Twist of Fate (26 page)

But he would never hear from her. She might be wrong, but even if the memory had been artificially constructed after the fact, after all these years it was as firmly rooted, as convincing to her, as a genuine memory.

A pity the human mind was so suggestible, and so stubborn.

∗ ∗ ∗

Though tempted by Val's offer of dinner, Rob finished his work before calling her to say that he was on his way over. It was after eleven o'clock when he rang her doorbell. If they were a couple, which they seemed to be, having a key would be handy, but he hadn't asked for one because he didn't want to spook her again.

Within seconds, the door swung open and she tugged him inside so the door could be shut to prevent the cats from escaping. Then she was in his arms, hugging him hard. "It's soooooo nice to see you," she murmured into his shoulder.

"Ditto." He wrapped her close, feeling the tension ease. "Did the mugging make you uncomfortable here alone? I can come over every night until you're okay again."

"No, I wasn't afraid of being alone." She stepped back and slid her arm around his waist, guiding him toward the kitchen. "I just--missed seeing you. Hungry? I've got some nice sliced corned beef and cheese from the best deli in Pikesville."

He laughed. "When you were little, did your mother teach you that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach?"

"Nope, I figured it out for myself." They reached the kitchen, and she headed for the refrigerator. "I also picked up a six-pack of that microbrewery beer you said you liked, and some German potato salad. Interested?"

He kissed the back of her neck. "Very. Many thanks."

As he sat at the table, he told himself that he should stop trying to analyze how Val felt about him. She might feel skittish about getting serious too quickly, but surely her consideration and pampering was proof of caring. In time, they would get this right.

He had to believe that.

Chapter 19

Joe Cady was alive, though only just. He lay on his hospital bed like a cadaver, eyes closed and tubes in his arms. Outside the small room could be heard the voices and rattling crockery of the nursing home, but here the quiet of near death prevailed. Only Cady's labored breathing proved that he still lived.

While Val hung back, Rob turned off the wall-mounted television and said quietly, "Mr. Cady?"

The sunken eyes opened. His dark skin had a yellowish tinge and deep lines were carved in his face. He looked a hundred years old. If he lived until October, he would turn forty. "Who are you?" His voice was as thin and lifeless as the rest of him.

"My name is Rob Smith, and I'm looking into something that happened a long time ago." He nodded toward Val. "This is Val Covington, my partner."

A flicker of life showed in Cady's eyes when he looked at Val, who couldn't help but look sexy even in her lawyer clothes. The patient wasn't dead yet. "Why'd you come here? Nobody ever comes to see me." His mouth twisted. "Even my own family don't visit 'cause they're afraid I'll give 'em AIDS."

"We came because you're the key to understanding what happened the night Officer James Malloy was killed."

Cady's gaze shifted away. "Don't know nothin' about that."

Rob pulled a chair next to the bed and sat so he wouldn't loom over Cady. "Are you sure? It's been over seventeen years, but it was a big deal then. A police officer was shot and killed, and you and your friend Darrell Long were key witnesses at the trial."

Cady plucked fretfully at the bed covers. "Darrell weren't no friend of mine. Stole my money and shot my cousin."

Rob had done some investigation before coming and learned that one night Darrell chose to rob Cady's cousin, who owned a small liquor store in East Baltimore. Big mistake. There had been a shoot-out that left Long dead and Cady's cousin alive, and apparently destroyed any loyalty Cady had felt to his former friend. "Darrell identified Daniel Monroe as the man who killed Officer Malloy, and you confirmed that. Is the statement you gave then the whole story on what happened that night?"

"Don't wannna talk about it!" Cady still refused to meet Rob's gaze.

Val motioned Rob to move away and took his place in the chair. "Mr. Cady, this is really important," she said in her soft, persuasive voice. "In a few weeks, Daniel Monroe is going to be executed for the murder. He claims he didn't do it, and his girlfriend swears he was with her at the time of the shooting. Is it possible that you and Mr. Long made a mistake that night?"

A tremor ran through Cady, and Rob realized tears were seeping from under the man's eyelids. Val took his hand. "Mr. Cady, if a mistake was made then, it's not too late to correct it."

There was a long silence while Cady drew ragged breaths, his thin chest rising and falling. "I didn't see nothin', just heard the shots. Then Omar Benson came racing along the street behind us. He saw me and Darrell and waved Darrell over to talk to him. I was too far away to hear what they said, but when Omar left, Darrell came back and told me to say that we saw a shooting, and it looked like this Daniel Monroe guy did it."

"So Darrell asked you to lie for Omar."

Cady's hand tightened convulsively on Val's. "Didn't want to, but Darrell said if we did, Omar Benson would give us all the crack we wanted, so I...I agreed. Didn't have enough money, and I needed that crack. I'd seen Monroe in the street a couple of times so I was able to pick him out of the lineup, but I figured he'd probably get off, if not from his girlfriend's testimony, then later, on appeal." He gave a racking cough that shook his thin frame. "They really going to execute the guy? I didn't mean for him to be fried."

"But he will be, because of the testimony of you and Darrell Long." Val's voice was gentle but uncompromising.

Cady released his breath wearily. "I didn't mean no harm. I just wanted to help out Omar so's he'd help out me."

"Omar is gone now, and so is Darrell. Daniel Monroe will be gone, too, if you don't speak up." Val waited a few beats. "Mr. Cady, would you be willing to let us videotape you while you describe what really happened that night?"

Cady's eyes flicked to Rob. "I dunno..."

Val leaned forward, her hand still holding Cady's thin fingers. "If we can't find new evidence, an innocent man will die. You're the
only
person who can make a difference. If you've made mistakes in your life--well, who hasn't?-- this is a chance to clear the record."

Cady's eyes closed again. "All right, use the fuckin' camera. Ain't nothin' nobody can do to me now."

Rob opened his briefcase and pulled out Val's compact camcorder, trying to conceal his excitement. So Daniel had really been convicted with perjured testimony! On some level of his mind, a whisper of doubt had lingered. Finally it was gone. And if more evidence was needed, Omar Benson's police file had listed a wrist tattoo of a snake as one of his identifying features.

He set up the camcorder on a lightweight tripod and began to tape. Drawing Cady's attention back to her, Val stated the date, place, and time for the video, then asked, "Mr. Cady, will you tell us in your own words what happened the night when Officer James Malloy was shot?"

Stopping frequently for breath, Cady described how he and Darrell Long had left the crack house, heard shots, testified to the police that they thought they had recognized the killer. Joe had felt increasing reluctance, but he'd held to his story because he was afraid of what would happen if he changed it. He was a good liar, he said with some pride. Knew how to keep a story simple and not mess up.

At the end, he looked directly into the camera and repeated, "I did not see Daniel Monroe shoot Officer Malloy. Darrell Long recognized Omar Benson as the shooter because of what he was wearing. Later Omar admitted to me what he had done and promised me plenty of crack to keep quiet. As God is my witness, this is the truth."

After Rob turned off the camcorder, Val said, "Thank you, Mr. Cady. You may have saved an innocent man's life today."

He sighed, seeming to shrink now that he'd said his piece. "I feel better for tellin' the truth finally. I'm glad it ain't too late."

Val glanced around the room, which was clean but dismal, with the faint scent of failing bodies always found in nursing homes. "Is there anything we can do to make you more comfortable? Hospitals aren't happy places."

"I won't be here much longer," Cady said bluntly. "In a week I'll be gone, and I ain't sorry. This is no kind of life." He hesitated. "But there is one thing."

"Yes?"

"I got a dog, Malcolm. He ain't much, just a mutt, but...well, he's a nice mutt. My sister Lucy has been keepin' him, but she don't like dogs, and I'm afraid that when I'm dead, she'll get rid of him. Could you find Malcolm a good home?"

Val and Rob exchanged a glance. He could see that her first instinct was to volunteer to take the dog, but her second thought was how her cats would react. "I'll be happy to take him in," Rob said. "I like dogs, and I haven't had one in too long. I promise Malcolm will be well cared for as long as he lives."

"And I'll spoil him with treats," Val added. "How can we find your sister?"

Voice shaking with fatigue, Cady recited his sister's phone number. Val bent to give him a kiss. "God bless you, Mr. Cady."

Cady closed his eyes, but there was a faint smile on his lips as they left the room.

Rob waited until they were outside the nursing home to express his exhilaration. "We've done it!" He scooped Val up in his arms and whirled her around exuberantly. "By God, we did it! We've found substantial new evidence to clear Daniel." He kissed a laughing Val and set her back on her feet. "Now what happens?"

"We're not home free yet. A reprieve isn't easy this late in the game," Val said warningly, but she was beaming. "The next step is to write the best damned brief of my life reinforcing all of the factors speaking to Daniel's innocence, and showing what a weak case the state had to begin with. Then we take it to court. The Maryland code of justice says that a court may revise a sentence at any time in cases of fraud or mistake."

He whistled softly. "That sure is liberal compared to Texas."

"Some states won't accept new evidence more than three weeks after a conviction. Three lousy weeks! It's absurd." She brushed hair from her face and headed toward her car. "Did you know that the execution rate is highest in the states where lynchings were common? All you have to do is cross the Potomac from Maryland to Virginia and the number of executions skyrockets."

"Now that we know who the real killer was, I can start searching for people who knew Omar Benson." He fell into step beside her. "There's a darned good chance that he boasted about the murder to others. Now that we know where to look, we can probably get more statements to that effect. Even though they would be hearsay, they would surely help support our case."

"Good idea. I'll also call Cal Murphy and see what advice he has on how to proceed from here." She popped the trunk of her Lexus so Rob could put his briefcase and camera inside. "The first thing you do is get multiple dupes of Cady's statement."

"After you drop me off, I'll go to a place I know out Bel Air Road and have a dozen copies made so we can spread them around."

When they were both seat-belted in the car, Val said soberly, "Rob--this really isn't a sure thing. Daniel won't be safe until we get a court or the governor to agree that there is reasonable doubt about his conviction."

He grinned, refusing to worry. "We'll get it. And in the meantime, after I drop off the tape for duplicates--I've got to see a woman about a dog."

∗ ∗ ∗

Barely able to contain her excitement, Kendra paced around the visitor room until Daniel was brought in to see her by the usual stone-faced guards. His smile lit up the dingy room. "Baby, this is an unexpected pleasure," he said into the connecting phone. "What's with the corn rows? You look good enough to eat, but you haven't worn them since I got sent up."

She laughed and swung her hair so that the brightly beaded mass of small braids danced across her shoulders. "Now that I'm out of Crouse, Resnick, I can be funkier, so from now on, I'm going to look like a stylish black professional woman. Val doesn't mind. In fact, she's wondering if her hair is curly enough to do the same."

He grinned. "I'd like to see that. She's a cute little thing, your boss."

Not interested in small talk, Kendra leaned toward the plastic wall separating them, wishing they could touch.

"She's also smart as a whip. Daniel, she and Rob have come up with the new evidence we need to get you off death row! This morning they interviewed Joe Cady and recorded an interview of him recanting his testimony against you. He's dying of AIDS, and it's been bothering him the way he and Darrell Long lied to cover up for Omar Benson, who was their crack connection. Val says he spelled it out in very convincing detail. Honey, this is it!"

The spark in his eyes when she began to speak vanished as quickly as it had appeared. "It won't work, Kendra. A dying con might say anything, and a lot of 'em have. The court will say too bad, this is too little and too late."