But his fist hardly got above chest height as he thought about its timing. Then he read it again and looked at the e-mail address.
‘Oh Shiiiiii-’ The clenched fist was abruptly dropped. He looked towards the eight phones on the far wall separated by glass side-screens, and nodded towards Nielsen. ‘Quick call to make. Okay?’
Nielsen mumbled something indiscernible without hardly looking up and gave a begrudging nod.
It took Alaysha Reyner only eight minutes to get the e-mail from Joshua Durrant half right.
But from that point on it was slower going. Despite three more drafts and numerous small changes, it was still no more than seventy per cent there. One hundred per cent right was starting to look elusive.
She’d hopefully got the overall tone and phraseology right from Joshua’s last few e-mails, but then she reminded herself that there’d been a long gap from the last e-mail, and also Durrant was now that much closer to his execution date. After a brief explanation and apology for the lack of contact, it should without doubt be weightier and more emotional than the past e-mails. After all, this might be one of the last times Joshua Durrant would have contact with his father.
Alaysha dabbed at a stray tear as she became deeper immersed in the e-mail and what it represented.
Molly at her side was looking concerned. ‘Are you okay, Mommy?’
‘Yes, I’m okay, honey. I’m fine.’ She gave Molly a reassuring hug.
Though now, Alaysha started to worry that she might have overcooked it. Too much emotion, not enough… she continued juggling to try and get the balance right.
Jac found himself looking more and more at his watch as the afternoon progressed.
All of it happening out there in cyberspace between the city and Libreville prison, and now, having set it all in motion, the realization that he no longer had control over it. Everything hanging in the balance, Durrant’s life, Jac’s career too if it went wrong, and to make matters worse, he’d suddenly found himself facing a flurry of work to assist John Langfranc with a trial preparation.
Jac didn’t want to let Langfranc down, but he was finding it increasingly hard to focus as it approached four-thirty. Langfranc, understanding as ever, had only asked once, ‘How’s it going?’, but he couldn’t help noticing Langfranc’s look when he’d returned after disappearing without warning for twenty minutes to make his calls outside to set everything in motion.
The minutes dragged even more excruciatingly as four-thirty passed. Jac rubbed at his chest. Tension was knotted so tight there that it felt like indigestion.
He took a deep breath to try and ease it, pushed again to immerse himself in Langfranc’s case, if nothing else as a distraction; and at some stage he was partly successful, his note-making on a pad at last beginning to flow — because when his cell-phone rang at 4.47 p.m. with Rodriguez’ call, it made him jump slightly.
‘We got that e-mail through… or should I say, an e-mail from Josh. But there’s somethin’ that worries me about it…’
Jac felt such a rush of elation and ebbing of tension at Rodriguez’ first words that he only half-absorbed what followed.
‘Whoa… whoa. Back up a minute. What is it exactly that worries you about it?’
‘Like I said — first thing is that it arrived only fourteen minutes after I sent the samples, whereas I thought it’d be twenty minutes or so. Second thing is it said a couple o’ things that didn’t relate at all to those earlier samples… unless, that is, she’s into makin’ really big, not to mention brave, leaps o’magination. And third — and main — thing is it didn’t come from the same e-mail address where I sent ‘em, or anythin’ like it.’
‘How different are they?’
Rodriguez read them out, and Jac had to agree, it definitely wasn’t from the same internet cafe, and its personalization, friggy22, bore no relation to Alaysha’s name or what they were doing that day.
‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ Jac voiced. ‘Even though we didn’t think he could…’
‘Yeah, that’s what I thought immediately I saw it: the main man himself.’
Jac left his sentence unfinished in case of prying ears, and no doubt for the same reason Rodriguez said ‘man’ instead of ‘boy’, in case it was too obvious. But they were both clearly leaning the same way: that somehow, against the odds, Joshua Durrant himself had sent it.
‘Jesus!’ As the knock-on implication hit Jac, it brought him to his feet. ‘That means if she still… I’d better get hold of her before — ’ He was still trapped in a cycle of unfinished sentences.
‘Exactly my thoughts, Counselor. We’d be in an overkill situation. That’s why I called you straight off. You got some pretty fast shoe-shufflin’ to do.’
‘Yeah.’ Instantly Jac cut off, he called Alaysha’s cell-phone, but it went straight into her service provider’s message service. She’d obviously switched it off so that she wasn’t disturbed while preparing the e-mail.
‘Alaysha. If you pick this up in time, something unexpected has cropped up — so for God’s sake don’t send that e-mail. And phone me as soon as you get this message.’
He dialled 411 to get the number for Netwave, and took the option of being put straight through. Jac looked anxiously at his watch: already three minutes over by her shortest estimate, six or seven to go by her longest.
But as he started explaining what he wanted, he noticed John Langfranc looking over at him again. Jac quickly averted his eyes to his desk, as if in concentration. He’d no doubt cut a picture of perfect panic the past few minutes.
‘…can’t miss her. Mixed race, real beauty. Somewhere between Beyonce and Mariah Carey. And she’s with a young girl.’
‘I’m sorry, sir. The computers are all upstairs, and most people head straight up there, so often I don’t get a good look at them.’
‘She said she’d be there now, and it’s really important that I get hold of her. Could you go up and see if she’s there for me?’
‘I… uh, it’s pretty irregular, sir — and real difficult right now. I’m on my own here, and there’s already people backing up waiting on their lattes. I just can’t break away at this moment.’
Lattes? ‘She said she’d be having coffee for a while.’ As Jac spoke, he tapped out a quick message to Alaysha’s last e-mail address. She said she’d shift to another computer, but it was worth a try. ‘Maybe she’s still with you in the cafe?’
‘Mmmmm, no. Sorry. Nobody here right now fitting that description.’
‘Then she must be upstairs.’ He was getting desperate. ‘Please, I’m begging you. It’s absolutely vital that I get hold of her — a matter of life and death.’
‘I’m sure it is, sir. But if I break off right now and my manager finds out, it’ll be my death.’ His voice drifted for a second as he addressed someone in the background. ‘Yes, I know… I know. Coming right up.’ He sighed heavily as he came back to Jac. ‘Look, give me a couple of minutes to serve these two people — then I’ll go up. That’s the best I can offer.’
‘Okay. Thanks.’ Jac in turn eased his own sigh of relief.
But hanging on the line, listening to the background clatter and hiss of the espresso machine as the seconds ticked by, Jac felt his nerves too begin to bubble and steam. If Alaysha had already sent the e-mail, they were sunk; with the one just arrived, the monitoring guard would know immediately it was false. The last chance of saving Durrant gone, and no doubt the death-knell for Jac’s legal career too if it was connected back to him.
Jac looked up with a jolt as John Langfranc broke into his thoughts.