Free Death Row by William Bernhardt Page A

parole maintenance period ends?"
    "Six days."
    "Yes. And then you'll be a free man again. Of course, a condition of your release is that you continue to take the medication."
    "I understand that." But I also know that you will cease to check. I will no longer be injected by an officer of the state.
    "How old are you, Gabriel?" As if she didn't have that information in her file.
    "I'm thirty-seven."
    Bennett smiled. "You have your entire life ahead of you. I hope you'll make the most of it."
    "I intend to." Indeed he did.
    "Good. Well, I think that's enough for today."
    They shook hands. He was almost out the door when she said, "Gabriel?"
    "Yes?"
    "Your crime-I want you to know-I don't hold that against you. No one will. You've served your time. You can start over again now with a clean slate. You have no reason to harbor feelings of guilt."
    "Thank you, Doctor. That is very kind of you."
    Kind indeed, he thought, as he made his way to the parking lot. The problem was, contrary to what she thought, she didn't know everything. She thought that stupid incident with the eleven-year-old was his most heinous crime.
    But Aravena knew better. That was not the worst thing he had ever done. That didn't even come close.

Chapter 6
    Erin raised the joint to her lips and drew deeply, sucking the smoke down her throat and into the inner recesses of her lungs. Did it really help? she asked herself. Or was it just a home-rolled placebo? She wasn't sure, but she wanted to believe it brought her relief. Because she very much needed relief.
    She lay back in the bathtub, surrounded by bubble bath and eight scented candles, Enya on the CD player. One way or another, she had to calm herself. She had to make it better. She had to make up for what she had done.
    Visiting Kincaid was a start, maybe, but only that. She was haunted by what he had said. You need to go to the DA. Tell them. At some basic instinctual level, she knew he was right. But what would be the result? Most likely, they would totally disregard what she said and do nothing. As the lawyer had pointed out, the law enforcement community was never anxious to admit that they had made a mistake, much less that they came perilously close to executing an innocent man. They would be more likely to write off what she said to the histrionics of a guilt-ridden girl. A sole survivor. A born-again babe trying to do her good deed for the day. There was no way she could make them act, could force them to listen.
    Wait a minute. Maybe there was. She didn't have to start with the prosecutors. What if she started at the Tulsa World ? She could call up Debbie Jackson at the city desk, tell her what she knew. If the World heard that an innocent man was about to be executed, they would almost certainly run a story. Maybe several stories. The anti-death-penalty faction would take up the banner. This would be a dream case for them. A tormented young woman-and quite attractive, if she did think so herself-trying to prevent a gross miscarriage of justice. If they stirred up enough trouble, the law enforcement people would have to do something.
    Now that was a plan, she thought, and she took another deep and satisfying drag. The hot water soaked into her skin. She could feel the tension-some of it, anyway-melting away. She did what she did, all those years ago, and there was no way she could justify it-not even to herself. All she could hope to do was make it better by telling the world her secret. One of them, anyway. Perhaps revealing the one would make it easier for her to live with the other.
    That was the right thing to do, she realized. That's what would make her daddy proud. Daddy was not... a perfect man. He did things that were wrong. Very wrong. But he would never have stood idly by and let an innocent man be killed without trying to stop it. She had been silent far too long already. She would do whatever she could and perhaps she would finally-
    Erin 's head jerked to one side. Did she hear