Chapter 9: No First Names

He took us to the empty jury room at the end of the hall.

A deputy stood outside the door. Frances sat down at the long table and put her glasses on.

Duncan opened the folder and laid out the plea packet, page by page.

"Look at the bottom of page three," he said.

In small gray letters, under the signature line, were a file code and a time.

WP-DA. 2:41 a.m.

"That's the code for Marlow County's District Attorney," Duncan said. "And that's the time the document was created."

"At 2:41 a.m.," Frances said slowly. "Laurel was still in a holding cell at 2:41."

"Fingerprinted at 12:50. Cited at the scene, but the formal charges weren't filed until six."

"So it was written before the charges existed," I said.

"By Marshall's office," Frances said. "More than three hours after the crash, and before any charge."

"My District Attorney forwarded it to me at six that morning, with one line. Marshall wants this closed by Monday."

He put his finger on the code.

"I thought it was a courtesy file from his office."

"I put my name on it, and I sent it over to the lawyer your husband hired."

"You didn't ask who typed it."

"No."

I stared at the three letters until my eyes hurt.

A man who had a six-year plea typed before the charges existed had known from the first hour who would go to prison.

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