First to Fall (12 page)

‘Well, we best be off.’ Edmond bowed and linked arms with his wife and the pair tilted left, then right before aligning themselves and wandering off.

‘Quite a pair, aren’t they?’ Isla laughed.

‘Sure are.’

‘Meegan told me that she wants to be a cheerleader.’

‘Oh no,’ Aiden said as he got into the car. ‘I know what cheerleaders are like and my daughter will be a lady!’ Isla giggled at this.

‘Why did you want to see Clyde White?’ she asked as they were driving along.

‘No reason,’ Aiden lied. ‘Just work stuff.’ Isla rolled her eyes.

‘Don’t you ever clock off?’ she moaned.

‘Yes, of course. I just wanted to ask him something, that’s all.’

‘Well, I’m sure it can wait.’

‘Yes, I guess it will have to.’

Aiden’s car rolled along the darkened streets until they were back home. That night his sleep was troubled, his dreams haunted by demonic football players. He awoke in a sweat, gasping for breath. Isla remained curled up beside him, peaceful in her slumber. Alone, he turned his mind to Clyde White. He was certain that he had not been present at the game. If this was the case, Aiden could only come to one conclusion to explain his absence: either Clyde was sick, which he doubted as he had only seen him not long ago and he was fit and well; which left Aiden to believe that Clyde had not attended the game because he was avoiding him. Which meant that he had something to hide.

Chapter Seven: Shattered Glass

It was an unseasonably cold morning when Aiden drove out to Eastham. The sun was refusing to show its face and dark grey clouds dominated the sky. The roads were empty as usual as he made his way towards the prison which was Brandy’s cage.

Aiden took up his usual position before the Perspex glass wall, carefully setting up his Dictaphone and arranging his notes before prisoner 929’s arrival. The walls were as dull as the sky outside, as if all colours had been drained away from the world. Eastham felt even more oppressive than usual. One of the guards announced Brandy’s arrival but she need not have bothered; the moment the prisoner entered the room it was as if the entire universe shifted. She appeared to be glowing, from her luminous hair to the harsh orange of her regulation clothing. It felt as if Brandy was the sun in a dark, never-ending universe and you could not help but be drawn to her. Her cheeks were flushed and she seemed happy, and Aiden felt his heart soar. He berated himself for it, but couldn’t help feeling a sense of delight at seeing that Brandy was happy. Even the guards seemed in a more favourable mood. Brandy was blissfully unaware of the power she held over them all as she delicately sat down and gazed at Aiden, awaiting his direction for how the meeting was to proceed.

‘So, Brandy, how are you feeling today?’ He knew he was making small talk and wasting valuable time but he couldn’t help it.

‘Today, Mr. Connelly, I am feeling mighty fine. I feel as if that storm took all my problems away with it.’

‘That is good to hear.’ He shuffled his papers nervously, apprehensive about carrying on. Brandy seemed to be in a good place, and he knew that what he needed to ask her, what he needed her to recall, would no doubt return her to the darkest place she had ever been, and guilt overwhelmed him.

‘I went to the game last night.’ He was stalling.

‘Oh, the Angels? Oh wow, I bet you had a real good time! Everyone loves the Angels!’

‘Did you used to go watch them?’

‘Sometimes, not all that much. I never was around enough to get caught up in that whole school spirit thing.’

Aiden took a deep breath. He needed to get answers, even if that meant stealing the sparkle from her eyes.

‘Brandy,’ he spoke softly, ‘I need you to tell me, in detail, about your marriage to Brandon.’

As Aiden had feared, at the mention of Brandon the glow within Brandy immediately vanished and the room plunged into a depressive state of darkness. Her eyes became dark and her skin grey.

‘Very, well, Mr. Connelly.’ Her voice was calm and steady. ‘But I must warn you, it isn’t a pretty tale to tell.’ And with her warning out of the way, she recalled her time as Mrs. Brandon White.

‘As I told you, Brandon liked a drink. He always had. His drinking got him in trouble all over town, drink driving and the like. But old Buck Fern always turned the other cheek, his status as a football hero made him almost untouchable. He was used to always getting his own way, when people went against him, he would lash out. Not at them, just me. At first it was just words, which I could handle. If he’d had a bad day at work he’d come in, shouting, swearing. Then the anger was directed at me, he’d call me stupid, lazy, that sort of thing. After that, he grew violent, throwing things around, smashing glasses. At this point I wasn’t too bothered. I could see that he had a temper and when he was in one of his foul moods I’d just stay away from him. Normally, he was still the sweetest man in the world so I could easily forgive him for a few cruel words. But then, about eight months after we had gotten married, he turned on me.’

Aiden wished he could pass his hand through the glass and hold hers but he couldn’t. She had to push through the pain of her memories alone.

‘I can still remember that night. I wish I’d had the strength then to pack my bags and leave but I had nowhere to go. He was my everything. He knew that, I think that was how he knew he could get away with treating me how he did. He had been out with his friends and he was very drunk. He came in demanding that I cook him dinner, so I told him that he’d had dinner before he went out. Well, that was enough to send him crazy. His eyes got all screwed up in rage, he called me a lying whore and a bitch, then he punched me square in the face. The force threw me onto my back and I just lay there in shock. He yelled at me to get up but I was afraid. When I wouldn’t get up he kicked me in my sides. The pain was unbearable, I felt like all my insides were being crushed. After a bit he got bored and wandered off into the bedroom where he collapsed on the bed.

‘The next day, I looked so awful that I was too ashamed to leave and seek help, I didn’t want anyone seeing me like this. I had two black eyes, a cut lip and my whole body was beaten black and blue. I ran myself a bath and just lay in it, crying for hours. When Brandon sobered up he couldn’t apologise enough. He bought me flowers, told me how much he loved me, that he would never touch me again.’

She pressed her palms against her eyes, holding back tears. ‘He lied.’

‘So, that was the first time he was violent towards you?’ Aiden asked gently. Brandy nodded in response.

‘But soon…’ She breathed in deep, trying to stop her emotions overwhelming her. ‘It became a regular thing. Most weekends he would knock me about so that I stopped leaving the house at all, for fear of people seeing me. Each time it was the same, he would attack me in a rage, then later tell me how sorry he was and that he would get help. I wanted to go to someone, but foolishly I believed that he could change. How could I have been so stupid?’

‘Did you tell anyone?’

‘Yes, in the end I felt that he’d left me with no choice. It was my twentieth birthday and he was supposed to finish work early and take me for dinner and a movie. I was all dressed up in the nicest dress I had and so excited about finally getting out of the damn house. I told myself that this was the beginning of something good with Brandon, that we were beginning to put all our problems behind us. Well, six o clock came and went and he didn’t come home. I sat at the tablewatching the hours pass by. It was eleven when he came rolling in through the door. He was blind drunk as he had been out with the boys. I was fuming. I asked where he’d been and he flipped. I’d never seen him so mad before, he was like a monster. We had a beautiful glass vase on the table, it had been a wedding gift, full of his last batch of forgiveness flowers. He grabbed the vase and smashed it against the wall. I was devastated, so I fell to my knees and began trying to pick up the shards of glass. I loved that vase, so much.’ Brandy was crying now, tears forming a river down her soft cheeks.

‘He yelled at me, saying I cared more for the vase than him. Then he…he…’ She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her jumpsuit. ‘He knelt down and picked up a large shard of glass and ran it down my arm.’ She pulled up her sleeve to reveal afrighteningly large scar. ‘Hedid it all down my legs too. When he was satisfied that he had punished me enough he went and got into the shower. I had no choice but to call 911, I was going to bleed to death.’

‘So the police came round?’

‘Sheriff Fern himself came out. When he asked what had happened Brandon was cool as a cucumber, saying that the vase had fallen onto me by accident. I screamed that he was lying, that he had done this. Brandon, still so terribly calm, said that I was just trying to get back at him for forgetting my birthday. Buck Fern sided with Brandon, saying that women can get far too emotional and that I should be less clumsy. They took me to hospital and dressed my wounds and no one said any more about it. I thought that Brandon would be mad, but for a while he calmed down, I expect it had all been a bit too close for him and he was worried about being found out.’

Aiden was writing away in his notebook.

‘What date is your birthday?’

‘March 18
^th
.’ He scribbled the date down. ‘You thinking of sending me a card?’ She smiled weakly, her eyes red from crying.

‘Maybe,’ Aiden replied, aware that she would probably not live to see her next birthday. ‘I’m actually interested as there would be a police report from when you called the police and I’d like to see it.’

‘Oh,OK.’

‘So how was Brandon after that had happened?’

‘For a while he seemed to calm down. Then, maybe a month or so later the drunken beatings started again. He had taken to smoking now too so he was getting creative with his cruelty, sometimes burning me. I was getting pretty scarred up by this time. I couldn’t wear T-shirts or pretty dresses any more as my arms and legs were such a mess. If people suspected anything no one dared say a word against Brandon. Even in searing heat I’d be wearing jeans and a sweater. But then, around Christmas time, I found out I was pregnant. I was overjoyed, I thought that a baby would help calm Brandon down, and that in carrying our baby he would ease off on me. And he did. For the first few months he was wonderful, he even painted the spare bedroom blue as he was convinced we were going to have a little boy. But then…he started drinking again…as I got bigger he would call me fat, telling me that he didn’t find me attractive any more. He made me cover up my bump in baggy clothes as he didn’t want no one knowing I was pregnant. He said he was tired of the town always being all over his business. He started beating me again, but he was always careful to just do my legs and arms, where no one could see.’

Brandy was subconsciously rubbing her arms as she recalled her husband’s cruelty.

‘Then, he had to go away one weekend, it was around Easter. I think it was something to do with work. I saw my chance to finally go to church, I hadn’t been in so long. And now that I was expecting a child, I knew I needed to find peace with God again, for the sake of my unborn baby. I walked all the way into town, my feet were near bleeding by the time I got there. I just sat in a pew, shattered, when Father West came over. He was worried as he hadn’t seen me in a long time. I was so hot, it was a warm day, I was sweating like a dog from all the walking, and without thinking I rolled up my sleeves. I heard him gasp when he saw my arms and my heart sank.’

‘Did you tell Father West what had been going on?’

‘I had no choice. You can’t lie to a priest. When he saw that I was pregnant too, he was outraged. He begged me to leave him, he said he would find somewhere safe for me to go but I wouldn’t have it. I knew how hard it was to grow up without a father and I didn’t want to do that to my child. I was a fool, if I’d run away when I had the chance things would have been so different…’ Her voice trailed off, wracked with emotion.

‘What did Father West do?’ Aiden felt terrible at pushing her to continue but knew that their time would soon be up.

‘He said he would talk to Brandon. And he did. He came round one day, it was another gorgeous, sunny day. They sat and talked, I was hanging laundry out to dry in the garden so I’ve no idea what was said. With Father West, Brandon was all smiles, the perfect gentleman. Then, as he waved goodbye to Father, he closed the door and turned to me, his smile was gone and his eyes were black with hate. He was beyond furious that I had gone to Father West. He said that he was going to teach me a lesson. He went out back and when he came back…’ Brandy shook her head through the tears, still in disbelief at just how cruel her husband had been. ‘When he came back he had a shovel.’

Aiden wasn’t sure if he could bear to hear any more. Brandy became engulfed by her tears, unable to continue. He could only imagine what had occurred after the priest had left.

After a while, the tears subsided.

‘They took me to hospital, but I lost the baby,’ she whispered. ‘Brandon said I’d fallen down the stairs. He said that if I told anyone about him again he’d kill me, and I knew that he would. I lived in fear of him. You know the worst part?’

‘What was the worst part?’

‘That no one would believe that he could have done these things. He said that I fell down the stairs. Thing is, we don’t have no stairs. But no one questioned him, and I was too scared to say anything.’

‘Did you plan to kill him?’

‘No, but he was about to kill me. I had no choice.’

Their time was up and an emotionally drained Brandy was led away, leaving Aiden with a lot to think about.

As Aiden had expected, Buck Fern was nowhere to be seen when he arrived at the Sheriff’s Offices to collect the files he had requested. A polite young girl who was working there kindly informed him that he was off doing his daily rounds of Avalon. Aiden was relieved. His encounters with the old sheriff were becoming increasingly strained and he just wasn’t in the mood for another awkward conversation. He just wanted to get the files and go. He waited patiently whilst the girl wandered into a back room to get his documents for him. As the minutes passed by he felt anger welling up inside him, as he thought that the stubborn old sheriff had failed to sort out the files for him in a deliberate attempt to withhold evidence. Luckily, just as his patience was about to wear out, the girl returned, laden down with numerous cardboard folders.