First To Fall

‘Yes,’ Aiden agreed, wondering if Father West knew more than he was letting on. ‘I need to find out more about the case as a whole. Brandon appears to be very loved around here.’

‘Oh, yes, indeed.’ Aiden didn’t want to press Father West for any more information; it didn’t seem right, especially in a church. He was about to leave when the priest called after him.

‘Tread carefully, Mr.Connelly.’ Aiden nodded solemnly and turned to walk home, even more sure that there was much more to this case than met the eye.

Chapter Four : He’s Our Hero (#ulink_86a782f7-0c90-55e1-8008-69ec50f6bc95)

BRANDON WHITE – OUR SHINING KNIGHT, was the headline. Aiden Connelly was sat in a library, scouring old newspapers for stories about Brandon White. His high school football career had been heavily documented by the local paper, The Avalon Informer, and when his team won the state championship, he appeared in even more publications. In each article he was hailed as a true team player, who was not lacking in courage or passion. The numerous pictures showed that he was strikingly handsome, he had a chiselled jaw and a deep tan with soft blue eyes. Aiden learned that, like Brandy, he had lived in Avalon all his life, yet his childhood had been a much more stable one. His father owned a successful local company, Avalon Pine, where Aiden later went to work after graduating from high school. He was 6ft 2 and well built, once again highlighting Aiden’s confusion as to how Brandy had managed to overpower him. In the brief police report that Edmond had given to him there had been no record of toxins in his blood which means that he can’t have been drunk.

He read how Brandon had taken his high school football team, the now famous Avalon Angels, to win their first ever state championship almost ten years ago. It was the first time they had won such a prestigious award and his success has yet to be repeated, which undoubtedly had helped cement his reputation as a local saviour.

Aiden had been disturbed by his encounters with Buck Fern and Father West at church, so the following day he had driven out of town to a college library to gather some sources and find out more about the enigma that was Brandon White. In every interview he gave he was polite and well spoken, constantly praised for his gentlemanly manner. It was getting increasingly difficult to understand why Brandy would have killed him.

As Aiden scanned through the papers, he came across an exerpt marking their wedding day. He did the math: Brandy was a young bride at nineteen and Brandon was twenty-three. That was five years ago. In the small photograph the couple are beaming happily and seem the picture of wedded bliss. The byline described how ‘local football hero marries former beauty queen’. The reference to Brandy’s shambolic time as Miss Southern Star surprised him; perhaps enough time had passed by the time she wed for the bad blood over her disqualification to have passed.

The final entry for Brandon White was his obituary. It was a glowing review of a young man who loved his family, served his community and basically never put a foot wrong. Brandy was only mentioned in the conclusion, when she was named as the prime suspect for his murder. Having been married for five years, Aiden wondered if those closest to the couple had ever sensed that something was wrong. There would be no point in tracking down Brandy’s mother as she would not even be aware that her daughter had been married. Clyde White seemed like a good source. He was Brandon’s father and from the articles Aiden guessed that they were very close. Perhaps he could shed some light on his son’s marriage.

Once he felt he had successfully found all the articles relating to Brandon, Aiden turned his attention to Brandy, in particular the Miss Southern Star competition. A small voice in his head queried if she was being entirely honest with him and he wanted to silence it.

When Brandy had said that the whole town had turned against her she wasn’t exaggerating. At first the Avalon Informer had championed its young beauty queen; from the moment she made it past the preliminary rounds she was receiving a mention within the front pages, and when she won, a photograph of her smiling proudly made the front page. The paper gushed how she was a sweet local girl done good, there was no mention that she lived in a trailer or of her mother’s troubles. However, all that changed once news broke of her disqualification.

LITTLE MISS SCHEMING STAR, was one of the kinder headlines. Her controversial stripping of the crown even made national papers. They called her trailer trash, mocked her mother’s addictions and said that she had brought shame upon Avalon. She then disappeared off the radar, her name only reappearing once she was connected to Brandon. Considering she was made a local hate figure, people must have wondered what Brandon saw in her. She was stunningly beautiful, but having the reputation that he did, he must have been able to have any girl he wanted.