"Oh gracias, gracias, thank you, " Cruz said with massive relief. "God bless you. You a nice lady. You save my life and I never forget. "

Barbie was fortified by his gratitude and felt better about things. She got up from the sofa.

"But first I've got to clear this with Reverend Justice-if I can find him, " she added. "You may have heard of him. He's very famous these days. I just hope I can get hold of him. He seems to have vanished off the face of the planet. You wait right here. "

"I be right here, " Cruz promised.

Barbie went back to her office and locked the door. She called the secretary, who didn't sound very sick when she answered the phone.

"You got any idea where Reverend Justice is?" Barbie asked as misgivings and fears began to gather inside her again, rainbow or not.

How could she be so sure that Hispanic boy was nice? What if he wasn't?

"You tried him at home?" the secretary asked in an unfriendly way, as if Barbie were a nuisance.

"No one answers, " Barbie said in frustration as someone began knocking on her door.

She wished she could call Hooter and get her opinion on giving the Hispanic boy money, but as far as Barbie knew, there were no telephones in the tollbooths.

"Anybody here?" a loud female called out as she knocked harder.

Barbie hurried to see who it was.

"I'm sorry, " she nervously shouted through the shut door. "Who is it and do you have an appointment?"

"You take walk-ins? I must talk to somebody or I very well may drown myself in the lake. I'm not a Baptist, but it won't matter if I take my own life and people, especially those who hate Baptists, find out you wouldn't talk to me, " the person said in tears.

Regina Crimm's path had led to Barbie Fogg and Cruz Morales in the most extraordinary way, and the timing could not have been better.

Trooper Macovich had been driving through downtown to return the failed Officer Reggie to the mansion, when he got a call over his radio that an old Grand Prix with New York plates had been discovered in the parking lot of the Country Club of Virginia. It was believed that the car had been dumped very recently because an old, beat-up vehicle that did not have Virginia tags would draw immediate attention at the club, and in fact had. A woman on her way to play indoor tennis spotted the Grand Prix while she was parking her Volvo and didn't hesitate to call 911.

"Sorry, " Macovich said to Regina as he hit his siren and lights. "We gotta check something out. It may be that Hispanic everybody looking for. "

"That's fine. I promise I won't tell, " Regina said, cheered by the flashing lights and whelping siren, and excited by the knowledge that it was against regulations for

EPU to respond to a dangerous call while protecting the First Family.

"Far as I concerned, you still an intern right this minute, " Macovich said as he sped west on Broad Street, weaving in and out of traffic. "So you get some big idea about snitching on me like you already done before when I beat you fair and square in pool, I gonna deny it and say you was officially riding along. "

"It's Papa who got mad at you, " Regina retorted.

"Huh! 'Cause you such a sore loser and malingered me to him!" Macovich roared through a yellow light.

Motorists were pulling off on the shoulder, certain they were about to get a ticket for something. Traffic had slowed to ten miles an hour as other drivers cowered in terror and prayed they hadn't driven over a stripe on the street and their speed hadn't been checked by some helicopter and now a trooper was after them.

"The governor didn't see me beat you, " Macovich irritably went on as he did his best to cut through the barely moving cars. "So you had to snitch, and then suddenly I have to hope he don't remember me. "

"He doesn't remember you, " Regina reminded him. "He says you all look alike, and he doesn't mean it in a way that's not nice. But Papa can't see most people, and sometimes he calls Constance Faith and the other way around, especially if they haven't put on makeup and are still in their robes. "

"Would you get outta my way?" Macovich yelled at the cars he was trying to pass.

Within minutes, he was turning off Three Chopt Road into a long driveway that led to the stately country club with its elegant clubhouse, tennis and paddleball courts, and sprawling golf course. CCV, as the Country Club of Virginia was called, was in a very wealthy neighborhood where many of the homes were as big as the governor's mansion. Macovich was in an anxious sweat as he drove slowly over a speed bump. People around here thought all black folks looked alike, too, and poor vision had nothing to do with it.

"I tell you, nothing I hate more than coming over here, " he muttered.

"What for? Papa's been a member ever since he was governor the first time. I practically grew up in this club. " Regina scanned for the Grand Prix, hoping she would spot it first.

"Yeah. You a member as long as it's a family membership, but the day come you try to get in on your own when your daddy no longer the guv, then you see what happen, " Macovich said, spotting the car near the indoor tennis facility. "Folk like you and me don't get 'cepted into places like this, in case you ain't figured that out yet. And most other guv'ners turn down the membership even if it's free, 'cause it go against their conscious. "

This was news to Regina. "Why wouldn't I get in on my own? I'm white and from an old Virginia family. "

"You still a minority. "

Macovich radioed that he had found the Grand Prix and requested a backup as he lit a cigarette. He got out and checked the car, noting that the key was still in the ignition, and when he cranked the engine, he discovered that the gas tank was on empty. It also did not escape his attention that there were no personal effects inside the vehicle or the trunk. He got back on the radio.

"Subject appears to have abandoned the vehicle, " he informed another trooper who was minutes away. "I'm going to check the area and let you work out getting the vehicle to the city tow lot. "

"Ten-four. "

"What do you mean I'm a minority?" Regina resumed arguing with Macovich. "How dare you insult me like that. "

"Oh, I get it. " Macovich got mad inside his cloud of smoke. "It ain't no insult for me to be a minority, but it is if you're one. Well, let me tell you something, Miss Majority. Every time you daddy ain't in office and you don't have EPU following you around, it's well known you hang out at Babe's playing pool. "

"Not every time. Just the last two times. I was too young before that. And so what?"

"So when was the last time you saw a male in that joint, huh? We all know why you go in there. Maybe you come out with some nice field-hockey player with a shaved head and Dingo boots, or maybe you ride off on a Harley with some other sweet thing you meet in there at the bar. Or maybe you pick up a woman doctor or lawyer who live in the closet until it's cocktail hour and they can hide in some booth inside a nice dark place where they can meet other Majorities. Woooo! You live some protected life, all right-acting like you the last one to know. "

Regina was crushed. She always assumed that when her father was out of office and not in the news, she could live her life as she wished. All the times she had frequented the women's bar in the Carytown Shopping Center, it had never occurred to her that people were watching and gossiping. Mention of the field-hockey player, in particular, conjured up terribly painful memories of yet one more heartbreaking failed romance. Regina had been desperately in love with D. D., a percussionist for the city symphony orchestra who had waited until Regina's birthday to announce that D. D. was having an affair with a tuba player and never wanted to see or talk to Regina again.