Acts of Mercy Read Online Free PDF

fine.
    Mallory hung up and immediately placed a call to Lynne Walker.
    “This is Mallory Russo from the Mercy Street Foundation,” she began when the call was picked up. “I’d like to speak with Lynne Walker.”
    “This is Lynne.” There was a pause. “Who did you say …?”
    “Mallory Russo, from the Mercy Street Foundation. We’ve reviewed the application you sent in regarding your late husband. We’d like to take on the case, if you’re still interested in us doing so.”
    “Is this a joke?” Lynne Walker’s voice was trembling. “Because if this is supposed to be funny …”
    “It’s not a joke, Mrs. Walker. We’d like to look into your husband’s murder.”
    “Oh, my God. You’re serious. I never thought you’d really choose us.” She began to cry. “I can’t believe you’re really going to do this.”
    “We have an investigator ready to start work on this, next week. He’ll be contacting you on Monday or Tuesday to set up a meeting.”
    “I can’t believe this,” she said again. “I can’t believe there’s a chance we might finally find out what happened to Ross.”
    “There are no guarantees, Mrs. Walker. Please understand that. We will do our best, but we can’t promise that we’ll find anything the police haven’t already found.”
    “Which is basically nothing,” she said bitterly. “They aren’t any closer now than they were the dayRoss died. I call down there to the police department and every month it’s the same. ‘I’m sorry, Mrs. Walker, but there have been no new developments.’”
    “I understand your frustration, but I’m sure the police have done the best they can with the personnel they have.”
    “I read about those other cases you people solved. Those kids there in Pennsylvania, and that college girl down in Maryland. You people get results.”
    “It’s much easier when all your efforts and resources are concentrated on one case. The police generally don’t have that luxury.”
    “I don’t think they cared one way or another.”
    “It might seem that way sometimes, but having been a police officer myself, I can tell you that every case is important, and nothing rankles like the case you could not solve.”
    “You said someone would be calling me next week.”
    “Most likely late afternoon Monday or sometime on Tuesday.” Mallory hesitated. She probably shouldn’t box Sam in but it was too late now. “The investigator will be Sam DelVecchio.”
    “Tell Mr. DelVecchio I’ll be waiting to hear from him. I’ll wait here until he calls. I don’t want to miss him.”
    “I’m sure he’ll leave a message if you’re not there, so if there are things you—”
    “You don’t understand,” Lynne Walker said, cutting her off. “I have waited months to make some sense of what happened to Ross. I want to move past the horror of what happened, I want to move away from this town and this house and this life. I want my children to stop being afraid that the person whokilled their father is going to come back to kill me, or to kill them. We need answers, Miss Russo. Until we have them, we’re just stuck right here, right where we were on the day Ross was murdered.” “We’ll do our best. I can’t promise more than that.” “That’s all I can ask,” the woman replied. “Thank you—and thank Mr. Magellan for what he’s doing. I saw on the news where they found his wife but not his baby boy. I’m praying for him.”
    “I’ll let him know that,” Mallory assured her as she hung up from the call. “We’re all praying for him, too.”

FOUR
    S am slowly turned the coffee mug Trula had handed him so that he could read whatever was written on it, but didn’t want to appear obvious.
    IN EVERY REAL MAN IS A CHILD WHO WANTS TO PLAY. NIETZSCHE
    Well, yeah. Who doesn’t know that?
    “We have orange-pecan muffins this morning,” Trula was saying. “Help yourself. I’m assuming you already had a decent breakfast?”
    “Oh, sure.” He