Hello, Little Sparrow by Jordan Jones (ebook audio reader txt) 📗

I wouldn’t be sad; I’d be relieved. My face was on the news channels throwing up in the front yard of a slain man’s house. I was the detective assigned to the case. There weren’t many of us, so it was easy to be visible to the public.

After the stabbing, my face was again briefly displayed for all one hundred and twenty-five thousand residents of Lincolnshire to see.

I stopped in front of Abraham’s condo and he got out. He went to shut the door, but stopped himself. “John…we’re gonna get this guy,” he said. “As confusing as the motives are, we’ll figure them out. This guy is as good as gone.”

I let out a forced smile and nodded in his general direction. “Have a good night, DeAngelo.”

The road was slick from the sleet and the temperature was oddly cold enough to keep it in a slush mix, but also warm enough to keep it from freezing.

The streetlights came on slowly as I drove across town. The lights danced, as my vision grew more and more hazy. I had gone nearly thirty hours with no sleep and it was catching up to me.

Right about now, I’d be at some random bar finding my second wind in my forth mixed drink. It was a sad sight; me sitting alone at the bar on the nights DeAngelo couldn’t make it. The shame I felt didn’t radiate, but it was there. I felt it with every gulp of alcohol.

I felt it more as the alcohol hit my stomach…more still as it hit my bloodstream.

It was a sad life, but LT Anderson’s ultimatum helped me stay on track. I had a job to do and that job was to find who is killing all of these predators.

After rounding through the spiraling roads to the cabin, the police officers’ car could be seen in the driveway. It gave me a sense of relief seeing them there. One officer was even outside, shining his flashlight around.

I gave them both a handshake and looked over to see that Katherine’s car was missing. My phone had seventeen texts with two from Katherine that read:

Went back to the dorms. Hope you’re OK to be by yourself again.

 

Love you and hope you find what you’re looking for.

 

Inside I fished for my wallet in a kitchen drawer only to find my debit card missing.

I figured I’d give it a few days before I call and cancel it.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The office door was closed. It was three hours after everyone’s shift was over, after all. No one should’ve been at Fasten Biofuels so late, but Brooks was.

He was alone.

He also wasn’t alone.

He felt Madison everywhere he went. She was in him, and she was him.

She drove his thoughts, his demeanor, and his mannerisms. He rarely took a breath without her consent.

The blank paper in front of him stared back with a lethal dose of ecstasy, playing with his creative juices in ways he never thought possible.

Brooks was prepared to write why he had to do what he was doing. He wanted the world to know why it was he that took the lives of so many vile humans. He didn’t feel like they had the right to know, but that he wanted to offer an explanation. He also understood that everyone was OK with the vile humans walking about the communities unscathed and unchecked, and Brooks knew that the vast majority must’ve been complacent in their feelings towards them.

They were fine with it. Brooks wanted them to understand why they shouldn’t be.

Brooks put pen to paper, full well knowing someone would one day read what he was about to say and form their own opinions.

The pen made strokes as he formed letters, then words, progressing more and more piecing eloquent sentences together. He wrote about growing up with his sister, Jody, and how indescribably playful she was. He wrote about how she would often frolic around the backyard, jumping at any chance to get lost in thought. She was so great at creating new worlds where they could thrive.

She once found a frog and made it queen of the backyard. The backyard was a kingdom called New JodyBrooks, and the frog’s name was Queen Longlegs. She was the fairest of them all.

Brooks wrote about how Jody would often care for him and his accidents. He’d scrape his knee on the sidewalk, and she would tend to him and never break character. She would wrap up Prince Brooks’ knee with paper towels she deemed magical in some sense, though Brooks knew they were store-bought.

The fairy tales rarely ended, as the creativity followed Jody and Brooks inside the home. At dinner, their mother would make a respectable meal for the four of them, but Jody would pretend the meal was one fit for royalty and all those who resided in the kingdom.

Often times at night, Jody would stay up very late and watch the moon through the window. If it were full, she would tell Brooks that tomorrow they would have to do battle with werewolves, and describe them down to the coarseness of their fur.

It all seemed so normal for Brooks. Mother and Father never intervened with their daughter’s imagination, though the furthest stretches came from memories she was trying to avoid.

Brooks felt a tingle in his chest as he continued to write. He felt Madison take his hand and help guide the sentences, making them more powerful than he ever could.

Each morning, Jody would be up before the family and glide downstairs to eat a quick breakfast before galloping outside. She was eleven and her imagination was as untethered as ever before. Many days, she was indifferent if Brooks played with her or not. He always wanted his sister’s approval and guidance, but it