Blind School Read Online Free PDF Page B

put him on the system?
    ‘Assault on his ex-partner four years back. She subsequently claimed harassment and stalking as well – and a year later got a restraining order keeping him from her home.’
    ‘Anything on him involving either children or juveniles?’
    ‘No, nothing. That's the only thing on record.’
    Ellis nodded after a second, turned away. Sometimes he liked being wrong. 
    ‘Oh Jeeeeeeez!’
    Jessica Werner braced against the kitchen counter, suddenly breathless halfway through mixing the drink for her mom. She fumbled in her pocket for the inhaler.
    At the bottom of the stairs in the hallway, her seven-year old brother Ben was playing with a Bukugan Dragonoid .
    He kept playing with his toy as he heard Jessica’s breathlessness and her sucking on her inhaler, as if it was now a regular event he was accustomed to. But he paused when he heard the clinking of the spoon as she stirred the glass in the kitchen; this was a newer event, one he hadn’t yet got used to.
    As Jessica took the drink to her mother, Ben moved down the hallway and peered in at them.
    ‘There you go, mom.’
    As her mother started drinking, Jessica only then became aware of Ben’s presence. He looked unsettled by what he saw, and Jessica felt strangely guilty, as if she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t.
    Ben as quickly disappeared from view, and she heard his feet padding rapidly back up the stairs. Jessica held one hand out to her mom.
    ‘Won’t be a minute.’
    Ben was sitting on the edge of his bed as she walked in. He was swinging his legs back and forth and looked thoughtfully at them, as if they held more fascination than anything else at that moment. Or perhaps because he didn’t wish to see what lay beyond them, Jessica contemplated.
    ‘Is something wrong?’
    Moment's pause from Ben, still swinging. Then: ‘What is it that's wrong with mom?’
    Jessica chewed lightly at her bottom lip, swallowed.
‘She... she's got arthritis.’
    ‘Arth... arthrie...’ He gave up trying to pronounce it. ‘Is that why she's tired a lot and can't make me breakfast any more?’
    ‘Yes. She has trouble doing some things, and gets tired more now.’
    Ben sank into thought again, then looked up after a moment; the first time he'd looked directly at his sister since she’d walked in.
    ‘But she's going to be okay, isn't she? She's not going to die?’
    Jessica finally crumbled then, tears welling in her eyes. She moved closer and lifted Ben into a hug.
    ‘Yeah, she's going to be okay. She's not going to die.’
    She felt his small head nestle against her and she gently patted his shoulder in reassurance, her eyes closing for a moment with the lie she’d just told.
    Spread out across Ellis Kendell’s desk were numerous cam-photos from the air show, mostly of John Culverton: talking with Senator Finley, talking on his cell-phone; then finally leaving the stand.
    He surveyed them thoughtfully as Brent Cohburn aired his views on the accident at the other end of his phone.
    ‘Well, one thing we agree on at least: Culverton Industries are one of the few that could pull a stunt like this,’ Cohburn remarked. ‘But still it's got to be activated – and John's the only one we got operating a cell-phone anytime close... then leaving the stand a moment before the accident.’
    ‘What about Alex? He left the stand too a short while before. He could have made the activation call.’
    ‘No, he didn't. He was in cam sight all the time in the marquee – never used his phone. Nor his right-hand man, Coby. And to be certain, we checked phone records too.’
    ‘What's John's story with the phone?’
    ‘Says he got a call from radar systems guru Tom Collard to meet him in the marquee. But Collard wasn't there when he got there. We checked with Collard: he was never at the show. And there's nothing on his phone records either for him making such a call. It's a bullshit story.’
       Ellis cradled his forehead as he looked again