Borrow the Night / The Fifth Caller

BORROW THE NIGHT

Judge Ralph Addison has been receiving threatening letters for the past six days, but he hasn’t taken them seriously. Until now. The seventh letter is followed up by a phone call. He is being watched. Perhaps this isn’t just a prank. The letter states that “you will die when Messick dies,” and is signed “Mr. Justice.” The judge had sentenced young Walter Messick to death for the murder of Faye Harper. But when he goes to the D.A. with his fears, he finds that Patrolman Matt Coleman, also involved in the case, has received the same threatening letters. And now that Messick’s execution is upon them, together they only have one day to find out the truth…or die at the hands of Mr. Justice.

THE FIFTH CALLER

Dr. Lillian Whitehall has been brutally murdered. DA Inspector Doug Marchall knows that the crime occurred at 5:20pm because she was bludgeoned to death with a clock. Everyone assumes that the murderer is her Hungarian nurse, Anna Bardossy, who is lying in a hospital bed, the victim of a suicide attempt and now suffering amnesia. But there were other callers that day: her high-strung patient, her exacting lawyer, her unemployed brother. They all paint a picture of poor put-upon Dr. Whitehall, badgered by her unfaithful nurse. But could there have been another caller, someone who knew what had happened to Anna—and what had caused the doctor’s all-too-timely end?