WHO THE HELL are you?”
Melvin Mars had just awoken and was looking up from his hospital bed.
Amos Decker stared down at him. “You may be the luckiest guy in the world, Mr. Mars.”
“You trying to be funny?”
Mars tried to sit up, but his wrist was handcuffed to the bed railing and it was a struggle because every part of him was hurting. His face looked like a balloon from all the swelling.
Decker dipped his big hand under Mars’s waist and hoisted him to a sitting position against the pillow. He pulled up a chair and sat down.
Mars studied him. “Do I know you?”
“Not unless you remember a linebacker at Ohio State that you humiliated about twenty-two years ago.”
Mars squinted and looked Decker up and down. “I humiliated a lot of people on the field. You pretty big for a backer. You put on some weight?”
“About a hundred pounds. You, on the other hand, look exactly the same.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m with the FBI.”
“You an agent?”
“No, I just work with them.”
“Didn’t know that was a thing.”
“It’s not really.”
“Why are you here?” asked Mars.
“Because of your case. The recent development.”
“Why is the FBI interested?”
“They are because I am,” said Decker.
“Which gets back to my first damn question. Who are you?”
Decker held up his ID badge. “Amos Decker.”
“Why did you say I was lucky? ’Cause I don’t feel lucky.”
“Three reasons: Because someone came forward and confessed to the murders you were convicted of, you might be released. And despite the beating you took, you have no broken bones and no permanent injuries. The docs said your concussion was relatively mild, which means your head is very hard.”
“And the third reason?”
“Two of the guards ratted out their colleague about the ambush back at the prison. So you will not be held legally accountable for what happened.”
“What did happen?”
“One man dead, another man paralyzed.”
“And the colleague, Big Dick?”
“Is right now being processed and jailed by Texas authorities.”
Mars smiled and then laughed out loud, his split lip starting to bleed. “Damn, man. Big Dick on the other side of the bars? It’s a miracle.”
“Forget about Big Dick. You need to focus on you.”
Mars settled his gaze on Decker. “Did we really play college ball against each other?”
“You remember when your Longhorns beat my Buckeyes by five touchdowns? In Columbus?”
Mars smiled again. “Man, were you the one asked me how I did what I did?”
Decker nodded. “That was after your third touchdown.”
Mars shook his head. “What can I say? Worked my ass off, but a lot of it was God-given.”
“God wasn’t as generous with me.”
Mars looked around. “Where am I?”
“After we heard what happened, we had you transferred to a hospital near your old home.”
“When did you get here?”
“We landed about six hours ago.”
“You keep saying ‘we.’”
“I came with a team.”
“A team of FBI agents is interested in my case? Why? Just ’cause some dude confessed? Is it that unique?”
“Unique enough. But it also had some parallels to another case.”
“What case was that?”
Decker said, “One to do with my family. You don’t have to know the details, only that the similarities are striking.”
“So that’s why you’re here?”
Decker studied him. He was good at sizing people up, but Mars was proving a tough one to crack.
“Tell me about your parents.”
“Where’s the rest of your team?”
“You don’t believe what I’m telling you?”
“I don’t believe nobody ’bout nothing.”
“Believe him, Melvin,” said a voice.
Mars looked toward the doorway where his attorney, Mary Oliver, stood. She walked over to the bed and took his free hand as he sat up more.
“Thank God you’re all right,” she said, her eyes moist with tears.
“I’m good, Mary. You know this dude?” Mars asked, indicating Decker.
“I just finished speaking with Special Agent Bogart,” she said. “Mr. Decker is the real deal, Melvin.”
Decker added, “We’re here to try to figure out the truth.”
Mars sat back against the pillow. “The truth? After all this time? I wish you luck.”
“Luck may set you free,” noted Decker.
“Do I have to go back to that prison?” asked Mars.
Decker shook his head. “After what happened, we’re moving you to another place.”
“Where?”
“Federal custody.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means we’re accepting responsibility for you. You’ll have two Feds standing guard over you while you rehab here. After that, you’re in our custody until the outcome of your case is determined.”
“And the state of Texas is okay with that?”
“The state of Texas has its own problems,” said Oliver. “Namely, you can sue them for what happened to you.”
“Are you serious?”
“A conspiracy headed up by one of their guards nearly resulted in your murder. And then they almost beat you to death. So you have a plausible civil claim against them. And a criminal one against the guard and anyone else from the prison involved.”
Decker said, “I wish you luck with that. But that’s not why I’m here.” He looked at Mars. “I’m here about the murders of your parents.”
Mars swiveled his head to stare at Decker. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
“You got paper and pen, ’cause it’s a lot of stuff.”
“I have a good memory,” said Decker. “I don’t forget much.”
The door to the room opened and Jamison came in. She had apparently heard what Decker had said. She held up a recorder.
She said, “But my memory’s not as good, so I always use this.”
“Alex Jamison, Melvin Mars,” said Decker. “She’s also part of the team.”
They shook hands.
Jamison said, “My colleague really wanted to take on this case, Mr. Mars. It’s the only reason we’re here.”
“Yeah, that’s what he told me,” said Mars, staring dead at Decker.
“Tell me about the night your parents were killed,” said Decker as Jamison turned on her recorder.
“If you’re up to it,” said Oliver quickly, placing a protective hand on Mars’s shoulder. “You took a real beating.”
Mars said, “I’m good. You want me to start at the beginning?”
“Yes.”
And Mars did. He talked for well over an hour. Decker frequently interrupted to ask a question or to clarify a point. When Mars was done, Decker said nothing for a few moments.
“You were visiting a friend that night?”
“Yeah, like I said. Ellen Tanner.”
“Where and when did you meet Ellen Tanner?” asked Decker.
Mars frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Right now, everything has to do with everything else,” said Decker matter-of-factly.
Mars drew a long breath, licked his swollen lips, and said, “I met Ellen at a university alumni event the team attended. This was like a few weeks before. She was a big football fan. Good-looking woman. Fun. Smart. We hit it off. We saw each other a lot, actually. And we made plans to see each other that night.”
“And you drove there?”
“Yes.”
“And what did you do while you were there?”
“We had a couple of beers. She had some pot but I said no. That could blow my chance to play in the NFL.”
“Did you two sleep together?”
“She testified that we did.”
“What do you remember?” asked Jamison.
“We had sex, so what?”
“And then you left?”
“Yeah. I had a practice session with my trainer the next morning and wanted to get home and hit the sack. Then my car conked out. So I pulled into the motel and spent the night there.”
Decker said, “The thing is, the timeline provided by Tanner and the motel clerk does not coincide with your story.”
Mars rubbed his eyes. “I know. I heard them testify. All I can tell you is what I know. And I know when I left Ellen’s place. And I know when I checked into the motel.”
Decker sat back. “Your credit card was used at a time that backs up the motel clerk’s account, not yours.”
“You don’t think I know that?” barked Mars.
“I’m just trying to make sense of what on the surface does not make sense. And the last thing we need is for you to lie to us.”
Mars suddenly jerked against the handcuff trapping him to the bed, but it did not give. Jamison and Oliver had jumped back, but Decker hadn’t moved a muscle.
Mars sat back against the pillow, breathing hard. “I’m not lying.”
“Okay,” replied Decker calmly.
“And maybe you’re not here to help me. Maybe you’re here to make sure I stay in prison the rest of my life. Or get the needle. You might be working with the state of Texas for all I know.”
“Why would he be doing that?” asked Jamison.
“How the hell am I supposed to know that?” snapped Mars. “Maybe they brought you in when this Montgomery dude said he killed my parents. Maybe your job is to mess all this up so I don’t get outta prison.”
Everyone was silent for a few moments until Decker said, “But can you explain the time discrepancies?”
“If I could I would have twenty damn years ago, so, no, I can’t.”
“Okay,” said Decker. “So you have no explanation? Nothing else for us to look at on that point?”
Mars shot him an angry glance. “Look, if you don’t believe me, then just leave. ’Cause I got no time for bullshit if you don’t want to get me outta prison.”
Decker rose. “Maybe you misunderstood me, Mr. Mars. I didn’t say I believed you were innocent or that I wanted to get you out of prison. I told you I wanted to find the truth. If it turns out that truth means you are guilty, then they can inject you and you can die, because you’ll have deserved it. But in the meantime, we will continue to investigate this case and let it take us where it does. Is that clear enough for you?”
Jamison and Oliver exchanged a nervous glance.
Mars and Decker stared at each other. The former seemed to be trying to figure out the latter. And the latter seemed to have already turned his mind to other matters.
“I think we understand each other, yeah,” said Mars.
But Decker was already walking toward the door.
After he left Mars turned to Jamison.
“Damn, is the dude always like that?”
“Pretty much,” replied Jamison.