Page 20 of One Little Memory
She took another bite of the sandwich and gestured for him to wait until she finished chewing. “Sorry. I guess I was hungrier than I thought. The sandwich is really good. If I’m a vegetarian, or vegan for that matter, I’m going back to eating meat. And gluten. This bread is amazing.” She smiled. “Anyway, it was an older guy wearing a heavy plaid jacket.”
“Must have been Gus’s friend Lloyd Bondy. Wonder why he came here. I’ll catch up with him and see what he needed.” Phoenix narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. The guy just frightened me.” She quickly backtracked, “He didn’t do anything, but I guess I wasn’t expecting him to be standing there, and it just scared me.”
“Lloyd is kind of a scary looking guy.”
She took another bite of sandwich.
He glanced at his watch. If Lloyd came by, then maybe it was time Phoenix spoke to him. He watched Jo finish her sandwich. She looked pale and tired. Her forehead was deeply furrowed, so he guessed her headache was back. There was pain in her eyes. She had to be sore all over after that accident.
He had a crazy urge to give her a hug. Just pull her into his arms and tell her everything would be okay. And it would. As long as she wasn’t the one who ran over and then shot Gus Marchand.
He cleared his throat. “I have to go back to work. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. It’s already six p.m. I should be back by eight or so. Don’t feel you have to stay up. I’m guessing you’re exhausted.”
“I wasn’t, but suddenly I’m feeling exhausted. I thought I might take a shower and then head to bed.”
“That’s fine.” Phoenix stood. “I’ll check on you when I get back. Turn out the lights if you go to sleep, and I won’t disturb you.”
“That’s okay. I think I would like it if you checked in.” She licked her lips. “I’m a little nervous.”
He didn’t blame her one bit considering the circumstances. “Okay, I’ll check in when I get back. I’m sorry I don’t have a phone to give you. I’ll try and pick one up tonight or tomorrow so you can call if you need something.”
“Thanks, Phoenix.”
When she smiled at him, the knots in his stomach eased slightly. There was no way this woman could have killed Gus. It just wasn’t possible. The urge to hold her became more intense, so he stood and cleared his throat. “I’ll see you later.” He left and waited until she locked the door behind him.
He madehis way over to the Underground Pub, a dive bar on the outskirts of town. Lloyd liked to drink there. Oddly enough, Gus rarely joined him there. He was just always on his front porch. Maybe it was because he had a hard time getting around. It had always been a mystery why he never left his shack.
Then he had another thought. Was the UndergroundPub the place where Lloyd met his cronies? The ones running guns and possibly doing other things. Part of him wanted more details from Jagger, but then again, part of him didn’t. He had to live and work in the town with these people. If he found out some of them were running drugs or involved in illegal shit, it could be problematic for him. He didn’t want to blow Jagger’s investigation.
He parked his SUV and headed inside. Lately, his life was complicated enough. He hated complications. He liked things simple, streamlined. Too many years of conflict with his parents, and then once they died, his life had been overly challenging with university and looking after his brother and trying to make ends meet.
Now he was, if not happy, at least content. He had a job he liked, and his life was simple.Wasbeing the key word. He couldn’t stomach the idea of Falcon being sick. Just no. He couldn’t go through that again. Their mother had died of cancer and their father of alcoholism. Really, their dad had died of a broken heart. It had been hard on Phoenix but harder on Falcon. The idea that he might lose his brother was something he didn’t want to contemplate.
He immediately turned his mind back to the investigation as he pulled open the door of the bar.
The interior of the bar was dark, and he paused near the door to let his eyes adjust. There were quite a few people inside. Not surprising for a Saturday night. A baseball game was playing on the TV over the bar. Chance Daily, the bartender, looked up and nodded at Phoenix. They’d met quite a few times back when Phoenix was still in uniform. He used to break up bar fights a couple of times a month.
“Chance.”
“Phoenix.”
He scanned the room as he walked over to the bar. There were about a dozen people inside: three at the bar, five more playing pool in the back room, three sitting at a table by the jukebox, and one back in the far corner booth, nursing a beer. Phoenix recognized the guy. Lachlan Davenport. He was similar in age and build to Phoenix. He worked over at the mill in the next town over, or at least that’s what Phoenix thought he did.Davenport was pretty good at keeping a low profile and keeping his nose clean.
“I’m looking for Lloyd. He here?”
The barman nodded. “He just went to the can. He’ll be back in a second. This about Gus?”
There was no point in not telling the truth. “Yeah.”
“Figured. I heard he was shot at point-blank range. Right in the chest.” Chance finished drying a glass and tucked it under the counter.
“I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”
Chance just nodded. “The guy was an asshole, but that’s a hell of a way to go.”
Phoenix said nothing. Chance didn’t know the half of it. Being run down first and then shot was extreme.
