Death Row novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: Seat Number Three
Evan came at eight with his tie loose and his coat buttoned wrong.
He didn't sit down right away.
He stood at the glass with the phone against his ear, looking at me, and I could tell by his face before he said a word.
"Tell me."
"I took the print report to the attorney general's office last night," he said. "Hauck's friend gave me a sworn page. A palm lifted from your booth, matched to a man who was declared dead seventeen years ago."
"And?"
"A deputy came down at six this morning. He was polite. He said a print lifted from a public booth, with no chain of custody, compared against a seventeen-year-old file, will not stop an execution in three days."
"Who says it won't stop it?"
"A judge would have to say it won't. And no judge will hear it before the date, because the state says the hearing deadline passed last month."
I looked at my hands on the counter.
"Did you tell them about his first wife?"
"I told them. They said they'll look into Joseph Mercer. After."
After.
I had never noticed how soft that word was.
"There's more," Evan said.
He took his glasses off and held them.
"My director called me at seven. Mr. Fell filed a complaint. He says I harassed a grieving family member in front of the clemency board. The clinic has suspended me, effective this morning, and the warden banned me from the unit."
"Evan."
"I'm here because the officer who handles the booth said she'd give me twenty minutes before anyone checked."
"The one with the cross?"
"Yes."
I didn't know what to say.
"You didn't have to do that," I said at last. "You didn't have to file any of it."
"Yes, I did."
"You'll lose the license."
"Maybe." He put his glasses back on and gave me a crooked smile.
"Is anyone left who can walk into a courtroom for me?"
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