The Silent Boy (Emma McPherson Book 1) by A.J. Flynn (early reader books .txt) 📗

She hurried over. “What’s up, Eddy?”

“There’s trouble in South Pines,” the young man said as he searched through his notes. “Mrs. Fitts just reported three phone calls where there was no one on the other line. I checked in with the telephone company, and they have reports of trouble there. The wind last night blew some wires. I told her that, but she still demanded police protection. I notified the nearest patrol car and they went to talk to her, but I still haven’t heard from them. Also, a Mrs. Shepherd called to tell me they found her son’s dog dead. She doesn’t know what could have happened to it, but she said her son was so upset that she felt the need to report it.”

“Any panties stolen?” McPherson joked dryly.

“No, ma’am. No panties,” the young man answered seriously. “Just what I told you.”

“Good deal. Thanks,” she said, and after grabbing her coat, headed down towards the basement garage.

To her surprise, she found Taylor speaking to the attendant.

“Don’t you ever go home, Taylor? How do you expect to keep up your strength and grow up to be a big boy?”

Taylor was about six foot four and weighed well over two hundred pounds.

“Coffee and alcohol, Lieutenant. Going somewhere?”

“Yeah. You can drive me to South Pines. They just found a dead dog.”

Taylor scratched at his nose reflectively. “I wouldn’t swear it was true, but I’ve heard rumors that there’s a place that’s been set up to deal with just such emergencies. If I’m not mistaken, it’s called The Humane Society.”

“Well, so long as you’re not sure, and we don’t have enough time to investigate, just give me a lift out to the Shepherd house, and we can check out what might have happened to the dog.”

Taylor saluted and left to sign for the car. McPherson got in, and soon they were on their way back to South Pines.

It was about fifteen minutes before they pulled to a stop in front of the Shepherds’.

McPherson pushed open the door latch and stepped out onto the parking strip. “I’m going to speak with Mrs. Shepherd first, then I’ll head on over and see if the Johnson woman’s thought of anything she didn’t tell them last night. So long as we’re here I might as well talk to the Rogers. Remember to keep your eyes peeled, so long as it doesn’t interfere with your sleep. I expect these people to be curious, but I want to see if any of them take it to the extreme. You can forget about the Valentines. They’re both working.”

Taylor nodded, and McPherson started up the walk.

IX

Ella Shepherd answered the doorbell almost immediately.

“Hello, Lieutenant McPherson. We met last night at the Turners’.”

“I remember, Mrs. Shepherd. They tell me you have some trouble here.”

“Come in, Lieutenant,” she said, motioning for her to step into the living room. “I think I might be making too much of this, but my son and Mrs. Fitts were so upset, I felt I better talk to someone about it. Please sit down.”

She chose a red chair that matched the couch, and glanced around the room. It wasn’t furnished in any one particular style, but it had an atmosphere of comfort.

“It’s no trouble, Mrs. Shepherd. I was planning on coming to see you anyway. There are a few questions I’d like for you to answer.”

“I thought you might have a few. A terrible event such as this touches everyone.”

McPherson catalogued Mrs. Shepherd with a practiced glance. Last night she’d been called over in a hurry and she hadn’t taken the time to pretty up, but today she was dressed well.

The woman looked to be a little over forty, with slightly greying hair that showed the time she’d spent grooming, and a good figure, but her most arresting feature by far was her eyes. They were clear grey, with a calm no-nonsense expression to them.

“The patrolmen took a look at the dog before I got there. They didn’t find any marks on him, and they couldn’t detect any signs of poisoning, but they had him brought in for an autopsy anyway.”

A rueful smile played on Mrs. Shepherd’s face. “If you ask me, I think he died from old age, but what with this thing last night…”

McPherson permitted herself an answering smile. “I have the same opinion, but the fact that your son’s upset is understandable, and maybe we can set his mind to rest. How long had he had the dog?”

“Over ten years. He’s heartbroken of course, but it was Mrs. Fitts’s actions that made it even worse.” She offered McPherson a cigarette as she spoke, and lit one for herself.

“How did she happen to see him?”

“Well, my son Ben went out calling for Shadow this morning and when he didn’t answer, he went outside to look for him. He found him in the same spot the patrolman saw him, beneath the cherry blossom tree, then he came running in saying someone had killed his dog.” She sighed before continuing. “So—I went out with him, of course, and we were both standing there looking down at Shadow, when Marla came running out of her house with Teddy and Jade. I guess she was on the way to the corner to catch the school bus. Anyway, as soon as she saw us, she told both of her children to stay there and hurried over to see what was wrong. When she saw Shadow she just stood there for a minute, then she said, ‘Death again,’ and ran back across the street, grabbed her children, and hurried into the house like she just heard the Bubonic Plague was coming. I’ve called her cell phone several times, just to explain, but she refuses to answer.”

McPherson bet that trip to her mother’s was practically in the bag by now. “That must have been hard on your son.”

“Poor child. Ben was so hurt about his dog, and then to have