The last meal, the last walk, the last statement. Donte had never understood the significance of these final details. Why the fascination with what a man consumed just before he died? It wasn't as though the food gave comfort, or strengthened the body, or postponed the inevitable. The food, along with the organs, would soon be flushed out and incinerated. What good did it do? After feeding a man gruel for decades, why pamper him with something he might enjoy just before you kill him?

He could vaguely recall the early days on death row and his horror of what he was supposed to eat. He'd been raised by a woman who appreciated and enjoyed the kitchen, and though Roberta relied too heavily on grease and flour, she also grew her own vegetables and was careful with processed ingredients. She loved to use herbs, spices, and peppers, and her chickens and meats were highly seasoned. The first meat Donte was served on death row was allegedly a slice of pork, and completely devoid of taste. He lost his appetite the first week and never regained it.

Now, at the end, he was expected to order a feast and be thankful for this one last favor. As silly as it was, virtually all condemned men gave thought to the final meal. They had so little else to think about. Donte had decided days earlier that he wanted to be served nothing that even remotely resembled dishes his mother once prepared. So he ordered a pepperoni pizza and a glass of root beer. It arrived at 4:00 p.m., rolled into the holding cell on a small tray by two guards. Donte said nothing as they left. He'd been napping off and on throughout the afternoon, waiting on his pizza, waiting on his lawyer. Waiting on a miracle, though by 4:00 p.m. he'd given up.

In the hallway, just beyond the bars, his audience watched without a word. A guard, a prison official, and the chaplain who'd tried twice to talk to him. Twice Donte had rejected the offers of spiritual counseling. He wasn't sure why they watched him so closely, but presumed it was to prevent a suicide. How he might go about killing himself wasn't clear, not in this holding cell. If Donte could have committed suicide, he would have done so months earlier. And now he wished he had. He would already be gone, and his mother could not watch him die.

For a palate neutralized by tasteless white bread, bland applesauce, and an endless stream of "mystery meats," the pizza was surprisingly delicious. He ate it slowly.

Ben Jeter stepped to the bars and asked, "How's the pizza, Donte?"

Donte did not look at the warden. "It's fine," he said softly.

"Need anything?"

He shook his head no. I need a lot of things, pal, not a damned one of which you can provide. And if you could, you wouldn't. Just leave me alone.

"I think your lawyer's on the way."

Donte nodded and picked up another slice.

At 4:21, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans denied relief under Donte's claim of mental illness. The Flak Law Firm immediately filed in the U.S. Supreme Court a petition for a writ of certiorari, or cert, as it's known; a request that the Court hear the appeal and consider the merits of the petition. If cert was granted, the execution would be stopped, and time would pass while the dust settled and briefs were filed. If cert was denied, the claim would be dead, and so would the claimant, in all likelihood. There was no other place to appeal.

At the Supreme Court Building in Washington, the "death clerk" received the cert petition electronically and distributed it to the offices of the nine justices.

There was no word on the Boyette petition pending before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

When the King Air landed in Huntsville, Robbie called the office and was informed of the adverse ruling in the Fifth Circuit. Joey Gamble had not yet found his way to the law office of Agnes Tanner in Houston. The governor had denied a reprieve, in spectacular fashion. There were currently no new fires in Slone, but the National Guard was on the way. A depressing phone call, but then Robbie had expected little else.

He, Aaron, Martha, and Keith jumped into a minivan driven by an investigator Robbie had used before, and they raced off. The prison was fifteen minutes away. Keith called Dana and tried to explain what was happening in his life, but the explanation got complicated, and others were listening. She was beyond bewildered and certain that he was doing something stupid. He promised to call back in a few moments. Aaron called the office and talked to Fred Pryor. Boyette was up and moving about, but slowly. He was complaining because he had not talked to any reporters. He expected to tell his side of the story to everyone, and it seemed as if no one wanted to hear him. Robbie was frantically trying to reach Joey Gamble, with no luck. Martha Handler took her usual pages of notes.

At 4:30, Chief Justice Milton Prudlowe convened the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, by teleconference, to consider the Boyette petition in the case of Donte Drumm. The court had not been impressed with Boyette. The general feeling was that he was a publicity seeker with serious credibility issues. After a brief discussion, he called the roll. The vote was unanimous; not a single judge voted to grant relief to Donte Drumm. The clerk of the court e-mailed the decision to the attorney general's office, the lawyers fighting Donte's appeals; to Wayne Wallcott, the governor's lawyer; and to the law office of Robbie Flak.

The van was almost at the prison when Robbie got the call from Carlos. Though he'd been reminding himself throughout the afternoon that relief was unlikely, he still took it hard. "Sons of bitches!" he snapped. "Didn't believe Boyette. Denied, denied, denied, all nine of them. Sons of bitches."

"What happens next?" Keith asked.

"We run to the U.S. Supreme Court. Let 'em see Boyette. Pray for a miracle. We're running out of options."

"Did they give a reason?" Martha asked.

"Nope, they don't have to. The problem is that we want desperately to believe Boyette, and they, the chosen nine, have no interest in believing him. Believing Boyette would upset the system. Excuse me. I gotta call Agnes Tanner. Gamble's probably in a strip club getting plastered while a lap dancer works him over."

There were no strippers, no stops or detours, just a couple of wrong turns. Joey walked into the law office of Agnes Tanner at 4:40, and she was waiting at the door. Ms. Tanner was a hard-nosed divorce lawyer who, when bored, occasionally volunteered for a capital murder defense. She knew Robbie well, though they had not spoken in over a year.

She was holding the affidavit and, after a tense "Nice to meet you," led Joey to a small meeting room. She wanted to ask him where he had been, why it took so long, whether he was drunk, if he realized they were out of time, and why he lied nine years ago and had sat on his fat ass ever since. She wanted to grill him for an hour, but there was no time; plus, he was moody and unpredictable, according to Robbie.

"You can read this, or I'll tell you what it says," she said, waving the affidavit.

Joey sat in a chair, buried his face in his hands, and said, "Just tell me."

"It gives your name, address, all that crap. It says you testified at the trial of Donte Drumm on such and such date in October 1999; that you gave crucial testimony on behalf of the prosecution, and in your testimony you told the jury that on the night of Nicole's disappearance, at about the same time, you saw a green Ford van driving suspiciously through the parking lot where her car was parked, and that the driver appeared to be a black male, and that the van was very similar to the one owned by Donte Drumm. There are a lot more details, but we don't have time for details. Are you with me, Joey?"

"Yes." His eyes were covered, and he appeared to be crying.

"You now recant that testimony and swear that it was not true. You're saying that you lied at trial. Got that, Joey?"

He nodded his head in the affirmative.

"And it goes on to say that you made the anonymous phone call to Detective Drew Kerber in which you informed him that Donte Drumm was the killer. Again, lots of details, but I'll spare you. I think you understand all this, Joey, don't you?"

He uncovered his face, wiped tears, and said, "I've lived with this for a long time."

"Then fix it, Joey." She slapped the affidavit on the table and thrust a pen at him. "Page five, bottom right. Quickly."

He signed the affidavit, and after it was notarized, it was scanned and e-mailed to the Defender Group office in Austin. Agnes Tanner waited for a confirmation, but it bounced back. She called a lawyer at the Defender Group--it had not been received. There had been some problems with their Internet server. Agnes sent it again, and again it was not received. She barked at a clerk who began faxing the five pages.

Joey, suddenly neglected, left the office without being noticed. He at least expected someone to say thanks.

The prison in Huntsville is called the Walls Unit. It's the oldest prison in Texas, built the old way with tall, thick brick walls, thus the name. Its storied history includes the incarcerations of once-famous outlaws and gunslingers. Its death chamber has been used to execute more men and women than any other state. The Walls Unit is proud of its history. A block of the oldest cells has been preserved and presents a step back in time. Tours can be arranged.

Robbie had been there twice before, always hurried and burdened and disinterested in the history of the Walls Unit. When he and Keith walked in the front door, they were met by Ben Jeter, who managed a smile. "Hello, Mr. Flak," he said.

"Hello, Warden," Robbie said grimly, grabbing his wallet. "This is Donte's spiritual adviser, the Reverend Keith Schroeder." The warden shook hands cautiously. "Wasn't aware that Drumm had a spiritual adviser."

"Well, he does now."

"Okay. Give me som............