Free Last Light by C. J. Lyons

have seen me in rehab, sounded worse than a robot.”
    “Okay, let’s get back to the case,” Lucy said, trying to regain control of the conversation.
    “Wait,” Tommy said from the screen. “I just have one more question for Mr. Ruiz—not medical-related, if that’s okay.”
    TK had warned her that the pediatrician would stray from his area of expertise. “Go ahead, Tommy.”
    “When were you going to tell us that the killer we’re working to get out of prison is your father?”
     

 

 
 
 
Chapter 9
     
     
    DAVID LOOKED UP at the two women in the room staring at him and then at the computer screen with the image of the two men back in Pennsylvania. “Sorry. I thought you knew. My mother was the girl with Michael Manning on the night of the killings. She’s his alibi witness.”
    “Whose testimony was discounted,” Worth, the pediatrician, added. Hostility radiated from the man although he’d never met David before. But Worth’s gaze through the computer monitor was directed past David to TK. Did the two of them have a relationship?
    “Yes,” he answered Worth’s accusation. “My mother’s family has lived in the area for generations. Longer than the Mannings—or the Blackwells, for that matter. But an under-aged, brown-skinned girl with relatives who speak with an accent and a funny last name? No one will listen to a word you say.”
    Lucy pursed her lips and then relaxed, turned to face him, her body posture open. “We’re listening now. What does your mother have to say?”
    He blew out his breath, exasperated. If only it were that easy, proving Michael’s alibi. “Not a hell of a lot. Except she’s sure he didn’t do it—even though he could have left her while she slept. That much she will admit. And the other witness puts my father and uncle at the scene of the crime after my father took her home.”
    “Which the brothers both admitted, being in the area that morning. So she’s really not much of an alibi, then, is she?” TK said in her blunt fashion. She was by far the easiest of them to read.
    “She wants me to go talk to him. In person. Make peace or some such thing. Says it’s important.” David felt as if he were making a confession, admitting his own emotional involvement. As a journalist, he’d always prided himself on being able to maintain a professional detachment from his subjects. One more thing lost in that Humvee explosion.
    “Tell me you didn’t drag us all the way across the country just because you’re too chickenshit to face your daddy.” This time Lucy sliced a glare at TK that made the other woman flush. But David didn’t mind. He was quite enjoying TK’s refreshing honesty.
    He sighed. How to explain? All this, everything he was doing wasn’t for Michael Manning. It was all for Maria. Keeping his promise to her, leaving no stone unturned.
    “My mother raised me by herself, dragging me all over the state as my father was transferred from prison to prison. Somehow, along the way, she managed to save enough money for me to go to journalism school. She’s the one who got the Justice Project involved in Michael’s case last year after my uncle died in prison. I haven’t spoken to the man since I graduated college and began my career as a reporter eight years ago. But the Justice Project has arranged for me to visit with him tomorrow.”
    “Whatever. We’re here now.” TK shrugged as if conceding a point.
    “I asked for the Beacon Group’s help because the appeals process is going slowly and my mother is dying. The doctors say she’s already hung on weeks longer than they expected. All she wants is to see my father set free.”
    “You’re not giving us much to go on,” Lucy said. “I thought you told Valencia you found a hole in the prosecutor’s case? A maybe-sorta alibi witness who can’t account for the entire night doesn’t really count.”
    “That’s the problem. I’ve always believed my father was guilty and my mother was chasing