Absolute Instinct (35 page)

“
What is it? Your brother? What?”

“
Damn fools Petersaul and Cates.”

“
What about them?”

“
They gave all their findings to Hughes's office, and it was... was good stuff.”

“
Christ, it won't be, not by time Hughes and his people have poked holes in it, and put their spin on it.”

“
Damn fool Amanda!”

“
What's with Petersaul?”

“
Said she couldn't get hold of either of us or Sharpe. Called while we were without our phones in with Robert. Damn!”

“
Why didn't she just leave a message?”

“
She did on my voice mail. It's why I called her back but too late. She thought she was doing right.”

“
No way she could know the governor's as big an ass as... as... as the governor's ass.”

Darwin laughed at this.

“
I've got my plea in now to Fischer. All we can do now is pray that he puts on the needed pressure, and that Cellmark gets the DNA mapping done for the signature of the killer, and then we match it to Rob's, and we'll have the conclusive proof we need to free him.”

Jessica pressed send on the E-mail, a detailed needs list directed at her boss's boss.

“
What if he doesn't get it?”

“
The E-mail?”

“
The E-mail, its contents, the reason for all of this?”

“
We have to hope he does.”

“
Hope is become a shredded, unraveling cord, Jess, or haven't you noticed? Damn that blood type. Why couldn't it have gone in our favor?” he asked.

“
Because God is enjoying the drama a little too much, maybe? But wait a minute. Just hold on a minute.”

He stared at her, trying to fathom her thoughts. “What? What're we holding on for?”

“
We need to... I mean what if... could it possibly work?”

Still confused, Darwin placed both hands on her shoulders and amid the cafe crowd gripped her strongly and said, “Spit it out.” “No... not here. In the car on the way to pick up Richard at the airport. I've got to think this through.”

He plunked down enough bills to cover the coffee and pastries they'd nibbled on along with the usage fee for the computer. “If you've got a new direction, I want to hear about it. Come on.”

# # #

THEY sat out on the airport taxi strip, having flashed their FBI badges out the windows of the rented LeSabre. Now they watched as the jumbo jet arriving from San Francisco, and carrying Richard Sharpe, touched down with a bark of burning tires, calmed, slowed and came to a stop to make a forty-five-degree turn for the terminal. Jessica anxiously awaited Richard as the jet lazily taxied toward the terminal.

Sharpe, traveling light with only a carry-on, found them and he and Jessica hugged and kissed for a long, warm reunion.

Darwin hung back, standing at the open driver's side door. In a moment, Jessica put the two men together to shake hands.

A deepening dusk had fallen over Portland. By midnight tomorrow night, Robert Towne would be executed. Time seemed now to be pouring through the hourglass like a flash flood through a baked dry, thirsty ravine. Unstoppable, unless Jessica's plan could be made to work. She feared letting Richard know of it, feared he would on the one hand oppose it as too dangerously criminal, outside the bounds of the law and their duty, and on the other hand he might agree to it almost as quickly as Darwin had, which would make him another accomplice in the act, another culpable party.

They would have to broach the subject carefully with Richard or attempt it without his knowledge. The decision was hers entirely. Darwin had made it clear that, with or without Richard's assistance, he would break his unlawfully prosecuted, unlawfully convicted brother out of prison if only for a few days, until they could prove conclusively via DNA evidence out of Minnesota that Robert Towne was indeed not the Spine Thief.

“
Why don't you two just hug as well as shake one another's arms off,” she said of the two men greeting one another with mutual admiration and a kind of benevolent pissing contest as to which would stop shaking the other's hand first. To end it, Jessica pushed them into one another for a hug, saying, “After all we've been through, we could all use a group hug.”

“
I just got off the phone with Howland at Cellmark, and they're unsure,” Sharpe told them. “I've bugged this Dr. Howland there repeatedly, and Eriq has stationed men on their doorstep.”

“
What's taking so damn long?” pleaded Darwin.

“
Dr. Howland refuses to let anything out until she is satisfied, and apparently, it takes a great deal to satisfy her.”

Jessica gave him a glare. “I hope you don't mean she came at you the way the governor of the great state of Oregon came at me.”

“
What's that supposed to mean?” he asked. “Did that man lay a hand on you?”

She groaned. “No... no, but not for lack of trying. He is a sexual predator, it would seem, not above selling his principles for a cause, if a girl is willing. He likely seldom gets turned down, and it didn't please him any.”

Darwin got in her face. “Why the hell didn't you tell me about this, Jessica?”

“
I don't want either of you two going into this meeting with Hughes like a pair of raging, insulted bulls, damn it. Just forget about that crap for now. Richard, we've worked out something that will spare Towne should the governor rebuke us again, and should the DNA evidence not materialize by tomorrow afternoon.”

“
What sort of duplicity are you planning, Jess?”

“
You know me and authority figures, and particularly assholes in authority... like Hughes and his lackey, Warden Donald Gwingault. Also a real charmer.”

“
I want to hear all about it.”

When she and Richard climbed into the rear of the car, Darwin behind the wheel, Jessica's eyes met Darwin's in the rearview mirror, and she shrugged and said, “I could never keep a secret from Richard.” She then launched into her and Darwin's plan.

“
Stalling the execution isn't in the cards anymore, so far as I can see. No reprieve. Not with the way these people twist reality and facts, like they've done with news coming out of Chicago,” she told Richard.

Richard's phone rang. He opened it. “Oh, good, Dr. Howland from Cellmark,” he announced for the others. “Tell me you have good news for us.”

Silence as Richard listened to the voice at the other end.

“
What? A lab mishap... spoiled test... had to start over? When did this all occur?”

Again he listened, fuming. “So this is what you told Agent Santiva? And all along you've been stalling for time. Well now, Doctor, time is fast, fast running out here in Oregon.”

He cut her off, afraid of what he might say next, afraid it might jeopardize any further attempt to get the DNA to them at the last.

“
More bad news,” commented Darwin.

“
Pour it on,” she agreed.

“
Some idiot in Howland's lab has, she fears, destroyed what little sample they had to work with, and she—heroically, she feels—has salvaged a minuscule microscopic spec of it from the bottom of the vial it had been transported in.”

“
Some fool photographed the sample on an electron microscope, no doubt,” said Jessica, trying to understand this lab “accident.” “That process will destroy any sample for further analysis.” “What does that mean for Robert?” asked Darwin, certainly knowing the answer.

“
It means that they lost another day,” said Richard. He then nervously cleared his throat and added, “It means you've got a hell of a lawsuit when... I mean if...”

“
We've still got the news out of Chicago for help,” said Jessica, “but I fear it is not going to be enough to dissuade this governor.”

“
As it turns out, Chicago authorities let Keith Orion walk, not having enough evidence on him,” Richard informed them.

“
Damn, you've got to be kidding,” said Darwin. “Didn't anyone look at his artwork? And he's got a crate with his name on it with a dead girl inside minus her spine, and... and shit!”

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We've been so busy setting up meetings and getting shunted off,” Jessica said to Richard, “that we didn't hear this latest.”

“
Orion showed off to the crowd when released, and he gave a series of 'exclusive' press interviews.”

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God, I hate that about our media. This has all been a boon to the sonofabitch's career,” Jessica complained through gritted teeth.

Placing a hand in hers, Richard replied, “No doubt about his reveling in the attention. People are buying his work now as never before. Amazing but true. Kill somebody and you're fifteen minutes of fame is assured in the U.S. of A.”

“
Power of the press,” said Darwin.

“
Power of the tube,” added Jessica.

“
Orion did prove he's not as stupid as first glance. He did not send the crated body to himself. The paperwork was forged by another hand, someone slick enough to get a UPS clerk to attach Orion's corporate number to make it look like Orion sent the crate to himself from his Milwaukee show.”

“
You learned all this in airports while between flights?” she asked.

“
CNN nonstop at the airports, yes, along with what I learned from Eriq. He's been closely monitoring Chicago.”

They drove to the governor's mansion, the thrum of the car the only sound for some time. The darkening countryside pressed in around them. A shrieking hawk sounded in the distance.

Richard broke the silence. “Eriq tells me that questioning of the Milwaukee-based UPS clerk has led to a composite drawing of a man who bears no resemblance to Orion. The sketch is in all the newspapers and the search is on in earnest for Lucinda Wellingham's killer. There is a real disparity here. Earlier victims, save for Sarah Towne in Portland, were hardly noticed by media and the public, -while Lucinda has been made the darling of the dead victims, a poster child for them by CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and the print media as well. Lucinda's rich father has put up a quarter million dollars for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his daughter's slayer.”

Darwin turned into the driveway for the mansion. They were waved through by guards at the gate after a show of badges.

“
We spent some time today with Towne's lawyers,” Jessica said. “They've tried to make the case that while he is of sound mind, he is driven by depression in turning down an appeal defense. At this point, I believe in strength in numbers.”

“
At trial he only had a court appointed lawyer. There they are... the defense team, waiting for us,” said Darwin, pointing as he pulled to a stop.

After introductions and handshakes, the large delegation filed into the mansion and down the corridor to the end of the hall, there to pressure Governor Hughes to allow Towne's defense team to arrange for a DNA test, requiring a postponement of the execution—a governor's reprieve.

On entering, Jessica saw that J.J. Hughes had gathered his own team of lawyers.

The FBI agents had agreed to allow the lawyers to talk to the lawyers, and Hughes seemed happy with this, asking the others to retire with him for brandy and cigars. Richard played the underpaid, overtaxed, easily impressed civil servant to the hilt, ingratiating himself with Hughes, smoking his cigar, drinking his brandy and agreeing that it was a good thing to let the lawyers hash it out. Darwin fumed in a corner. Jessica remained silent, sipping at her brandy from a Waterford Crystal snifter. Jessica gravitated to Darwin and quietly asked him to remain calm, to allow Richard to do his thing.

Raucous laughter broke out between Hughes and Sharpe, Richard telling a dirty joke about a monk on a camel at a Los Angeles brothel. Even Jessica was beginning to wonder if Richard were acting or not with his Hugh Grant imitation.

Finally, Richard subtly brought the subject around to Towne and the stay of execution. The words amnesty, pardon, acquittal came through and Hughes was no longer laughing.

“
Without definitive new and compelling evidence, I will tell you the same as I have told your cohorts here, a stay of execution is out of the question and will not be granted for Robert Towne.”

“
Why you fat, pompous, racist windbag!” Richard exploded as if Hughes had attacked the queen or the Union Jack, his true colors now unfurled. “All that we've done in the past few days, all the holes large enough to drive your limousine through, and you can't see past your bloody pride and the ignorance of your constituents?”

“
Out! All of you, out of my house now!”

Jessica tried to smooth it over, hoping the lawyers in the other room—heated discussion also coming from that quarter—might have made better inroads. She tried to calm the governor when Mrs. Dornan pushed through a back door and entered. She announced like a parrot on cue, “The governor wishes for you to leave now. I should not wish to be forced into the position of having to call security.”

“
Who needs security when they have a bitch like you?” shouted Jessica. To the others, she announced, “Come on. This is an absolute waste of our time.”

When they got to the steps outside, Jessica punched •Richard hard in the arm. “You,” she began. “I was worried Darwin was going to lose his temper, and what do you do? Get into a shouting match with Hughes, a bloody pissing contest.”