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

the boxes. “I figured I’d do a little housekeeping while I’m here.”

She told Brooks some joke about how her house is always a mess and Brooks couldn’t care less, though he played the part. She started talking about something else related to making messes and Brooks looked at his door. The red light that typically indicated it was locked was turned off.

It wasn’t green either.

The electronic locking system was down…or, maybe it didn’t work on the weekends. Brooks fished for his office key that he was told to only use in power failure situations. He ignored the woman and walked over to the door and stuck the key in the keyhole.

The door popped open and he heard the woman’s machine tirelessly crank back on and it hummed along. Brooks shut the door and leaned his back up against it, letting out a relieving sigh. He clicked the lock back in place and turned the light on revealing the shrine left the way he presented it to the world.

He was foolish for thinking it was fine leaving it this way, especially with the foot traffic outside his door on a daily basis.

The boxes were plenty big enough to house all the pictures and newspaper clippings. He worked for several minutes, unpinning papers and placing them into a box, then unpinning more. Some papers were overlapped and he stopped admiring articles about the “deceased Maise kid” that were lost underneath.

The wall in front of the desk was nothing but a pincushion when he was done, but he was fine with it. No one had made their way in there for the past three months but him, and it wouldn’t change any time soon.

He taped up the boxes and stacked one on top of the other as he unlocked the door and stepped out. The cleaners were finishing up for the day as Brooks pushed past them and was out the front door facing the parking lot.

The unnamed technician was walking up to the building when he caught a glimpse of Brooks. His expression offered more questions than answers as he changed his course.

“Hey! Mr. Ingram!” He hollered from across the lot. “What are you doing here?” His face was surprisingly spry although he was at his place of employment on a Saturday mid-morning.

Brooks kept the boxes in his hands as he answered. “I had to…pick up a few things.”

“I gotchya,” the man said. “I’ve seen you around. You’re the plant growing guy, huh?”

“Horticulturalist,” Brooks answered, slightly annoyed.

“Oh, right. You take care of the plants for Dr. Leggons. I get it.” He readjusted his stocking cap. “I’m Bryan. I’m one of the technicians. We just make sure the water is pumping and take care of the maintenance issues. We’ve worked together for a while, but we haven’t really been able to meet.”

Brooks wasn’t a people person and preferred it that way. Given this new life with the police on his tail about multiple murders in multiple jurisdictions, Brooks thought he should open up more with people and not be the clichéd serial killer living alone with no friends.

“Anyway, some friends and I are going to Lucky Charlie’s tonight for some drinks. Mostly work friends. You’d probably recognize some. You should come along.”

Brooks moved his lips to politely decline the offer like he normally would, but remembered the look on Morelli’s face at the mantel. Morelli thought he was a socially isolated loser with no friends. He pegged Brooks as a killer the moment he laid his eyes on him.

Brooks would have to change that perception.

“Sure,” Brooks responded. “I’d love to.”

“Great, man!” Bryan exclaimed, almost genuinely. “We’re going to be there around eight thirty tonight. First round is on me.”

Chapter Thirty-One

My fridge was empty.

Well, it had the rest of a twelve pack I’d drank the night before, but nothing was appetizing. The cold from the fridge washed over me like the surge of emotion coursing through my brain.

It was sharp, yet stale. It was strong enough to wake me up, yet dull enough to force me into a four-hour depression nap…tearing away any likeness of who I was in the process.

I felt the pain start at my toes, then work it’s way through my abdomen and finally resting at my clavicle. I’d found true meaning in the phrase, “This is gonna hurt.” I’d been hurt before, but not like this.

This wasn’t The Sparrow stabbing me through the shoulder.

It wasn’t Viv leaving me for a real-estate broker in California.

It wasn’t like Katherine taking what she wanted from me for the one-hundredth time.

This was something different. It involved an innocent man trying to do his job. The others…involved people crossing boundaries, where they didn’t quite belong.

DeAngelo was a great man doing what he loved to do. He didn’t like loose ends and he was afraid if he didn’t check on the Maise house one last time that he would miss something.

And he was right.

Unfortunately, it would’ve been a better outcome if he left it be.

I’d lost my better half since my marriage fell apart, and I was forced to witness the aftermath. His body was promptly taken to the morgue from the scene, along with the other another man. LT Anderson told me to take a few days off and we’d “talk about your future with this case,” he had said.

I wasn’t leaving the case like this…not now. An invisible heaviness fell over me and I wanted to curse the world, but what good would that do?

Offer me a moment of solace amidst my chaotic reality?

It wasn’t worth it.

What did seem worth it was meeting the pavement fifteen stories down headfirst. The railing around the balcony looked shorter for some reason…more inviting. As if I would have to indulge in very little thinking before