Voices (Whisper Trilogy Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

want. You don’t know anything about him.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Yeah, everyone is. It’s just a word though. I’m the one who has to live with it.”
    Dane again decided silence was the best response. Realizing she wouldn’t be able to goad him into an argument, she sighed and dabbed the corners of her eyes with a tissue. “Give me the damn papers. I want to spend some time with my husband before I let him go.”
    Dane handed her the envelope he’d been holding since his arrival. As was becoming routine, he held his tongue, this time not so much out of respect, but interest as he watched her open the envelope. Time seemed to slow as he watched her take a pair of reading glasses out of her bag and look through the documents. As he watched and waited, he became aware of everything going on around him, almost as if he were tuning into his surroundings at a more acute frequency than normal. Everything seemed sharper, more intense: the steady hiss-wheeze of the machines keeping Bruce alive; the overpowering sickly sweet smell of his soon-to-be widow’s perfume; even the distant sound of someone coughing somewhere down the corridor, all of which were secondary to the sight of Audrey as she scanned page after page of documentation. She caught him staring at her and screwed up her face.
    “Jesus, you look like a vulture standing there.”
    “The paperwork is no different to the versions we’ve sent you before. Nothing has changed. I have no intention of ripping you off.”
    “You think I care about a patch of dead land in the middle of an even deader town? As far as I’m concerned, you can have it. I just want to be sure this will be the end of it.”
    “I understand. Your husband didn’t care much for the land either, which is why he’d agreed to sell it.”
    “Yes, to your brother, right before he did this. It would have been much easier for you if they’d completed the sale before he decided to lose his mind, wouldn’t it?”
    He was shocked by the venom in her eyes.
    “I’m not making any excuses for him,” Dane said. “What he did was inexcusable. I just don’t want to be associated with his actions. I was a victim too.”
    “You were no victim. You have your life; you have your health. What about me? What do I have?”
    “I’m sorry,” he replied, staring at the floor so he didn’t have to look at her. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
    “I don’t want you to say anything.” Her voice was filled with emotion.
    Before he could reply, she scrawled her signature on the bottom of the final page, slipped the documents and pen into the envelope and held them out to him.
    “There. You win.”
    He took the envelope, unsure what to say or do.
    “Would you like me to stay? For the end, I mean,” he asked, not because he wanted to, but because it seemed like the right thing to say.
    “Are you serious?” she replied, face contorted into a grimace. “I couldn’t imagine anything worse. Just go, get out of here and let me say goodbye to my husband in peace.”
    “Okay, I’m sorry. I just thought—”
    “Get out!” she screamed.
    Dane hesitated a few seconds more, torn between doing as she asked and trying to reason with her. In the end he chose the former, leaving Audrey to say her last goodbyes to her husband.

CHAPTER 4

     
    Kimmel shifted into third, the black Jeep growling in response as it rolled across the blacktop. In the passenger seat, Fisher grunted and glanced across at the General, the gold buttons on his green suit jacket glittering in the mid-morning sun. Golden autumn leaves were displaced as the Jeep flashed past the sun-bleached sign welcoming them to the town of Oakwell. Fisher fidgeted, his polyester coat rustling against the seat.
    “It’s not what I expected after the way your people built it up,” he said, glancing at Kimmel.
    The General returned the glance, already disliking the skinny, sunken-eyed government official. “We’re still at the town