Third to Die Page 3

  “I wish you’d told me,” Aiden reiterated.

  This time Edmond wasn’t so quick to dismiss the comment.

  “I didn’t want to worry you,” he admitted. “Besides, I’ll be back at work in no time. No point making a fuss over nothing.”

  Aiden frowned and looked down at his glass, unable to keep his eyes on Edmond. He looked so feeble, so besieged by sickness. Clearly, it wasn’t nothing.

  “So how long until you’re back, getting in the way of me actually working?” Aiden pulled his mouth into a wry smile, doing his best to humour the older man.

  “Not long, don’t you sweat, young buck,” Edmond chuckled slightly, though his mirth lacked the depth Aiden was accustomed to.

  “A few more bouts of chemo and I’ll be back,” Edmond smiled, but it fell away a little too quickly.

  “Well, Betty and I are missing you.”

  “I bet the old girl is bereft without me there,” Edmond winked. He went to speak again but was silenced by his increasingly laboured breathing.

  “Are you okay? Can I get you anything?” Aiden approached him and placed a concerned hand upon his shoulder.

  Edmond shook his head but didn’t speak. Footsteps hurriedly entered the room and Aiden looked up to see Edna running over with some pills in her hand.

  “Take these,” she urged her husband. Then she looked back at Aiden, “He’s just getting tired. He doesn’t have much energy these days.”

  Edmond took the tablets and sat for a moment, waiting for his breathing to regulate itself. Edna hovered by his side, not taking her eyes off him for a second. Aiden, however, was forced to look away. It was too difficult to watch.

  “Better?” Edna asked anxiously, stroking Edmond’s thinning hair.

  “No energy?” Edmond glanced at his wife, the light returning to his eyes as his chest ceased awkwardly heaving.

  “I’ve more than enough energy, I’ll thank you very much!”

  Edna sighed and rolled her eyes as she straightened and stood up. The moment had passed and her husband was back to his usual cheeky self.

  “Women!” Edmond declared bluntly. “She’s just mad as I’m under her feet all day. She can’t keep popping off to the shops like she usually does.”

  Edna didn’t reply, she just headed out of the room, once more giving the men their privacy.

  “Is there anything I can do to help?” Aiden asked sincerely.

  “If I lose any more energy, you may have to service Mrs. Copes on my behalf,” Edmond joked but Aiden was unable to laugh. The gravity of the situation was beginning to weigh him down so that he felt like his whole body was made of lead and bolted to the sofa on which he sat.

  Edmond looked across at his young colleague and his smile fell away when he registered his troubled expression.

  “I’m doing everything I can to fight this,” he admitted. “But I’m a proud man. I didn’t want you, or anyone, for that matter, to see me like this.”

  “You should have told me,” Aiden’s voice cracked slightly as water gathered behind his eyes.

  “I know. I just…” Edmond looked back at the draped windows and sighed. “It crept up on me like some monster. One day I was fine, the next I was pissing blood and collapsing on the bathroom floor. She was terrified. I don’t like scaring people, Aiden. The fewer people this monster can scare, the better.”

  “I want to help,” Aiden declared, straightening. “It must be exhausting for Edna to manage everything on her own. Let me help. I can take you to hospital appointments, sit here with you at home, whatever you need.”

  “I need my company to stay afloat,” Edmond told him. “So that when I return I’ve still got a job to go back to.”

  Aiden’s face betrayed him as his eyes misted with pity.

  “Copes and May is my legacy,” Edmond continued, his voice becoming light with nostalgia.

  “We made that company when we were young, idealistic men. We wanted to change the world. And you helped.”

  “I did?” Aiden blinked in surprise.

  “You saved Brandy White. Without your intervention an innocent woman would have died. That’s the reason I ever got into law in the first place; to save those who genuinely needed saving.”

  “I’m not sure my other cases have been quite so noble.”

  “It’s early days,” Edmond said sagely. “You’re making a name for yourself for being a good, honest man. People will seek out your help. You’re going to make Copes and May great.”

  “Okay, but I still want to help you.”

  Edmond squirmed awkwardly in his chair.

  “Ask Edna what help she needs,” he said quickly. “But I draw the line at having you here when she bathes me! I need to retain some of my mystique!”

  “I’ll ask her,” Aiden smiled.

  “I wish we could sit and chew the fat all day,” Edmond said wistfully. “I want to hear all about what a smug bastard Clyde White was when he told you I was sick. But I’m tired. And as a sick man I get to call it when I’m tired and insist people leave so I can rest!”

  “Sounds like a fair perk to the deal,” Aiden stood and fondly placed a hand on Edmond’s shoulder.

  “I promise I’ll be back at work soon,” Edmond told him, his eyelids already beginning to droop.

  “I’ll hold you to that!” Aiden pointed at him.

  *

  “I want to help,” Aiden said solemnly to Edna as she showed him to the front door.

  “He’s so stubborn,” Edna sighed. “He struggles to accept help from me!”

  “Is there anything at all I can do?”

  Edna pursed her lips and thought for a moment.

  “Could you take him to his chemo appointment next week? I’d take him myself, only some of our family are flying in and I need to get the house straight for having them all coming to stay.”

  “Absolutely, I’ll take him.”

  “We’re circling the wagons,” Edna admitted woefully. “As much as he wants to bury his head in the sand, the rest of us can’t. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you how bad things were. He insisted I shouldn’t say anything.”

  “It’s okay,” Aiden briefly embraced Edna and tried to hold back his own tears.

  “You mean so much to him,” Edna wiped at her cheek out of habit, even though she wasn’t crying in that moment.

  “If anyone can fight this, he can,” Aiden told her confidently before stepping out into the heat of the afternoon and walking back to his car.

  *

  Aiden turned the stereo in his car up so that it was distractingly loud. He needed something to distract him from his darkening thoughts. He’d so desperately wanted Clyde White to be wrong but it truly did seem that Edmond was fading away. It was so cruel a fate for such a vibrant, charismatic man.

  Drumming his hands against the steering wheel in time to the music, Aiden forced himself to hum along, to focus solely on the garish rhythm of the pop song being filtered through his car’s speakers. He became so hypnotised by the overly produced record that it took him a second to notice the flashing lights in his rear-view mirror. Lowering the music, Aiden realized with dismay that the lights were accompanied by the stringent shriek of sirens. Slowing, he pulled up on to the side of the road and cut his engine.

  “Dammit,” he grumbled angrily to himself. He was certain that he hadn’t been speeding. He’d admittedly been distracted but he’d still managed to adhere to the laws of the road.

  As Aiden glanced up into his mirror he noticed a familiar figure exit the squad car, which was now pulled up behind him. The pointed boots of Buck Fern stepped out into the gathered dust on the roadside and began to approach Aiden’s car.

  “Dammit,” Aiden uttered again, opening his car window and then carefully placing his hands at ten and two on the wheel.

  He could hear the old sherriff’s prolonged, deliberate steps before he finally appeared at his window, casting a shadow across Aiden as he blocked out the afternoon sun.

  “
Afternoon, Sherriff,” Aiden tried to sound as amicable as he could.

  “Connelly,” Buck replied gruffly, snarling as he uttered the greeting.

  Buck placed one hand on the car’s roof and lowered himself to look in at Aiden.

  “Mind stepping out of the car?” Even though Buck delivered it as a question, they both knew it was a directive.

  “Seriously?” Aiden asked, bewildered but already unbuckling his seatbelt.

  “Seriously,” Buck confirmed coldly as he stepped back and waited for Aiden to get out.

  The few cars that passed them slowed slightly to observe the encounter taking place, the drivers eager to gather some gossip they could take home and share over the dinner table.

  Aiden got out and slammed his door shut and then looked directly at Buck Fern, searching the old man’s grey eyes for some hint of rationality.

  “Where you headed?” Buck drawled out the words as though he had all the time in the world to kill.

  “Home,” Aiden instinctively replied. Then he realized that this wasn’t entirely true. He had planned to swing by the office and speak with Betty. Before he left Edmond, his dwindling colleague had insisted that he inform his loyal secretary of the severity of his condition.

  “But don’t go worrying the old girl too much,” Edmond advised. “Just tell her the basics. Seems word is getting out and if she hears it from anyone other than you or I there will be hell to pay!”

  Aiden ran a hand through his hair and felt the stifling heat of the afternoon beginning to penetrate through his shirt and cause his skin to break out in beads of sweat. He yearned to be back in the air-conditioned comfort of his car.

  “Did you stop me just to ask where I’m going?” Aiden cried angrily. He lacked the patience for Buck Fern’s games. The old sherriff had picked the wrong time to try and rattle his cage.

  “Partly,” Buck admitted, smirking slightly. “I thought you might be skipping town.”

  “Skipping town? What? Why?”

  “I think you’d do well to skip town,” Buck continued.

  “I’m sure you do think that,” Aiden glanced back longingly at his car.

  “Your wife received anymore of those strange letters?”

  Aiden felt his whole body suddenly chill despite the heat of the day. He looked at Buck with renewed interest. “What makes you ask that?”

  “Last time I saw Mrs. Connelly she was real worried about some threatening letters ya’ll had received telling you to leave Avalon.”

  “They were just the laments of some bitter crackpot,” Aiden told him sourly. “Nothing to be taken seriously.”

  “No?” Buck’s eyes widened and his tone elevated mockingly. “She seemed real concerned by them. And with good reason. People round here, they don’t like being ignored.”

  “Look!” Aiden raised a hand towards the sherriff. “If you want to make thinly veiled threats, go ahead, but this isn’t the time.”

  Angrily, Aiden began to storm back towards his car.

  “I’m not sure how ethical it is to discuss a paternity case with someone other than your client,” Buck called after him. He was talking about his brother’s paternity case which Aiden had previously handled, albeit badly. His personal feelings for Brandy had managed to cause him to blur the lines surrounding his professional integrity.

  Aiden paused with his hand just over the door handle which was already sizzling with heat beneath the sun.

  “Did you think nothing would come of it?” Buck began advancing towards Aiden with those same slow, deliberate steps. “My brother is not a man to be trifled with, Mr. Connelly. He knows all about what you did. How you kept the truth about Davis’ paternity from him. How you ran off to Chicago to divulge it all to Brandy White. He knows what you did and you know he harbours a grudge.”

  Sighing, Aiden looked towards the sherriff.

  “I only ever acted in the best interests of the child.”

  “First, you’re not a social worker, you’re a lawyer,” Buck pointed an accusing finger at Aiden as he spoke. “Second, telling Brandy White ain’t in the best interests of the child. You acted inappropriately, Mr. Connelly. At every turn within that case. My brother wants you disbarred and run out of town.”

  “I’m sure you share your brother’s sentiments on that,” Aiden replied stiffly.

  “You’re right there,” Buck smiled cruelly beneath his trademark Stetson. “But I’m much more forgiving than my brother. You’ve got one week, Mr. Connelly. One week to pack up and leave Avalon for good or else my brother will ruin you professionally. And you don’t want that, do you? To bring shame upon that young family of yours?”

  Aiden struggled to absorb what Buck Fern was saying. He was blatantly making threats in the hope of running him out of town, but all Aiden could think about was Edmond.

  Buck drew closer to him and scrutinized Aiden’s face. As he did so he suddenly straightened in shock.

  “You been crying, boy?”

  Surprised, Aiden wiped at his eyes. Sure enough they felt sore and slightly damp. He had been crying. As he drove away from Edmond’s house he must have unknowingly shed tears of despair as he tried to distract himself with the melodies from the radio.

  “I…” Aiden floundered beneath the sherriff’s interrogation. He didn’t want to start discussing Edmond’s condition with him.

  “I asked you a question.” Buck scowled in annoyance as he waited on his answer.

  “Yes,” Aiden admitted helplessly. “I guess I was crying for a bit.”

  “And what would make a grown man cry?” Buck’s voice lacked empathy or concern. His words were as sharp as steel and he directed them to cut against Aiden and increase his apparent anguish.

  “It’s none of your business,” Aiden told him tersely, gripping the door handle and opening up his car as he prepared to leave.

  “Everything is my business,” Buck placed his hand upon the open door like a claw, preventing Aiden from departing.

  Aiden looked the old man directly in the eye, silently pleading with him to not press the matter further.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “How about I cuff you and take you back to my office? Think you might want to talk then?” Buck threatened.

  Aiden closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. Clearly there was no way he was going to get rid of Buck Fern and his unending desire to pry into his personal business unless he gave him the truth he sought.

  “I went to see Edmond.”

  Buck immediately released his grip on the car door and stepped back slightly. He turned away from Aiden, gazing back down the long road upon which they had both been driving.

  “I heard,” Buck said, still not looking at Aiden, “about his condition. It is truly a sorry state of affairs.”

  “You hear through Clyde White?”

  “Mmm.” Buck sharply turned back to face Aiden, his mouth drawn in a tight line.

  “Can I go now?” Aiden gestured towards his car.

  “Edmond Copes is a good man,” Buck declared fervently. “He’s a son of Avalon and everyone in this town loves him. Even you.”

  Aiden flinched with surprise. It almost sounded like the old sherriff was paying him a compliment.

  “I hate to see a good man suffer,” Buck lowered his head and spat into the road. When he looked back up at Aiden, some of the hate that burned behind his eyes seemed to have dissipated.

  “Until Edmond is well again, you get a free pass in my eyes.”

  Aiden straightened. The last person he expected to show any compassion regarding Edmond’s illness was Buck Fern.

  “I do have a heart beating in this old chest of mine,” Buck clasped a hand against his regulation shirt.

  “Edmond is a friend. If you take off now, he’ll be hurt. Last thing I want to do is hurt him. He needs us all right now.”

  “Thank you?” Aiden said uncertainly. He wasn’t sure he truly understood what was transpiring between them.

&nb
sp; “But once Edmond is well enough to get back on his feet, you tell him you’re done with Avalon and that you’re heading back to the city. We don’t need your kind round here, Mr. Connelly. You made an enemy of my brother which means that your days here are numbered.”

  “Can I go now?”

  “Yeah,” Buck sighed, waving a dismissive hand. “Go.”

  Aiden was in the driver’s seat, about to drive off, when Buck reappeared at his window. The old man tapped it gently to instruct him to wind it down.

  “Yes, sherriff?” Aiden asked, trying not to lose what little patience he had left.

  “How was he? You said you’d just been to see Edmond. How was he?”

  Aiden felt fresh tears start to push against his eyes.

  “He’s…sick. He’s really sick.”

  Buck tilted his head to once again spit upon the ground.

  “He’s still got some fight in him though?” he asked hopefully.

  “Definitely,” Aiden nodded a little too eagerly. “Edmond isn’t the sort of man to go down without a fight.”

  “Yeah,” Buck smiled slightly at this. “I figured.” Then his gaze hardened once more as he looked back at Aiden.

  “This thing between you and my brother. It ain’t over, Mr. Connelly. It’s just paused.”

  “I understand.”

  The old sherriff finally turned and started back towards his patrol car. Aiden waited until he’d pulled away and had driven out of sight before he manoeuvred his own car back on to the road. As much as he wanted to be heading home, he knew he owed Betty a visit.

  *

  Whenever Brandy entered her apartment the ritual was always the same. She’d cast off her coat, letting it fall across the back of her sofa, and then she’d rush over to her answering machine, buoyed by hope. Eagerly she’d cast her eyes across the digital display and when she saw that it starkly read zero, she’d lean against the nearby kitchen counter, deflated.

  Why hadn’t Aiden called? Brandy had even taken to picking up her handset and checking that her line was still working. When she heard the dull drone of the open line her heart would plummet further, almost falling all the way down to her feet.