Charles Robinson
He hadn't been a number given by the Machine, but John Reese had saved his life all the same. From all the data she had compiled on John Reese, the Machine knew this man mattered as much as James and Henry Wheeler did. He was one of the first to have been saved by John Reese, too.
So the Machine sent him a letter.
Charles Robinson always checked his mail before leaving his small apartment. Today, most people would rather send e-mails or even call, but there were some things that still came thanks to the post office. And as a former criminal, and still on parole, Charles Robinson sometimes got important mail that he didn't want to miss.
Three days after Primary Asset n°1's demise, Charles Robinson found a kraft paper envelope in his mailbox. The man stared at it for a good minute, wondering if perhaps someone was trying to threaten him with incriminatory pictures, because that had happened before.
Then he remembered he hadn't done one criminal thing in six years, not since he had been paroled, even if at first he had considered a few odd jobs... But one day Stills and some other cops had tried to frame him for the murder of an attorney, before murdering him too. A man in a suit he didn't know had walked in and saved both the attorney's and his own lives.
Charles Robinson had never been a dangerous criminal. When Wheeler had gotten him into jail, years ago, it had been about a scam, nothing else. Yes, he might have given a few punches and kicks here and there, but overall, Charles Robinson wasn't a bad man.
Maybe a misled one.
And since that day with Stills and the man in a suit, he had made sure never to be caught in anything dubious again. It wasn't always easy, but it worked, and he couldn't say he wasn't happy never to have seen a prison from the inside again.
Curious, Charles Robinson opened the envelope.
His heart missed a beat.
There was only one document in it, and the man recognized it immediately for what it was. A notice of death, and the subsequent invitation to the funeral.
But what really mattered was the provided name and the picture of the deceased.
There was no way Charles Robinson could ever forget that face.
"John Reese, aka the Man in a Suit", it said. The man almost felt like smiling a bit, as he was proved to be right after all these years. The man who had saved that attorney and him had been the Man in a Suit. He had thought so, as the rumors had started the following weeks.
He didn't smile.