Tad found a diner a short walk from his hotel. He sat in an empty booth and pulled a menu from the stand while the waitress went to fetch him a coffee.

It was very late and his traipsing around the city had not got him very far. Jackson had asked him to find Rachel, Carol's injured friend… but she was proving as hard to reach as Henderson's doctor!

There was a buzz from his back pocket and Tad fumbled for his cell.

Well, it looked like his one and only lead from today was bearing fruit. It was a call from David Goldstein, the hospital janitor.

"He'll see you." said Mr Goldstein; referring to his paramedic friend. "If you've got a pen I'll give you the address."

"Thanks," he said plucking a napkin from the holder in the table to write on. "Would he be alright with me visiting him tonight?"

It was after ten and was probably far too late, but the trial began tomorrow and Tad was running out of time!

"No, he wants to see you now." said Mr Goldstein, "He's been sitting on this stuff for twenty years - I had no idea he'd kept it all! - I think he'll be happy to find someone who finally believes him!"

"Stuff?" asked Tad his ears pricking up. What stuff?

…

The address from Mr Goldstein led Tad to a smart apartment building in Brooklyn. He buzzed for flat Twenty-three and after a brief exchange with a disembodied voice from the wall speaker, the door clicked open.

The retired paramedic wasn't quite what he'd expected; he was younger for a start, early forties at best; bearded and relaxed.

"You're the investigator!" the man exclaimed, shaking Tad's hand with enthusiasm and pulling him through to the lounge. "You are looking into Rupert Henderson and the crash aren't you?"

"I am." said Tad following the man through to a pokey room crowded with bookshelves.

The man gestured for Tad to take a seat on the couch. So he sat down amongst the lumpy cushions.

"Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?" said Tad.

"Of course!" said the man, sitting himself down on the armchair opposite. "What did Dave tell you?"

"Dave? Oh, Mr Goldstein! He told me you were the paramedic that picked up Henderson, and that you might have information for me."

The man smirked and sat back in his chair.

"I do!" he said, settling back to tell his story. "It was my first day on the job! First day! We were called to the hit and run at the bus stop. There was so much blood! A girl, her arm ripped half off after she'd been dragged several yards down the street where the bastard and driven off and taken her with him. The other man was crushed and screaming with agony, he didn't survive the night… First scene, first day! That sort of thing stays with you!"

"There would have been another girl there, a blonde, with a mole above her lip."

"Yeah, yeah, bawling her eyes out! She was in shock!"

"But Goldstein said you picked up Henderson?" said Tad, this wasn't the side of the story he was expecting to hear.

"That was four hours later." said the ex-paramedic. "We'd just cleaned up the rig when we were called out to his penthouse. The guy's face was smashed in, sore ribs and his foot… crushed! He was insistent that he slipped on the squash court or something. It didn't take much to work out the connection between his injuries and the crash. I called in my suspicions as soon as we got in the rig but no one came back to me. When Henderson's own son was arrested for the crime I went straight to the police station to tell them their mistake! You hear about police corruption but you never expect to see it for real."

"The cops ignored you?"

"Well the cop I spoke to. He told me to keep out of things I didn't understand. Then I talked to the girl... the witness ...and asked her why she'd lied about the driver, but she told me to leave her alone. She's a big shot lawyer now... I'm sure she got bought off as well! Later that night I got a couple of thugs pay me a visit at my home... told me forcefully to stay out of it!"

"So you gave up?"

"I was living with my mother at the time so I couldn't deal with that kind of trouble. But I didn't exactly give up." said the paramedic. He picked up a battered shoe box from the side. "I kept it all. At the time I felt it important. To tell the truth, until Dave contacted me I'd almost forgotten about it. If you're really are looking into Henderson and the crash, I think you are going to need this."

Tad took the box from him. The top was full of old newspaper cuttings about the crash, but underneath were a couple of zip bags. One contained a pair of balled up green vinyl gloves, the second a strip of blue fabric spotted with dark stains."

"That's a part of his shirt." said the paramedic.

"Is this blood?" Tad asked holding up the bag, referring to the black stains.

"Some of its blood." said the paramedic, "But some of it I'm sure is engine oil."

"And you kept this?"

"I was certain some day someone would start investigating this properly if I just waited long enough." said the paramedic giving Tad an encouraging grin.

Tad looked down at the box in his hands. This was exactly the proof they needed as leverage against Henderson.

Then Tad had another thought.

"If you were on the scene for the bus crash then that means the girl who lost her arm was treated at the same hospital as Henderson."

"Yeah." said the former paramedic.

"Do you know what happened to her?" Tad asked.

The man leant forward and plucked a letter out from the small collection of newspapers.

"She's in Philadelphia." he said. "Or at least she was when she wrote me this thank you letter."

The letter was dated almost fifteen years ago, but if she was still there this coincidence was more than unexpected.

It seemed at the moment all roads led to Philadelphia and JR's trial.

…