First to Fall (8 page)

‘I suppose we should head home too,’ Edmond sighed, succumbing to the intensifying heat. ‘I think I am beginning to melt into this chair.’ He peeled himself up from the leather seat which was now soaked in his sweat.

‘I’m going to battle it out a bit longer. I need to get some paperwork sorted, I’m heading to Eastham again tomorrow.’

‘Ah, right. Well I’ll leave you with the keys then. Which reminds me, I need to get Betty to cut you your own set. We both have one, makes sense that you do too. Just in case you ever get the urge to come into the office at ungodly hours, not that I ever do, but there you go.’ He tossed a set of brass keys on a Dallas Cowboys keychain over to Aiden.

‘Just drop them off on your way home.’

‘Thanks, I will.’

‘And don’t work too late!’ Edmond called as he retreated to the sanctuary of his air-conditioned car.

Aiden was lost in his own world as he wrote up reams of notes and scoured the internet for as much information as he could find. As he had suspected, Avalon Pine was a long-established company which had enjoyed moderate success over the years. He needed to get Brandy to open up about her marriage with Brandon. He was definitely missing some pieces of the puzzle and he felt that a majority of them lay with her. When Aiden glanced up at the clock it was 6.30pm.

‘Dammit,’ he muttered angrily, hastily switching off his computer and gathering his things together. He was late for dinner and he knew that Isla would not be happy.

‘You’re late,’ Isla snapped before he had chance to even come through the door.

‘I know, I know.’ Aiden held his hands up defensively. ‘I was busy at work and I lost track of time.’ His wife’s face was set in a harsh glare, her arms folded across her chest. He could tell that she was in the mood for an argument, but feeling tired and hot, all he wanted to do was relax with an ice-cold beer.

‘I thought the whole point of being here was that you didn’t have to work late!’

‘It was…it is. I just got caught up with stuff. Isla, I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.’ He was happy to admit defeat and say whatever she wanted in order to diffuse the situation quickly.

‘Fine,’ she sighed. ‘I fed Meegan but put our dinners in the oven.’ Aiden watched as she removed a whole pizza from the oven. He unbuttoned his shirt nearly halfway down and helped himself to a beer from the fridge. The cool glass felt like heaven in his hands, and when the amber liquid slid down his dry throat he felt himself reach a euphoric state of ecstasy.

‘Ah,’ he gasped in satisfaction.

‘You know, I slaved over dinner.’

‘Babe, it’s a pepperoni pizza, which I doubt you made from scratch.’ Isla was chomping through her first slice and replied to him whilst still chewing.

‘No, but still, I had to heat it, and do Meegan her dinner.’

Aiden just nodded and began to eat the meal that had been so lovingly prepared for him.

Two bottles of beer and half a pizza later, Aiden was feeling flushed with contentment. He was sprawled out on the couch, watching a baseball match on the television through drooping eyes.

‘Daddy!’ Meegan came running in and bounced on his chest.

‘Owww,’ he cried in protest as she began using him as a human trampoline. ‘Get off Daddy!’

After a few more jumps she obeyed. She was wearing a bright pink nightdress and from the minty smell on her breath had just brushed her teeth and so was all ready for bed.

‘Will you read me a bedtime story?’

‘Sure thing, princess.’ He groggily sat up and shook his head in an attempt to wake up. ‘Where’s Mommy?’

‘Right here.’ Isla came down the stairs. She still seemed to be annoyed with Aiden so he had been doing his best to avoid her until she calmed down.

‘I had a bath!’ Meegan told her Dad proudly.

‘Good girl, at least you don’t smell then.’

‘Come on.’ She was tugging on his hand, leading him towards the staircase.

‘OK, OK, I’m coming.’

‘Aid, I was thinking we could watch a movie or something.’ Isla grabbed onto his arms, her fingertips gently caressing the soft skin, letting him know what she really meant.

‘Honey, I’m pretty beat.’ She immediately let go of him and turned away, her shoulders slumping with disappointment. Aiden sighed in frustration and followed Meegan upstairs, thankful for the temporary distraction from yet another disagreement with his wife. He’d known it would be a difficult transition for them but Isla was struggling to adapt to her new life. She’d been so comfortable in Chicago; the city suited her. Sometimes Aiden feared he’d made a mistake taking her to a town so far removed from all that she had known and loved.

He stood and watched Meegan sleeping for a while. She looked so angelic and peaceful. She had only made it up until Snow White meets the dwarfs in the woods when her eyelids grew too heavy and she slipped into that beautiful, dreamless serenity of sleep that only the innocence of youth can bring.

Downstairs Aiden could hear cupboards banging; Isla was clearly still mad. Her immature attitude really grated on him sometimes. Meegan was trying to sleep yet she was still childishly making a commotion to get his attention. As much as he just wanted to ignore her and get to bed himself, he could not risk her waking their daughter so he went downstairs to face the fire.

‘Oh, here you are,’ she said nastily, placing the remains of the night’s dishes into the appropriate cupboards.

‘I’m sorry I worked late.’

‘I know you are.’

‘Then what is wrong?’

She sat down at the table and looked up at him with sad eyes.

‘I’m worried you are not attracted to me any more.’

‘Don’t be silly.’ He reached out to stroke her cheek but she pushed him away.

‘I’m not being silly, we used to do it all the time and now…’

‘Now, we have a little girl to think about.’ Aiden sat down opposite her and held her hands in his. ‘Isla, you are beautiful, I fancy the pants off you baby, you know that.’ She began to smile and her anger seemed to subside. As usual, Aiden found that complimenting her was the best way to get her to calm down.

‘When you were late home, and then when you blew me off, it just felt like we were slipping back into our old ways and I don’t want that.’

‘I don’t want that either. And we are not. Tonight was a one-off, I swear. This case is just bigger than I thought, that’s all.’

‘Bigger? I thought it was an open, shut case?’

Aiden ran his hands through his hair. He wasn’t in the right frame of mind to start discussing the case, he just wanted to switch off for the night. He went to the fridge to get another beer, hoping to avoid her questions.

‘Want one?’ He asked from the welcoming cool of the open fridge door. Isla nodded so he grabbed a second bottle and handed it to her.

‘Aid, the case, why is it bigger than you thought?’

‘I don’t know, honey,’ he took a deep, long swig from his bottle. ‘It is a murder case, sure as hell. But I don’t get why she did it.’

‘Could it be what the French call a “crime of passion”?’

‘I suppose…perhaps.’ Aiden thought it over.

‘Maybe the husband was having an affair.’

‘It’s a possibility. I just need to do some more digging around. I’m heading to the prison tomorrow.’

‘Again?!’

‘Yes, again, I need to ask her a few more questions.’

‘What else can she say apart from, I’m guilty?’

‘It is more complicated than that.’

‘Complicated how?’

‘I can’t go into it,’ Aiden explained dismissively.

‘You’re too attached to this case,’ Isla noted, her eyes narrowing. She’d developed a keen perception of men over the years and she sensed something in her husband now that she didn’t like.

‘No, it’s not the case you are attached to, it’s the girl, the accused,’ she declared, her tone growing cold.

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Aiden replied empathically. ‘It’s just that this is my first case here and I want to make a good impression.’

Isla’s face remained frozen in annoyance, her lips pouting.

‘Why don’t we go upstairs?’ Aiden asked suggestively, deciding to change tack and not wanting to discuss things about Brandy further.

‘I thought you were tired?’ Isla’s eyelashes fluttered flirtatiously, her whole demeanour changing from ice-maiden to temptress in a second.

‘Yes, but seeing you there, well, you are a beautiful woman, Mrs. Connelly, and I’m a lucky, lucky man.’

‘Oh, yes you are!’ She took his hand and Aiden was once more led up the stairs by a female, only this time he hoped he would be able to make it to the end of the story with her.

Chapter Five: It Will Be All White

Despite the raging heat outside, within the walls of Eastham prison it was eerily cool. Brandy was sat across from him, and he wondered if on her side of the Perspex glass the temperature was even colder as she shivered intermittently as they talked.

‘I went to church on Sunday and spoke with Father West,’ he informed her.

‘He is such a truly kind man,’ she cooed. Aiden was impressed at the priest’s apparent ability to woo women.

‘He has said that he will try and come and see you.’ At this news Brandy broke into a beaming smile, showing Aiden exactly how she could have been originally crowned Miss Southern Star.

‘That is wonderful, thank you so, so much, Mr. Connelly.’ Aiden felt himself blushing at her gratitude.

‘It is no problem, Brandy, just doing my job.’ He hesitated before continuing. He needed to gain more insight into her relationship with Brandon but knew he had to go about it carefully. She had led a tumultuous life and he reasoned that her marriage had probably been no different.

‘So, last time we spoke we got up to the point where you met Brandon.’

‘Uh huh.’

‘Can I ask how you met?’

‘Sure. That day is burnt in my memory. I can still see him now, clear as day. At school I had grown up knowing all about his football glory, heck, I’d even been there to cheer him on some games when I was younger! He always looked so handsome and dashing, all the girls went crazy for him. I think he used to date a couple of cheerleaders back in high school, only the prettiest, of course. After school he would knock around town with his friends, cruise down the high street on Friday nights, hang out and drink beer, typical guy stuff. I’d seen him around before, Avalon is a small town, sooner or later you get to see just about everybody. I’ve never been all that confident with men, I mostly just walked around looking at the floor, didn’t want no attention. But after winning Little Miss Southern Star, even though they had taken my crown away and Ma was gone, some days I felt like I was still wearing it. In my mind, I pretended that I was still a winner and would walk around and hold my head high! It was on one of these days that Brandon started talking to me.’ She giggled girlishly and blushed. ‘I feel like such a fool, telling you this story, Mr. Connelly. You must surely think I’m just a stupid girl.’

‘No, of course not, Brandy. What did Brandon say to you?’

‘He said –’ Brandy deepened her voice in an attempt to sound masculine, which Aiden found humorous, ‘hey, ain’t you that Beauty girl, Brandy Cotton? I’ve seen you around.’ Then her voice returned to normal. ‘Cotton was my maiden name.’

Aiden nodded although he was already aware of that. He had searched briefly for her mother, Janice Cotton. He’d considered that perhaps the woman was owed the truth about her daughter’s predicament but he’d had no success in locating her.

‘He asked me if I wanted to hang out with him and the guys, of course I said yes. He was the most handsome guy I’d ever seen. At first there was always a group of us, then we started to be alone more, sometimes even driving to the next town over to catch a movie, and things just sort of, you know, developed.’

‘You fell in love?’

‘Yes, I did. And it was wonderful. Love is such an amazing thing, it is easy to see why so many people sing and write about it. I cared about Brandon more than anything.’ Aiden was touched by her romantic outlook.

‘So you two became serious quite quickly?’

‘Well…’ She bit her lip as she debated how to carry on. ‘We went steady for like two years before he proposed. I think that we were both too young to rush things, but by then we knew, it was the real thing. He treated me like an absolute princess, taking me out to fancy restaurants, buying me gifts. It was like being crowned Miss Southern Star on a daily basis! One time, he turned up at the trailer at 3am, with a dozen red roses, saying he couldn’t sleep because he missed me so much, and that he had driven eighty miles to find a 24-hour store, just to get me flowers to show me how much he cared. Isn’t that just a wonderful thing to do?’

‘Yes, it is.’

‘Mr. Connelly, what is the most romantic thing you have done?’ Aiden was about to answer and then stopped himself. He didn’t want to get too close to Brandy; sharing information about himself could mislead her into thinking that they were friends. But then, he needed her to confide in him, so perhaps he needed to open up a bit about himself in order for her to reveal more.

‘Well,’ he began thinking out loud. ‘I guess…’ He was shocked to find that he was struggling to think of an answer. In the early haze of dating, he had been hot and heavy with Isla, often opting to stay in and go at it like animals rather than go out. When he met her she wasn’t the kind of girl who needed wining and dining. His proposal had been more out of necessity than love; she thought that she was pregnant and his parents pressured him to do the right thing. It turned out to be a false alarm, but he knew the right thing to do was to carry on with the engagement and get married. The pregnancy scare had been the push he needed, at least that’s what he told himself. He asked her one morning over breakfast, the way someone might enquire about the weather. Despite the poor delivery Isla had been delighted. Six months later they wed on a yacht at dusk. It was a beautiful ceremony. At twenty-four he wondered if he had been too young to wed. He would have been a year older than Brandon was. Two years later, Meegan joined them.

‘I once wrote a girl a poem and then sung it to her, to the tune of her favourite song.’ As he told her his heart panged when he realised that this was something he did in high school and not for Isla.