Hello, Little Sparrow by Jordan Jones (the reading list .TXT) 📕

sounds like foul play or something. They said windows are smashed to bits.”

I thought of the Henson case and how his sliding glass door was smashed in.

“I’m getting ready,” I said, standing up with a groan.

“OK. I’ll text you the address. Please hurry. The press doesn’t know about this one yet.” It was like we’ve spoken cordially for the past month. Nothing set this conversation apart from any other we’ve had.

We hung up and I stood in the doorway to the cabin’s kitchen. “I’m going out. There may be a new lead in this thing, and I have to get ahead of it.” Katherine nodded and continued drying the dishes.

I swung my arm in a circle on my way out to the car, ensuring a full range of movement. The early spring was still cold, but not freezing. I grabbed my fedora and placed it on my head and started up the car for the first time since throwing up in front of Geoff Burnley’s house.

The pain didn’t bother me turning the wheel, but the stiffness sure did. My shoulder was atrophied since the stabbing, and the physical therapy did little to strengthen it.

I put in the address in my GPS and followed it through the winding hillside, eventually coming out on the freeway heading towards Fairfield Lane.

The houses on Fairfield were larger than any other part of town, and their yards were typically immaculate, as many rich retirees lived in the area. The ambulance was parked in the driveway, along with several patrol cars and unmarked cars.

I pulled a few houses down and got out of the car. Abraham spotted me from across the yards and waved me towards him.

“Hey, I just wanted to say — “

“We don’t have time for all that, man,” he said. “This is a bad situation.”

“Is this our guy?”

“It certainly looks that way. This guy’s been dead for a while now. Coroner is on her way, but Benjamin says he’s probably been dead two to three weeks.”

I looked over his shoulder towards the house. There was a worried looking man out front talking to three uniformed officers.

“What’s his story?”

“He lives next door. He was somewhat of a witness. Apparently, in all the fog we had this morning, he saw a red…or maroon, sedan parked in the driveway. He could barely make it out, but said it was a small car and saw a dark figure moving through the fog.”

There was a blue minivan parked in front of the garage door, several officers were looking through it.

“Nothing weird stuck out to him?”

“Well, it did. After the car left, he went around back and saw the sliding glass door completely busted. He called the police without going in. He was scared out of his mind.”

“Three weeks old? Something doesn’t sound right.”

“He said his neighbor was a recluse. Came into some money after getting badly jumped in prison in Indiana. The guards stood around and watched it happen. The guy told him everything about his life the first day he moved in, then didn’t say a word since.”

“Do we know why he was in prison?”

“Not yet. We’re running a background on him as we speak. There’s also something else that won’t surprise you.” Abraham motioned towards the house. “After you.”

I pushed the crime scene tape over my head and saw the news van pull up a few blocks down. Some nosey neighbors stood out on their front lawns, some even gazing through binoculars in our direction. I was stone sober and dared not have another tragedy on live news.

The door around back was shattered and tiny pieces of broken glass littered the floor. There wasn’t any sign of a struggle all the way down the hall and into the bedroom. I tried the light switch, but the other officers in the room shown their flashlights on the body.

“What’s the deal here?”

“Electric company said he was past due for a couple days so they shut it off. They said he was alive and well when they did it.”

“A couple of days?” I said, stretching some examination gloves over my hands.

“He’s had issues not paying his light bill before. He came into a lot of money in the lawsuit, but that won’t teach you how to be responsible, I guess.”

I placed my scarf over my face, as the smell hit me hard. The other officers opened up a window allowing the smell to drift outside.

Three weeks…at least.

Katherine was right. She told me there might be an undiscovered body out in the community, and now I wasn’t so sure there weren’t more.

“The letter…” I walked closer to the body.

“It looks newer than the aged pages we’re used to,” Abraham said from behind me.

“Is that what he was doing back here this morning?”

Abraham shrugged, placing a surgical mask over his face. There were larger puncture wounds over the body, but smaller staple wounds in his upper chest. The letter was also stapled.

“Wait a second…He killed this man, he was here undiscovered for up to three weeks, and he returns this morning to switch out his letter? Why?”

“I’m not sure,” LT Anderson said, standing in the doorway. “Maybe the old one was saturated and he wanted a fresh one.”

“How often does that happen? A killer returning to the undisturbed body after so long?”

They both shook their heads.

“Only the sickest of the sick,” Abraham finally said.

I took hold of the letter and had the officers take several pictures. Benjamin also took some of his own and I slowly tore it off.

The paper was definitely a new photocopy of an old letter. He must have taken the old letter with him and replaced it with the new one.

Hello, Little Sparrow,

 

My feet have been killing me for the past