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

.”
    “Okay,”
Ward said, writing in his notepad. “Did Mr. O’Donnell appear to you any
different on that visit?”
    “Only the
fact that he scared the shit out of me.”
    Ward
instinctively looked around to see if her father had heard her curse, but he
wasn’t in the room.
    “How did he
scare you? You say you were reading the newspaper to him.”
    “Yes,
that’s when he freaked out.”
    “You were
reading and he freaked out suddenly? He’d been quiet until then?”
    Penny
nodded.
    “What was
the story, you remember?”
    “No, I
don’t. Hang on. We might have a copy in the paper recycling.” She left Ward
alone in the room. He turned and lifted the piano lid and pressed a key down.
Then another. Then he wished he could play like Jerry Lee Lewis. He lowered the
lid as Penny returned.
    “You’re
in luck.” She opened the newspaper and jabbed a page. “This was it. This woman
without any dignity selling herself on a billboard. Looking for a boyfriend.”
Her face showed disgust. “That story there.” She handed the newspaper to Ward.
He read the first few lines of the story about a Westmoreland woman and her
quest to find a suitor by advertising herself on a billboard. He flicked
through the paper and skimmed over various headlines.
    “Just two
seconds.” He took out his cell and pressed a few digits. “Hey, it’s Ward. We
need to get somebody down to Sunny Glade tonight to go through the dumpsters.
We’re looking for a newspaper, the Westmoreland Echo . This is potential
evidence.” He paused for the reply, smiling at Penny, who was positively
beaming back at him. “Thanks.” He put the phone back in his pocket.
    “Was he
murdered? Am I a suspect?” she said, still smiling broadly.
    Ward
shook his head. “No, but you’re very important to this investigation.” Penny
nearly burst at that.
    “This is so
fucking weird,” she said, and this time it was she who looked around to make
sure her father hadn’t heard. She said the curse word as if testing a new
mouth.
    “Okay,
you said he scared the… Mr. O’Donnell freaked out. What happened?”
    “Only
that he burst out shouting.”
    “Shouting?”
He held his pen ready to write.
    “Well, he
never said a word normally. Never said a word ever. Most of them, they just
gawk at the wall like zombies.”
    Ward
sighed.
    “But this
day he said something all right. He asked for somebody called Doctor Brookline.
He was kinda loud.”
    Ward’s
head snapped up. “Anything else?”
    Penny
made an effort to look like she was thinking hard. She hitched her dress up a
little too far and started to scratch her knee. Ward saw her white panties and
he glanced down at his notepad. Thought she was maybe enjoying the attention a
little too much and becoming distracted. He carefully lifted the piano lid with
his elbow and let it drop, the bang startling Penny back into the room. “Sorry,
I must’ve caught it,” Ward said.
    The young
girl pulled her dress back over her knees and wrapped her arms around them
again. “I can’t think of anything,” she said, and this time he could see that
she really was making an effort to recall something.
    “You’re
sure of that?”
    “Oh, hang
on. He did say something else. Right after he’d asked for Doctor Brookline, he
said something about…” She cast her head back. “Something about confessing. No,
that wasn’t it. Hang on. He just said ‘confession.’ That’s what he said. That’s
all he said. And the Doctor Brookline thing.”
    “Can you
think of anything else that happened that day? Anything, no matter how
unimportant it may seem to you.”
    “I can’t
remember anything else. It was just the same as always. Apart from those two
things I told you he said.”
    “Well,
thank you, Penny. That’s it.” Penny looked downcast. “But I might need to ask
you more questions at a later date. And if you think of anything else please
contact me at this number.”
    He
scribbled the number in his notepad, tore