Immediately the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
What the hell?Who is this man?
“My mother is dead.”
He nods, a sober expression on his face.
“I know, and I’m so sorry.”
I’m confused, and more than a little uneasy, but I’m also intrigued.
“How did you know my mother?”
“I knew her a long time ago, you wouldn’t remember,” he informs me with a kind smile.“But she spoke of Silence frequently.Described it in great detail.”He coughs a little and blinks his eyes, as if fighting off emotion.“I never visited before, but it’s every bit as beautiful as she mentioned.That’s why I bought the painting, I’ll take it with me as a reminder of this visit.”
I’m still in the dark, hungry for more answers.
“If you’d never been here before, what brought you to Silence now?”
He looks down at the toes of his perfectly shined shoes, before lifting his eyes to me.
“You.”Then he looks back down, shaking his head.“I’ve never been here before, but I’ve kept tabs.First on your mother, and then on you.I never intended to set foot in Silence, had sworn I would never intervene in any way, but then I received word you might be in danger.”
I shake my head and start backing up into the kitchen, but he follows me at a generous distance.
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t have to.All you need to know is that you can breathe easy.That’s the only reason I’m here now, to tell you you have nothing to fear.I was too late for the first one, but I made sure there is no one left to worry about.”
I suck in a breath when he reaches into the inside pocket of his tweed jacket, but what he produces isn’t some kind of weapon, but a simple blank white envelope.
“This is not for you to open.I ask that you pass it on to Chief Deputy Alexander.He will know what to do with it.”
Then he places it on the counter.
The next instant he’s gone, and for a moment I stand frozen, wondering what the hell just happened, but when I hear the front door of the coffee shop slam shut, I dart back out into the hallway.The three packages holding the triptych that were stacked against the wall are gone.When I poke my head into the coffee shop and glance out the front window, I’m just in time to see the vehicle that was parked outside take off down the road.
“I heard you talking.”
I jump a foot in the air when I hear Lola’s voice behind me.
“Who was that?”She wants to know.
I turn around, feeling like I’ve just escaped the twilight zone.
“I think that may have been my father.”
Hugo
“This is great,man.I’m happy for you.”
I clap Clem Tanek on the shoulder.
He’s just given me a tour of the work he is doing on the old fire hall.Already the place is filling with mostly new equipment and tools, since nearly all of his inventory was lost in the fire.
“Yeah.It’s coming together nicely, and I have you to thank for it.”
I snicker.“I just reminded you this place was vacant.That’s all.”
