An End to a Silence: A mystery novel (The Montana Trilogy Book 1) (25 page)

“It was
Kenny. And the doctor too. Kenny got spooked when O’Donnell had his funny turn
at the nursing home last week and assumed O’Donnell had told his tale to the
old family doctor. O’Donnell mentioned the doctor’s name and that got the
doctor killed too. That about right?”

“That
would be speculation. But…” He sighed. “I ain’t gonna question detectives’
logic.”

“Well, I
guess it’s all over for you both. And Arthur.”

“I know
you’re a young man but you ain’t that naive.” Gammond put his hand to his mouth
and wiped his lips. “You want to turn around?”

“You’re
going to kill me here?”

“Dang it.
You ain’t given me no choice. And I ain’t taking you off somewhere. Here’s as
good a place as anywhere.”

Ward let
out a sigh. “I guess I would be wasting my time trying to talk you out of it.”

Gammond
nodded. And then Ward’s cellphone rang. Instinctively, his hand went towards
his pocket. Before the hand could get there he saw the muzzle flash and heard
the report of the gun. The force of the bullet knocked him off his feet and he
fell backwards, his hat flying off and landing a few feet away. He felt the
heat of the blood spilling out inside his clothes and he couldn’t breathe right
and the overwhelming sensation he had was surprise. He watched snowflakes
falling towards him and he felt like he was the one falling. The next thing he
heard was a dog barking. From his position he saw a flash of black fly past him
as he fought his own blackness.

Jesús
didn’t go for the ankle as most small dogs would. He leapt at Gammond’s thigh
and his teeth sank into flesh and the sharp canines tangled in Gammond’s pants
and Jesús hung there for a couple of seconds before Gammond batted him off with
his free hand. He aimed the gun at the dog and fired but Jesús was already
around his other side and Gammond twirled around and fired again, soil and snow
exploding from the ground.

Ward
tried to sit up but found that he had no strength in his left side and the pain
in his chest, gnawing at molten nerves, made him cry out and blood gurgled in
his cry. With his right hand he levered himself onto his devastated left side
and his blood started to stain the ground.

Jesús was
still barking and he pranced and ran, pranced and ran, and Gammond, in his
whirling around, stepped onto the end of the dog’s leash. Jesús tried to run
and was snatched back by the taut leash. The dog fell over but was up straight
away and he made another attempt to run away but he was snatched back again and
Gammond took another shot but missed again. The little dog leapt away from the
sound of the gun and the debris it threw up and as he did he ran right around
Gammond. Gammond made his own growling sound and spun around to get another
shot at Jesús and his left leg became snarled in the leash. The dog made a
sharp turn and ran towards Gammond and then circled him and the leash tightened
around both legs and Gammond’s momentum took him spinning around and spiraling
down.

Ward was
seeing the blurry battle but he felt desolate and was sure that the little dog,
who had lost one owner to a fatal shooting, was about to lose another. And then
he saw Gammond’s stocky frame start to fall. The remaining strength that he had
in his right side was channeled into his arm and he slowly, too slowly,
wrenched it up to his body and his hand clutched onto his coat and then
twitching fingers grabbed hold of the zipper. He thought he’d counted to a
hundred before enough of the zipper’s teeth had let go and his hand crawled
into the jacket. It couldn’t have been a hundred though as he heard the thud of
Gammond hitting the ground and the gun firing into the air at the same time as
Ward’s fingers found his own gun.

Gammond
shouted, “Hellfire,” but the words were wheezed out by the impact. He managed
to hold on to the gun but Jesús immediately went to work on his arm, yanking
from side to side as his teeth penetrated cloth and then skin. Gammond cried
out the same words again and then “dang son of a bitch.”

The
bullet from Ward’s gun entered beneath Gammond’s chest and exited his shoulder
with a shower of blood fanning out over the snow. Ward saw that he was still
moving and prepared to shoot again but he realized that the movement was caused
by the dog’s gnashing at the lieutenant’s arm and Ward slumped back down and
prepared to bleed out.

Before
his eyes closed he saw the little girl standing at Gammond’s feet. She had her
back to Ward but he knew it was her. Her long dark hair. The clothes. So
familiar. Tattooed on his heart forever. She stood motionless for a few moments
and then she crouched down, leaning over Gammond’s head as if she was looking
into his face for signs of life. The dog suddenly stopped tugging at Gammond’s
arm and he looked directly at the girl and he sat in the snow and whimpered
gently.

Ward’s
eyes opened partially and the lights in the hospital corridor caused him pain
in his head and he tried to shield his eyes but neither of his arms would move
so he closed them again but before he did he thought he noticed the figure of
Mallory running alongside the gurney he was traveling on. He tried to take a
big gulp of air but it felt like someone was sitting on his chest and he could
hear a bubbling sound as he inhaled.

He didn’t
know he’d fallen asleep at that moment and he had no recollection of dreaming
when he woke. No dreams of sinking in a field. No memories of a little girl.
Simply a wonderful blackout without pain or panic or thoughts of death and an
orphaned dog.

“I know you
can’t speak,” said a voice. “Just listen. Gammond is alive. He’s in a bad way
but he’s alive.”

In Ward’s
disoriented mind the words seemed to come from everywhere at once and seemed to
have traveled a long way. He blinked a couple of times and then he could see
someone sitting next to his bed.

“I have
the letter.” Newton huffed gently. “And I’m kinda confused as to why Gammond
would go and do what he did.”

Ward’s
facial muscles made a massive effort to work a smile. Didn’t work. He winked
instead. He wanted to say something but couldn’t. Wasn’t sure what he wanted to
say anyway.

“Most
importantly, I guess, is that McNeely has fallen in love with your dog and
you’re going to be engaged in a tug of war to get him back. I may have to step
in and mediate. She says she’s taken him in as evidence but I’m not buying
that. It was Mallory saved your life by the way. He kept you alive. Applied
pressure to the wound and kept you warm. I won’t say how he did that. Now, if
your eyes can move the other way, there’s someone else to see you. I’ll leave
you now.” Newton moved off slowly in his wheelchair.

Ward
turned his head slowly. Cherry was already holding his hand but he hadn’t
noticed as the anesthetic had sent his nerve endings to sleep. Her face was
still beat up but Ward only saw the tears and the most wonderful smile in the
world.

“Thought
we’d lost you. You’ve been asleep for three days.” She let go of his hand and
reached down towards her feet to pick something up. “Your boss gave me this,”
she said. It was Ward’s notebook. Cherry held it cringingly by the corners as
it had dried-up blood on it. “It saved your life. The bullet was diverted away
from your heart,” she said, and then she sobbed. “Your heart. But the weirdest
thing. This is weird. You remember what you wrote in there? Don’t try to speak.
I think you must have freaked out or something. Like you found religion. The
last thing you wrote says ‘Jesus is my savior. Christ is my redeemer’. You
remember writing that? Don’t try to speak. You wrote it anyway. I thought you’d
found God or something. And then I realized. You see what it means? It wasn’t
Jesus saved you. He saved you! He saved you! Your dog.”

And then
Ward’s eyes closed and Cherry’s voice skipped away. He heard her calling his
dog’s name and he thought that she was the weird one.

“Kenny’s
gone,” Newton said.

Ward’s
throat hurt when he said, “He’s our man for Bill O’Donnell and Doctor
Brookline.”

“And the
boy? I ain’t told you this but the medical examiner found something. The boy
was murdered. Strangulation.”

“He was
run down?” Ward stated it but it came out as a question.

“Both.
Maybe his killer strangled him and then ran him over to make it look like an
accident. The boy had bruising on his face too. He’d been recently beaten. What
did Gammond tell you? This letter. What’s in this letter that made Gammond go
and do this to you?”

Ward took
a deep breath and his lungs filled. “Nothing,” he said, and the rest of the
wind wheezed from his body.

“I’m not
getting something here.”

“He shot
me for what he thought was in the letter. I bluffed him.”

Newton
almost laughed. He eased himself down onto the chair next to Ward’s bed, both
his hands sliding down his walking cane as he sat.

“It’s
Kenny’s son who killed the boy,” Ward said. “Arthur. Kenny and Gammond covered
it up. Gammond told me. Kenny paid him off. Said it was an accident. Gammond
blackmailed O’Donnell to go along with it.”

“And
O’Donnell took the boy into the forest to bury him.”

“But
you’re telling me the boy was strangled. We need to get Arthur Kenny.”

“He must
have strangled Ryan and then run over him like I said.”

“It’s a
guess. When Gammond wakes up we keep the bluff going.” He took another gulp of
air. “Otherwise he’s going to clam up. He might give us more. He thinks the
letter contains everything.”

“When all
it contains is O’Donnell’s confession about John White. How he faked his death.
With the help of Brookline.”

“He
didn’t want him suffering the abuse Ryan did. Larsson said Ryan’s father
physically abused him.”

“And he
wanted it known what he’d done. But not till long after he and Brookline were
dead.”

“And the
story in the newspaper about the capsule being moved. He probably thought the
capsule was going to be opened. He wanted to warn the doctor. I’m guessing
Kenny went to visit after hearing about his outburst. I’m guessing Kenny made
up his mind that O’Donnell was going to tell about the cover up of Ryan’s
death.”

Newton
said, “He misunderstood that O’Donnell’s confession wasn’t about Ryan at all
but about Ryan’s brother.”

Ward said,
“Kenny made a mistake killing him.”

“And the
old man only ever wanted to do the right thing…”

“Gets
killed for the wrong reason.”

Newton
bent down and placed the flowers on top of all the others that were still
there, now just bumps under the snow which covered Bill O’Donnell’s grave.

He placed
another bunch on Ryan’s grave and when he stepped back with wet eyes, Alice
White took one arm and John White took the other.

“You
walking without your stick,” Alice said.

Newton
nodded.

“You got
no need to feel bad, Mr. Newton,” Alice said. “What’s done is done and it’s
done at the hands of God.”

“Is this
okay?” Newton said to John White. “I know you wanted Ryan to be returned to
where we found him, but—”

“This is
right,” John White said. “Next to our granddaddy. Sure it’s right, sir.”

“I’m
sorry this wasn’t… I guess we could’ve…”

“You done
your job,” Alice said. “Like I said, you was driven by God. It’s Him makes the
decisions. You a good man, Mr. Newton.”

Cherry was
at Ward’s bedside when Newton walked in. Ward thought he looked younger.
Probably because he was feeling ancient himself. Ward’s beard had started to
grow back with flecks of gray he hadn’t noticed before. He cursed whoever it
was shaved it off in the first place. Cherry had said she liked it better with
the gray as it made him look more distinguished.

“I’m not
staying,” Newton said. “Just wanted to let you know Arthur Kenny was picked up
at a gas station just outside of Austin, Texas. Your neck of the woods.”

“Thereabouts,”
Ward said. “What’s a New York lawyer doing down there?”

“New York
lawyer? He ain’t no lawyer. He’s a salesman.”

“Okay.”

“We
already got the Bureau involved going through other missing children cases.
Just in case. He travels.”

“Any sign
of James Kenny?”

Newton
shook his head. “Nothing. Theory is he’s skipped the country.”

“I want
to call Larsson. It’s his story. I made a deal.”

“That’s
fine with me,” Newton said. He turned to Cherry then. “I see what you mean
about the beard. Kinda gray. Looking more like his mutt every day. But they do
say that.”

“He’s
gonna shave it off if we carry on with this and I like it too much for that to
happen,” Cherry said, and she went to stroke Ward’s beard and he play-slapped
 
her
hand away.

“Leave me
alone, you two sons of bitches. I’m recovering here and you two are setting me
back. Nurse!”

“Okay,
okay, I’m leaving. You get your rest,” Newton said, and he turned to leave the
hospital room.

“Hey,”
Ward said. “I thought you were retired.”

“Captain asked
me to stay on until you were back at your desk.”

“You
definitely bowing out after this is over?”

Newton
didn’t say anything. Ward thought he looked happy sad. He gave Ward a
lackluster salute and left.