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“I think that’s obvious,” Zach said, “or she’d be here.”
“She’d be here if she could, I think, and not because of your money. But I’ll let Chad tell it. He’s the one who got all the info from Larry. I think you’ll find the story very interesting.”
“Ma, you were in on this?” Zach asked Laurie.
“No, Zach, I wasn’t. Chad and Dallas didn’t tell me until they had gotten the report,” Laurie said. “I think you need to listen to what they have to say. It’ll explain a few things.”
“Look, I already know that her ranch needs money. I offered to help her. She turned me down. She left me. She doesn’t love me. It’s over. Kaput. Finito. The end.”
“Just give me a few minutes to explain what Larry found out,” Chad said. “Then, if you’re not interested in learning more, we’ll call it over.”
“Please, Zach,” Laurie said. “For me.”
Zach relented and sat back down in the chair. “Go ahead.”
“Turns out Mollie O’Donovan’s parents were killed in a car wreck about ten years ago,” Chad said. “They left the ranch to Sam and Dusty. Sam was a senior in high school, and Dusty was only thirteen, so Sean-Patrick, their dad, took care of the ranch for them. It’s a small parcel outside of Black Eagle, about a hundred acres or so. It was never a big operation, but Sean did okay. Raised some beef, trained some cutters. Trained Dusty as a barrel racer and Sam on bronc busting. You know that.”
“Yeah.”
“Anyway, Sam went off to school at the university, majored in agriculture, came back, and Dusty started college. She had a scholarship. Smart as a whip, that one. It’s well-known around the area that she’s some kind of mathematical genius, as well as a wizard with animals. She could even rival your brains, I reckon.”
“Keep talking.”
“Anyway, she dropped out of school after a year.”
“Because of money?”
“Hell, no. She had a scholarship, remember?”
“Then why’d she quit?”
“She got sick.”
“So?”
“I mean really sick. Acute lymphocytic leukemia.”
Zach jerked forward. “What?”
“A.L.L. Same thing Mollie died from.”
“Oh my God…”
“Unlike Mollie, though, Dusty evidently responded to conventional treatment. She did chemo and went into remission. This was about five years ago.”
“That can’t be right. It’s got to be a mistake. How did you find all this out?”
“The A.L.L. and the chemo are common knowledge, but as I told you, Larry sometimes leaves his scruples at home.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning”—Chad picked up one of the manila folders from the coffee table—“I have Dusty’s medical records.”
Zach rose again, his temper storming through his body. “How the hell?”
“I don’t ask.
I just take the information and pay Larry’s bill.”
