Chapter 2 - The Signature at the Bottom
Daniel stepped in front of Grace.
The handle stopped moving.
“Stay here.”
Grace almost laughed.
“You still think I take orders from you?”
“Tonight I hope you'll make an exception.”
He crossed the corridor.
Grace followed anyway.
The old door had been painted the same cream color as the wall, making it easy to overlook. Daniel had assumed it was a utility closet.
Now he saw faint scratches where a plaque had once been mounted.
He inserted the brass key.
It turned.
Daniel pushed the door open.
Darkness.
He reached for the switch.
Nothing happened.
Grace activated her phone flashlight.
The room was narrow and dusty, containing metal shelves and several abandoned filing cabinets.
“Thomas had this key?” Daniel asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
They entered.
One cabinet stood open.
Dust covered everything except the handle.
Someone had touched it recently.
Daniel pulled the drawer.
Empty.
Grace moved her light lower.
“Daniel.”
It was the first time she had used his first name since confronting him.
He looked.
A white envelope lay beneath the cabinet.
Grace picked it up.
THOMAS CALDWELL was written across the front.
Inside was a photocopy of a bank transfer.
Daniel read it twice.
$740,000.
The recipient was not Thomas.
It was a company called BRG Consulting.
“Do you know this company?”
Grace shook her head.
Daniel turned the page.
His stomach tightened.
BRG's registered mailing address had been the same building that housed Mercer Development's legal department.
“This should have been disclosed,” he said.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning if prosecutors possessed this document before Thomas pleaded guilty, his attorney should have received it.”
Grace stared at him.
“And if they didn't?”
“Then someone removed it.”
A sound came from outside.
Footsteps.
Daniel switched off Grace's phone light.
They stood silently.
The footsteps stopped outside Room 317.
Grace grabbed Daniel's sleeve.
The door opened an inch.
Daniel pushed it violently outward.
A man stumbled backward.
Courthouse security officer Paul Danner.
“Judge?”
Daniel stared at him.
“What are you doing here?”
“I heard movement.”
“At eleven o'clock?”
Danner glanced at Grace.
“Cleaning staff reported a door open.”
Grace said nothing.
Daniel noticed Danner's eyes move toward the envelope.
Too quickly.
“Everything all right, Your Honor?”
“Fine.”
Daniel folded the document and slipped it inside his coat.
Danner smiled.
But it never reached his eyes.
“Good night.”
Daniel waited until he disappeared.
Grace whispered, “He knew.”
“We don't know that.”
“You saw his face.”
“Yes.”
That was precisely the problem.
The next morning Daniel requested the complete Caldwell archive.
The clerk returned twenty minutes later.
“It's incomplete.”
Daniel looked up.
“What is missing?”
“Evidence supplements. Boxes three and four.”
“Where are they?”
“We don't know.”
Daniel felt anger rising.
Judges were trained to distrust conclusions unsupported by evidence.
But evidence itself was beginning to disappear.
By noon he had called the retired prosecutor who handled Thomas's case.
Elaine Porter.
She remembered it.
“Caldwell? Of course.”
“Was there evidence involving BRG Consulting?”
Silence.
“Daniel, why are you asking?”
“Answer the question.”
“I don't remember.”
“Elaine.”
Another pause.
“Leave it alone.”
Daniel stood.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
“An innocent man may have been convicted.”
“He pleaded guilty.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Elaine exhaled.
“Some cases are bigger than the defendant.”
Then she hung up.
Daniel remained motionless.
At eight thirty that evening, Grace's cleaning cart appeared outside his chambers.
He had been waiting.
“I called the prosecutor.”
Grace stopped.
“And?”
“She told me to leave it alone.”
Grace closed her eyes.
Daniel approached.
“You were right.”
She looked at him.
“I don't want to be right.”
“I know.”
“No, Daniel. You don't.”
Her voice cracked.
“I spent seven years wanting someone to tell me Thomas had done it. Do you understand that?”
Daniel didn't.
Not immediately.
Grace continued.
“If he was guilty, then at least his death had a reason. At least I could tell myself he made choices that took him away from me.”
Daniel finally understood.
“But if he was innocent…”
“Then everybody stole him.”
The sentence silenced them both.
Daniel placed the BRG document on the table.
“I’m going to find out.”
“You could lose your career.”
“Perhaps.”
“Your reputation.”
“Yes.”
“Everything.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You already lost everything.”
Grace's eyes filled.
Daniel reached for her but stopped before touching her.
“I signed that sentence.”
“You didn't kill him.”
“I helped put him where he died.”
“That isn't the same.”
“It won't feel different if I learn I ignored something I should have seen.”
Grace stared at him.
For the first time since revealing herself, some of the anger disappeared.
“What happens now?”
“We find Martin Vale.”
Thomas's former attorney lived two counties away.
They drove there Saturday morning.
His house was abandoned.
A neighbor told them Vale had left unexpectedly three years earlier.
“Did he say where?”
“No.”
Then the neighbor remembered something.
“He left a storage unit.”
They found the facility that afternoon.
Unit 118 remained paid through the end of the year.
Daniel asked who was paying.
The manager refused.
Grace showed him a photograph of Thomas.
The man's face changed.
“I've seen him.”
Grace froze.
“That isn't possible.”
The manager pointed toward the photograph.
“Not him exactly. A man who looks like him.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
Grace nearly dropped the photograph.
The manager opened his computer.
“Security cameras.”
He found the footage.
A man entered the facility at 2:13 a.m.
Tall.
Gray jacket.
Baseball cap.
His face appeared for less than two seconds.
Grace grabbed Daniel's arm.
“No.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
The resemblance to Thomas was extraordinary.
Then the man turned toward the camera.
Grace whispered one name.
“Evan.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Who is Evan?”
Grace couldn't answer.
May you like
Because Evan Caldwell had been Thomas's younger brother.
And according to Grace, Evan had died nine years ago.
