Birdsongs by Jason Deas Read Free Book Online Page A

easily from the keys. With the body removed, the piano revealed a message written across the keys. It read, “Rock & Roll,” with each letter written on a single white key. Vernon and Benny noticed it immediately and without even seeming to think Benny said, “Rock and Roll Star.”
        “What?” Vernon asked before he had time to put the two together.
        “The star on the tambourine,” Benny said as he pointed to the right palm. “The killer is trying to tell us Rock and Roll Star for some reason.”
        “What in the wide world of fuck?” Vernon said.
        “Now you’re catching on,” Benny assured. “What’s that smell?”
        “Maybe he shit his pants.”
        “I think it’s time for us to go.”
        “All right Benny, you sure you want to go along for the ride on this case?” Vernon asked with hesitation.
        “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Benny answered as he winked at Vernon and walked out of the room.
     
     

Chapter 12
     
        At the age of fifteen Red’s father died. Not able to hear a piece of malfunctioning farm equipment was his detriment. For seven years, Red took on the role of man-of-the-house. He did a noble job keeping their accustomed amount of currency coming into the home. He kept the same contacts in town he knew through his father. Red sold crops and took care of his mother the best he could. During Red’s twenty-second year his mother came down with a bout of pneumonia from which she never recovered. On her deathbed, Red surmised she struggled from more than just the pneumonia. Moments before she succumbed to the disease, she relieved herself of her heaviest burden. From under her bed, she directed Red to retrieve a wooden box. With the box in her hands, she took one of her final breaths and unlatched the clasp that held the lid tightly closed. Opening the box, inlaid with a red velvet material, she removed an old newspaper clipping and placed it in Red’s hands. She pointed to the picture in the newspaper with tears falling from her eyes and pointed to Red. Her hands slid away from his, down to her sides, and she passed.
        Red buried his mother beside the place he buried his father. He had the newspaper clipping in his jeans pocket and he felt it burning there as he shoveled the last bits of earth to cover his parents for eternity. Little did he know his world would soon be turned upside down like the dirt he moved. Red knew there was something special waiting for him in that piece of paper, but laying his mother to rest was his priority.
        Completed with his task, Red retreated to his room, put on his favorite tape, and took out the newspaper article. As the tape player reeled off a familiar song, Red opened the clipping to see a picture of a young woman crying. A young man, face crushed with emotion, held her. They sat in the back seat of a black car departing the foyer of a large building. Red sensed desperation in the photograph. The headline read, “Baker Baby Kidnapped.” Red knew something was amiss. The heading meant very little to him, but the photo of the two tortured souls set off an internal alarm in Red that told him to search and find answers. Red had a diminutive amount of money and knew where his mother hid her cash. She had a small amount and he folded the bills together and gathered all the coins he could find around the house, weighing down his pockets. His head swirled and his body pulled him through the house on a mission that was led by an unexplained force. The farmhouse, truck, and equipment rented monthly so abandoning these things did not really matter. Red gathered up his tape collection, tape player, and a few of his personal items. He walked down the dirt road away from the only home he ever knew.
        The newspaper clipping mentioned Atlanta. Red had enough money to make it to a town outside of Atlanta, with a little cash left over to knock around for a couple of days, hopefully making a