Whisper to the Blood by Dana Stabenow Read Free Book Online

chose not to answer him, or to answer only obliquely. "He gave you
a ride when you needed one, and he didn't try to mess with you. Those are good
things."
    "But?"
    She looked up to give him a grave smile. "I don't know, exactly. I just
get the feeling there is a lot more going on there than he lets on."
    It was one thing for him to second-guess Greenbaugh's sudden appearance. It
was another to fall in with Van's doubts. Johnny snorted. "Him and every
second Park rat we know."
    "Yeah." She slid out of the pickup. "Thanks again for today.
I had a good time."
    "Me, too. Tomorrow?"
    She shook her head. "I'd love to, but I'm working for Auntie Vi
tomorrow."
    "Oh yeah, that's right."
    "What do we say if they find out we skipped school?"
    "Don't lie," he said. "Will Kate ground you?"
    He grinned and patted the steering wheel, chock-full of sixteen years' worth
of bravado. "She can try."
     
     
     
     
    FOUR
     
    OCTOBER 15
     
    W hat?" Kate said. Auntie Joy
beamed at her. "You chairman of board, Katya." She applauded, and was
joined in that action immediately and with attitude by Old Sam Dementieff, more
moderately by Demetri Totemoff, and belatedly and without enthusiasm by Harvey
Meganack.
Harvey
was sitting on Kate's right and she could almost warm her hands on his
resentment. He was dressed in gray slacks and a white button-down shirt. He
hadn't actually put on a tie but there was the sense that he would have if he
knew the effort wouldn't have been wasted on the rest of them, not to mention
ridiculed by every Park rat who saw him that day.
    Demetri sat on
Harvey
's
other side in jeans, blue flannel shirt, and dark blue fleece vest. Next to him
and across from Kate was Auntie Joy, a plump little brown bird with bright eyes
and long graying hair tucked into a neat bun skewered with lacquered red
chopsticks. The red matched her blouse, long-sleeved and loose over the elastic
waistband of black polyester slacks. Auntie Joy always matched and was always
comfortable.
    Old Sam, dressed in Carhartt bib overalls and a faded black and red plaid
shirt worn bare at the elbows, sat exactly midway between Auntie Joy and Kate,
smelling aggressively of the summer's fishing season and not about to apologize
for it.
    "Wait a minute," Kate said. At Auntie Joy's words, any outward
calmness of demeanor she had assumed before arriving at the Niniltna Native
Association building that morning had deserted her. Now something close to
panic was crawling over her skin with delicate spider feet. "I said I'd be
on the board. I didn't say I'd be chairman."
    "You're the only one who could be, girl." Old Sam looked at
Harvey, who scowled at the top of the round table occupying center stage in the
Association board room. "The only other candidate failed to gather a
majority."
    In spite of herself Kate's voice rose. "We didn't even vote yet."
    "The board had an ad hoc meeting last night."
    "Nobody told me."
    Old Sam gave
Harvey
a sardonic look from beneath bristly brows. "Can't understand that."
    "Anyway," Kate said, feeling desperate and not working real hard
to conceal it, "I thought the shareholders vote on who's chairman. The
same way we vote on board members."
    Demetri, a short, stocky man with dark hair, steady eyes, and a stubborn
jaw, said, "In the event of the death of a current member of the board,
the bylaws allow the board to name a replacement. The candidate must be a
shareholder and must be of legal age. The bylaws also allow the board to name a
new chair. Both are interim appointments until the next annual shareholder
meeting, when the entire membership votes to accept or reject the slate of
officers."
    "In January," Auntie Joy said helpfully, still beaming.
    January, Kate thought numbly. January 15th. Three very long months from now.
"I wasn't here," she said. "I didn't get to vote."
    "Wouldna mattered," Old Sam said, "you weren't on the board
yet, so you didn't have a vote anyway. And even if you were, the vote was three
to one," and he smiled,