Point of Balance by J.G. Jurado Read Free Book Online Page A

haven’t you?”
    I held my tongue and quietly stirred the coffee I had no intention of drinking. My stomach was churning like a volcano.
    â€œYou are the doting but somewhat absent father. The good neighbor. The grieving widower.”
    â€œKnock it off,” I whispered.
    â€œThe surgeon with the golden hands. The wisecracking colleague. Your St. Clement’s buddies used to call you Wiseass Dave until you returned from your long break after the business over Rachel. Now they call you Spooky Dave, you know. Not to your face, evidently. They whisper it in the locker rooms and by the water cooler. Some anesthesiologists swap shifts when they see they have a long operation with you lined up. It gives them the jitters.”
    I knew it, sure. Or at least I suspected. But it is one thing to have an inkling, quite another to hear it from a total stranger who has just kidnapped your daughter. His metallic voice struck home, every word he said a blow to my solar plexus. Stripped of answers, powerless to speak and with no chance to respond with violence, I was putty in that maniac’s hands.
    â€œBesides, it’s quite to be expected,” he went on. “You haven’t exactly been the life and the soul of the party since Rachel killed herself, have you?”
    â€œYou leave my wife out of this, asshole,” I grunted.
    â€œDon’t try and tell me you’re ashamed now. It was such a sweet way to end it all. And those words she wrote you in her farewell letter”—he adopted a repellent falsetto—“ ‘My darling David. We will be together always. Hold on to each of my smiles, and remember me this way . . .’ ”
    I could take no more and banged my hand on the table, rattling the cups and the cutlery. Even Juanita flashed us a quizzical look,but dived back into her gossip magazine. Luckily she was too far off to hear us.
    White gave her the once-over out of the corner of his eye and then leaned toward me.
    â€œYou won’t make me repeat my earlier warning, will you, Dave?”
    I ignored him. I was too busy crying. I turned to face the wall and hide my tears. I stayed that way for a few minutes.
    No one but I knew what was in that note. Rachel had not left it by her body but had mailed it to me the same day she went away. I guess she didn’t want the police or anybody else to read those words, which came right from the heart. She had left another run-of-the-mill note to explain why she’d done it, and that was it. I hadn’t told a living soul about the letter and kept it at home, under lock and key in my study. To hear those words from that slug’s mouth was sacrilege. I felt so used, naked and helpless, that for a few minutes I went to pieces.
    When I pulled myself back together, I wiped my tears with the back of my hand and garnered the strength to face him. He smiled, and now the smile was for real.
    I knew because it frightened the shit out of me.
    â€œYou win, White, you goddamned wacko son of a bitch. So you know it all. You call the shots.”
    â€œNow you’re catching on, Dave.”
    â€œWhat do you want?”
    â€œIt’s very simple. If your next patient leaves the operating table alive, you will never see your daughter again.”
    I gawked at him, petrified. Now it all fell into place. Why this White character, who looked to be made of money, had set up such a well-oiled and well-timed plan. He didn’t want Julia or to take what little money we had. But the ransom was monstrous, unthinkable. The price was the life of the man I was due to operate on in two days’ time.
    To save my daughter, I had to kill the president of the United States.
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    * Thank you, gorgeous .

6
    â€œSo that’s it. You’re a terrorist.”
    White shook his head and clicked his tongue, as though he found the term distasteful.
    â€œThat would require an ideology and beliefs, Dave, of which I am bereft. No, my