Donor by Charles Wilson

Author:Charles Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250126894
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Congressman Donnelly’s funeral came sooner than Michael would have liked: the very next day. Yet no matter how long it might have been put off, he wouldn’t have liked having to be there any better. He stood in the large crowd of dignitaries, friends, spectators, and news media surrounding the grave. When he had attended the services at the church, he had felt inconspicuous in the overflow of people having to stand against the wall behind the pews. But as he had driven toward the cemetery, the cheap feeling had become nearly overpowering. He had slowed his Jeep until it was at a crawl, nearly stopping it completely. Dressed in a dark suit and appropriate black tie, he had felt a mixture of a fool and a con man. It was all he could do not to turn around and drive back to the hospital—and call Waverly to tell him there was no way in hell he was running for Congress. That’s what he had wanted to do. But he hadn’t. He raised his head as the minister finished his sermon and closed his Bible.

He noticed Sheriff Everette glance in his direction again. He had done that several times. He wondered if the sheriff was a close friend of the family and felt the same way Shannon did about his announcing for her father’s seat so soon after his death. He looked back to the grave. Mrs. Donnelly laid a rose on the coffin. She was dressed in black. Shannon laid a rose beside her mother’s. She wore a dark blue dress. The Senate Majority Leader, his trademark red bow tie out of place among the somber dark ties most of the mourners were wearing, stepped close to speak with them. Television cameras from national networks to individual stations in and outside the state focused on the conversation. Some in the crowd watched the reporters and cameramen jostling for position, but most moved toward the exits. It wasn’t too soon for Michael. He glanced in Everette’s direction, then back at Shannon—she had stepped away from her mother and the majority leader and now stood in front of a thin, gray-haired man with a narrow face. He started toward his Jeep.

* * *

Shannon glanced in Michael’s direction, then faced back to Robert Samples. He had just explained to her that a fax containing the Englands’ phone records should be arriving at her law office at any moment, if it hadn’t already. But she knew it hadn’t. She had her beeper in one of the big side pockets of her dress and had told Carol to call if the fax came in.

“Thank you,” she said. “I really appreciate all the help you’ve been.”

Samples brushed his hair back from his forehead. “You ready to tell me what you’re thinking?” he asked.

“Let me have a little while longer.”

Samples glanced toward the sheriff.

“And please don’t say anything to him,” she said. “I really just need a little bit longer before I have to talk to anybody.

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