Absolute Instinct (28 page)

“
And you were how old at the time?”

“
Five, six... going on. Rob two years older.”

She shook her head at this. “Didn't happen.”

“
What didn't happen?”

“
The hospital personnel may have gone through some sleight-of-hand with you, Darwin, allowing you to think they had taken your blood, but they don't take blood from kids so young. Quite possibly they used plasma packs stored for such emergencies.”

“
Using his blood type.”

“
Exactly.”

“
Then there's no knowing how the Minnesota blood type will work out for Rob...”

“
We'll get it done.”

“
And if it's a match, Jess? What then? What is it, a one-in-four, one-in-five chance?”

“
Odds aren't that simple. Many more AB-negs out there than any other type. But we can get lucky. Even if it is the same blood type, we can also determine if the blood comes from a white male, black male, Asian, or other nationality.”

He raised his hands. “If it ain't his blood, we'll know it.”

“
The problem comes in making Governor Hughes and everyone in Oregon believe the blood evidence was not manufactured.”

“
No one can question that. Sharpe did the gathering from the exhumation. An unbiased and independent—”

“
Yes, but a two-year-old degenerated scraping from fingers turned to bone, Darwin. You've got to brace yourself for the possibility that the DNA tests could, after all this time—”

“
Prove inconclusive, I know, but hell, I read where they did it with Columbus, Abraham Lincoln, some Egyptian pharaoh's bones. What's two damn years?”

“
Those are extremely time-and-labor intensive, sophisticated tests, Darwin, conducted by experts in DNA matching and topology. Besides, few people outside law enforcement even understand the significance of that sample even if it does go our way.”

“
We just have to educate people then.”

“
Yeah, stomp out ignorance like the brushfire it is. It's why I need your big, ugly feet sober.”

Darwin bit his lip. “I do apologize. I just lost it there for a time.”

“
You're under a hell of a lot of stress keeping your relationship with Towne a secret all this time. People could, you know, misconstrue your intentions in doing that as well.”

“
I'm coming clean with it tomorrow at the prison. Everyone is going to know then. But I do it on my own terms, in my own way.”

“
All right. Your secret is safe with me. Now let's go take down the governor.”

“
I'm with you.”

THIRTEEN

Don't go looking for airborne, fire-breathing dragons, until you run out of grounded 'gators and crocks.

—
GOVERNOR J. J. HUGHES

Portland, Oregon 8 P.M.

THE Honorable Governor James Jason Hughes proved to be an expansive man, exuding the dignified air of a man above the common fold who might have regaled people in another time, a man for whom the old European designation for those in power, highness—as in your high-ness—was turned into high-ass, as he physically and metaphorically carried his overweight ass on his shoulder. He indeed proved expansive, both in size and generosity, filling the room with his pancake griddle—sized face and frying-pan hands in welcome, smiling wide all the while. Jessica immediately decided it was all for show. “J.J,” he repeatedly said, “just J. J. to anyone who knows me!”

Hughes offered them coffee, pastries, a seat, and sent Mrs. Dornan chasing after his needs even as Darwin and Jessica declined any refreshments. When Mrs. Dornan had gone, Hughes offered cigars and brandy, California wine if Jessica preferred.

“
We are here, Governor Hughes, on a very important matter,” Jessica began.

“
Of course, you are. Everyone who comes through that door comes with the most important matter on Earth troubling them, I can assure you, and I have heard tales... well, stories that would curl that Dante Inferno guy's hair.”

Jessica started to correct him on Dante Alighieri, but she immediately squelched the notion. Darwin exchanged a troubled look with her as Hughes continued on about Ore-gonian politics and the economy, the war over timber and proposed offshore drilling rights, tree lovers, beetle lovers, the recent find in the state of a boy who had been abducted from his mother twelve years before by an estranged husband now living in a cabin on a mountain in the deep woods.

“
Yes, sir.” He slowed to take a breath, but before Jessica could get a word in, he added, “Why else? Why indeed come through that door... Why else come to me?” The big, wide-shouldered man sat back in his Corinthian leather chair and guffawed at some mental image. “I've had heads of state come in here with their hands out, and I've had clowns and acrobats parade in here from the Barnum & Bailey Circus. This office is ripe for Ripley's Believe It or Not, I can tell you stories, Dr. Coran—Jessica. May I call you Jessica?”

Not replying, Jessica noted that J.J. spoke exclusively to her and not to Darwin. Darwin must have noticed, too. He jumped right in. “This is a man's life, we're talking about.” Darwin sat on edge. “An innocent man. This isn't an episode of Ripley's and it sure isn't any circus.”

Jovial Hughes rankled at this. He sternly and firmly replied, punctuating his every word from behind his desk with his lit cigar. “Young man, Agent Reynolds, believe me when I tell you this, I certainly meant no offense by sharing with you and Dr. Coran here the absurdities that come across my desk. I did not in the least mean to imply that your brother's case has anything smacking of that nature to it, but rather—”

“
My brother? Towne is—”

“
We have investigators working for us night and day, Agent Reynolds. And as I was curious about your... Let's say profound interest in a case so many miles from your territory, I began to ask discreet questions.”

“
You had me investigated. Then you know I'm Towne's ta^/” brother.”

“
Half or whole, it will only play one way in the press and in the hearts and minds of my constituency.”

“
You can't really sit there and play politics as usual, Governor,” Jessica said, rising to her feet to put a hand on Darwin's shoulder and ease him back into his own chair.

“
I have seen nothing to prove this man's innocence, but I have seen—”

“
He was assumed guilty from the moment of arrest,” shouted Darwin, losing control again, “and he has never been given a fair trial! That alone is grounds for a stay.”

“
As I was about to say, I have seen nothing to persuade me to act against the wishes of the state or the people of Oregon, or in fact, the wishes of Robert W. Towne.”

“
Let me apologize for my colleague, Governor,” said Jessica, ushering Darwin to the door. “Wait outside!” she told him.

“
What? I didn't come all this way to be put out on the doorstep like some errant cat.”

“
Just do as I say, or we're going to get nowhere with this man. Darwin, the man's a covert racist anxious to see your brother die. Now damn it, step outside.”

“
What good can I do from outside?”

“
If he sees you are taking orders from me, a white woman, he's going to take me more seriously. Trust me. I know the type. He won't deal with a black man, and he doesn't like dealing with women, either.”

Darwin got it. “Two strikes against us going in.”

Mrs. Dornan fought past them with doughnuts and coffee for her boss.

“
In this man's mind, women are subservient as well. Watch how Dornan acts around him. She knows how to play him to keep her job. Now let me do mine.”

Darwin stared at the doting personal secretary and read her body language around the governor. Jessica continued in Darwin's ear, “You were right all along about this being about race.”

“
How is my acting as your boy going to help?”

“
He's already heard your pleas for your brother. He's not responded well to them yet, has he? And your ranting at him is only going to solidify his feelings against Robert. Now leave. Do it for Robert.”

Darwin clenched his teeth and glared past her at Governor Hughes, now putting down a doughnut and coffee while simultaneously puffing away on one of his Cuban cigars. “All right... for Robert.”

Now back with the governor, Jessica asked that he indulge her.

“
A very nice word, 'indulge.' All right, Dr. Coran, indulge away. Whatever you like, Doctor, after all, I rushed back here to bend over backward for the FBI and your boss. I turned this time over just for you.”

“
Good. I'm glad those field operatives who were late picking us up at the airport weren't getting signals from you or your staff to do so. That takes a great deal off my mind and the director's.”

“
I hope you will convey my apologies to Mr. Fischer... ahhh... that is when you next speak to him. I had no idea such... games were being played. But you hafta understand how high emotions are running here on the eve of Towne's execution.”

“
Can we cut to the chase, Governor?”

“
Absolutely.” He sipped at his brandy, took a long pull on his cigar, and stood, coming around his desk. There he leaned his considerable behind into the sharp apex of the edge where two sides met. She thought him a water buffalo scratching an itch where the sun had never shone. He rubbed at the itch through his tailor-made pants. From his new position, he towered over her where she sat. “Indulge more, Dr. Coran,” he said with undisguised abandon now that Dornan had again left the room and he found himself completely alone with Jessica.

She shook loose from her head the awful picture of him nude. She got up and paced the room, putting some distance between them.

Jessica, huddled near the window, keeping her distance. Using a conference table, she spilled out autopsy photos, including those of the two victims from Minnesota and Wisconsin as if in error. It effectively stopped his advance.

“
What's the matter, Governor? Can't you handle the truth? Go ahead, look at them.” She held up Sarah Towne's autopsy photo. “All three women are victims of the same brutal monster, the single Spine Thief. In all three cases neither the killer nor the backbones have been dragged into the light, no recoveries. Only questions.”

“
Exactly, all you have are questions. I see no new evidence laid before me.”

“
Your own prosecutors never found the goods to positively link Towne with his wife's murder. Now we will have compelling new DNA evidence coming out of the two-year-old Minnesota case, and we are building a case in Milwaukee against the real culprit.”

He pointed to the clock on the wall over his shoulder. “You're telling me nothing that will stop time, Dr. Coran. That's not going to happen unless I see some real proof. While I don't doubt your sincerity, emotion alone cannot sway me from my duty.”

“
All right, we have a match on the killer's blood type, and further tests will reveal the killer is not even a black man, and soon after we will have the real killer's precise DNA fingerprint, sir, and that, combined with the vigilantism obvious in the court transcript that proves Towne could not get a fair trial here is all the more reason to warrant a stay of—”

“
A few days while you run tests. Will you remain here during that time?” he asked.

“
If that's what it takes. Until we get the results from Cellmark on the DNA.”

“
Quite a speech, Doctor. Perhaps you can sell it to the press, but I remain unmoved.”

“
But the blood type found at the scene of the crime in Millbrook, it...”

“
It what, Dr. Coran?”

“
It does not match Robert Towne's blood type!” she lied.

“
Really? I'm flabbergasted.”

“
So you can't possibly contemplate going ahead with this execution knowing that?”

“
Like the Titanic, this ship is set on a course, and it will take an iceberg to keep it from its destination, Doctor, and your little fib about the blood test isn't quite a big enough chunk of ice, nor do I see two-year-old blood scrapings suddenly uncovered in a lab in St. Paul—quite possibly engineered by the brother out there in the hallway—”

“
Christ,” she muttered. “The blood was scraped from the dead woman's nails during a formal, on-the-record exhumation overseen by a competent M.E. and one of our top agents.”

“
Yes, your live-in lover, I am given to understand.”

She rankled at this. She knew any moment now she would so lose it as to be escorted out of the building. The man was infuriating. “You had me investigated, too, then.”

“
I like to know with whom I am conducting business, and it appears from the casual observer that you Eastern FBI folk have some sort of pool going as to whether or not you can come clear across the country and tell us what to do in Oregon.”

“
Geez, how did you ever get elected governor?”

“
Good old-fashioned politicking, dear. Want that brandy now? I know from your dossier, Dr. Coran, you tend to drink a little heavy in times of stress.” He poured her a large tumbler with the emblem of state on it. “The three of you, Sharpe, Towne's brother, and yourself, Doctor, to any out-sider, you look like a crusading clique bet up out of some misguided notion gotten up at a liberal prayer meeting, like one of those Baptist revival meetings. Now take the g'damn brandy and drink.”