And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.
Jessica felt as if she had been in a marathon run when she stepped from the interrogation room. She wanted to grab old of Richard and hug him, but instead, she told him, “Keep your eyes on this nutcase. He can't be allowed to waltz out of here.”
Richard stood alongside J. T., who stood beside Santiva at the one-way glass, where they had seen and heard the entire story. Santiva wore a smirk on his face.
“ What's so funny?” she asked Santiva.
“ Been a while since I've heard a good dog-saves-man story.”
“ I think he's mixed his milk toast with his rye once too often,” replied J. T.
“ Pitiful wretch, actually,” added Richard, his eyes still on Marsden.
Keyes got in Jessica's face and asked, “Are we sure Millie's really a dog, Dr. Coran?”
“ No… Guess we can't be a hundred percent.”
Santiva, biting his lower lip and shaking his head, re-plied, “Yeah, maybe somebody ought to contact authorities in Jasper, Georgia.”
“ Just to be sure?” asked J. T., a wide grin making him the Cheshire cat. “Did you get a load of that red scar along his neck? He's obviously been in some back-alley scrapes.”
“ Yeah, this dog will fight, but he didn't raise a hand to help the judge that night. Why?” asked Jessica, still angry with Marsden.
Keyes raised an index finger and said, “Something about the old man's demeanor. All the biblical talk may well have frightened anyone, and if he had an insane look about him, carting two coffins about with him… not sure I'd get involved, either. Would you?”
“ Damn straight I would.”
Keyes didn't blink. “I think Marsden may well have been half or fully blitzed at the time, and so that much more easily convinced that DeCampe's abductor was in fact doing the 'Lord's business,' as he put it, and with Marsden's pitiable self-esteem issues… hey, who's going to go out of his way to piss off God?”
“ Or his servant,” added Richard Sharpe.
Jessica bowed to this notion, letting Marsden off the proverbial hook for now. She then turned to John Thorpe. “OK, J. T„you're my main expert on rural America types. Look into Marsden's Jasper, Georgia, story. See how much of it checks out.”
“ Gotcha.” Jessica stared through the glass at the Rock Hudson- sized man inside. “Cleaned up, he might look like a Baptist preacher or a school superintendent.”
“ Yeah, Jack, why don't you check his story out,” Santiva, who liked calling J. T. Jack, piped in. “Keyes, see to getting the man some hot food and drink. Jessica, we need to talk.” Santiva asked Richard to cuff the strange man in the interrogation room to the table. For a moment, they all stared through the one-way window.
“ Yes, sir, Chief.”
“ I need a sketch artist inside with him, Eriq,” Jessica said.
“ Already called; she's on her way.”
Jessica nodded as he took her arm and guided her out of earshot of anyone. “I'm getting a great gob of loaded heat from upstairs. They want some bone thrown their way, Jess, something-anything-I can take back. How much of this guy's story do you believe?”
“ I think he's telling us all he knows.”
“ But he could have hallucinated the whole damn thing, right? I mean with the caskets, the cattle prod, all of it. Could be just filling in blanks you laid out, Jess.”
“ I don't think so. He's… he comes across as telling the truth, Chief.”
“ Murphy's Law at work, huh?”
“ I don't follow you.”
“ If something can go wrong, it will, right? So if I report what we know from Mr.-ahhh-Dr. Marsden in there, it could come back to clip me at the knees.”
“ We really don't have time for this kind of hand-holding with the politicians, Chief. Not with DeCampe's life in the balance, not with the time clock ticking as it is. DeCampe doesn't have the time. We don't have the luxury of holding meetings with lieutenant governors and deputy mayors and-”
“ Now hold on, Jess.”
“ We need to pursue this Iowa license plate on a huge dark van with two coffins aboard the thing. We need every field office between here and Iowa on it.”
“ You'd think such a thing would be obvious or at least curious to someone out there.”
“ I need more people, Eriq, to call every law enforcement agency in the goddamn country for anything smacking of such a report. Can you get me that kind of support here?”
“ I'll get you more people.”
“ When?”
'Today.”
“ As for someone out there seeing two caskets in a dark van with tinted windows, how weird is that, Eriq, in the grand scheme of things in the state of this nation? Besides, even if someone saw the caskets, say at a Waffle House stop this old man made, do you think the average John Q. Citizen is going to bother getting involved? I don't know why I was so angry with Marsden. He's just typical of all of us.” Eriq tried to calm her. “I know… I know, Jess.”
She relented. “People might simply take it for a hearse; after all, according to Marsden, it's black and the windows are tinted.”
“ I still need something to take upstairs. We're going to hold this guy for as long as we can, right?”
“ On suspicion he's somehow connected to the abduction? Are you really going to announce to the world that this poor bastard's the perpetrator?”
“ We need something, Jess. If it comes to that, yes.”
“ Damn it, Eriq, we need to know what triggered this old man's vendetta against the judge. We need to know who he is, how he is linked to her. And we don't have the luxury of time, so we really don't have time for any g'damn games.”
“ We're talking about keeping the fucking governor of the District of Columbia and the mayor of Washington apprised, Jessica, and now the governor of Texas and the mayor of Houston. They have all sampled party favors together with the judge on many occasions. Their interest is not purely politically motivated. They all genuinely liked-or at least respected-the woman.”
Lew Clemmens found them, a cell phone in his hand. “I've got someone in Houston, Texas, willing to run out to Huntsville and interview Goddard. Goddard's on borrowed time, waiting to hear if his appeal is going to go forward. If he's shut down, he dies by the switch in seven days.”
“ Who've you got?” asked Eriq.
“ Guy that Dr. Desinor recommended, Detective Lucas Stonecoat with the HPD. He knows something about Goddard, and he has a special place in his heart for Judge DeCampe. Says she busted his chops more than once.”
“ When did you speak to Kim Desinor?”
“ She called in. Wanted to know if we were any closer. I told her about the Houston, Texas, connection.”
Jessica took the line, holding her hand over the mouthpiece for the moment. She knew something of the Texas Cherokee Indian detective's recent history with successfully closing out a string of unusual cases in his home state and beyond. Kim Desinor, acting as the FBI psychic consultant on the case, had spent time in Houston working with Stonecoat and the police psychiatrist Meredyth Sanger there. Jessica recalled that Kim had once urged her that if ever she needed insight into Texas and the Texas penal system, that Lucas Stonecoat was her man. “Hello, Detective Stonecoat, this is FBI Medical Examiner Dr. Jessica Coran. We appreciate your help.”
“ I'll interview Goddard with the help of our resident po-lice shrink. Dr. Meredyth Sanger,” he replied. “She's the best Houston has. If anything can be shaken loose from Goddard, she can do it.”
“ Excellent news, and thanks.”
“ No thanks necessary. Let's just find Judge DeCampe. Underneath that scaly, rough yet too-liberal exterior beats a beautiful heart. She's good people.”
Beats a beautiful heart still, we hope, Jessica thought but replied, “Yes, yes, she is.”
“ I'll call you back the moment we have anything.”
“ We're working up a sketch of the abductor now. We'll fax it to you. Clemmens will take your fax number, and again, thanks.”
“ Hold on. You've got a witness who can ID the abductor?”
“ We do.”
“ Excellent work.”
“ Lucked out.”
“ Not from what Dr. Desinor tells me about you. She tells me you are the most intuitive detective she has ever known.”
“ She's being generous.”
“ The state here just executed a guy named Purdy three days ago. Purdy's original trial played out with Judge DeCampe presiding-one of her first trials, long before she became an appellate judge.”
“ What's so interesting about this guy, Purdy?”
“ He was in the same cell block as Goddard. They had to have known one another. Now Purdy has been fried. It could have something to do with your case, maybe… maybe not.”
“ This fellow Purdy by any chance from Iowa?”
Stonecoat's stentorian voice silenced. “I… I'm not sure. Will look into it. What does it matter? I mean, does it matter?” He quickly answered his own question with, “Of course it's important; otherwise, we wouldn't be discussing it, right?”
“ Suffice to say, it could be vital, yes.”
“ We're looking under every rock in Houston. Trust me.”
“ I'm sure you are. We'll forward the artist's sketch as soon as we have it. Hasn't actually been created as yet.”
Lucas Stonecoat replied, “We've begun with traffic records, any tickets, maybe DMV and also have my computer whiz kid cross-reference between the DeCampe caseload and anything to do with threats.”
“ We're doing the same here. That's how we focused on Goddard.”
“ I'll have him cross for anything doing with Iowa and Purdy then.”
“ Same here.” Jessica hung up, sighed heavily, and leaned into an institutional gray wall. “Man, I hope something substantive comes of Marsden's interrogation. For all we know, he's making it up as he goes. That's what one voice is telling me; another voice is telling me he's our best shot yet.” Santiva, who had listened intently in on her side of the conversation with Detective Stonecoat, now said, “Jess, keep me posted on what you learn from Texas and from Jasper, Georgia.”
“ Course, will do.”
“ And Jess…”
“ Uh-huhr
“ You sure got some second sight or something.”
“ Meaning?”
“ I'm sure glad you kept me out of the interrogation box and away from this guy, Marsden.”
“ And why's that, Eriq?”
“ I might've strangled him when he dropped it about the dog.”
Jessica laughed lightly, and Eriq, shaking his head, went in search of his office, a little privacy with his phone, paperwork, and coffee, no doubt. “It's going to be a long night,” he muttered back at her from the elevator where he now stood.
Aren't they all? Jessica thought but only waved Santiva off.
She turned to stare at the interrogation room where Richard Sharpe, now one of Santiva's agents, continued to study Marsden through the one-way; but overhearing Santiva's last remark, he heartily agreed in her ear as she came close, saying, “The boss is right. It's going to be a long night, dear heart.” Sharpe had made his presence felt on the case, and at the same time he had often put Santiva at ease, acting as a kind of right-hand man for Eriq. Jessica's only fear was that Richard might get assigned to direct duty alongside Eriq. That would be a nightmare come true, Jessica thought. Richard would not own his own time if that should become the case. It would be like the relationship she had with Santiva-always on call. Like her, Richard would never know peace. “Yeah, long night,” she agreed.
Eriq disappeared via the elevator, and Jessica imagined him, instead of rushing back to his stuffy office, going straight for a set of doors that opened onto the world outside. Air, a clean breeze, something Jessica herself wanted right now so badly. Instead, she turned back to Richard, taking him in her arms, saying, “I could sure use a hug about now.”
“ I'll take one as well,” he replied, obliging. They stood that way in the corridor outside the interrogation room. “I think I've seen enough of Dr. Marsden to last me.”
They kissed. “Strange case,” he muttered when their lips parted.
“ And getting stranger by the moment. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, not just for the judge but for Kim.”
“ Did she really appear as bad as you say?”
“ Worse.”
“ But if they're psychosomatic lesions-”
“ No, no, these were as real as knife cuts.”
Keyes stepped off the elevator and came through a milling crowd of agents and toward Jessica. “I'll write up my notes on the interrogation,” she said, her hands full with some food in a bag from a nearby Boston Market. “Your captain requested a copy pronto. Caught him on the way out.”
Jessica momentarily wondered what words had transpired between Santiva and Keyes, and if Keyes were working for Jessica or for Eriq. She wondered if Keyes might not be the eyes and ears of the upper brass, peeking over Jessica's shoulder. It wasn't unheard of in the organization.
“ Yeah, me, too,” added Jessica, looking weary and shopworn. “Poor Eriq needs PR fodder, and he needs it badly.” Jessica smiled, then frowned and shook her head. “The eyes of a nation are on our every move, Dr. Keyes. Imagine if we fail. Who's going to be the first to blink?”
Keyes gave her a firm glare and replied, “Certainly not the most famous forensic detective in die history of the bureau, not Dr. Jessica Coran.”
TIME relentlessly reminded them with each passing hour that Judge DeCampe's life hung in the balance. Only Jessica, J. T., and Richard knew that Kim's life, too, hung in the balance. The situation gave Jessica pause, and she wondered if Kim's eerie malady might not simply disappear with Judge DeCampe's demise. If the judge were dead, then why wouldn't the psychic leprosy simply end? It made Jessica hopeful on the one hand that DeCampe might yet be found alive, but it also twisted a dark key in Jessica's mind as well. If the logic proved true, that with the Judge's death Kim might be released from her pain and suffering, Jessica could not help but choose Kim's life over that of the judge's.
She confided these thoughts to no one save Richard, who had held her firmly to him when she finished speaking. They had found a moment in her office.
Meanwhile, the hunt for the appeals court judge continued. No one was idle. Every lead was followed. The team narrowed the search after gaining new insight into the case, thanks to information coming from different sources, which all began to converge. Aside from what they'd gathered from the hobo thief, that a man old enough to have been the victim's father accosted DeCampe, a sketch-artist likeness had now been put together from Marsden's befuddled brain. The likeness, which Jessica prayed was likeness enough, now circulated to everyone in law enforcement nationwide. A call to John Walsh's producer at America's Most Wanted had gotten instant results. The story was run on an emergency basis, and now the media everywhere had both the story and pictures of Judge DeCampe and her suspected abductor, as well as a description of the suspect vehicle. But even Walsh called up to complain that the man in the composite looked like everybody's grandpa. In fact, the likeness drawn of the man they were so desperately seeking closely resembled George Burns. Add a cigar and a baseball cap as when Burns portrayed the role of God in the film Oh God, and it proved a perfect likeness. Some law enforcement people openly laughed at the depiction. It certainly didn't look like a desperate criminal; in fact, it looked cartoonish.
Jessica and Richard returned to the operations room.
“ Get me Detective Lucas Stonecoat in Houston, Texas,” Jessica ordered the civilian secretary who had been turned over to the task force.
“ It's only seven A.M. in Houston, Dr. Coran.”
“ I don't give a damn what time it is. Get me Stonecoat.”
“ Yes ma'am. Will see what I can do.”
Jessica reached for the bottle of Tylenol someone had brought her earlier, and she downed three tablets with a swill of Coca-Cola.
In a moment, the secretary tossed back her hair, saying, “Stonecoat is cm one. They patched us through to his home.”
“ Did you get the likeness we sent of the suspect?” Jessica said into the phone. “We laser-faxed it an hour ago.”
“ Got it, yeah. Some old geezer, I'm told. How sure is your information?”
“ We're certain of it. We think he's out for some kind of revenge motive. You guys turn up anything since last we talked?”
“ We're planning a ride out to Huntsville, see what went on there with respect to Jimmy Lee Purdy's execution and body. With the sketch, we'll have something for show and tell. Been my experience that most cons respond to pictures a lot sooner than words.”
“ Keep us posted. The clock's ticking.”
“ Yeah, understood.”
Jessica feared the Huntsville, Texas, execution and this guy Goddard, awaiting execution, would be just another blind alley.