Sound of Secrets Read Online Free PDF

also degenerating. Her mother had frequently complained of ghouls lurking in the closets and ghostly presences standing in front of her bed. Wasn't what Cara had seen in front of the service station just as absurd?
    Cara pressed her lips together, composing herself. She had read reams of material on Alzheimer's. The onset was rare before age sixty, which was twenty-five years off. Her mother's horrors had been imagined. Cara's were real.
    She took a deep breath before advancing the microfilm, listening to the soft whir as the tiny newsprint appeared on the screen.
    Almost two hours later, Cara rubbed at her weary eyes and wondered if the hotel clerk had mixed up her dates. She should have asked her to be more specific or at least inquired about which month the tragedy had occurred.
    She was so busy mentally remonstrating herself that she scrolled past the item. Then the headline belatedly registered, and she slowly turned the knob that rewound the tape. The headline was in the bottom right-hand corner of the second section front, but this time it jumped out at her: "Child dies after traffic accident."
    Cara read the story so quickly she had to reread it to be sure she processed the information. The item was only six paragraphs long and disappointingly sketchy, identifying the site of the accident but not the name of the child and providing almost no details.
    Leaning closer to the microfiche, Cara quickly advanced the film to the following day's edition. This time the story was on the front page, identifying the dead child as five-year-old Reginald Rhett III, the son of the newspaper publisher. The driver of the car was listed as Samuel Peckenbush, who had been thirty-one at the time.
    Although this story was rather lengthy, the lack of meaty details about the fatal incident was puzzling. No mention was made of who had been with the child when he died or what he had been doing at a service station on the edge of town. The bulk of the story dealt with the little boy's lineage and details of the impending visitation and burial. The only other pertinent fact was that no charges had been filed against Peckenbush. The paper hadn’t even printed a photo of the child.
    Cara deposited a coin in the microfiche and pressed the "print" button, extracting a copy of the news story a moment
    later. Then she scrolled through the rest of the December newspapers, which amounted to twenty more editions. When she was through, Cara pressed the rewind button on the machine and leaned back in her seat.
      The only other reference to Reginald Rhett III was a brief item about his funeral, which struck her as highly odd. It seemed that the death of the son of one of the town's most prominent citizens should have warranted more attention, especially in the newspaper owned by that prominent citizen. Had there been a police investigation? If so, why wasn't it mentioned in the paper?
    "Something's not right," Cara said aloud.
    Since her next stop was Sam Peckenbush's service station, a few questions wouldn’t be out of line.
    Only then, after she had some answers, would she leave Secret Sound behind for good.

    Cara watched the taxicab pulling away from the service station and wanted to call it back. The sun was directly overhead, casting a bright glow over the pavement that the cab had just traveled. She had seen little Reginald Rhett die again at that exact spot yesterday, but today she saw nothing. She felt something, though, something frigid and sorrowful.
    When Cara looked away from the street, Sam Peckenbush was standing at the entrance to the garage. His eyes were riveted on her, making the tiny hairs on her arms stand up. Cars passed by the station at regular intervals, but none stopped. She said a little prayer that she’d have the strength to get through the next fifteen minutes and took a few tentative steps forward.
    "Good afternoon." She didn’t expect a reply, and she didn’t receive one. Peckenbush stood among the partially