The Sound of Wind
Page 82
**
The funeral for Madeline was on Sunday. She was in the same cemetery as William Hansen, however her grave was on a rolling hill. They’d already buried her ashes, which thankfully had been her expressed wish in her Will; most likely because of what she thought Gregori was going to do to her. The ceremony was being held in one of the small pavilions dotting the cemetery, the wooden arches protecting them from the light grayness of the afternoon sky.
The remaining original members of the company, including Maggie, who was holding back tears, attended. Madeline’s older brother and his two teenagers were also there; one of them shifting at near-regular intervals, the other completely still. Hugo wondered if Madeline had seen her family much after her dismissal from Gideon Enterprises, because her file said she hadn’t seen her brother for several years before then, due to an argument over their parents’ death that neither of them would speak of.
Hugo, Crysta, and CJ (Clem was still gone), sat in the back, her little family in the front row, the founders behind them, and then several rows for general guests. Depressingly few of those chairs were filled; there hadn’t been very many numbers in Madeline’s phonebook. Hugo wondered if his funeral would look like this too.
Madeline’s tragic, gruesome death was the work of a psychopath, still at large. The body had been found in her home and place of business. The police were doing everything they could to catch the killer, but they had no leads, and they never would; Laura, the head of public relations, would see to it.
Madeline’s brother talked briefly with Mr. Hansen when the service was over. Hugo found he couldn’t make eye contact with the surviving sibling at all. He had failed to protect her.
Crysta gently steered him away from the graveyard when the short service was over, and even though it wasn’t necessary, drove him home. They didn’t talk the entire time. There was really nothing to say. She briefly placed her hand on his shoulder before he slid out of the car and went back to his apartment.