Silent Scream Read Online Free PDF

earlier, now only lazy flakes fell here and there.  The storm had graced the city with four inches of snow in addition to the sleet, and, if the weatherman was correct, another two inches would be  added to the blanket already covering everything, even lightly dusting bare tree branches that reached toward the sky as though asking for mercy from the harsh cold spell.
    Gabriel opened the mailbox and plucked out the contents while stamping his feet on the doormat, then stepped into the house where Gatsby, his Manx, stood sentry on the table next to the door and mewed indignantly.
    “You knew I’d be home today,” he told the brown cat, and ran his hand along its fluffy back.  “And here I am.”
    Another mew.
    Gabriel lifted the cat to his chest and rubbed his chin against the cat’s head.  “You knew I had a job when you adopted me, so I don’t want another word.”
    He stroked the cat a moment more, then set him back on the table.  Flipping on the lights as he went through the house, he groaned, remembering the tornado he’d left before his shift at the firehouse.  “Looks like tomorrow’s going to be a good day to reorganize.”  He set the mail on the counter and walked into the kitchen to the fridge, but even as he moved through the house, he thought of the doctor lying in that hospital bed.  He pulled out a beer, twisted the cap, and took a swig.
    Nobody deserved what she had suffered.  Not her.
    Not Jessie.  His jaw tightened as that thought came at him, stealing his breath.  He closed the fridge and leaned against it, taking another drink.  Cold beer kissed the back of his throat, and he knew it would take another four before he didn’t think about Jessie—or  Maddie.  And that was exactly what he planned to do: get drunk.
    Gabriel spread the mail across the counter and counted four bills and one purple envelope, which he quickly plucked from the others and ripped open.  A birthday card from his older brother Sam, a cop in Owens, a neighboring town where the biggest thing that happened was a skunk infestation at City Hall.
    Gabriel smiled and took another swig.  Personally, he was rooting for the skunks.  At least they didn’t try to hide the fact they had odors.  The mayor and council members were another matter, and Gabriel didn’t envy his brother’s role in serving and protecting, but he understood it.
    Jessie.   It always came back to her for both of them as they worked in careers to save those who could not save themselves.  Still, Gabriel winced; no amount of heroics could resurrect the dead.  Lord knows they’d both tried.  Peering around the kitchen, he quickly decided he could organize later and carried his beer into the living room, where he plopped into a forgivingly soft recliner.  He grabbed the remote and flipped channels—a football game, a music video, an old western, and the countryside where he’d found Maddie.
    “The woman was taken to Comanche County Memorial Hospital ,” a female newscaster reported as the camera flashed back to her face, revealing a thirtyish woman in a navy suit.  “The police have not listed any suspects at this time.”
    Gabriel punched the power button, and the room fell silent again, but the image yet lingered, and he remembered finding her in the yard.  He remembered her god-awful screams.  He remembered the cold that went far deeper than winter.
    He would never forget.
    The telephone rang. Gabriel jumped from the recliner and sauntered into the kitchen, where he grabbed the receiver.  “Hello.”
    “Did you just catch the news?”  Ramsey crowed.
    “Yeah, I caught it,” Gabriel replied flatly.
    “You went to the hospital to see her, didn’t you?  How is she?”
    Gabriel shook his head, and his back stiffened into a rigid line not even the recliner could soften as he sank back into it.  “She doesn’t remember much.”
    “Lucky her.”
    “Yeah,” Gabriel replied, knowing luck had nothing to do with