Chapter 5 - Six Minutes
At 4:11 p.m., Elena was told to change clothes.
She stared at the folded white prison uniform on her bunk.
"No."
Officer Bell stood outside the cell.
"Elena..."
"No."
Her voice rose.
"They found the recording."
"I know."
"It has Rusk on it."
"I know."
"It has Kell on it."
"I know."
"Then why are you giving me execution clothes?"
Bell looked miserable.
"Because there is no stay yet."
Elena picked up the uniform.
For one violent second, she wanted to tear it in half.
Instead she dropped it.
"Call Mitchell."
"He's on the phone with the attorney general."
"Call him again."
At Leah's office, Mina traced the file transfer.
The recording had been made on a separate device.
Possibly another phone.
Then moved onto Nathan's blue phone using a police forensic extraction system.
Leah stared at her.
"You're telling me someone in law enforcement copied Nathan's recording?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Can you identify the machine?"
Mina enlarged a hexadecimal record.
"Terminal ID 4C-17."
Owen was already searching old discovery records.
"Wait."
He pulled up the police department's equipment logs from Elena's case.
Terminal 4C-17 had been assigned to digital evidence.
The technician on duty the night Nathan died was Sergeant Paul Givens.
Owen swore.
"He's dead."
"When?"
"Car accident three years ago."
Leah rubbed her forehead.
"Of course he is."
Peter pointed at the screen.
"Why would a cop copy the recording onto Nathan's hidden phone?"
Nobody answered.
Then Mina said quietly, "Maybe he wasn't helping Rusk."
They looked at her.
"Maybe he was protecting the evidence."
At 4:37 p.m., the Court of Criminal Appeals denied Leah's first emergency request.
The order was six sentences long.
The court said the recording had not yet been sufficiently authenticated.
Execution scheduled to proceed.
Leah read the order twice.
Then threw her legal pad across the room.
"Six sentences?"
Owen said nothing.
"She's going to die because they want chain of custody?"
Mina looked at her.
"Can we prove chain of custody?"
Leah breathed hard.
"We have eighty-three minutes."
At 5:02 p.m., Elena was moved to the holding cell beside the execution chamber.
The walls were white.
The floor was polished.
A clock hung directly across from her.
She hated that clock.
5:03.
5:04.
5:05.
Warden Mitchell entered.
Elena looked up.
"Did they stop it?"
"Not yet."
Her face crumpled for half a second.
Then hardened again.
"Where's Chloe?"
"With her social worker."
"Don't let her see any news tonight."
Mitchell swallowed.
"I won't."
"And tell her..."
Elena stopped.
"No."
"What?"
"I'll tell her myself."
Mitchell looked away.
At 5:41, Leah finally found the name she'd been searching for.
Sergeant Paul Givens had filed a sealed internal complaint two days after Nathan's murder.
The complaint was never included in Elena's discovery.
Its subject line read:
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS - COLE HOMICIDE EVIDENCE.
Leah's heart slammed.
"Get me that complaint."
Owen searched.
"It's sealed."
"Unseal it."
"I can't."
"Then find someone who can."
At 5:49, execution witnesses began arriving.
At 5:52, Elena was offered a final drink.
She refused.
At 5:54, Mitchell's radio crackled.
"Team ready."
Elena stood.
Her legs shook.
"Robert."
Mitchell met her eyes.
"If this happens..."
He couldn't answer.
"Make sure Chloe knows I never stopped fighting."
At 5:55, officers opened the holding-cell door.
Then Mitchell's phone rang.
Leah.
He answered.
"Tell me you have something."
"We found Givens's widow."
"And?"
"She has a copy of his complaint."
Mitchell looked at the clock.
5:56.
"What's in it?"
Leah's voice shook.
"Givens wrote that Rusk ordered him to delete a recording from Nathan Cole's phone."
Mitchell turned toward the execution team.
Leah continued.
"And he wrote that District Attorney Kell was standing beside Rusk when he gave the order."
5:57.
"Can you get it to the court?"
"I'm sending it now."
Mitchell stared at the second hand sweeping around the clock.
5:58.
The chamber door opened.
Elena closed her eyes.
At 5:59 p.m., Mitchell's phone rang again.
He answered.
May you like
A clerk said four words.
"Emergency stay has issued."
