

“Why not?” There was no life in Jonathan’s voice. “I’m tired of lying. I’m tired of all the secrets.”

“But you’ve put yourself in jeopardy.”

“You don’t understand. I don’t care anymore. I just want all this to end.”

“It is going to end.” Nat looked at his watch. “In just over an hour.”

“Will it?”

“How do you mean?”

“Will it end?”

“Of course it’ll end. No one’s going to campaign for a dead man. No one cares about the dead. That’s why you should have blamed Dorothy for your father’s death.”

“Why?”

“Because, Jonathan, it’s always a good idea to blame the dead. They can’t answer back.”

There was an impish smile on Nat’s face when he said this and, after looking at him for a moment in mild surprise, Jonathan’s face melted into a smile.

23:02 PDT

“I didn’t tell them anything. I’m not going to snitch on you! I wouldn’t do that! But you’ve got to help me. I don’t want to go to jail again — not at my age.”

Lee Kelly was in a state of panic when Alex got to the police station. He hadn’t sounded this agitated when he left his message. Then he was more concerned about letting Alex know what he had found. But now he had had time to think about it and the alarm bells were ringing in his head about the fate that awaited him.

He hadn’t yet fallen afoul of the three strikes rule, because this was the first time in his life that he had been