"I'm really glad to hear all that, Drew. Having a doctor one can trust is a huge weight off of anyone's shoulders."

"I agree, but I'm glad to hear you verbalize it just the same."

"Well, that's how I feel, although when it comes to caring for the President of the United States, I assume you know I'm just stating the obvious. Your well-being and good health have an effect, one way or another, on every person on the planet."

Stoddard laughed with no great glee. "I understand what you're saying, but I still get the willies thinking about things that way."

"It's a hell of a job you signed on for. I don't envy that responsibility in the least."

"But I still have your support?"

"Of course."

"In that case, it should come as no surprise that I didn't break away to fly here in the midst of a heated campaign just because I missed your smiling face. I need something from you, Gabe. Something important."

"Name it."

"I need you to come to Washington and be my doctor."

Gabe sank back in his chair and stared at his onetime roommate in utter disbelief.

"But . . . you said this Jim Ferendelli is a terrific doctor."

"He is . . . was."

Gabe felt as if a band were tightening around his chest.

"I don't understand," he finally managed.

"Gabe," Stoddard said. "Jim Ferendelli's gone. . . . Vanished."

CHAPTER 2

What about the FBI?"

"You don't think they're all over this? Hundreds of agents have been on the case for almost two weeks. Nothing."

Evening had settled in, and a steady breeze from the north had dispelled the last of the day's warmth. Gabe had listened in stunned silence to the description of a fifty-six-year-old widower, devoted father of a grown daughter, personable and diligent, churchgoing and humble, who one day simply failed to show up at work. A search of his apartment in Georgetown and his Chapel Hill home revealed nothing out of the ordinary, and a check of his phone and e-mails had also been of no help.

With the presidential campaign just heating up, Andrew Stoddard's advisors had managed to keep the potentially distracting disappearance out of the news until they were certain the search was not going to be successful. For more than a week, now, that was clearly the case, and what scant details there were had just been released to the press.

"They've all been told that for now the White House Medical Unit would handle any problems I might have, but as competent as the unit is, I really want my own physician."

"This is absolutely incredible," Gabe said. "The doctor to the President of the United States has vanished without a trace. What about his family? Have they heard anything?"

"As I said, Jim's wife died of cancer about five years ago. His mother's in a nursing home, and two older sisters haven't heard a word from him."