Turn to Stone by Brian Freeman Read Free Book Online

months. The cold spring, after winter and before summer, was the quiet time.
    Stride felt something familiar about the Bruin house. He recognized it with a sense of claustrophobia as a place of sadness and loss. The house was too big for a widow and baby. It was cluttered by memories. He could still feel the missing presence of Tom Bruin. The late doctor had obviously been a sportsman, because the wood paneling on the walls and the deer heads mounted over the field stone fireplace all reflected a man’s touch. He saw a line of framed photographs perched on the mantle. Bruin, who had been only 47 when he died, had full straw-colored hair and beet-red cheeks. He was stocky and tall, with a beer belly and a big smile. The photographs showed him at play, wearing a Packers cheesehead at Lambeau, toasting with a bottle of Leinie’s at a Brewers game, and crouching in head to toe camouflage with a rifle in his hands. It was easy to imagine him bursting in the front door, telling a joke, but all that was left now was a ghost. His own house had felt the same way for a long time after Cindy died.
    He saw Percy Andrews in two of the pictures on the Bruin mantle. Percy was younger than Tom by several years, and he looked shyer and quieter than the doctor, who had his arm around the other man like a bear paw. Percy wasn’t frowning, but he wasn’t really smiling. He looked like a man who thought that the world was a serious place.
    “I’m so sorry,” Anna Bruin announced as she returned to the living room. “Sophie is wonderful with Mya, but sometimes she needs rescue when the crying starts.”
    “I understand.”
    “Do you have children, Mr. Stride?” she asked him.
    “No, my wife and I wanted kids, but it didn’t happen before she passed away.”
    Anna nodded in sympathy. It was the unspoken bond between people who had lost their spouses. They were both part of the cancer club. “Mya is a blessing,” she told him. “As hard as it is without Tom, I have her as a reminder. I’m sorry that you weren’t so fortunate.”
    “That’s kind of you,” he said.
    “Others who haven’t been through it don’t really understand, do they?”
    He shook his head. “No, they don’t.”
    The two of them sat down again. Anna was tall and bird-like, with thin bones and a long neck. She wore glasses, and her face was narrow and pointed. She had brunette hair cut in a simple style that hung straight down and swished in broad curls at her shoulders. He assumed she had money, but she wasn’t showy about it. Her clothes were plain. She wore no jewelry, other than her wedding ring and a gold chain with a cross around her neck. She was obviously younger than her husband had been, and Stride guessed she was about the same age as Kelli Andrews, in her early thirties.
    “I have to tell you, I’m in shock about Percy,” Anna said.
    “Of course.”
    “Kelli must be devastated.”
    “She is.”
    “I truly can’t understand it. This was so unlike Percy. He was a man of faith, and he was so devoted to Kelli. I simply can’t conceive what would have driven him to something like this. You were there? You saw it?”
    Stride nodded.
    “And he gave no clue?”
    “No, he didn’t.”
    “Well, I’m at a loss,” Anna said.
    “It sounds like you knew him pretty well.”
    “Oh, yes, he was like an older brother. Percy and Tom were thick as thieves when I first met Tom ten years ago. I joined the hospital fresh out of nursing school, and Tom and I started dating shortly thereafter. Even then, I knew it was a package deal. Tom and Percy came joined at the hip. They were both sports fanatics. Hunting and fishing, too. Tom has a camper on some land we own near Richmond, and the two of them used to solve all the problems of the world out there.”
    “Nice.”
    “Yes, we cried together when Tom passed away. It was as hard on Percy as it was on me. Honestly, this is like dealing with Tom’s death all over again to lose Percy. I don’t know what