get back?"
Grabbing up her purse and cell phone, Leah started out the door. "I'm going to the hospital afterward. If I get any more calls, direct them to Dean Crabbet. And give Val a big kiss for me when he wakes up."
By the time she reached Dan Braden's Quarter Horses, a half-hour drive from Leah's, the horse's impaction had cleared itself. Just to be on the safe side, she hung around for another twenty minutes, making certain there were no more heaves or spewing, draining nostrils. She collected her forty-five-dollar trip fee and headed for the hospital.
There were no police cars and barricades. No weeping, screaming young women, no television crews. Something was up.
The woman behind the registration desk peered at Leah over her bifocals. "Mr. Whitehorse is no longer at this hospital."
Leah checked her watch. "It's only eight-thirty. Surely he hasn't—"
"Left the hospital sometime last night, or early this morning. He was gone when I came on duty at five-thirty." She smiled and shrugged. "Sorry."
Sitting in the truck at a red light, Leah called home. Shamika answered on the second ring.
"Has Roy Moon or Johnny called?"
"Nope."
"Johnny's not at the hospital."
"That's good. It means he was well enough to leave."
"But the doctor said it was imperative that he stay the night for observation."
"Hon, from what you've told me about Mr. Whitehorse, I suspect he is going to do exactly what he wants to do. I doubt he's going to lay around in bed waiting for the vultures to land. He's going to find him a place to hole up for a while, keep out of the public eye while he gets his life back in order."
"I thought he might have called, is all."
Silence.
"I guess there's no reason for him to call, is there? I mean unless Roy told him I was at the hospital last night."
"I'm sure Roy told him."
The light changed and traffic surged around her.
"Sure you don't want some breakfast?" Shamika asked.
"Why not." Disconnecting the call, Leah then threw the phone on the seat.
There were two black cars parked in the driveway when Leah arrived home. Truck idling, she sat behind the steering wheel, staring at the government-issue license plates, feeling her stomach form a fist-sized knot. She thought of making an about-face and heading back to Braden's, just to make positively certain his horse was not still choking, but then a man in a brown sports coat got out of one of the cars and stood staring at her. She could hardly make an unnoticed getaway now.
She drove around the cars, ignoring the watchful driver, and parked by the barn. There was no use in stalling the inevitable, so she headed for the house, then peered through the screen door with her hands cupped around her eyes. Shamika sat at the kitchen table, softly encouraging Val to feed himself from the pile of scrambled eggs on his plate.
Leah, quietly as possible, stepped into the kitchen. Shamika looked around, eyebrows raised.
"Where is he?" Leah whispered.
"Waiting in the living room. Watching CNN, of course. I'll warn you, he's not happy."
"What have I done now?"
"Better have a look at that." Shamika thumbed toward a newspaper on the table.
Picking up the paper, Leah opened it to the headlines and a color photo of Dolores's smashed, blackened car. Dolores's and Johnny's pictures were side by side, the caption reading, "News Correspondent Killed Instantly in Fiery Crash. Whitehorse Under Investigation."
Frowning, Leah shook her head. "What's this got to do with my father and me?"
"Turn the page. Wait. Maybe you should sit down first."
Leah opened the paper.
There was a photo center page.
She and Johnny dancing together at Randy's Bar and Grill, smiling into one another's eyes, bodies close, a portrait of lovers.
"When the hell did they take that?" she said to herself.
"To summarize the story, you and Johnny are an item—a very juicy tidbit considering Johnny is out to destroy the senator. According to the valet at Randy's, Dolores left the restaurant in a huff of jealousy after finding you two 'wrapped in one another's arms on the dance floor.' She and Johnny had a terrible fight in the parking lot. Things got really ugly. Lots of screaming, crying, and profanity. They even scuffled. Johnny drove away from the restaurant like a bat out of hell."
"Shit."
"I'd say that was putting it mildly." Shamika gave Val a big smile and popped a piece of egg in his mouth.
"Would you like me to take Val for a drive?"
She shook her head and tossed the paper onto