The Pardon (4 page)

Looks like you have a case of the munchies, Jack said, gently pushing him away as he entered the house. He went to the kitchen and filled the dog's bowl with Puppy Chow, then dug the pizza-bones appetizer out of the refrigerator. Cindy never ate the crust or the pepperoni. She saved them for Thursday.

He set the bowl on the floor and watched the dog dig in.

Fortunately, the blood - or whatever it was - washed off easily in the shower. As he toweled himself dry, Jack could hear Thursday pushing his empty bowl across the kitchen floor with his nose. Jack smiled and pulled on his boxer shorts. Then he went to the bedroom and sat on the edge of the king-size bed. His eyes scanned the room, finally coming to rest on a framed photograph of Cindy that stood on the nightstand. In it she was standing on a rock along some mountain trail they'd hiked together in Utah. She had a big, happy smile on her face, and the summer wind was tossing her honey-blond hair. It was his favorite picture of her, because it captured so many of the qualities that made her special. At first glance, anyone would be struck by her beautiful face and great body. But for Jack, it was Cindy's eyes and her smile that told the whole story.

On impulse, he reached for the phone. He frowned when Gina Terisi's machine picked up: I'm sorry I can't come to the phone right now said the recorded message.

Cindy, call me, he said. Miss you, he added, and put the receiver down. He fell back on the bed, closed his eyes, and began to relax for the first time in more than a day. But he was disturbed as he realized that Gina would get the message first and convince Cindy he was pining away for her. Well, he was, wasn't he?

Idly, he flipped on the TV and began channel-surfing, searching for any station that didn't have something to say about the acquittal of Eddy Goss. He fixed on MTV. Two mangy-looking rockers were banging on their guitars while getting their faces licked by a Cindy Crawford look-alike.

He switched off the set, nestled his head in the pillow, and lay in the darkness. But he couldn't sleep. He looked straight ahead, over the tops of his toes, staring at the television on the dresser. There was nothing he wanted to watch. But as the day's ugly events played out in his mind, there was one thing he suddenly had to watch.

He rolled out of bed, grabbed his briefcase, and popped it open, quickly finding what he was looking for even in the darkness. He switched on the television and VCR, shoved in the cassette, and sat on the edge of the bed, waiting. There was a screen full of snow, a few rolling blips, and then

My name is Eddy Goss, said the man on the screen, speaking stiffly into a police video camera. Goss's normally flat and stringy hair was a tangled, greasy mess. He looked and undoubtedly smelled as if he'd been sleeping under a bridge all week, dressed in dirty Levi's, unlaced tennis shoes, and a yellow-white undershirt, torn at the V and stained with underarm sweat. He sat smugly in the metal folding chair, exuding a punk's confidence, his arms folded tightly. Four long and fresh red scratches ran along his neck. The date and time, 11:04 P. M., March 12 - four and a half months ago - flashed in the corner of the screen.

I live at four-oh-nine East Adams Street, Goss continued, apartment two-seventeen.

The camera drew back to show the suspect, seated at the end of the long conference table, and an older man seated on the side, to Goss's right. The man appeared to be in his late sixties, gray-haired, with a hawk nose that supported his black-rimmed glasses.

Mr. Goss, said the man, I'm Detective Lonzo Stafford. With me, behind the camera, is Detective Jamahl Bradley. You understand, son, that you have the right to remain silent. You have the right -

Jack hit the remote, fast-forwarding to the part he'd seen at least a hundred times before. Visible in the frame now was a different Goss, more animated, boasting like a proud father.

aEU| I killed the little prick tease, Goss said with a carefree shrug.

Jack stopped the tape, rewound, and listened again, as if flogging himself.

aEU| I killed the little prick tease, he heard one more time. Just the way thousands of other people had heard it - with expletive deleted - and were probably hearing it again tonight, on the television news. The tape rolled on, and Jack closed his eyes and listened as Goss described the deed in grisly detail. The car ride to the woods. The knife at the young girl's throat. The tears that had stemmed his vulgar attempts at gentle caresses. The struggle that had ensued. And finally, pulling the nylon tight around the girl's neck

Jack sighed, keeping his eyes closed. The tape continued, but there was only silence. Even the police interrogators, it seemed, had needed to catch their breath. Had they been allowed to hear it, a jury probably would have reacted the same way. But he'd prevented that. He'd kept the entire videotape out of evidence by arguing that Goss's constitutional rights had been violated - that his confession had been involuntary. The police hadn't beaten it out of him with a rubber hose. They hadn't even threatened him. They tricked him, Jack had argued, relying on one questionable remark by a seasoned detective who so desperately wanted to nail Goss that he pushed it a little too far - though the detective had still played good odds, knowing from experience that only the most liberal judge would condemn his tactics.

We don't want to know if you did it, Detective Stafford had assured Goss. We just want you to show us where Kerry's body is, so we can give her a decent Christian burial. That was all the ammunition Jack had needed. They induced a confession by playing on my client's conscience! he'd argued to the judge. They appealed to his religious convictions. A Christian burial speech is patently illegal, Your Honor.

No one was more surprised than Jack when the judge bought the argument. The confession was ruled inadmissible. The jury never saw the videotape. They acquitted a guilty man. And the miscarriage of justice was clear. Nice going, Swyteck.

He hit the eject button on his VCR and tossed the confession aside, disgusted at himself and what he did for a living. He grabbed another cassette from the case beside the television, pushed To Kill a Mockingbird into his VCR, and for the fifteenth time since joining the Freedom Institute, watched Gregory Peck defend the innocent.

Peck's Atticus Finch had just launched into his peroration when a shrill ringing startled Jack from a state of half sleep.

He snatched up the telephone, hoping to hear Cindy's voice. For a few moments, though, all he heard was silence. Finally, a surly voice came over the line. Swyteck? it asked.

Jack didn't move. The voice seemed vaguely familiar, but it also seemed raspy and disguised. He waited. And finally came the brief, sobering message.

A killer is on the loose tonight, Swyteck. A killer is on the loose.

Jack gripped the receiver tighter. Who's there?

Again, there was only silence.

Who's there? Who are you? Jack waited, but heard only the sound of his own erratic breathing. Then, finally

Sleep tight, was the cool reply. The phone clicked, and then came the dial tone.

Chapter
5

Governor Harold Swyteck jogged down a wood-chip jogging path. He muttered a soft curse as he reflected on the political repercussions of Jack's victory the previous day. The governor and his advisers had been speculating for weeks on how the trial might affect his bid for re-election. They figured a few tough anti-crime speeches would probably counter Jack's involvement. Never, however, had they figured he'd actually win an acquittal. Had they considered it, they might have had a comeback when the media issued its hourly reports that it was indeed the governor's son who'd gotten a confessed killer off on a technicality.

Damn it all! Harry blurted with another husky breath, his arms pumping to a quicker cadence. As his legs surged forward he felt his anger building. It was a father's anger, tinged more with disappointment than with vitriol.

The governor struggled to maintain his pace. Since the Fernandez execution, he'd taken up jogging and sworn off the booze. In some twelve hundred days in office, he'd jogged about as many miles and thought about that one disturbing night at least as many times, wishing he'd just listened to his son and stopped the execution - if only for a few days, long enough to investigate Jack's story. Jogging gave him a chance to reflect on events and feelings without yielding to the urge to confide. His advisers pleaded with him about security, but he avoided escorts, except late at night or in big cities. If some crazy is gunning for me, he'd always say, he won't come looking on a back road for some guy in frumpy jogging sweats and a baseball cap. So far, he'd been right.

Harry slowed as he neared a cluster of sprawling oak trees and royal poincianas that marked the halfway point of his route. He reminded himself of the rules: The first half of his run was for venting anger; the second was reserved for positive thoughts.

My fellow Floridians, he silently intoned as he reached his halfway marker, jogging beneath the fire-orange canopy of a royal poinciana. He could feel his attitude changing. His troubles were falling behind him; this morning's speech and throngs of loyal supporters were looming ahead. In just a few hours he would officially launch his re-election campaign.

aEU| in this election, you have a choice, the speech continued in his mind. But his feet went out from under him, and he found himself sprawled on the ground, his right elbow and knee skinned and bleeding. At first he thought he'd tripped over something, but as he looked behind him a dark blur raced out from the shadow of a huge cold oak and pounced on top of him, knocking him flat again. Their bodies locked together as they tumbled down a steep ravine along the deserted jogging path. They landed hard amid the tangled weeds and cattails beside a scummy green canal. The governor quickly reached in his pocket for his electronic pager to alert security, but before his finger could hit the red button, his attacker knocked the wind out of him with a fist to the solar plexus. In a split second, Harry was flat on his belly, his face pushed into the dirt.

Heh! the governor gasped, his head moving just enough to the side to allow his mouth to work. But a cold steel blade was at his throat before he could utter another word.

Don't move, the man ordered.

Harry froze, his body trembling as he forced himself to remain face down and perfectly still. His right cheek was pressed to the ground, but out of the corner of his left eye he could see a bruiser of a body sitting on his kidneys. Its sheer weight nearly prevented him from breathing, let alone moving. It was a man, he presumed. The voice was deep; the hands covered by black leather gloves were very large. The features, however, were indiscernible. He wore camouflaged marine fatigues, and his face was covered by a ski mask.

Well, what do we have here, the man taunted in a thick, raspy voice. Mr. Big-Time Politician out for his morning jog.

The governor clenched his fists, not to defend himself but to bring his fear under control. All was silent, except for a sucking sound the man made when he breathed. He must have been drooling from the wads of cotton or whatever he had in his mouth to disguise his voice.

Hey, Governor, the attacker said, mocking him now with a friendly tone. I hear you politicians like to deal. Well, here's one for you, my man. How about I give you proof that Raul Fernandez was innocent?

Raul Fernandez? Harry started at the name. His mind ran in a dozen different directions, trying to make sense of why that name was being dredged up now.

And in exchange for me being such a stand-up guy, the attacker continued, for saving this big-time job of yours by not letting it slip that you and Junior killed an innocent man, you give me some money. A shitload of it.

The governor remained silent.

The man squeezed the back of Harry's neck, as if the knife were not already commanding enough attention. Or maybe you prefer I just have a conversation with the newspapers.

The governor forced himself to put his fear aside long enough to ask a question. What do you want from me?

There's a drugstore at the corner of Tenth and Monroe - Albert's. Be at the pay phone out front. Noon, Thursday. Alone. And don't even think about calling the cops. If you do, I go right to the newspapers. You hear what I'm saying?

The governor swallowed hard. Yes, he replied.

The man pushed the governor's face into the ground and sprung to his feet. Before you even twitch a finger, count to a hundred, out loud, nice and slow. Now.

One, two, Harry counted off, listening carefully as the man's footsteps faded into the distance. He lay still until he reached thirty, when he figured it was safe to move. Then he quickly rolled over and snatched the transmitter from his pocket. If he pushed the red button, security would be there in less than a minute. But he hesitated. What would he tell them? That some thug had threatened to reveal he'd executed an innocent man?

He tucked the transmitter into his pocket, still thinking. His attacker had warned him: Alert security and the Fernandez story goes straight to the media. Would that really be so disastrous? No question, it would be bad, but inside he felt an even deeper fear. That the attacker wouldn't go to the newspapers. That if he didn't show up at Albert's, he'd never hear from the man again. And he'd never know the truth about Fernandez.

He cast a forlorn look over the weeds, toward the thick woods where his attacker had disappeared. Tenth and Monroe was a crowded intersection - a very public and safe place. It wasn't like a face-to-face meeting in a dark alley. Hell, if the guy'd wanted to kill him, he'd be dead already. The decision was clear.