First to Fall (14 page)

Chapter Eight: Unhappy Families

When Aiden awoke he found Isla curled up in bed beside him. He felt guilty about their argument the previous evening but decided against waking her. On his way downstairs he checked in on Meegan. She was still sound asleep, hugging her favourite stuffed toy. As quietly as possible, he pottered about the kitchen, making himself some coffee and toast. Admittedly, he had gotten up earlier than usual. It was 7am and these days he normally didn’t have to be up until eight. Part of him knew that he was trying to avoid Isla. He knew that she would still be sore about their fight, especially since he went up to bed without first making it up with her. Whilst he didn’t like arguing with his wife, he had bigger things on his mind. He was going to see Brandy that morning to finally find out what happened on that fateful night when she murdered her husband.

Aiden already had his own theory about what had transpired between them but he needed to hear it from Brandy. He was certain that she would be distressed recalling the details to him and he felt strangely disturbed by this. He should feel disconnected from his clients, an impassive observer just there to help perform legalities. Yet he felt involved with Brandy’s case, perhaps because he felt that he was the only person who believed her, her only ally.

He filled his favourite blue mug up with black coffee and sat down at the table. It was silly how attached he was to the mug, but it held a lot of memories for him. Sometimes you needed to feel connected to the past.

It was a dull morning; the clouds were dense with the promise of rain. He momentarily toyed with the idea of waking Meegan but knew that it would only be for selfish reasons. He was feeling the weight of this case and her smiling face and childish giggles would have been a welcome distraction. Isla, however, was just making him feel even worse about things. Wasn’t a wife’s duty to support her husband? No, that was an embarrassingly old-fashioned view. But still…he was the sole breadwinner in the house these days, yet she still moaned at him and pulled him apart. He had hoped that Avalon would have started to rub off on her by now. He didn’t know what he had expected, perhaps a Stepford Wives-style transformation? Isla was still being difficult and it saddened him to think that rather than leave their problems in Chicago, they appeared to have followed them to Avalon. Perhaps he had been foolish to think that relocating the family would solve everything.

Movement upstairs disturbed Aiden from his thoughts. He hastily finished his coffee and left the house. As Isla entered the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she saw Aiden backing out of the driveway. She caught his eye and he waved half-heartedly. She didn’t bother returning the gesture.

‘You are mighty eager today,’ Brandy smiled as she sat down opposite Aiden. ‘I’ve only just finished my breakfast!’

‘What did you have?’ Aiden asked, more to help make Brandy feel at ease than out of genuine interest. She made a face as if she was about to be sick.

‘Porridge, eugh.’ She made vomiting sounds. ‘It looks like cement, it tastes like cement!’

‘Sounds delicious!’ he laughed.

‘Well then, I’ll make sure to save you some next time!’

As nice as it was to banter with Brandy, Aiden was there for a reason.

‘Brandy.’ She looked at him, eyes wide, face open, ready and willing to tell him whatever he needed to know. ‘I need you to tell me what happened the night of April 16
^th
.’ He watched her closely, waiting for her to start crying or shaking, but to his surprise she remained calm.

‘The night I killed Brandon?’

‘Yes, that’s the one.’

‘Right you are then.’ She coughed nervously. ‘Well, I stabbed him.’

‘I know you stabbed him. I need to know why you stabbed him. What happened that night to make you stab him?’

‘What happened that night? You mean what had happened for the last five years? Each time he hit me, spat on me, called me names, that is what led up to that night. I was planning on leaving him. I’d saved up a bit of money, it wasn’t much but it was enough to get me out of the state. My bag was all packed and ready by the door. I was determined to make a new start. He was supposed to be staying over at a friend’s, but for some reason, he came home.’

‘How did he react when he knew you were leaving him?’

‘Oh, you know, he gave me a kiss, said we had had a good run and wished me well,’ she said sarcastically. ‘How do you think he reacted?’ Brandy’s eyes darkened. ‘He unleashed the devil’s fury.’

‘So he attacked you?’

Brandy squirmed in her chair, pained by the memories she was being forced to recall.

‘Like I said, he came home early, all liquored up and horny as a schoolboy. He was all, “Baby, come to bed,” and I kept resisting but trying to keep him calm. Hoping against hope that he wouldn’t spot my bag. At first he didn’t. But his hands were all over me, I kept pushing him off but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. It wasn’t the first time he had forced himself on me, but I knew it was going to be the last, so after a while I just stopped fighting and let him have his fun. I was kind of banking on him falling asleep after anyways, and then I’d just leave whilst he was sleeping off his night of drinking. But after, as he was about to go and collapse on the bed, he noticed the bag out of the corner of his eye. Real calm, he turns to me and asks where I’m going. I start to panic, but try to seem allOK, so I tell him I’ve found my Ma after all these years and that I’m going to see her. He calls me a liar and punches me square in the face. Then he walks off into the other room and I’m hoping that he’s done. But he comes back in with my ironing board and iron and sets them up, yelling that I’ve got chores to do before I can go anywhere.’

Brandy stopped and started rubbing her arms nervously.

‘What happened?’ Aiden hated himself for asking.

‘He starts taking my clothes out of my bag, telling me that they are creased and need ironing. I don’t know what to do so I just go along with it and start ironing, still thinking that if I keep him happy he’ll leave me alone soon enough and I can escape. Then suddenly, halfway through, he grabs my one arm, holds it up and snatches the iron out of the other. He had a wild look in his eyes, like he’d lost all control. I tried to get away but he was too strong. He said that he knew I was going to leave him, but that I couldn’t because of our vows. He said that we were together until death did us part. I was terrified, and then he…’ She undid the zipper on her orange jumpsuit. The guards stepped forward to intervene but Aiden held up his hand to let them know it wasOK. She wore a plain white bra but he didn’t see that. He couldn’t take his eyes off her flat stomach and the three distinct iron-shaped burns that covered it.

‘The pain, it was so bad, I begged him to stop. When he was satisfied, he stormed out of the room and I just lay there in agony. I thought about calling the hospital but decided against it. I needed to get away. I dragged myself to my feet and started putting my clothes back in the bag. He came back in and slapped me so hard I fell to the ground. He spat on me, kicked me, called me an ungrateful whore. I was crying and pleading with him but his eyes were hollow, like he was a man possessed. I scrambled to my feet and he began throwing things at me, anything and everything. By now I was in the kitchen, holding onto the counter top for support. He’s still chucking things, and while his back was momentarily turned I picked up the biggest knife in the drawer that I could find. I didn’t have no intention of killing him, I just wanted to stop him from hurting me. But he noticed the knife, he came over, knocked me to the floor, the knife went flying, and he wrapped his hands around my neck. I couldn’t breathe, everything was going black, I knew that if I didn’t do something I was going to die. With the last bit of strength that I had I reached across the floor, found the knife and then just plunged it into his bulk of a body as many times as it took for him to finally loosen his grip.’

Brandy shook her head in sadness and disbelief. Her arms hugged her tiny body as she struggled to find some comfort from her grief.

‘So, you killed him in self-defence?’ Aiden reasoned.

‘But, I wanted him to die. After, he was so still, and there was blood everywhere. I didn’t know what to do. I just watched him for a while, convinced that he wasn’t dead, that the moment I turned my back he was going to get up and finish me off. I worked up enough courage to take a look into his eyes. They were glazed over, as if he were staring far, far into the distance, that was when I knew the devil had finally taken him. I called 911, I can’t even remember what I said. It felt like the world was moving in slow motion, nothing felt real. I just sat there, waiting for the police to come, feeling nothing but relief to finally be free of Brandon.’

‘Who turned up, was it Sheriff Fern?’

‘Sheriff Fern arrived at the house first. He took one look at Brandon, then at me covered in his blood and just handcuffed me straight away, no questions or anything. I was screaming and crying when he led me away, telling him that it wasn’t my fault but he just looked me square in the eye and called me a demon. Two other officers showed up as he was putting me in his squad car. They paid me no mind, just went straight to gawp at Brandon’s body.’

‘Were you seen by a doctor, for your burns?’

‘No, I tried to talk to Sheriff Fern as he drove me to the station but he just turned his radio up as high as it would go so as not to hear me. He is a cold man.’

‘Yeah, he didn’t strike me as the friendly type,’ Aiden said as he furiously wrote notes. He glanced again at the copy he had of the police report from April 16
^th
. It was noted that Brandy had been hysterical, but there was no mention of the wounds she had. Again, it was signed off by Sheriff Fern. The post mortem merely stated that Brandon had died from multiple stab wounds, it also noted that there had been a toxicology report. However, Aiden did not have those results. He had not noticed that they were missing before, yet he had no memory of having read them, which meant that Buck Fern had never given them to him.

‘You said Brandon was drunk?’

‘As an Irishman.’

Surely, Buck Fern would not go to such lengths just to disguise that Brandon was drunk. It was hardly a sin to drink too much. No, there must be something else.

‘Did Brandon ever take drugs?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘But if he did, it may help to explain his violent behaviour. You said he became a different person once you were married.’

‘Yes, he completely changed.’

‘If he did do drugs, that might help to explain that change.’

‘I don’t know, Mr. Connelly. Brandon took his health real serious, he still saw himself as an athlete, I couldn’t see him taking no drugs.’

Aiden glanced at his watch.

‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave you for today.’ Brandy seemed deeply saddened by this.

‘Well, thank you, Mr. Connelly. For taking the time to listen to me.’

‘It isOK.’ He felt himself blush. He wasn’t used to this kind of genuine appreciation.

‘You don’t think I’m a monster, do you? I know what people have been saying and I’m not like that.’

‘I don’t think that you are a monster, Brandy. Far from it.’

‘Good,’ Brandy smiled. ‘Because when you look at me, Mr. Connelly, for the first time in a long time, I feel like a person. Like what I say matters. And I’d hate it if you stopped looking at me like that.’

‘I won’t.’

‘You are a good man.’

‘I try to be.’

The guards led away Prisoner 929. To Aiden, she was no longer a murderer; he had never truly believed that she was capable of killing someone in cold blood. She was a victim of circumstance. If she hadn’t killed Brandon, he would have undoubtedly killed her. But, if she were to die for her crime, would that be justice, or would it just be Brandon getting what he wanted, even from beyond the grave?

Aiden decided to go home for his lunch. He needed to clear his head and he was hoping to make things right with Isla. He hated it when they were arguing and he needed her support now more than ever. He entered the kitchen, full of optimism, smiling widely, but his wife met him with a cold, hard stare.

‘Where the hell have you been?’ Her tone was accusing and she had her hands placed firmly on her hips.

‘I’ve been at work, where do you think I’ve been?’ His good intentions for a reconciliation were quickly evaporating. This wasn’t the kind of welcome he had been hoping for.

‘I called the office. You weren’t there.’ Her eyes were locked onto his, simmering with rage. He wished he hadn’t bothered coming home.

‘Where’s Meegan?’ he asked, glancing around the kitchen, noticing that she wasn’t there.

‘Answer the question.’ Isla’s voice rose a notch; she was close to boiling point.

‘Where’s Meegan?’ Aiden asked again, defying his wife.

‘She’s upstairs napping, now answer the Goddamn question!’ She was shouting now. He knew that he needed to calm her down else she would wake their daughter.

‘I was at the prison, working.’

‘At the prison!’

‘Yes, where my client is. For Christ’s sake, Isla. Why are being such a bitch?’

‘I’m the bitch? Oh, that’s rich!’ Her face was flushed with anger, her eyes still cold with fury. ‘You’re always at the Goddamn prison!’ she continued, venting her frustrations. ‘Do you think I’m stupid? Do you think I don’t know, that I don’t hear people whispering around town about what a beauty Brandy White is and how the gullible new lawyer in town is under her spell!’

‘You’re being insane!’ Aiden declared.

‘Insane?’ Isla laughed at the word. ‘I’m not the one who stabbed my husband to death, and is now moving on to someone else’s man!’

‘Isla, you’re being ridiculous’ Aiden just wanted to run out of the house and get some peace and quiet, but he knew that if he didn’t deal with his wife’s anger now it would just be waiting for him, even more intensified, when he returned home.

‘I’m tired of you visiting that whore in prison!’

‘What, Brandy?’ He could not conceal the element of shock he felt at his wife’s unreasonable aggression towards Brandy.