Page 9 of One Little Memory (Cherry Valley Novella)

Phoenix was standing in the hospital hallway, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He was waiting for Jo to get dressed. Cahill had released her, and Hazel had finally filed the paperwork.

He had no clue what the fuck he’d been thinking when he’d offered to let Jo stay in the garage apartment.

How stupid could he be? He had no idea who she was or what she was doing in town.

He also had no clue how she went over the embankment.

All of it added up to trouble. But somehow, seeing her in that bed, with fear in the depths of her big, brown eyes, he just couldn’t help himself.

She had nothing and no one. It made his insides go cold, thinking about her alone on the street.

Chief Bowers was going to give him a hard time about it, but he didn’t see what else he was supposed to do.

He couldn’t ask anyone else to put themselves in jeopardy by having her stay with them.

Not that he thought she was really dangerous, but to be fair, she could be a serial killer for all he knew.

And she didn’t have any money so she couldn’t stay at any of the small inns in Cherry Valley.

At least this way he could keep an eye on her.

If the chief said anything, he’d just say that the other option was having her stay with Hazel or Hazel’s mom. He was dating Hazel’s mom, and there was no way he’d let either woman do anything that might put them in a precarious position. He grinned. That should shut him up.

The room door opened, and Jo stood there.

She was smaller than he’d thought. She came up to the middle of his chest. Her thick chestnut hair was curling around her shoulders.

She had on a light black cotton sweater and faded jeans that fit to a tee.

Her curves were generous, and her smile was genuine as she searched his face.

“I know I look a mess.” She put a hand to her bandage over her eye in a self-conscious gesture.

“You look fine.” More than fine. Her deep brown eyes were warm and her lips were full and kissable.

He needed to stop right there. She was off limits.

He knew nothing about her, and she was an accident victim.

No go. It didn’t matter that she stirred something in him, something that he’d thought was long dead.

She was out of bounds, and he needed to remember that.

His phone went off. He glanced at the screen. Jagger. Phoenix wanted to swear. He was already behind in the investigation. He had a ton of shit to do, but he couldn’t leave Jo on her own. He sent a text to Jagger that he’d be in his office in a half an hour.

“Ready to go?” he asked as he started down the hallway.

“Um, yes, but there’s one problem.”

“What?” he asked.

She looked down at her feet. They were bare. “I don’t seem to have any shoes. I have no idea what happened to the ones I came in with, but everything seems to be missing.”

“Huh. Well, you’ll have to go without at the moment, and we’ll figure it out later. I need to drop you to the house and get back to work.”

“Of course. I’m so sorry for keeping you from your work.”

He narrowed his eyes at her.

“What?”

“I’m just wondering if you’re Canadian with all this apologizing.”

She smiled then, and it was like the sun broke through the clouds. “I don’t think so, but who knows? Maybe I am.”

A nurse named Bert arrived in the hallway with a wheelchair. “Your chariot awaits, milady,” he said with a sweeping bow.

Jo giggled and then turned and sat down in the chair. They took the elevator to the bottom floor. When they reached the door to the outside, Phoenix asked Bert to wait a second. Jo looked up at him questioningly. He scooped her gently into his arms, and she let out a small yelp.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. You just surprised me.” She turned and waved to Bert. “Thank you.”

He smiled. “It looks like you’re in good hands.” Then he turned and disappeared down the hallway.

Phoenix walked them out of the hospital into the parking lot.

“Bert can’t be the only chivalrous one. No walking on the pavement in bare feet for you, my lady,” He offered her a wink as he carried her over to his police SUV, trying not to notice how right she seemed, fitting snuggly in his arms. As he struggled to open the door, she offered to get down, but he managed it in the end and slid her onto the passenger seat.

“You don’t like to give up, do you?”

He smiled. “Never say die.” The words were out before he thought about them, and his stomach hit his feet.

“Are you okay? You just turned a bit…pale.”

“Fine,” he said as he closed the door. He used the time it took to walk around the SUV to the driver’s side to pull himself back together.

Was this going to be what it was like? Everything was fine one minute, and the next he remembered that his brother might be dying.

He swallowed hard as he got into the truck.

Twenty minutes later, he pulled into his driveway and came to a stop. He hopped out and went around to the passenger side of the truck.

“You really don’t have to carry me.”

“Jo, it’s rock between here and the patio. You’ll cut your feet.”

She looked out the windshield at the cute little building he’d painted a creamy white, accented by black shutters.

It was easy to see that it had been a garage in a past life but now it was adorable.

A couple Adirondack chairs rested on a tidy little patio out in front of the door, but between the end of the driveway and the patio was gravel.

“I see what you mean.”

He reached in and picked her up again, fighting uncomfortable feelings as he carried her to the garage apartment. He set her down, took a key off his key ring, and opened the door. “You should be fine here. I’ve got to run. I will drop by later with some groceries. Rest up.”

He handed her the key and went back to his SUV.

He was pulling out of the driveway seconds later.

Jo, whoever she was, was a distraction he could ill afford at the moment.

He needed to get his head back into the Marchand investigation.

This was the biggest case of his career so far, and he did not want to screw it up.

After a short drive, he parked in the lot and then entered Jagger’s office. He took a seat across the desk from his former teammate. “Sorry for the delay.”

“No problem.” Jagger stood, reached across the desk, and shook Phoenix’s hand. “Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea?”

“No, I’m good. What’s going on? Were you guys investigating Marchand for something?”

Jagger sat back down. “It’s complicated. We weren’t investigating him exactly, but something weird turned up.”

“Okay, you’re being clear as mud. I have a dead body, and I have to find out what the hell is going on. I need you to spell it out for me.”

Jagger leaned back in his chair. “You can’t tell another soul. Not your friends, not your boss, not anyone. The mayor doesn’t even know the truth. I let him believe that I went out there to help him because Arthur Marchand is popular, and the mayor doesn’t want to piss off his electorate.”

Now Jagger really had his attention.

“Six months ago, something came across my desk that led me to start investigating Lloyd Bondy. Turns out he was involved with one of those doomsday prepper groups.”

That did not surprise Phoenix one bit. “Nothing wrong with doomsday prepping,” Phoenix offered.

It wasn’t his cup of tea, but he could see the appeal.

Might be nice to think he’d be okay if the world was ending.

On the other hand, might just be nice to end when the world did. Problem solved. Worries over.

“No,” Jagger agreed, “there isn’t, but Lloyd took it one step further.

He got involved with a group that thinks they need to stockpile all kinds of guns and…

other things that aren’t legal. Lloyd was only on the periphery of the group, but he had to be checked out.

And to be prudent, I had to start digging around in Gus Marchand’s life as well.

They hung out together. If Lloyd was involved, I assumed so was Gus. ”

“And was he?” Phoenix asked.

“Not that I can tell.”

Phoenix frowned. “So, what’s with all the secrecy then? What are you not telling me?”

“First off, there are more people in town involved in this extremist group. I’m not going to give you names, but suffice it to say, if word got out, my whole investigation would fall apart in minutes and a lot of people would get away with the bad things they’re doing.”

Phoenix was trying to be patient, but he wanted to throttle Jagger. “Can you get to the point?”

“In working on the other investigation, I came across some weird anomalies with Gus Marchand, the main one being he’s not really Gus Marchand.”

Phoenix jerked forward in his chair. “What? What do you mean?”

“Do you know the story of the Marchand brothers and how they ended up here in Cherry Valley?”

“I’ve heard the short version,” Phoenix confirmed.

Jagger took a sip of coffee from a mug on his desk.

“Here’s the long version. Gus showed up first about twenty-five years ago.

He was a pain in the ass even back then, but he bought his place on the outskirts of town, moved in, and pretty much didn’t do anything except sit on that porch three seasons of the year.

Prior to arriving, he’d had some sort of horrific accident.

The details are sketchy, at best. He broke his leg and a whole bunch of other bones and had gotten somewhat disfigured as a result.

“Anyway, where Gus was mean and a recluse, his brother Arthur, who showed up six months after Gus, was the polar opposite. He immediately tried to get to know everyone and joined as many activities as he could in an effort to ingratiate himself into the town.”

“Okay, but what does all that have to do with Gus not being Gus?”

“According to Arthur, Gus’s accident changed how he looked but also changed his attitude.

Apparently, they weren’t particularly close, and prior to coming to Cherry Valley, the two brothers didn’t talk more than once a year by phone.

It took Arthur months to find out about Gus’s accident and then months more to find him. ”

“So you think Gus isn’t who he said he was? He’s not actually Arthur’s brother?”

“No, he’s not. Whoever that man was, he committed identity theft and stole Gus Marchand’s identity.” Jagger leaned forward. “I can’t tell you details, but I can say that we had occasion to run the fake Gus’s DNA, and it didn’t come back as Gus Marchand.”

“Then who did it come back as?” Phoenix demanded.

“Someone who isn’t in the system. Gus was in the military.

He stayed on in the reserves for years and there was an incident where a soldier died.

They used DNA evidence to find out who was involved.

Gus had given his for exclusionary purposes, so we had his DNA to compare it to.

It’s not a match, and before you ask, yes, I’m sure the DNA came from the man who claimed to be Gus Marchand. ”

Phoenix stared at Jagger for a full minute, trying to get his brain around what the other man was saying. Finally, he said. “Well, shit, that just opened up my field of suspects to practically anyone.”

Jagger nodded. “Yeah. I’m sorry, but I figured you should know. I have no idea who Gus really was, and I don’t know if his real identity could have anything to do with his death.”

Phoenix scrubbed a hand down his face. This was turning into a nightmare.

First, he had Jo to deal with, and now Gus was not Gus.

He let out a breath. “Do you think Arthur had a clue that his brother wasn’t his brother?

I mean it seems like it would be a pretty hard thing to pull off. Fooling a family member.”

Jagger shrugged. “I know. That part bothers me. A lot. But Arthur said they weren’t ever close.

Gus left home immediately after high school and they weren’t really in contact.

Their parents died and according to Arthur, they talked once a year at Christmas up until Gus’s accident.

I think it was a car accident but I’m trying to get more details on it.

” He rubbed his chin. “I can’t see how Arthur would take care of some stranger and call him by his brother’s name.

It doesn’t make any logical sense. He must have really believed it was Gus. ”

“I’m going to have to talk to him,” Phoenix pointed out.

“Yeah. Just tread softly and don’t let on what you know, okay?

I’m working with the Feds on this one and we need to be able to keep this investigation as quiet as possible for as long as we can.

Chief Bowers knows about it and now you, but I don’t want it to go any further.

” He paused. “It’s not just guns. There’s a lot of weird shit going on, and until we can get to the bottom of it, I need this to be locked down. ”

“I appreciate the information,” Phoenix said. He wasn’t sure if Jagger’s intel was going to help his investigation or not, but he was glad his teammate had shared with him.

“Hell, Phoenix, I didn’t have a choice. If it was one of the other detectives, I might have kept my mouth shut, but I know you, and you’re like a dog with a bone.

There was no way you were going to let this go, and if you found something out, the whole fucking town would know in seconds.

No bigger gossip center than the police department and city hall. ”

Phoenix grinned. It was true. Word got around Cherry Valley at the speed of light, and it usually came from a dispatcher or some bigwig’s assistant, if not the bigwig himself. He stood. “Not sure if I should thank you or slug you for this mess, but I guess I’m grateful you clued me in.”

Jagger stood as well. “I get it. Let me know if you find anything interesting or useful.”

“Will do, and you do the same.” The men shook hands, and then Phoenix headed out of the building.

The autopsy was finished, and he’d just gotten a text to go talk to the medical examiner.

His head was spinning over what Jagger had shared.

What was it with small towns? They were never as innocent and bucolic as they appeared.

Why then, was he surprised that Cherry Valley wasn’t any different?