At 4:17 p.m., Amelia’s motion was filed.
At 4:42 p.m., the attorney general’s office opposed it.
At 5:06 p.m., a judge called for an emergency review.
And at 5:38 p.m., twenty-two minutes before Gavin Cole was scheduled to be strapped to the execution gurney, the call came through.
Warden Mitchell answered it in his office.
He listened.
His face revealed nothing.
Then he closed his eyes.
“Understood,” he said.
He hung up and stood there for a moment with his hand still resting on the receiver.
Denise rose from her chair. “Warden?”
Mitchell looked through the doorway to where Chloe sat with the folded photograph in her lap.
“The execution is stayed,” he said.
Chloe did not seem to understand at first.
Denise knelt in front of her. “That means your daddy won’t die tonight.”
The girl stared at her.
Then, for the first time since entering the prison, Chloe cried.
