Read Online Erica Spindler by In Silence - Free Book Online

searched her expression. “Is everything okay?”
    â€œFine. I wanted to ask you about something I found in my dad’s closet.”
    â€œI’ll try. Come on.” He led her to his office. Cluttered shelves, battered furniture and walls covered with honorary plaques and awards spoke of a lifetime of service to the community.
    Avery sat in one of the two chairs facing his desk. She dug out the couple of clipped articles she had stuffed intoher purse and handed them to him. “I found a box of clippings like these in Dad’s bedroom closet. I hoped you’d be able to tell me why he’d kept them.”
    He scanned the two clippings, eyebrows drawing together. He met her eyes. “Are you certain your dad collected them and not your mom?”
    She hesitated, then shook her head. “Not one hundred percent. But Dad had removed everything else of Mom’s from the closet, so why keep these?”
    â€œGotcha.” He handed the two back. “To answer your question, I don’t know why he saved them. Even considering the nature of the case, it seems an odd thing for him to do.”
    â€œThat’s what I thought. So, he wasn’t involved with the investigation in any way?”
    â€œNope.”
    â€œWas he Sallie’s physician?”
    â€œCould have been, though I don’t know for sure. I’d guess yes, just because for a number of years he was Cypress Springs’ only general practitioner. And even after Bobby Townesend opened his practice, then Leon White, your daddy remained the town’s primary doctor. People around here are loyal and they certainly don’t like change.”
    She pursed her lips. “Do you remember this event?”
    â€œLike it was yesterday.” He paused, passed a hand over his forehead. “In my entire career, I’ve only investigated a handful of murders. Sallie Waguespack’s was the first. And the worst.”
    He hesitated a moment, as if gathering his thoughts. “But the trouble started before her murder. From the moment we learned that Old Dixie Foods was considering opening a factory just south of here. The community divided over the issue. Some called it progress. A chance to financially prosper. A chance for businesses that had always fought just to survive to finally have the opportunity to grow, maybe even turn a profit.
    â€œOthers predicted doom. They predicted the ruination of a way of life that had stood for a century. A way of life disappearing all over the South. They cited other Southern communities that had been changed for the worse by the influx of big business.”
    He laid his hands flat on the desk. She noticed their enormous size. “The topic became a hot button. Friendships were strained. Working relationships, too. Some families were divided on the issue.
    â€œI admit I was one of those blinded by the idea of progress, financial growth. I didn’t buy the downside.”
    â€œWhich was?”
    â€œThe influx of five hundred minimum-wage workers, many of them unmarried males. The housing and commercial support system that would have to be created to accommodate them. How they would alter the social and moral structure of the community.”
    â€œI’m not certain I understand what you mean.”
    â€œThis is a community devoted to God and family. We’re a bit of an anachronism in this modern world. Family comes first. Sunday is for worship. We live by the Lord’s commandments and the Golden Rule. Put a couple hundred single guys on the street on a Friday night, money in their pockets and what do you think is going to happen?”
    She had a pretty good idea—and none of it had to do with the Golden Rule. “And my father?” she asked. “Where did he stand on the issue?”
    Buddy met her eyes. His brow furrowed. “I don’t remember for sure. I’m thinking he saw the downside all along. He was a smart man. Smarter than me,