Do You Want to Know a Secret? by Mary Jane Clark Read Free Book Online Page B

talk and mild laughter and then Nate reminded the Wingards they had a plane to catch. Hands were shaken all around.
    The rest had been done on the phone.
    There was a knock on the bedroom door.
    “Joy, it’s me.”
    She unlocked the door. Win stood there smiling. “How’s the homework coming?”
    Joy shrugged. “Not too well, I’m afraid. I just couldn’t get into it tonight.”
    Win took off his tie and started to unbutton his shirt, still crisp at the end of a long day. Joy watched the man and wondered, How does he do it? The long hours, the media attention, the pressure of always being on. Win was unfailingly even tempered, steady and calm. He never lost his cool, even when they were alone. Joy reflected on those qualities—ones that would probably make for a good chief executive.
    She thought of the last miscarriage. She had been a wreck. Win had been a rock. He’d carried on with his schedule, making all the meetings, giving the speeches to which he was committed, dutifully making a point of spending some time each evening with Joy. She had cried and Win had told her it would be all right. He’d leave her tearfully falling asleep, eager to get downstairs and prepare for the next day’s senatorial work.
    That had been two years ago. After that, they stopped trying to have a baby. Joy had come to accept finally that she would not have a child of her own. But it still stung when she encountered other people’s babies and small children.
    “How did you and Nate do?”
    Win carefully lined up the creases of his pinstriped trousers. “More of the same, just sticking to it. I feel good about the way it’s going, but God, I’m tired.”
    “No wonder. You never stop. You’ve got to pace yourself.”
    The senator went into the bathroom. “Are you planning to watch the Bill Kendall special?” he called over the running water.
    “I was, but I can watch it in the den, if you want to get right to sleep.”
    “No, that’s okay. Let’s watch it together. Gives us a chance to spend some time with each other.”
    But halfway through the Washington local news, Win was sound asleep. Joy watched the KEY News special report anchored by Pete Carlson with the presidential candidate breathing evenly beside her.
    Joy viewed the highlights of Bill Kendall’s career and listened to his colleagues’ reactions and observations on the man. The final piece on the show had no narration. It was a montage of short pieces of video showing Kendall walking with different world leaders and then shots of him volunteering with kids at the Special Olympics all set to the theme music of the Evening Headlines . The last shot showed Bill with his arm around the shoulders of his son, William, both of them smiling happily. A touching piece of work.
    Joy got out of bed, careful not to wake her sleeping husband. She walked down the carpeted stairway, through the living room and out to the veranda and the cool night air. Joy pulled her robe close around her, sat down on a heavy wrought iron bench, looked up at the stars and sobbed.

Chapter 12
    Judge Quinn sat in his paneled den drinking a third glass of chardonnay when he heard Eliza Blake’s announcement of Bill Kendall’s death. At the close of the show, Dennis switched off the set, stretched out on the plaid sofa, closed his eyes and smiled.
    He was off the hook!
    The nightmare that had begun when Kendall started demanding those damned payments was over. Now Dennis would not have to worry about Kendall making any sort of waves when the federal judgeship came up, and he’d have $5,000 extra in his pocket each month. How nice that would be.
    It had been tough putting the money together each month—it really cramped his style. After all, a Superior Court judge only made about a hundred twenty grand a year, and after taxes took away a large chunk and he paid Kendall $60,000, there wasn’t much left.
    A guy had to live—and a judge had appearances to keep up. Of course, there was the money