The Story of Silence (Book 3)

Chapter 12

Early Sunday morning. 1:43 AM:

The rain beat down in the early morning, creating gloom which seemed to sweep the city, and it didn't stop. Simon Finnegan didn't like the rain. It made him wet when he was in it, and he didn't like feeling wet. And when he wasn't in it his body got all sticky from it.

It wasn't supposed to be raining, it wasn't the weather for rain, it never rained in March, and now he was outside in it scaling a fence in the dark.

Earlier, Simon had received a phone call from an 'acquaintance', asking him to do a job. He would receive the pay in the usual manner of an unmarked envelope filled with unmarked bills in the trash can outside his house. Not that the people who called him to ask for help knew where he lived, he always collected the pay outside a different person's house for each customer. He felt it safe to keep his whereabouts and normal life a secret from them.

He landed on the other side of the fence and crossed the lawn, stopping at the two big, double glass backdoors which gave access into the house of Joseph Amerigo.

Looking around to make sure that no-one was watching, he proceeded to break the lock of the door. It was dark outside for the moon was behind the clouds and so were the stars, but you could never be too careful. The lock clicked and he slid the door open and stepped inside. He clicked the flashlight from his pocket on and moved the strong beam around the room.

He wasn't sure what exactly he was looking for. His boss -for the moment- had told him that it was most likely a book. Well, Simon knew where you kept books that you didn't want anyone to find. He swung the beam one last time around the room and then moved cautiously out of the dining room.

He entered into the kitchen. It was large, and it had a table running through the middle of it for more bench room. He started there, in the knife drawer, and then moved on to the oven, then the dish washer, then the backs of both them. He also searched through all drawers and cupboards for any secret compartments which could fit a book or just any secret compartments at all. His boss had told him to just look for the book, but why not look for other things of value while you're at it, was Simon's thoughts. What he did was illegal so stealing other things was fine.

Moving out of the kitchen he entered into the sitting room and proceeded to search the couches.

In the house that sat beside Amerigo's, lived Frank Miller. He was standing next to his window on the second floor of his house, peeking through the curtains. He was busy watching intently the beam of light that shone through the curtains of the house next door.

He watched it move from the dining room at the far end of the house and work its way to the kitchen right next to it.

After watching it for another second he picked up the receiver lying next to him on the table next to his bed, and dialed 911. When the police were on the line he reported a 'light shining in the house of the late Joseph Amerigo'. He then gave them his address and replaced the receiver to wait.

Simon left the sitting room after ransacking the place and decided to move upstairs to see what he could find.

There had been no books in the sitting room besides the normal magazines, but then Simon didn't think of magazines as books. He crossed over to the stairs and ran up them two at a time. At the top he found himself in an open area with two couches, and a large projector screen on the wall.

To the left of the top of the stairs was another room, Simon entered into it. It turned out to be a study. And along one wall, the one that you saw as you entered into the room, was a bookshelf. Simon hurried over to it and started making his way through the books.