SISTER MARY WAS still hooked up and in bed, but at least was able to read a book. She waved me over as soon as I showed my face.
“Feeling better?” I said.
“Never mind that. How’d it go in court today?”
“You shouldn’t be thinking about that. You should be—”
“Come on, give. I’ve been dying to know.”
“You remember that alibi witness Eric wouldn’t talk about?”
“The woman?”
“She showed.”
Sister Mary slapped the open book down on her knees. “And I wasn’t there.”
“She’s credible,” I said. “At least the jury is going to think so. I’m pretty sure. It’s the best we can hope for. All the other evidence we have can be given an alternative explanation. But if the jury believes Eric was with this woman at the time of the murder, it’s over. He walks.”
Sister Mary put her head back and looked at the ceiling.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“I didn’t expect to miss it so much. Being in court.”
“You can always go into law. UCLA offers a nun discount.”
She looked away, toward the window.
“Does the name Douglas Aycock mean anything to you?” I said.
She snapped back to me. “How do you know that name?”
“Sid gave it to me. He got it by tracing one of the e-mails through the library system.”
Sister Mary’s eyes got that faraway look. When she spoke, it was in the low tones of recounted memory. “I went to high school with him. Dated him a couple of times. And then later, after high school, I heard he died. How—”
“Missing, actually, according to the reports.”
“But we all figured he was dead.”
“He wasn’t a serious boyfriend?”
“He took me to a dance, a couple of movies. He wanted it to go further, but I didn’t.”
“Why was that?”
“We didn’t have the same interests. He was totally into the game world. He had this circle of friends and I found them a little weird. Role playing all the time. It started to cross over…” She looked at me with an astonished gaze. “He’s alive and sending me e-mails?”
“That’s all I know.”
She thought about it all for a moment, then lifted her book. It was Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas Merton. “I was just reading something,” she said. “About that time in Louisville, remember? When Merton felt connected to all those people?”
“Yeah.”
“He says here that he suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts.” She paused. “I had a very discomforting thought about that. For a moment, I didn’t know if I agreed with him. That he was seeing things through rose-colored glasses. And I didn’t like feeling that. And now this…”
“You’ve just been shot. Naturally you’re not going to see all this beauty in people’s hearts.”
She placed the book on the table next to the bed. She looked a little lost.
I said, “How about I run my closing argument by you?”
“Walk it by,” she said. “That’s about my speed right now.”
145
AFTER TWENTY MINUTES I could tell Sister Mary was tired or in pain, or both. So I went back to the kid’s room. There was no cop there this time, so I wondered if he was even in there. But he was, and I guessed Stein had talked to him and pulled the guard cop off.
I said, “So, how you doing today?”
He was a little more aware, and had a little more attitude. “Man, you back?”
“I take it the police talked to you.”
“I got nothing more to say.”
“You do to me.”
“Why?”
“Guy who did this to you is still out there. Ever think he might want another shot at you?”
“You think you gonna help me? You want something, you just mad.”
“You’re just stupid. You got no idea what’s going on. No idea how big this could be.”
“Man, who are you?”
“Ty Buchanan, and I can help you. What’s your name?”
“Daryl.”
“Why don’t you tell me how you got beat up?”
“Got jumped is all.”
“How many?”
“Just one, I think.”
“You get a look at the guy?”
Daryl shook his head. “He was on my back, all over me. Then I was out.”
“All right,” I said. “Let’s take it a step at a time. Where were—”
“I don’t want to take no steps or nothin’,” Daryl said. “I just want to get out of here.”
“You got anybody to come get you?”
He shook his head. Sadly, it seemed.
“Where you at, Daryl?”
“Why’m I talkin’ to you, man?”
“Maybe I can get you out of here,” I said. “Get you looked at by a private doc.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to know what happened. Now, make me your lawyer. What you