Urgh, can't really find the time to write at the moment, so I'm sorry about the shortness of the resent chapters and the long wait. But just so you know, I'm haven't giving up on the story and I will continue writing whenever I can :)

Chapter 36 – Paul's discovery

"Well…" Harry began in a stern tone. Then he paused and let the word flow around the superior's office. It sounded like the herald of something bigger and Dean looked bleary-eyed up from his part of the paperwork.

"Well, what?" Brutus grunted and turned a page in Coffey's file. Harry looked from him and Dean to Ellie cleaning the coffee machine and back to Brutus again. He frowned.

"Why are we all just sitting here like the last couple of days never occurred? Paul is home, having a day off, for crying out loud!" He gazed around at them. "What about Coffey? What's gonna happen now?"

"Don't you think we have enough to worry about at the moment," Brutus responded tiredly, gesturing towards the piles of paperwork they still needed to go through. "Coffey ain't going nowhere."

Harry looked resentful, but bowed his head and went on scribbling. After a moment he growled:

"You think they are gonna hire a new guard?"

"Dunno…" Brutus answered bluntly. He had had it up to here with Percy and papers and files and forms and all he wanted was to go home, far away from the Mile and not think about anything at all.

"It could only be an improvement," Dean said. "Right?"

Harry nodded gruffly. "Anyway, I'm glad he's gone." When Brutus raised a brow at him, he added. "Not the way it happened, obviously, though he kinda had it coming if you ask me."

"It's not a joke, Harry," Brutus responded sternly. "We made a mistake. It could have ended a lot worse."

"But it didn't."

"No, but it could have."

"Guys, stop arguing," Ellie interrupted softly, putting a hand on Brutus' shoulder when she leaned in to remove their empty coffee cups. "You can't change what happened anyway, so please, let bygones be bygones. No one is blaming you for it. Not even the governor."

"Blaming us?" Harry murmured. "If he had known Percy and Wetmore the way we did, he would have honored us with a medal."

"Shut up, Harry," Brutus said, but less harsh this time, like a growl from a vicious guard dog who was getting its ear scratched by the owner. He scrambled the finished reports together and got to his feet, so he could file them. "Can't we just talk about something else?"

"Sure, what does the big boss wanna talk about then?" Harry asked dryly. "The wonderful weather? The amazing apple pie my wife made last night?"

Brutus sighed and turned away from the cabinet, ready to snap a response back at him just to over up the fact that the bare thought of the shooting still gave him a bad taste in his mouth, but a movement outside the window caught his attention. Brutus frowned.

"Paul's here," he said.

"What?"

"I'm tellin' ya, he just walked across the yard."

A key rummaged in the main door's keyhole and the men spun around in their chairs to stare at the entrant. Paul walked in, dressed in civil clothing and looking slightly winded. He smiled at their confused faces.

"Boy, I'm glad you guys are still here," he said and took of his coat. "I've got something mighty groundbreaking to tell you."

oOo

After having reassured his men that he hadn't lost his mind by coming to work on his day of, Paul pulled a chair up the desk and sat down.

"I just came from the Dettericks."

"The parents of the murdered girls?" Dean said, while the others looked blank. "Why?"

"I needed to confirm a suspicion I've been having. I had to talk to them, but..."

"About what?"

"If you guys would let me finish talking, I would tell you," Paul responded impatiently and the men felt silent, though still looking dubious.

"I went to visit the Detterick family, because something has been nagging at the back of my mind for quite a while," Paul continued. "'Why would Coffey make Percy shoot Wharton'? It makes no sense…"

"Who says he…" Harry interrupted, but Paul quieted him with a single look and the old guard slumped back in his chair with a frown.

"However," Paul began again. "I kept thinking: What could Wharton possibly have done that would make John Coffey kill him? He never harmed the guy the way Percy did. They could hardly see each other, let alone talk. So why did he do it?"

No one said anything. They waited for Paul to answer his own question. Paul looked around at them.

"John Coffey killed Wharton," he finished quietly, "because he knew that Wharton was the one who raped and murdered the Detterick-girls."

His men and Ellie stared at him until Brutus broke the silence with a stunned, humorless chuckle. "What?!"

Paul nodded. "My first thought exactly, but it's was the only think that made sense. That's why I went to see Klaus Detterick, the father of the girls: I had to ask him if a boy named William Wharton had ever sat foot on his property."

"So?" Dean asked in a funny, hushed voice, when Paul felt silent. "Had he?"

Paul nodded.

"Jessus…" Brutus muttered.

"William Wharton had worked for him three days in May this year," Paul explained, "a simple paint job, just a few months before the hold-up that caught him in the end. He even ate with the family two nights in a row, Klaus told me. He met the girls. He talked to them. He knew the dog too and it knew him. And he probably knew that the twins used to sleep on the porch when it was too hot to sleep inside."

"But how did Coffey know?" Ellie asked. She looked pale and horrified. "Was that… You think he saw it when Wharton grabbed him?"

Paul shrugged.

"I don't know," he said gravely. "But something happened between them at that moment. You all remember how shocked he looked, when Wharton touched him. Like he suddenly knew something, something that truly terrified him."

"But…" Harry said, crossing his arms thoughtfully. "All of this is just conjectures, Paul. It's not that I don't believe you, but we can't really know for sure, can we? We have zero proofs."

"We could ask John," Dean said, before Paul had a chance to open his mouth. "He could tell us why."

"I doubt it," Paul said, looking hesitant. "Anyway, we can't ask him now. Your shift is over in just a few minutes. We'll have to wait to tomorrow night. But I'll bet it's gonna be fruitless. When has John Coffey ever told us anything?"

Dean was ready to argue, when a key rattled in the keyhole for the second time that afternoon and the office went unusually quiet. The door swung open and Bill came plodding into office.

"Hello, guys," he said, not noticing their serious faces because he was to busy staring at Paul and grinning. "Did you leave your house without your uniform this morning?"

"I haven't actually been to work. I just came by for a chat," Paul said.

"Well, now you're here I might as well give you this," Billy said and pulled out a brown file from his inside pocket. "From the warden."

"What is it?"

"John Coffey's date of execution," Bill said. "Next week. So you guys better start practicing."