Loonies Read Online Free Page A

hanging limply by his sides. He stopped at one point and looked at his feet. He reached down to the sidewalk, picked something up, put it in his pocket, and continued down the street. Brian made a mental note to ask Noah if he knew anything about the man.
    Brian left the window and joined Darcie on the couch, patting her hand and giving her a reassuring smile. She didn’t smile back. She looked tired even though she had been resting earlier.
    After refusing Darcie’s offer of coffee, Steem sat opposite them. He took out a notebook of his own and asked them about the discovery of the trunk. Brian and Darcie told him they had only moved into the house and the town a few months ago and had discovered the trunk today.
    “You hadn’t been in the attic at all before today?” Steem asked.
    Brian and Darcie exchanged glances.
    “Just to kind of peek,” Brian said, “but not really to look around.”
    “And you never noticed the trunk?”
    “No,” Darcie answered. “It was tucked into a corner, and I dragged it out under the light.”
    Brian started to tell Steem about the key Noah had gotten from Pfefferkorn, but the captain cut him off with a wave of his hand.
    “Chief Treece informed me all about the key.” He glanced up from his notepad at Brian. “Very strange coincidence.”
    “Yes,” Brian agreed.
    Steem was jotting something in his notebook. Brian took his own notebook out and pretended to write something. Steem looked at him, eyes narrowing.
    Noah and Wickwire came into the house and stood off to the side in the living room.
    “Now tell me, who did you buy this house from?”
    “The previous owner’s name was Ruth Snethen.”
    Steem wrote it down. “Do you know anything about her?” he asked without looking up.
    “We never met her,” Darcie said. “It was all done through our real estate agent. Ms. Snethen didn’t even attend the closing.”
    Steem looked at them, and turned toward Noah.
    “She’s a retired nurse,” Noah said without waiting for a question. “Lived alone. Don’t believe she’d ever been married.”
    “Hmm,” Steem said. “Where did she work as a nurse?”
    “Up at the Mustard House.” Noah smiled.
    Steem’s brow furrowed. “What the hell is the Mustard House?”
    Noah’s smile left his face.
    “It’s an insane asylum.”
     

 
Chapter 2
     
THE MUSTARD HOUSE
     
    It sat on the top of the ridge, overlooking the town like a sentinel.
    It was a sprawling nineteenth-century mansion with multiple narrow gables that punctured the sky. It had been originally built by a logging tycoon and had passed through many hands. Townsfolk had nicknamed the building the Mustard House because of its yellowish-brown paint. Its actual name was The Wymbs Institute. Dr. Milton Wymbs had opened the private sanitarium forty years ago.
    Dr. Wymbs lived at the institute and rarely appeared in town. He had a small staff of nurses and a housekeeper who cooked and cleaned for him. No one knew exactly how many patients resided at the asylum, but the mansion had enough rooms to house at least a couple of dozen. Noah had told Brian he had never laid eyes on the reclusive doctor in the two years he had been police chief. The doctor kept to himself and his patients, and there were never any concerns.
    At least not until the trunk was opened.
    Brian sat in his office downtown looking at a copy of the weekly that had come out that morning, pleased he had been able to break the story. He had fielded several calls already that morning from the news syndicates and other media sources. The story had sparked plenty of interest, as he knew it would. Of course he also had to field a call from Mrs. Picklesmeir, the angry head of the Women’s Garden Club, and he failed in all attempts to appease her. He assured her that he would do a big photo spread on the tour for the next week’s issue, but that did little to satisfy her concern that townspeople wouldn’t know the details of the tour since they weren’t in