including the region's congressman. Guy Beaulieu had once described himself to Zack as 'just a plain, old, small- town Canuck, lucky enough to be born to parents who wouldn't let him quit school to work in the mills.'
It was good, at least, to see that so many people knew better. Later, as Zack and the other pall bearers shuffled up the aisle with Guy's casket, his eyes and Frank's met briefly. He felt so distant from the man-so totally detached. Had they really grown up in the same home, played in the same yard year after year? Had they really worn the same clothes, shared so many childhood dreams? Had they really once been fast friends?
The hope of reestablishing a friendship with his brother suddenly seemed naive. They would make do, perhaps, tolerate one another, even work together. They would spend sterile time together at family functions.
But they would never be close. The open hearse was festooned with flowers. Zack, feeling overwhelmed by the sadness and futility of it all, helped slide the heavy casket into place among them. 'Excuse me, Doctor, ' a voice behind him said as he stepped back from the casket.
'Kin I talk to you?'
Zack turned and was surprised to find himself confronting the huge security guard, Henry Flowers, who seemed ill at ease in a dark suit and solid black tie. Looking on, several respectful steps behind him, was a petite, plain young woman in a white lace dress-almost certainly the man's wife. 'Yes? ' Zack asked. The guard shifted uncomfortably. 'I… uh… I wanted you to know that I'm real sorry for what happened to Dr.
Beaulieu, ' he said. 'He took care of my wife's mother once, real good care, and he's never done nothin' bad to me… Dr Iverson, I never laid a hand on him except to grab his wrist. I swear it I… His voice drifted away. It took several moments before Zack realized that the man did not know the results of the autopsy, and if he did he did not understand them. Zack reached out and put a hand on the guard's shoulder 'You didn't do anything that caused Dr. Beaulieu's death, Henry, ' he said, loudly enough for the man's wife to hear. 'He had an aneurysm — a time bomb-in his head, and it just happened to go off while you were there.'
Relief flooded the guard's pocked face. 'Thanks, Doc, ' he said, pumping Zack's hand as if it were the handle on a tractor-trailer jack. 'Oh, God, thanks a lot. If there's ever anything I can do for you, just ask.
Anything.'
He backed away, and then grabbed his tiny wife by the arm and Zack watched until the incongruous couple had disappeared around the corner.
Then he turned and headed to his camper, feeling marginally less morose.
At least one other who had shared those awful moments in the quiet room had been affected by them. The procession to All Saints Cemetery was, according to the Judge, as long as any Sterling had ever seen. Following the service, Zack accompanied Frank and their parents to the shaded spot where Marie Fontaine and her mother were receiving final condolences.
Marie, who seemed to have aged a year in just three days since her return home, accepted an embrace from Cinnie and a kiss on the cheek from the Judge. However, she barely touched Frank's outstretched hand before pulling away. 'It was good of you to come, ' she said coolly.
Your father meant a great deal to all of us, ' Frank replied blandly.
She eyed him for a moment, and then said simply, 'That's nice to know.'
Zack glanced over at his parents, but saw nothing to suggest that they appreciated the tension in the brief exchange. Marie then turned to him, took both his hands in hers, and kissed him by the ear. 'Please stop by our limousine, ' she whispered Imperceptible to the others, Zack nodded.
Half an hour later, Zack sat across from Marie Fontaine and Clothilde Beaulieu in the back of the mortuary's black stretch Cadillac. The smoked-glass windows, including the partition separating them from the driver, were closed, but the limo's air-conditioning system kept the steamy afternoon at bay. Marie's husband, a gaunt, bearded man whose quiet dignity reminded Zack a little of her father, stood outside. 'We wanted you to know how grateful we are for all you've done, Marie began.
'Your father was always very good to me.'
'He was very good to everyone, ' she said. 'That's why it's so hard to understand why nobody stood up for him while he was being murdered.'
Zack's impulse was to correct her, but the intensity of her eyes told him not to bother. 'It upsets me a great deal to think that anyone might have deliberately set about to ruin him, ' he said. 'Not anyone, Zack.
Ultramed.'
'What?'
'Zack, we know Father confided in you. We know that even though your brother runs the hospital, he thought you would give him the benefit of an open mind. Was he right?'
'I told him I would listen and that I would respect his confidence, if that's what you mean.'
Marie glanced over at her mother, who nodded her approval of Zack's response. 'That's exactly what we mean, ' she went on. 'Several years ago, Father opposed the sale of the hospital to Ultramed. He just didn t believe an outside corporation should be given such a vital foothold in this community-at least, not with so little community involvement or control. If it weren't for your father's influence, we think he would have succeeded in blocking it. But that is neither here nor there, now.
Did you know that shortly after they took over at the hospital, Ultramed took legal action to fire him?'
'No, ' Zack said. 'No, I didn't.'
'He was preparing to countersue them when they backed off. According to Father, they became frightened by a court decision in Florida that ended up costing one of the other corporations millions for trying to do the same thing to a pathologist who was working in a hospital they had acquired. 'Zack, Ultramed wants blind loyalty from everyone working for them-total acceptance of their policies. Father fought them at every turn. Less than a year after they dropped the suit against him, the rumors started. And within just a few months of that, a showy new surgeon was on the scene, snapping up chunks of Father's practice. i 'That would be Jason Mainwaring, ' Zack said. 'Exactly.'
'Have you any proof that Ultramed engineered all of this? ' he asked.
'Only this.' She reached beneath her seat, drew out a thick manila envelope and passed it across to him. 'Mother and I talked it over last night. Father liked you and trusted you. And frankly, we have nowhere else to turn. This is all the information he had been able to gather in his battle against Ultramed. It doesn't prove they were behind his murder, but it does show something of how they operate-some of the things they're capable of doing to turn a profit.'
'What am I to do with this?'
For the first time, Beaulieu's widow spoke. 'Dr. Iverson, ' she said, in a soft accent virtually identical to Guy's, 'it was my husband's hope that the information contained in that envelope would convince the board of trustees, including your father, to exercise their option and order the repurchase of the hospital from Ultramed. Zack stared at her in disbelief. 'Mrs. Beaulieu, are you forgetting that I work for Ultramed?
They pay my salary, my office expenses, insurance, everything. To say nothing of the administrator at the hospital being my brother. What you are asking me to do isn't really fair.'
My huuand is dead. Is that fair?
Zack saw the response flash in the woman's eyes and then vanish. We are asking you, ' Clothilde Beaulieu said patiently, 'to do nothing more than study the contents of that envelope and use it-or not-as you see fit. I assure you there will be no hard feelings if you return the material to us after you have looked it over… or even right now.'
'We mean that, Zachary, ' Marie said. 'We really do.'
For a time, there was only silence. Zack looked first at one woman and then the other, and finally at the envelope in his lap A sucker for anybody's cause. Had Frank's terse assessment of him been so irritating because it was so close to the mark? Suzanne… the mountains… the Judge. his career. Any clash with Ultramed and Frank was almost certainly destined to be a losing proposition for him. And there was much, so very much, at stake. The envelope was a Pandora's box. A bomb that might be nothing more than a dud, or nothing less than a lethal explosion A sucker for anybody's cause. Slowly, deliberately, Zack slid the dead surgeon's legacy under his arm. Then he reached across and shook hands with both wnn Pn 'I'll be in touch, ' he said. h. -_, _w* ** Frank, Frank, he's our man. If he can't do it, no one can… Over the two decades since his graduation from Sterling High, not a day had passed that Frank Iverson did not hear the chant echoing in his mind.
Cheerleaders dancing on the sidelines, each one hoping Frank would at least spend a few minutes with her at the victory celebration after the game. Grandstands jammed with parents, teachers, students, and reporters, all
