Free An End to a Silence: A mystery novel (The Montana Trilogy Book 1) by W.H. Clark Page A

always suspected
William, I know. But it don’t matter much what you think neither. Fact is, only
God can judge and if William done anything like you say he did, then I guess by
now God has sat in judgment on him.”
    Newton
didn’t say anything but sat there with hands gripping knees and head bowed
again.
    “And you
ain’t touched your tea, Mr. Newton. No mind. I’ll get us a fresh pot while you
two talk amongst yourselves.”
    She stood
up slowly and steadied herself before moving on out of the room. Ward looked
over at Newton and for a minute he thought he was looking at a man on death
row.
    “It’s
bullshit,” Newton said. “I’ve heard all this bullshit before. She knows
something more and she ain’t telling. O’Donnell just appeared from nowhere on
the day the boy was reported missing and gave me this story of his truck going
missing and him going off to look for it. Something didn’t add up.”
    “Did he
report the truck missing?”
    “So what
if he did? Yes, he did. But to me that don’t add up to a convincing alibi. I’m
telling you, Ward, there’s something else here. And I think she knows. Why was
he at the church anyways? He suddenly goes to church. A black church. Don’t
make sense. Never made sense.”
    “After
losing his grandson I guess he might go to church. It’s not that unusual for
someone to go pray for something like that.”
    “It don’t
match the timeline.”
    “How’s
that?”
    “Because
he went to church before he knew the boy had gone.”
    Ward
stared sleepily at Newton. “Okay, look—”
    “I had
him, Ward. I had him. He was at the church before Ryan was reported missing.
His truck went missing. He took the boy and then after he’d killed him he went
to pray for his own soul.”
    “Okay. We
need to focus on the old man’s homicide for now. I need to get background on
the man. She’s the one person knew him best. Got to be something in what she’s telling
us even if it’s not the full story. God will strike her down if she’s telling
lies. That’s how it works, right?”
    Newton
shook his head and was about to speak when Ward’s cell phone vibrated in his
pocket. He looked at the display and decided to take the call. The call lasted
less than a minute and by the time Ward hung up Alice was back in the room with
a fresh pot of tea and more cookies.
    “Was that
a phone I heard? That would be the station, I figure.” She sat down slowly,
smiling at Ward and holding his stare. He looked over to Newton, who sat upright now. The phone was on vibrate and hadn’t rung out
loud.
    “Mrs.
White. I have a few more questions. Did you receive any money from William?”
    Alice
White poured tea. A fresh cup for Ward, but Newton placed his hand over his cup
to decline.
    “Yes, I
did, Mr. Ward. You don’t need to ask me that because you got access to
William’s bank account. Regular payment each month of five hundred dollars.”
    Newton’s
jaw loosened.
    “May I
ask why? What was the money for?”
    “Let me
tell you about William O’Donnell. He was a kind man. As generous as they come.
He gave of his time to the church and he gave to the glory of God. He knew of
my work with children and he gave me money to help me support that. The money
he gave was used to make a better life for those children. If there was any
left over after taking care of the little ones I would donate that to the
church and William was happy with that.”
    “Any idea
where he was getting the money from?”
    “Never
asked. Money’s a private thing for people and I ain’t one to pry. He did work.”
    “Where
did he work?”
    “Mr.
Newton will tell you. He worked at the elementary school as a janitor.”
    “Five
hundred a month’s a lot out of a janitor’s salary. He can’t have earned much.”
    “I never
asked a man nor woman what they earn.”
    “But you
understand it may appear a little odd that he would be able to give you all
that money and he still managed to support himself too.