Little Boy Blues Read Online Free PDF Page A

time.”
    “In time for what?”
    I couldn’t believe this girl could be allowed to teach school. Alvin, for all his faults, was at least intelligent.
    “Well, for the funeral.”
    “What funeral?”
    I tried to be charitable. The Ferguson family had suffered a great trauma. The family members couldn’t be thinking straight.
    “Your brother’s funeral.” I pronounced every syllable.
    “What?”
    I tried not to scream. “Jimmy’s funeral. Again, please let me express my condolences.”
    She blubbered. “I thought I heard you say Jimmy’s funeral.”
    “I did.”
    “Did you say Jimmy’s dead?”
    “Well, yes.”
    “
Dead?
”
    “I am sorry.”
    She gulped, “Oh, my God.”
    Okay, so something didn’t seem quite right.
    “Hello?” I said.
    On the other end of the phone chaos erupted. I could hear Tracy shrieking: “Oh God oh my God please no dear God.” People were shouting and crying. A dog began to bark.
    Someone else picked up the phone, and a man’s voice boomed. “Who’s speaking, please?”
    Was it possible I had something confused?
    “Wrong number,” I said and hung up.
    • • •
    I reached my father’s second cousin once removed in Sydney shortly afterwards. Daddy always said if Donald Donnie MacDonald didn’t know about something, it couldn’t be worth knowing, even though it might not be worth repeating. Better yet, Donald Donnie and his equally observant wife, Loretta, lived right next door to the Fergusons. Not that they got along.
    Lucky me. Donald Donnie answered his phone.
    “Checking in,” I said after the initial pleasantries were over. “What’s the word on Jimmy Ferguson? Have they found him yet?”
    He knew what was going on with Jimmy Ferguson all right. Apparently including my latest phone call to the Fergusons, made less than a half-hour earlier.
    Across the room, Mrs. Parnell kept a close watch on the sleeping Alvin. She raised her glass to me and blew smoke rings sympathetically.
    “Jimmy’s still missing,” I mouthed at her.
    Mrs. Parnell had the grace to look surprised.
    “I’m sure the family is in a state. I wouldn’t want to disturb them by calling and...” Here I lowered my voice and stepped around the corner into Mrs. Parnell’s kitchen.
    Donald Donnie said, “Indeed, they’re disturbed already. Some wretched creature phoned and told them Jimmy was dead. They’re a pretty strange bunch, that crowd, but I can’t understand the cruelty of that.”
    “Really? Someone called them and told them he was dead? Perhaps it was a misunderstanding.”
    “A misunderstanding! My God, girl.”
    “Well, I’m glad he’s alive.”
    “We don’t actually know he’s alive, Camilla.” I could hear Loretta jabbering on in the background too.
    “We don’t?”
    “If the police don’t find him soon, he might as well be dead. That’s right, Mum, I’ll tell her. He’s in a bad enough way now. He can’t look after himself at all at all. Any more trauma, and I can’t imagine what would be left of that boy’s brain.”
    • • •
    When I returned to the living room, Mrs. Parnell looked up brightly. “Little something to take your mind off your trouble, Ms. MacPhee?”
    I shook my head.
    “Don’t blame yourself. In his state, young Ferguson could easily have misinterpreted his family’s message.”
    “I guess so. Anyway, I’ll head back to the office and grab a few files. I can work here until we get this thing settled.”
    “Before you go, you’d better fill me in on young Ferguson’s family in case he comes to. Then I’ll know what’s going on.”
    “Sure. Seven kids, although it seems like more at times. Five are older and doing well for themselves. My father thinks the world of Alvin’s mother. She’s been a widow since Alvin and Jimmy were babies, yet she managed to get all those kids through university, except the youngest one, Jimmy. He had some kind of problems.”
    Mrs. Parnell blew a couple of very impressive smoke rings. “What sort