'Don't you play with your friends from school?'
'I've never been to school. My dad hires tutors. TAs at UT. Grad students teach me English, Science, Spanish-?Le gustaria una revancha? '
'You like that?'
'Spanish?'
'Tutors.'
'They're okay. But I'd rather go to school like normal kids.'
'So what do you want to be when you grow up, Zach, a professional Guitar Hero player?'
'You mean, if I grow up.'
'When.'
'Either centerfielder for the Yankees, point guard for the Celtics, or quarterback for the Cowboys.'
Andy looked at the boy. He was staring off, as if contemplating the odds of becoming a star athlete… or of growing up. After a moment, he turned to Andy.
'What about you, Andy? What do you want to be when you grow up?'
'I haven't decided yet.'
'Who are you?'
A stern female voice. Andy turned and recognized Kathryn Reeves standing there. He jumped up. She came and stood next to Zach, like a mother standing between her child and a strange dog.
'Hi, Mrs. Reeves. I'm Andy Prescott. I work for Russell.'
'In what capacity?'
'Uh, legal.'
'Are you a courier at his law firm?'
Andy was wearing jeans, sneakers, and an 'Austin Sucks-Don't Move Here' T-shirt. It wasn't a travel or traffic court day.
'Uh, no, ma'am. I'm a lawyer. At my own firm.'
Okay, 'firm' was a serious stretch, but what was he supposed to say, the truth? And no doubt Russell hadn't mentioned to his wife their search for his seventeen former girlfriends.
'I've never heard him mention your name. And what exactly do you do for Russell?'
'Special projects, Kathryn.'
Saved by Russell Reeves. Andy exhaled with relief.
'Andy,' his client said with a big smile, 'is my secret weapon.' He gestured at the video screen and said to Zach: 'You win?'
'Of course.'
'I want a rematch, dude,' Andy said.
' Revancha. At my birthday party. Friday. Okay?'
'Yeah, sure, I'll be there. Here. Wherever.'
Zach gave Andy a grin and another fist-punch.
'Let's go back to my office, Andy,' Russell said.
'Later, dude.' To Kathryn Reeves, he said, 'Very nice to meet you, Mrs. Reeves.'
'Nice to meet you, Andy.'
She didn't sound convincing.
Andy followed his client out of Zach's room. Once in the hallway, the smile dropped off Russell's face.
'Kathryn doesn't know what you're doing for me.'
'I figured.'
They walked down the hallway in awkward silence.
'Zach's a neat kid,' Andy finally said.
'The chemo knocks the cancer down, so once he recovers from the treatments, he has a good period. But the remissions are shorter each time.'
'He said he wants to go to school, be a normal kid.'
'I wish he could. He's always been too sick to go to school. So I hire tutors. Matter of fact, I need a new math tutor. You think your buddy Curtis would want the job?'
Was there anything Russell Reeves didn't know about Andy Prescott?
'Russell, Curtis Baxter is like a math genius. He'll have his Ph. D. in seven months. Don't you think he's overkill for a seven-year-old kid?'
'Zach's IQ is one-sixty-five.'
'I'll give you Curtis' number.'
They entered an expansive office, exactly the kind of office Andy would have expected of a billionaire. He went over to the back wall of windows that offered an incredible view of Lake Austin. Russell sat behind a desk and slumped in the chair. Three weeks and he had given six million dollars to six different women. Russell Reeves was making amends big time. But it wasn't making him happy.
'They're not exactly living happily ever after,' Andy said. 'Your old girlfriends.'
'No.'
'What's going on, Russell?'
'With what?'
'These women. You have a sick kid, they have sick kids. Why is that?'
'Like I said, Andy. Bad luck.'
'Six out of six… what are the odds?'
'One in a million. Those are the odds of Zach getting Ph-positive ALL, his type of leukemia. When it comes to disease, Andy, odds don't matter. And it's six out of seventeen women, not six out of six. We haven't found them all yet.'
That was true.
'Actually, it's six out of all their children-sixteen so far, maybe thirty or forty when we find all the women.'
That was also true.
'But still, Russell, why do I think there's something you're not telling me?'
'Why would I hide something from you? You're my lawyer. You have to keep my secrets.'
He paused.
'Look, Andy, I know this is a tough job, seeing those sick children. You're not around a sick kid every day like I am. But we're helping them, and that's what's important. Still, if this job is too tough for you, I'll find someone else.'
Andy stared out the window and thought of all those women and sick kids whose lives had been made better by Russell Reeves. No matter what his rich client wasn't telling him-and he was pretty sure his rich client wasn't telling him something-the bottom line was that they were helping those women and those kids. That was important. That was a good thing. Andy Prescott couldn't help his father, but he could help these kids.
'I'll do it.'
'Thanks, Andy. Who's next?'
'Hollis said he's having trouble with the seventh woman.'
'What kind of trouble?'
'Finding her.'
'He can't find her?'
'Apparently not.'
'Go see him. McCloskey. Pay him whatever it takes, Andy, but I want these women found.'
Russell walked Andy to the front door where Darrell was waiting in the limo. Andy got in, and Darrell drove through the gates and toward town. Andy looked down the list at the seventh woman's name, the woman Hollis could not find.
'Where are you, Frankie Doyle?'
Karen James craved a cigarette, but she was determined to quit.
She steered the old Toyota into the carpool lane at the elementary school and stopped. When the car ahead inched forward, she inched forward. Kids were emerging from the school, running down the walkway-their oversized
