Page 82 of Little Stolen Memories

“Just how stupid are you?” Marcus shouted. “We can’t let her go. I mean, we could have, but you had to go and show her the chain. This is your fault. Your mess. You need to clean it up now for both of us.”

His speech was so convincing, it almost deserved a round of applause.

Almost.

“Your acting performance yesterday, pretending like you had no idea your brother was being bullied when he was in school,” I said. “Well done.”

“Oh, I knew, and I knew all about what happened in the park. Dad told me. Took him hours to get Xander to admit who’d done it to him.”

“If your dad knew who was involved, why didn’t he tell the police?” I asked.

“My dad was the type of person who felt it was best to take matters into our own hands, if you know what I mean. He didn’t think I’d take it as far as I did, of course.”

A tear rolled down Xander’s cheek.

He brushed it away and said, “How could you, Marcus?”

“Don’t shed a tear for those brats,” Marcus said. “Those kids deserved what happened to them. Sometimes an example needs to be made, consequences paid. Ask me, what I did … it was justified.”

Xander’s classmates may have thought Xander had a few screws loose, but the loose screw wasn’t Xander, it was Marcus.

“They were my friends,” Xander said.

“They weren’t your friends. They hated you. They made fun of you. They made everyone in school see you as a chump, someone they could do whatever they wanted to because you didn’t have what it took to stand up for yourself.”

Marcus shot me a wink and then took a step in my direction, testing my resolve. I welcomed it.

“Take one more step, and I will shoot you,” I said.

“Hold on a minute,” Xander said. “No one needs to shoot anybody. We can work this out.”

“No more small talk,” Marcus said. “This ends now.”

Xander faced his brother. “I won’t let you hurt anyone else.”

“Suit yourself,” Marcus said. “All these years, you haven’t changed a bit. It’s just like always … if something needs to be done, I have to do it myself.”

Marcus lunged for the gun.

Xander reached for his brother.

And I fired.

CHAPTER 34

“Nice work,” Foley said.

“I wouldn’t say I solved the case like I usually do,” I said. “I just happened to be here when Xander discovered the gold chain in his guest room drawer. I should have known it was Marcus after he went out of his way to lie to me yesterday.”

“I have no doubt you would have figured it out. Give yourself more credit. This case wasn’t solved in twenty years, and you cracked it in less than a week.”

I may have, but it wasn’t like my other cases.

I wasn’t used to a case resolving itself before I figured it out.

I’d shot Marcus in the abdomen. It was enough to put him down, but not enough to kill him, which was my intention. And it couldn’t have happened at a more perfect moment. In Marcus’ wallet, Whitlock found another note we were sure was meant for Cora. The note suggested she should “watch her back,” even though he told the police the note was meant to scare her, nothing more.

I didn’t believe it.

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