Third to Die (14 page)

“No,” Aiden replied coolly, shaking his head and stepping back, away from her reach. “Right now I need space.”

“Aid,” Isla raised a shaking hand to her mouth. She felt as though she were in a prolonged car accident and all around her glass and metal was still being torn and crushed. Only once the accident ended could she finally assess the damage and consider how she could put everything back together again.

“My friends need me in Greensburg,” Aiden said sternly. “We’ve got the chance to right a wrong that happened to one of us and I’m not going to pass that up.”

Mentally he calculated how long it would take him to pack, to load the car and leave Avalon. His house suddenly felt unbearably small, as though the walls were slowly encroaching in on him. He knew that ultimately the small home he’d painstakingly selected for his family would not be able to contain his rage, not when it was so raw.

“We’ll talk when I get back.” He quickly turned away from his wife and headed upstairs, taking them two at a time, to gather his things into an overnight bag. Isla followed as loyal as a shadow.

“I’m begging you not to go.”

Aiden ignored her and began tossing essentials into his holdall.

“Are you really going to Greensburg?” Something in Isla’s tone changed which made Aiden momentarily cease packing and look back at her. Her eyes sparkled from tears as acid dripped from her lips as she uttered the accusation. “Are you just going to Chicago and lying about it?”

Aiden felt his entire body become rigid with anger. He clenched his fists and willed himself not to scream at her.

“I’m really going to Greensburg,” he replied through gritted teeth.

“So you’re not leaving here to see her?” Isla asked as she placed her hands upon her hips in a confrontational gesture.

Aiden paced towards the en suite bathroom to collect together his toiletries.

“No, I’m not going to see her,” he replied to his wife as he continued to move about their bedroom, chucking various items into his holdall.

“If by her, you mean Brandy, I doubt I’ll ever see Brandy again as I chose you, Isla. I chose this family, I chose our unborn child. You held me here with lies and you didn’t care, then you have the audacity to call me a liar!” Aiden could hear his own voice rising so he ceased speaking for fear of waking his daughter.

“I tried to keep our family together.” Isla inhaled sharply to hold back a fresh onslaught of tears. “We were coming undone, Aid, I didn’t know what to do.”

Aiden zipped up his holdall and slung it across his back. “We’ll talk when I get back,” he sighed.

“What’s in Greensburg, Aid? What’s so important there that you can’t stay here and fix things with me?” Isla demanded. She could already anticipate the unbearable emptiness of the house if Aiden were to leave.

“I guess we both have secrets we keep,” Aiden told her callously as he moved through the doorway. He headed towards the stairs but stopped briefly at the door to Meegan’s room. He could hear her soft breaths through the door. She was blissfully sleeping through her parents’ turmoil.

“We have a daughter,” Isla told him gently as she stood behind him. “We made vows to one another.”

Aiden placed a hand on the door handle and then quickly removed it. If Meegan was sleeping, he didn’t want to disturb her.

“I think we’ve already broken most of those,” he told his wife bitterly before heading down the stairs, out to his car. He hauled his bag into the trunk and climbed into the driving seat. Isla was now at the front door, pained resignation distorted her usually beautiful features. Aiden gunned the engine. Quickly he backed out of the drive and pulled away, not bothering to glance back at his wife in his rear-view mirror. He knew that all his problems would be there waiting for him on his return. Right now he needed to focus on Justin and the answers to his death, which might be in Greensburg.

*

Greensburg was just as Aiden had left it. He was given the same room in the motel on the outskirts of town, the air still smelled of sugar cane and forgotten summers. Stretching out on the hard motel bed, Aiden gazed at the ceiling fan which made a gentle whirring sound as it spun around. He was exhausted. He had hoped that his long drive would give him time to think, time to digest what Isla had told him, time to come to terms with her lie. But all the drive had done was drain him. Lying on the bed in his former home town he felt as though he had nothing left, like there was only dust in his veins.

He wanted to close his eyes and drift into a dream where his problems couldn’t find him. The golden light of early morning began to seep in through the thin curtains which Aiden had drawn closed. A new day was beginning in Greensburg, he didn’t have time to rest. As if on cue his cell phone began vibrating in his trouser pocket. Groaning, Aiden reached down and answered the call, lifting it to his ear without even checking the caller ID.

“Hey,” his voice was groggy. He sounded as though his vocal cords were currently being pulled across hot coals.

“Aiden, hi,” Alex sounded crisp, clear and irritatingly awake. “Are you setting off soon?”

“I’m already here.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.” Aiden coughed his response.

“Jeeze, I thought you weren’t getting in until this evening. Did you like drive all night or something?”

“Something like that.”

There was a pause as Alex tried to decipher if Aiden was joking or being serious.

“Okay, well, I guess we can meet earlier. How are you fixed to meet me before work?”

“Sure.”

“Are you staying at the motel? Can I come there? I’d much rather talk privately.”

“Uh-huh.” Aiden’s eyelids felt heavy as he nodded and tried to focus on the conversation.

“Great, I’ll see you in thirty.”

“Bring coffee,” Aiden quickly added. “Strong coffee.”

*

Almost forty minutes later a patrol car pulled into the motel parking lot, sending clouds of dust billowing into the air. Alex stepped out wearing his uniform and aviator sunglasses. He leaned back into the vehicle to grab two travel cups of coffee and headed over to where Aiden was leaning outside his motel room door, which was ajar.

“You certainly got here quick,” Alex commented as he handed one of the cups to Aiden.

“You said it was important.”

“It was.” Alex nodded. “It is.” He glanced past Aiden at the motel room door. “Can we go in?”

“Sure!” Aiden kicked the door open fully and the two men walked inside. Alex removed his glasses and ran a hand through his hair. Before shutting the door he quickly scanned the parking lot to make sure prying eyes weren’t observing him.

Aiden lowered himself onto the edge of the bed and drunk greedily from his cup. He desperately needed the caffeine fix.

“Like I said on the phone, the police report on Justin came back.” Alex remained standing, a pained expression on his face.

“Well, what did it say?” Aiden’s curiosity helped reignite his senses and blow away some of the fog of fatigue.

“That’s the thing,” Alex reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a neatly folded piece of crisp white paper.

“It didn’t say anything.” He tossed the paper over onto the bed for Aiden to review.

Aiden drank some more of his coffee and then placed it down on a nearby nightstand so that he could use both hands to unfold the paper. He saw the insignia for the local police force in the top corner, accompanied by the standard format for most official documents. It was an incident report for Justin’s accident. Only no incident was mentioned. There was Justin’s name, the date of his accident and then stamped garishly across the rest of the page was one word; ‘classified’. Nothing in the report had been filled in. Aiden stared at the page in his hands in bewilderment.

“Classified?” He averted his eyes briefly to glance at Alex, who looked as troubled as he felt.

“It means the files are sealed.” Alex sighed. “That’s why I could never find them when I originally looked.”

“Why would they be sealed?” Aiden’s mind wasn’t sharp enough to begin running through potential scenarios. He’d seen classified files before; he just needed to remember what invoked the need for secrecy.

“There is a locked cabinet in the storage room that we aren’t supposed to enter. But when I filed your request, I was granted access to it. There can only be a handful of files there, if that, Justin’s included,” Alex began explaining. “But Greensburg don’t get much call for cases that need to be classified. I had to ask my superior what it meant.”

“And?” Now Aiden was giving his friend his full attention.

“It means that the Greensburg Police Department is now longer in charge of the investigation. A larger body has got involved. Whoever that may be, they have the files, not us, as it is their investigation.”

“So who got involved in Justin’s case? And why?” Aiden’s mind stung from the influx of questions suddenly bouncing around in it.

“No one at the station seemed willing to talk about it,” Alex continued. “Which didn’t surprise me.”

He took a nervous sip from his own coffee.

“But eventually the chief gave me an answer. I bugged him, said how you’d be all up in our case with your lawyer shit if we didn’t comply. He basically said we don’t have anymore information on Justin’s accident because the case is being investigated by the FBI. The fact that his file is still sealed, that his cause of death hasn’t been confirmed, means that the case is still on going.”

*

Isla’s eyes felt raw as she spoonfed Meegan her dinner. The little girl obediently opened her mouth and swallowed down the small portions of spaghetti.

“Where’s Daddy?” Meegan asked innocently as she waited on another spoonful.

“He’s at work,” Isla replied, forcing a smile. She aimed the spoon laden with stringy pasta towards Meegan’s little mouth. She tried not to think about the previous night. How she had lain awake, almost suffocating beneath the weight of her imploding marriage. She kept telling herself that everything would be fine, that she and Aiden had weathered worse storms. Then she’d turn over and see the vast, open expanse of bed beside her. Aiden wasn’t there. The sheets he normally slept beneath were untouched, the mattress cold. Isla had trembled with despair as she lay there, one hand resting where her husband should have been. She couldn’t shake the awful feeling that she’d never share a bed with him again.

“Work?” Meegan tilted her head to look at her mother with wide, inquisitive eyes. She was getting older, starting to become more observant. In her young mind she knew that she always saw her father before he went to work.

“He had to go in early today,” Isla quickly added. “He’s working on a big case.”

Meegan seemed appeased by this and went back to focusing on her dinner. She smacked her lips together appreciatively each time she was given a fresh helping of spaghetti.

“Good girl,” Isla smiled tenderly at her. “You’re eating your dinner so well today.” She almost added that she wished Aiden was there to see it but she stopped herself.

“Park?” Meegan quickly tried to exploit the benefits her good behaviour could bring.

“Tomorrow, sure,” Isla nodded. She knew that she’d need to get out of the house sooner or later. She didn’t want to spend all her time wondering where Aiden was, wondering if and when he’d come back to her.

“Park soon?” Meegan bounced slightly in her highchair with excitement.

“Yes, baby, park soon.”

“Daddy come?” Meegan asked hopefully, her eyes sparkling with delight.

“No,” Isla shook her head sorrowfully. “I don’t think Daddy will be able to come. He’s very busy with work at the moment.”

Usually Meegan would howl with despair at such a statement but perhaps she sensed something in her mother; sensed the air of grief circling around her. Instead of crying and banging her chubby fists against her highchair, she merely dropped her head covered in curls and uttered, “Oh.”

Isla sniffed and forced back tears. She’d rather endure one of Meegan’s tantrums than see the little girl show such sad acceptance.

“But it will be fun just the two of us.” Isla wiped a hand across her eyes to stop anything falling from them.

“Yes.” Meegan instantly brightened, the shadow of sadness gone from her little face in less than a second.

“Now let’s go play in the garden for a bit.” Isla scooped her daughter up into her arms and kissed her gently on the forehead. Each time she held Meegan, she felt a little heavier.

“Garden,” Meegan echoed happily. Isla carried her out into the late afternoon sunshine. As she watched the little girl merrily play with her building blocks, she tried to push all thoughts of her husband out of her mind but she couldn’t. Aiden, and the lie she had told him, were like a storm cloud in her mind, preventing any sunshine or happiness from filtering in.

*

“The FBI?” Aiden leaned forward, still holding the piece of report emblazoned with the ominous classified stamp.

“I know.” Alex moved and glanced behind the thin curtains. His heart was racing in his chest and despite the constant whir of the ceiling fan, small beads of sweat had developed on his forehead.

“I mean, that shit’s bad right? Having to get the FBI involved?”

Aiden tried to think. All his thoughts were bombarding him at once, making it difficult to decipher any of them. He’d dealt with sealed FBI files before. It could mean anything from a national security issue to an unresolved murder. But why had Justin’s death attracted the attention of the FBI? It was suddenly starkly clear that Justin hadn’t died in a motorcycle accident that night.

Lowering his head into his hands, Aiden sighed deeply.

“So it couldn’t have been an accident that killed Justin, could it?” Alex asked, his tone insistent.

“I don’t…I don’t know,” Aiden was staring at the stained carpet beneath his feet. If the FBI were involved it went beyond his knowledge, beyond his abilities to be able to get answers. But like his friends, he desperately wanted the question mark hovering over Justin’s death removed.

Aiden felt sick to his stomach. The town gossips had been right all along. There had been no accident, there couldn’t have been. But then what happened to Justin? Guilt pierced the base of Aiden’s neck, making his eyes water. How could he not have known? How could he not have realized? He was a lawyer, it was his job to question, to search for truth.