Relative Silence by Carrie Stuart Parks

Author:Carrie Stuart Parks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2020-07-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

I was lucky to be sitting. Gragg didn’t deny Tucker’s statement.

“What do you mean, no one had an alibi and everyone had a motive?” I asked.

Gragg leaned over the computer and turned it off. “I’ve said enough, really. Rest assured that our cold-case officer is working on it. I’ve already given you what you wanted to see, which was the initial police reports.”

I gripped the chair. “But—”

“I need to get back to the mainland. You have my number should you think of anything else to add on the café shooter, James Vincent Cave.” He started to leave but paused. “I won’t be staying for lunch. If I don’t see him first, please thank Tern for the offer.” He left.

A gust of wind sent a flurry of rain against the window.

“What now?” I asked.

“Now it’s time to do some digging. I’ll start here on this computer. You mentioned you have a media room.”

I blinked. “Ah, yes, but—”

“But what does that have to do with anything?” He smiled at me and I took a quick breath. “Is it just for television and movies, or do you have family videos?”

“There are older family videos.”

“Perfect. I need you to go through them and watch for anything . . . out of the ordinary.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. There may be nothing.”

I stood. “Do you honestly believe a member of my family did this?”

“I don’t know that either, but we have to start somewhere.”

Leaving the study, I passed the game room. Joel lay under the air hockey table, tool kit open on the floor beside him as he repaired something. Tern and Mother were in the living room deep in conversation. I overheard, “My campaign manager called a bit ago.”

“Oh,” Mother said. “And?”

“He confirmed that the café shooting boosted my approval with the sympathy vote.”

“I told you it would. Now, back to the wetlands proposal. If we amend it to read ‘not to exceed’ and add the words ‘fiscal year’ . . .”

Sympathy vote? I thought about interrupting and reminding them it was a mass murder. Of course, they’d just look at me with their usual bland expressions. The media room was next to the kitchen. Mildred was stirring something on the stove. “Where’s Ashlee?” I asked.

“Did you want to see him or avoid him?”

“Avoid.”

“He should be working out in the gym.”

The gym was across the hall from the media room. Hopefully the door would be shut. “Thanks.”

The door was open, but Ashlee seemed intent on watching himself lift free weights, and I was able to slip into the media room and lock the door without notice. Two rows of black leather sofas with built-in drink holders rose in tiers in front of a big television screen. Behind one wall was a library of home movies, most of which had been converted to DVDs. The bulk of the DVDs were arranged by date and had been recorded prior to Father’s passing, but I found one dated the July after his accident. That was the year I married Ashlee, the year I became pregnant with Dove.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.