Silent Son by Gallatin Warfield Read Free Book Online Page A

pat. The only thing she lacked was experience.
    “You?” Gardner’s voice had carried surprise, not condescension.
    “Me. I can run the investigation, and you can advise me…” She was making it up as she went along. “I think I can keep my perspective…”
     A fleeting vision of Granville’s face flashed through her mind, and she swallowed. “I think I can…”
    Gardner had tried to smile, but the pain did not allow more than a brief upward turn to the corners of his lips. “I don’t
     know if I can stay out of it,” he said solemnly.
    “You won’t have to,” Jennifer replied. “You’ll still be there, just not up front…”
    Gardner’s silence signaled his agreement. There was no other choice, really. He was too emotionally involved to lead.
    And now he was asleep by her side, snoring deeply while she lay awake, wondering if she could make good on her promise.
    Gardner’s sleep was deep, but not without dreams. As Jennifer clung to his back in the waking world, he was locked in a bizarre
     prison somewhere on the other side. There was no structure, no bars or gates. It was far away in a flat-surfaced desert whose
     white sand stretched endlessly to an undefined horizon. Beyond the horizon was the nothingness of space.
    He and his companions were trapped. They were watched and controlled by faceless beings who set them to tasks that had no
     purpose. Gardner was the leader of the prisoners.
    In the center of the scene was a wall. A single panel of stone, standing alone. In front of it was a line of chairs.
    Suddenly, there was a commotion. The ritual was about to begin. The keepers yelled at him to move. To mount the chairs and
     scale the wall. Gardner helped the weak ones climb. Pushing their feet, pulling their hands. He was the strongest. The only
     one who could get them out of the danger zone. But there were not enough chairs! Hurry! Gardner screamed. Hurry! They are
     coming!
    Gardner tried, but he couldn’t help them all. Several people were stuck on the sand, terrified.
    Hurry! Gardner screamed. But it was too late. The keepers had arrived with the dogs. Giant snarling beasts that fed on human
     flesh. In an instant, they were ripping and slashing with their teeth, tearing the helpless ones to shreds. Their screams
     were lost in the growling chaos. And Gardner clung to the top of wall and watched, unable to save them.
    Purvis Bowers sat at his computer and tried to work, but he couldn’t concentrate. His aunt and uncle lay in Frame’s Funeral
     Home, and they had nothing to wear. Delivered this morning from the morgue in Baltimore, they were still naked. They needed
     clothes to be buried in, and Purvis had been asked to supply them.
    The thirty-five-year-old accountant was the only son of Henry’s deceased brother Burton. A small man with a sharp mind, he
     had grown up in the town’s backwaters. He was a genius with the numbers of commerce. He loved numbers, and he could always
     find a way to make them sing.
    Purvis had set up a solo accounting practice after his father died, crunching digits for everyone up and down Main Street.
     He’d saved a lot of money for a lot of clients. But his ambitions stretched beyond the county line. He saw himself someday
     at the head of a giant corporation, giving orders, poring over reams of billings that his numbers had created. And in his
     dream he was away, far away from the town, in a city that he owned.
    Purvis picked up his telephone and dialed.
    “Frame’s Funeral Home,” a female voice answered.
    “Ms. Frame, it’s Purvis Bowers.”
    “Hello, Mr. Bowers.”
    “Hello.” He took a breath. “I got your message.”
    “About the clothes.”
    “Yes, ma’am. About the clothes.” His voice was hesitant.
    “Is there a problem, Mr. Bowers? We didn’t know who else to call.”
    Purvis was the closest relative to Addie and Henry. They had no children of their own, and their siblings were all dead. In
     a crisis, he was the logical