Chapter 31: The Wall

The Maddox Children's Hospital Fund unveiled its donor wall at noon on Sunday, and Odessa Maddox did not cancel.

She stood in front of it in a navy suit and her pearls, with a pair of golden scissors and a ribbon.

The wall was forty feet of white marble in the hospital's front courtyard.

Her name was cut into the top of it in letters a foot high.

Six camera crews stood on the grass, and two hundred donors in good coats sat in folding chairs.

Her driver stood three steps behind her in his gray suit, hands folded, looking at the ground.

Cora walked in through the side gate at ten past twelve.

Pearl was on one arm and Ronan was on the other, and behind them came Brent, alone, in a wrinkled shirt.

Behind Brent came the detective from the county sheriff's office, a heavy man in a tan raincoat, with two deputies.

The bald CTO of Eastgate Freight followed them, carrying a rolled-up cable.

Odessa saw them, and the scissors paused over the ribbon.

"This is a private ceremony," she said into the microphone, and smiled at the donors. "Some people never learn when they are not wanted."

"It's a public hospital," said Cora. "I looked it up."

A ripple of laughter went through the chairs, and died.

"I have something to show you," Cora said, "and then I'll leave."

She nodded to the CTO.

He plugged the cable into the big screen the Fund had set up beside the wall, and the white-and-gold logo vanished.

The picture came up grainy and green.

A white van rolled into frame under a dark sky, with a time stamp in the corner.

A man in a gray suit climbed down from the cab.

He walked around the van, looked up and down the road, and climbed back in.

The van nosed into the guardrail with a long grinding crunch.

He got out, and stood with his hands on his knees.

Then a passing headlight lit his face.

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