Read Online The Stone of Sadness (An Olivia Miller Mystery Book 3) by J A Whiting - Free Book Online

Aggie called me.” Olivia shook her head. “It would be pretty impressive if she could read my mind. But that wasn’t even in my mind. My mind was blank. I was so shocked at what she said about Aggie.”
    Brad stared at Olivia through the screen. “I have no idea. I really don’t know.”
    “It scares me. Could it be possible? Could she be in touch with people who have passed?”
    Brad shrugged. “I don’t know. How could it be possible?”
    “Could people who have passed…could they leave something behind when they go? Like energy or something? Could she tap into that and know things?” Olivia asked.
    “That’s too wild for me. I don’t know what’s going on. And she claims to have assisted police across the country?” He paused, thinking. “Maybe she can sense those who have passed?”
    Olivia ran her hands through her hair. “I wish you were here, Brad. I wish you could get away.”
    “I…” Brad started.
    Olivia waved her hand. “I know…I know you can’t. I understand. I just mean I wish you were here so you could hear things first hand.”
    “Yeah. I’m sorry, I can’t.”
    “It’s okay.” Olivia smiled. “You can’t leave the store. I know that. I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I like having you around, that’s all.”
    Brad grinned at her. “Thanks. You’re not so bad yourself.”
    “I suppose I’m not going to be able to understand this stuff. Maybe it’s unknowable and unexplainable for most people. It raises a lot of questions and there aren’t any answers. The more I think about it the more my brain gets muddled. I’m going to have to focus on the murders and forget about whether or not that psychic can really do what she says she can do.”
    “Why don’t you just forget about it? What difference does it make anymore? Why get wrapped up in it?” Brad asked. “Mary’s own son doesn’t want to know about the killer or what happened. He doesn’t need the murders resolved.”
    Olivia thought for a minute. “That doesn’t make it okay. Just because he wants to leave it in the past. That’s his personal choice. But, it isn’t right that the killer has been living his life for the past forty years. Kimmy was four, Brad. She never got a chance to live her life.”
    “I know,” Brad said softly. “But what if you could solve it? What good would it do? It was so long ago. What does it matter anymore?”
    Olivia leaned closer to her laptop screen and sighed. “It doesn’t matter if it was four years ago, or forty years, or four hundred years. It matters that their lives were taken from them. It matters that someone went unpunished. They matter.”

Chapter 12
    Emily Bradford’s mother, Isabel, phoned Olivia and told her she would be willing to meet and discuss the “unfortunate events of the past” which is how she put it. Her older daughter Angela would be coming for afternoon tea and Olivia was invited to join them.
    Olivia found the house easily. It was a huge red brick mansion at the end of a long driveway hidden from view from the main street of the Magnolia Hill neighborhood. Olivia rang the bell and the door was answered by a trim older woman with blonde chin length hair. She was well-dressed in cream colored linen slacks and a crisp white shirt.
    “Hello. Olivia? I’m Angela Kildare. Emily’s older sister.” They shook hands. “My friend, Lydia Andrews, said you would be interested in speaking with my mother. I’m glad you could join us. Please come in. Mother is in the family room.”
    “It’s nice to meet you, Angela. Lydia spoke highly of you. I appreciate that your mom is willing to talk with me.”
    Angela led Olivia through the foyer and down a long central hallway to the back of the house. They entered an enormous family room that had a cathedral ceiling and a full wall of glass looking out over a stone terrace and a beautifully landscaped in-ground pool. Several panels of the glass wall slid back to open the room to the outside.
    A petite