Sounds of Silence by Elizabeth White Read Free Book Online Page B

whispered “Amen.”
    No turning back now.

    Mercedes could tell Isabel was upset without looking at her face. The dandelions had been crushed in her hands, releasing a bitter smell into the room, and the soft arms around her were tight and almost uncomfortable. Eli’s blue eyes were focused on Isabel, but Mercedes could tell he was worried about something.
    He had mentioned Mercedes’s name twice as he prayed, though she couldn’t understand much of the rest of it. By now she and Danilo understood each other pretty well, but the adults tended to use big words she didn’t know.
    She knew both Isabel and Eli wanted to know about the knife. She still wasn’t sure why she’d taken it. Knowing Pablo wanted it back terrified her, and she’d nearly flung it into a pile of garbage on the way to the mission.
    But giving it to Eli had been the right thing to do. Something had whispered it would be all right when he’d held out his hand for it and smiled at her with those kind eyes.
    Mercedes looked up at Isabel and flinched at the sight of her tears. She should never had drawn that picture. It made Isabel worry more than she already did.
    And there was no way she was going to say anything more about it. Pablo would squash her like a bug if she ever did. Look what he’d done to Lupe.

Chapter Four
    “L ooks like the motion sensor sent us out here chasing cows again.” Eli lowered his binoculars, his stomach lurching as the chopper suddenly swooped so close to the ground that he could see an armadillo waddling into the brush.
    Owen brought the helicopter into flamboyant hover, then lifted his own glasses to scan the scraggly landscape. “Your tax dollars at work.” He blew out such a loud breath that Eli winced. “So how’s Artemio coming with finding your getaway car?”
    “I think it’s a lost cause. Do you know how many brown Ford LTDs are parked on the side of the road in Mexico?”
    Owen grinned. “Everybody knows they migrate south for the summer. What about the autopsy report? Is it in yet?”
    “Suffocation. Nothing we didn’t know. But the coroner says the tests were inconclusive and we can’t be certain there was foul play.” Eli forestalled his brother’s outraged response. “Callous, I know. Look, I’m disgusted, too. We’re just going to have to do our own legwork.”
    “You know I’ll help however I can.” Owen turned the chopper and headed back to the station. “Especially now that Benny’s involved.”
    “Speaking of lost causes.”
    Owen shook his blond head. “She’s choosy. I like that in a woman.”
    “I hate to rain on your parade, but Benny’s made it perfectly clear she has no intention of dating anybody. Especially cowboy helicopter jockeys.”
    “Faint heart never won fair lady.”
    Eli chuckled. “Storm the walls and fall into the moat. The story of your life.”
    “Like yours is going so well.” Owen threw Eli a sidelong look. “How’re you doing with the lovely Isabel?”
    “I’m making progress.”
    Owen gave Eli a “yeah, right” look. “You haven’t even asked her out, have you?”
    “Not yet.”
    “Why not?”
    Eli shrugged. “She’s still in love with her husband.” He hadn’t even been able to bring himself to open the Eisenhower book. Lying on his nightstand, it taunted him with the awareness of that inscription on the title page. To Isabel, my one and only.
    Did a woman ever get over that kind of love?
    Owen took the helicopter into another breath-stealing dive. “You are such a chicken.”
    “Shut up, Owen, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not the Casanova you think you are.” Eli folded his arms. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”
    “Well, to begin with you could do something a little more romantic than cut her grass. She probably thinks of you as her yard boy.”
    “She needs me to cut her grass. Danilo’s not big enough yet.”
    Owen made a rude noise. “Okay, so you keep cutting the grass, but you take her