“Then he had no other family?”
The old man shook his head slowly.
“His father, my son, was killed in the last world war. There is a picture of him on the table to your
right.”
Sam peered over the side of the couch. There was a faded black-and-white photograph of a man in uniform in a small flat glass case. It centered a circle of shiny medals and two oak leaf clusters,. Sam noticed the medical insignia.
“His father was a doctor, then?”
John Whitehorse smiled. “All the Whitehorses have been men of medicine. As I am, and my father was, and my grandfather. Beyond that I do not know for certain, but it is so said in Council.
“We wished it for Willie, too, but. . .” He stopped. “Why are you here, Mr. Parker?”
204
Wolfstroker
“I took charge of the body. I wanted to make sure there was someone who could aff—would want to bury him.” Whitehorse nodded. “Do you know how he died?”
“There was some news in the paper that comes from Denver,” said the old man, “but not much.” He seemed sad. “It was a very small item. I had to look hard for it.”
“There was a riot,” Sam began. “Fourteen people were killed. A great many were injured. An important building, the Atheneum, was nearly torn down by the audience during Willie’s performance. Many of them don’t remember what happened. This sort of thing has happened before at similar concerts, but never anything approaching the scale and violence of this one.
“Two of the musicians who were playing with Willie suffered severe shock. One of them is still being treated by doctors. He may not be able to play again, I’m told.”