Free Extenuating Circumstances by Jonathan Valin

changed his story?"
    "He'll change it."
    "Then you don't believe it? The homosexual crap?"
    Finch took a sip of coffee. When he spoke he didn't answer the question directly. "The fucking little queer isn't going to squirm out of the chair on the basis of some bullshit. Not if I can help it."
    "The girlfriend claims he didn't do it. Or that he had help."
    Finch threw his hand at me disgustedly. "She'd say anything now. You heard him in there. The kid admitted that he did it, and he didn't say a word about anybody else."
    "What are you going to tell the family?"
    Finch leaned back in his chair and sighed. "They're downstairs right now. At least the mother and the guy Trumaine are. That's why I'm taking a break. They're here to claim the body."
    "Jesus."
    "Jesus is right. Coroner says Lessing didn't have a face left."
    I got up from the table. "I'd better go find them."
    "Down in the morgue. Bottom floor."
    "You coming?"
    He nodded. "Eventually. I'm not in any hurry to do this. And I'd appreciate it if you'd pave the way."
    "I'll do what I can." I stopped in the doorway and looked back at him. "Are you going to tell them about Carnova's confession?"
    "Don't have a choice," Finch said. "Carnova'll have a PD by tomorrow. He'll want one after he gets done talking to the cons in the holding tank tonight. And even if he's too stubborn to listen to the jailhouse lawyers, the court's going to appoint a defender when he's arraigned. As soon as that happens some of this fag shit is going to make the papers. And it sure as hell's going to come out in court." He gave me a grimly determined look. "But there isn't going to be a word of it in the confession he signs. Not if it takes all night to get the truth out of him. You tell the family that."
 
 
    13
    I found Len Trumaine and Meg Lessing in a tiny waiting room outside the morgue. A police matron was sitting with them, reading a magazine.
    Trumaine tried to smile as I entered the room. But Meg Lessing didn't notice me. The woman was obviously in a bad way. Not just worn out, but worn away by the ordeal. Her handsome face looked seared by it, as if the flesh had boiled off, as if it were all hard white bone. It made her fierce eyes burn like candles in a skull. A coiled rosary sat on a table beside her, untouched.
    I waved Len over to where I was standing in the doorway. In the fluorescent light his face looked green with fatigue.
    "She shouldn't be here, Len," I said, glancing toward Mrs. Lessing.
    "Don't you think I know that?" he said, giving me an exasperated look. "I tried to keep her from coming, believe me. But she started to make a scene. And that was something none of us needed." He glanced at the woman, sitting stock-still in the chair. "Meg has always prided herself on holding together in a crisis, on maintaining the family honor, no matter what. I've never been much on dignity myself. But it's her son, and she felt that one of the Lessings had to be here."
    "She's not going to view the body?"
    He shook his head violently. "Of course not. That's my job."
    I patted his shoulder sympathetically. "How are you holding up?"
    "I'm too worn out to say. If I had any personality left, I'd be dead drunk. Or hysterical, like Janey."
    Behind us in the hall an orderly walked by, pushing a gurney loaded with a corpse. Len shuddered at the sound. "God almighty, what a nightmare."
    I hated like hell to be the one to do it, but I was about to make things worse.
    I took Len by the sleeve and edged far enough out into the hall so that Meg Lessing couldn't overhear us. At one end of the corridor a pair of steel doors led to the mortuary. Another loaded gurney was parked by the doors. A blue cloth lay across the corpse on top; one bare, bloodless foot protruded from underneath. Len stared at the body with horror.
    It was a terrible moment to tell him about Carnova -I knew that. But I also knew that Art Finch would do it if I didn't, and I didn't want Len to hear the story from a cop. I didn't want