“This puts another complexion on things altogether.”
“It changes nothing and explains much about Darwin and his behavior, that's all.”
“And if Robert Towne proves to be AB-negative? What then, Jess?”
“What then? Millions of people are AB-negative. If he is AB-neg, then it proves nothing, but if he is not AB-neg, then it proves him innocent just as surely as any DNA evidence.”
“I don't think the governor or the people of Oregon are going to see that as clearly as you, darling. And in the meantime, the DNA tests here are slow going yet. I'm on my way to gather up a federal court order and rush it through as we speak.”
“I'll let you go then. I have to get freshened up for our belated meeting with Governor Hughes.”
They said their good-byes and Jessica was left with the knowledge of the killer's having an AB-negative blood type. She wondered if it were a trump card or a discard, and she wondered how she would feel if it turned out to be the later.
She went to the washbasin and threw water on her face and toweled off. She then banged on the wall for Darwin, going to the adjoining door and throwing open her side, continuing to bang.
No answer.
“Where the hell'd he get off to?”
Jessica found Darwin in the hotel lobby bar downing whiskey shooters with beer chasers. She instantly grabbed him and pulled him from the bar. “Are you nuts?”
“What's up? What's sa-matta? You never see a black man get loaded before?”
“Don't wimp out on me now, Darwin. Damn you, be a man a little longer. We're off to see the fucking wizard and you're getting plastered? Shit.”
“For all the good it'll do, hell.” He staggered with her to a darkened booth. “I'm not going to be able to help Rob. I just know it. He's going down like the prover-pro-ver-bial… yeah, proverbial stone down the fucking well and no matter what kind of song and dance we do for Hughes, it isn't going to mean one damn fucking thing on account… on account've the guv like veryone else. Did I say 'veryone' else?” He laughed.
He was smashed. She motioned a waiter over and ordered two pots of black coffee be brought to their table. Once she had plied him with coffee and prescription uppers she'd found at the bottom of her purse, she got him on the elevator and back to his room. There she ordered him to strip and get into a cold shower.
He smiled at the notion but did as told while she turned her back. He came to her and placed his powerful arms around her while standing there naked.
“Damn it to hell, Darwin, get your hands off me and get into the goddamn shower now!” She almost melted under his touch, and for that she was angry at him, angry at the situation he had created, and most of all angry at herself for having such feelings for the younger man, for thinking even for a moment of betraying Richard's trust.
Darwin turned her around and kissed her full on the lips, his hands going everywhere. She pushed away and slapped him hard across the face, so hard he got the point in no uncertain terms.
To stave off her feelings, she blurted out the news from Richard about the AB-negative blood. He only stood there, his enormous manhood hard and throbbing. He grabbed a towel and the white cloth against his black body created a stark contrast. He stepped into the bathroom and into the shower without a word.
When he had finished showering, Darwin silently dressed in the clothes and suit she'd laid out for him. She joked lightly about having to do his laundry for him next. He muttered a preference for another tie. They said nothing about what had passed between then.
“The blood test'll prove it. Robert's got AB blood. But the motherfuckers over at the prison are not going to let us in till tomorrow to conduct any medical test. Some nonsense atop their nonsense. Warden Gwingault's orders.”
“That's great news, Darwin, but Oregon authorities appear to have lost your brother's medical records, and they roll-up-the-streets-at-nine, so we'll get in there first thing in the morning. A test for blood type we can get results on in a matter of hours, but I fear now that the DNA test is going to take more time than we have. So… we have to convince Hughes it's worth waiting for.”
“Rob's most likely got the same blood type as me, right?” he asked as he dressed.
She shook her head and threw the tie he wanted across the bed. “Wish I could say it works that way but unfortunately, Darwin, it doesn't.”
“But when we were kids, I gave him my blood once, a transfusion. Our father'd hit him over the head with a half empty Jim Beam bottle. He bled something fierce and I couldn't get it to stop, and he'd gone unconscious, so I called nine-one-one. It was after that they took us into custody.”
“And you were how old at the time?”
“Five, six… going on. Rob two years older.”
She shook her head at this. “Didn't happen.”
“What didn't happen?”
“The hospital personnel may have gone through some sleight-of-hand with you, Darwin, allowing you to think they had taken your blood, but they don't take blood from kids so young. Quite possibly they used plasma packs stored for such emergencies.”
“Using his blood type.”
“Exactly.”
“Then there's no knowing how the Minnesota blood type will work out for Rob…”
“We'll get it done.”
“And if it's a match, Jess? What then? What is it, a one-in-four, one-in-five chance?”
“Odds aren't that simple. Many more AB-negs out there than any other type. But we can get lucky. Even if it is the same blood type, we can also determine if the blood comes from a white male, black male, Asian, or other nationality.”
He raised his hands. “If it ain't his blood, we'll know it.”
“The problem comes in making Governor Hughes and everyone in Oregon believe the blood evidence was not manufactured.”
“No one can question that. Sharpe did the gathering from the exhumation. An unbiased and independent-”
“Yes, but a two-year-old degenerated scraping from fingers turned to bone, Darwin. You've got to brace yourself for the possibility that the DNA tests could, after all this time-”
“Prove inconclusive, I know, but hell, I read where they did it with Columbus, Abraham Lincoln, some Egyptian pharaoh's bones. What's two damn years?”
“Those are extremely time-and-labor intensive, sophisticated tests, Darwin, conducted by experts in DNA matching and topology. Besides, few people outside law enforcement even understand the significance of that sample even if it does go our way.”
“We just have to educate people then.”
“Yeah, stomp out ignorance like the brushfire it is. It's why I need your big, ugly feet sober.”
Darwin bit his lip. “I do apologize. I just lost it there for a time.”
“You're under a hell of a lot of stress keeping your relationship with Towne a secret all this time. People could, you know, misconstrue your intentions in doing that as well.”
“I'm coming clean with it tomorrow at the prison. Everyone is going to know then. But I do it on my own terms, in my own way.”
“All right. Your secret is safe with me. Now let's go take down the governor.”
“I'm with you.”
THIRTEEN
Don't go looking for airborne, fire-breathing dragons, until you run out of grounded 'gators and crocks.
Portland, Oregon 8 P.M.
The Honorable Governor James Jason Hughes proved to be an expansive man, exuding the dignified air of a man above the common fold who might have regaled people in another time, a man for whom the old European designation for those in power, highness-as in your high-ness-was turned into high-ass, as he physically and metaphorically carried his overweight ass on his shoulder. He indeed proved expansive, both in size and generosity, filling the room with his pancake griddle-sized face and frying-pan hands in welcome, smiling wide all the while. Jessica immediately decided it was all for show. “J.J,” he repeatedly said, “just J. J. to anyone who knows me!”