An End to a Silence: A mystery novel (The Montana Trilogy Book 1) Read Online Free

Mallory,” said the officer, and he sat on the edge of Newton’s
desk, a smile running across his mouth.
     
     
    Lieutenant
Gammond was a short butternut squash of a man with slicked-back hair and a
large mustache. Ward had knocked on the door and Gammond had said “come” but
Ward was already in the office by then.
    “Just
come to update you on the homicide, sir.”
    “Ah yes,”
Gammond said, and he waved a pudgy hand at a chair for Ward to sit. “The old
man. Hold it right there if you will.” And he tapped at a few keys on his
computer keyboard as slowly as he spoke. Ward sat.
    “We’ve
done our—” Ward started but Gammond held up a hand and continued to type with
his other. Ward looked around the office, at the hunting photos, the photos of
Gammond in uniform, the set of golf clubs, the homemade sign that read, “You
don’t have to be crazy to work here, you just got to
do what I tell you.” He saw the gun cabinet with three hunting rifles in it. He
recognized the Mauser 98 and the Remington Model 700
but couldn’t get the third.
    “That
one’s a Krieghoff , son. Two rifle barrels and a
twenty-gauge shotgun barrel. That’ll bring down a dang country.” He still
tapped.
    “You
shoot that thing?”
    “I done
shot it once. Shoulder still smarts some.”
    Gammond
stopped tapping, sucked through his bottom teeth as if he’d got a piece of meat
stuck there, and said, “Okay, where’re we at with the ol ’
feller?” He picked at his teeth with a manicured fingernail.
    “As I was
saying, sir, we’ve done our preliminary forensics gathering and taken
statements. Should have results soon. I’ll update you when we have something.”
He stood to leave.
    “Sit down
there, detective,” Gammond said, and Ward hovered and then sat. “We ain’t had a
proper welcome sit-down-and-drink-a-whiskeychat.” He reached
into a drawer in his antique oak desk that looked like it was made from a
single large tree and pulled out a bottle and two small glasses. “How we do
things up here.” He poured. “And don’t tell me you’ll pass because I won’t hear
a dang word of it.” He handed the glass to Ward and sniffed his own before
knocking it back. Ward did the same.
    “See,
we’re civilized up in these parts.” He stroked his mustache with thumb and
forefinger. He stopped and seemed to lose his thoughts over somewhere else.
    “I want
Newton on the case with me.”
    “He’s
finished.”
    “He’s got
a few more days.”
    “What’s
he going to do in a few days?”
    “Local
knowledge. He knew the guy.”
    “Dang it,
you’re the homicide detective now, son. What’ll you do with an old—” He stopped
himself. “He’ll be apt to get in your way. It’s your job now. Why we got you up
here.”
    Ward
remained silent. Just regarded Gammond with eyes that didn’t blink.
    Gammond
looked around like he’d lost something. “Dang it. You sure you want him on your
case?”
    “I am,
sir.”
    “Well,
he’s still on the payroll, so I guess we got to put him to work. Okay, he’s
yours for the next two weeks.” He poured himself another whiskey but didn’t
bother to offer Ward one.
    “He
mentioned the little boy who disappeared.”
    Gammond
put his glass down heavily. “Well, detective, ain’t no gain in that line of
thinking. Totally unrelated.”
    “He
doesn’t think so.”
    “Like I
said, ain’t no gain in that line of thinking. What we don’t want is for
Detective Newton to go reopening ol ’ wounds. ’Stead
of thinking down that track, see to it that he sticks to this here case. Use
him by all means. He got nearly thirty years’ experience. But that little boy
case. That stays closed. And I got to be getting on now.” He knocked back his
second whiskey and Ward knew it wasn’t his second of the day. “Good t’have you here, detective. And Ward, son, I want to be
kept in the loop with ever’ detail of this investigation. Ever’ development,
ever’ line of inquiry, I need to know.