Page 7 of One Little Memory (Cherry Valley Novella)

“Sometime last night,” Jagger said as he came to a stop beside Phoenix.

“Sorry, thought you were Damian.”

Jagger nodded. “Listen, I know it’s a bit unusual that I’m here, but there’s more going on with this than I can discuss at the moment. Drop by my office when you get the chance. We can talk.”

Phoenix studied his former teammate’s face. Jagger’s blue eyes were watchful. He had been the same back in high school. He didn’t miss much if Phoenix remembered correctly. “You investigating Gus for something?”

Jagger hesitated. He dropped his voice. “I can’t speak about it here.” He glanced over to where Arthur was standing with a couple of uniformed officers. “Come by when you can.” He turned to go.

“Do you know who might have done this?”

Jagger shrugged. “I can’t give you a man, but I might be able to give you a reason.”

“I’ll be by a bit later.”

“Sounds good.” Jagger picked his way down the driveway, careful to avoid the tire tracks. Phoenix stared at the retreating man and wondered what the hell was going on. Finally, Jagger disappeared behind the emergency vehicles.

“Detective?” Arthur Marchand called.

Phoenix held up his hand. “Just give me a minute, Arthur.”

Damian Kennedy, the medical examiner, was walking towards him. “Hey, Phoenix. I’ll get you what I know asap. I know you’ll be under pressure from the big boys on this one.”

“Thanks. Any idea when he died?”

“Since I just arrived, I can’t say, but if I had to guess from just looking at him?” He touched the corpse to check for rigor mortis, or so Phoenix assumed. “He’s still in rigor, so probably twelve hours ago or so. Definitely before midnight if that helps.”

“Yeah, thanks.” He nodded and stepped aside so Damian could do his thing. He took the opportunity to make his way to Arthur. With a nod, he dismissed the uniformed officer standing close by. “Mr. Marchand. I’m sorry for your loss.”

Arthur took a handkerchief out of his back pocket and dabbed at his brown eyes.

He was several years younger than his brother, probably in his sixties if Phoenix had to guess.

He had short hair that was salt and pepper in color, and he was wearing a pair of work pants with a button-down shirt.

It was the same uniform Phoenix had seen him in every day since Arthur had moved to town when Phoenix had been just a kid.

“Phoenix, thank you. I appreciate that. I know my brother could be…grumpy, but he was still my brother. I’ll miss him. I can’t imagine who would want to hurt him.” He crammed the fabric square back into his pocket.

Grumpy . That was one way of describing it. “Can you tell me who your brother hung out with?”

“Lloyd Bondy. Those two were thick as thieves.” He paused. “I guess I’ll have to call Lloyd and tell him the news.”

Phoenix knew Lloyd Bondy and had no intention of volunteering to tell him anything.

He was another of the town’s assholes as far as Phoenix was concerned.

Mean and ornery. Not to mention a bad drunk.

He got meaner when he drank, which was almost every night as far as Phoenix could determine.

He’d had to haul Lloyd down to the police station for drunk and disorderly more times than he could count back when he was in uniform.

Phoenix pulled out his notebook and pen. “When was the last time you saw Gus?”

“Oh, I guess it was Thursday night maybe? I came by to see my brother, and Lloyd was here.” Arthur shuffled his feet.

“Anything unusual happen?”

Arthur shook his head and then stopped. “Well, now, come to think of it, the two of them had words.”

“Had words?” Phoenix probed.

“You know. They were having a slight disagreement about something. They clammed up when I came across the yard, but they’d been yelling at each other before that.”

“Was that out of the ordinary for them?” Phoenix was certain it was pretty normal. They both were so damned prickly.

Arthur rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t quite normal. They did seem really upset. They were yelling awful loudly.”

“What were they yelling about?”

“Something to do with someone being a cheat or not.”

Phoenix studied Arthur for a minute. It surprised him that Arthur felt Lloyd and Gus’s fight was unusual. He’d seen them go at it hard a few times himself. They must have really been screaming if it was out of the norm. “Do you have any more details on it?”

Arthur studied his feet, one hand cupped around his nape. “No. Like I said, they stopped when I arrived.”

That struck Phoenix as the most unusual aspect of Gus arguing with someone. Gus didn’t stop yelling for anything. “Okay, then I’ll check it out. Anyone else you can think of with a grudge against your brother?”

Arthur shook his head. “No. He was an ornery guy, but no one hated him enough to hurt him.”

Right. Just half the town as far as Phoenix was concerned. He closed his notebook. “Again, I’m sorry for your loss.”

Arthur nodded. Phoenix started to turn away but then swiveled back around to face the older man. “Arthur, I need to ask, where were you last night?”

Arthur blinked as if recalling, then, “Well, I was at the shop until seven. Not much going on since the big game was happening at the high school. I closed up and then went home and made myself dinner. Chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans. And then I watched some TV until bedtime.”

“Arthur,” the mayor called. He gestured for Arthur to join him. Phoenix noticed a TV van parked down on the road. Time for the mayor’s fifteen minutes of fame.

Arthur asked him, “Is that everything?”

“Yes, sir. I’ll do my best to find who killed your brother.” As much as Phoenix didn’t like Gus, Arthur was a nice man and didn’t deserve the hurt that murder caused.

He squeezed Phoenix’s arm and gave him a sad smile. “I know you will, son.”

He watched the elderly gentleman walk over to the mayor. Then he glanced over at the figure being loaded into a body bag. A lump formed in the pit of his stomach. Whatever this was all about, it wasn’t going to be good.