With Silent Screams Read Online Free PDF Page B

on?”
    “I can’t.”
    It was my turn to sigh. “Can you at least tell me who this Simon guy is? Apart from killing students, why do you need hi m found?”
    “I can tell you this. Simon Olson is a very dangerous man. He’s aligned himself with several equally dangerous people, and they’re committing murders. I can’t tell you anything about Simon other than the fact that he’s an alchemist.”
    “So, let me get this right: the king of Shadow Falls, a place full of alchemists, is asking me to track down and apprehend another alchemist? Do you think I’m an idiot?”
    “No, but if you’d just read the file about him instead of telling me to fuck off, you would have known that he has no affiliation with Shadow Falls.”
    “So, why can’t you go after him yourself ? And if you feed me a bullshit answer, I’m going to walk.”
    Galahad looked up at the sky and sighed again. “This doesn’t leave this roof. Simon used to work for the old king of Shadow Falls, Charles Whitehorn.”
    “Well that puts an interesting spin on things. You’re worried that he still is working for him? That whatever Simon is doing, Whitehorn is involved.”
    Galahad nodded. “If I send my people up there, Simon will fig ure out that I’m sniffing around and disappear. We won’t get justice for the people he’s killed until he resurfaces, and I have no idea when that might be. If Simon goes, any link to Whitehorn will go.”
    There was something else, something I was certain he was holding back. I filed the information away for future reference. “So what does that really have to do with Sally-Ann?”
    “Simon is killing people for a reason, but no one is able to figure it out. Until Roberto came to me with information about her murder, we didn’t even know she’d existed.”
    “So, what would you have done if she hadn’t been found? Would you still have involved me? Do you see my problem? There’s something that happened that made you want my involvement. Political bullshit aside, which I understand, why me ?”
    “Because I asked them to involve you,” Roberto said as he arrived on the roof. “I came to King Galahad with information about Sally-Ann’s murder. He said he would look into it. I didn’t trust him enough not to brush it under the rug when he was done. So I asked for a neutral party we were both happy with. You have no standing with Avalon, you hold no rank with them or anyone in a position of power. You are, for all intents and purposes, a Ronin. Your reputation for what you used to do for Merlin and others affords you a lot of privilege in our world. People know of your name and reputation, either through fear or respect. But you hold no allegiance. You’re perfect to look into cases like this.”
    “Why would he sweep it under the rug?” I asked.
    “Because, apart from being a very talented artist, Sally-Ann was an alchemist,” Roberto said. “Her mother was an alchemist. But she died when she was very young. Sally-Ann had only just started coming into her abilities.”
    “Her grandparents, were they alchemists as well?” I asked.
    “Human, on her father’s side. Sally-Ann and her father were in Maine visiting her grandparents when he died. After her father’s death, Sally-Ann stayed in Maine until she went to college.
    “So, I’m here because you think that Galahad and his people will deal with this in-house and you’ll never really find out what happened?”
    Roberto nodded. “Avalon does it enough, as you know. And I don’t know Galahad well enough to say that Shadow Falls doesn’t operate the same way. Sally-Ann’s family deserves closure. You’re my safest bet that they’ll receive it.”
    It was a perfectly reasonable answer, I had no information that might suggest that something else was going on, but something told me I was stepping into trouble. “Okay, anything else I should know?”
    “I can’t go any further with you,” Roberto said and offered me his hand, which I