From the Ashes by Sharon Mignerey

Author:Sharon Mignerey
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2007-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

TEN

“Cops are here to see you,” Gramps told Brian the following afternoon, a few minutes after they had returned home from the commercial shoot.

Brian changed direction from the stairwell leading down to the workout room to the front of the house.

Late-afternoon sun poured through the windows of the foyer, illuminating the space and giving him halfway decent vision. He was expecting to see the detective who had been assigned to the vandalism case at the Beanstalk Gang. Instead, a pair of uniformed officers stood in the middle of the room.

Brian extended his hand, introducing himself, then asking, “What can I do for you?”

“You’ve been accused of an assault and we’re here for the preliminary investigation,” one of the officers, who had introduced himself as Officer Zander and his partner as Officer Quintin, said.

“What?” Brian shook his head. This wasn’t about the break-in at the Beanstalk Gang offices?

“By a Thomas Manderoll,” Quintin added. “Do you know him?”

“We’ve met,” Brian said, Tommy’s taunt to accuse him of assault flashing through his head. “Exactly what is he accusing me of?”

“Beating the tar out of him,” Zander said, handing Brian a photograph.

Brian lifted it to the light. Despite the good light in the room, he couldn’t focus clearly on the picture. He stared a long moment, then finally called to his grandfather, who came from the kitchen. Brian handed him the photograph. “What do you see?”

Gramps gave him a questioning look before taking the photograph and studying it. “A guy with a black eye and a cut over his eyebrow.”

Brian took back the picture and looked at it again, frustrated that he couldn’t make out any of the detail. He looked up in time to see an exchange of glances between the two officers. He wasn’t ready to come clean with his sight loss and could imagine how strange his behavior must seem to them.

“I didn’t do this,” he said, handing the photograph back to Officer Zander.

“Even though, by your own admission, you can’t see what ‘this’ is.”

“I never hit the man, so if he looks like he has been, I didn’t do it.”

“And where were you last evening at six-thirty?” Quintin asked at the same moment that Gramps said, “I think I recognize this guy.”

“From where?” Brian asked his grandfather. He didn’t know Tommy Manderoll except in passing, but he was sure of one thing. He wanted the man nowhere near his grandparents.

“He came to the door a couple of days ago,” Gramps replied. “Said he was selling magazine subscriptions.” He looked at the officers. “Since this is a gated community and since there’s not supposed to be any solicitation, I called security.”

“Did you know about this?” Zander asked Brian.

“No.” He had a good idea where that line of questioning was going—motive. “You asked where I was at six thirty last night. In the parking lot at Park Meadows Mall. He—” Brian pointed at the photograph “—was there, assuming that photo is of Tommy Manderoll.”

“Maybe you’d like to relate what happened,” Zander said while Gramps asked, “Do you need an attorney?”

Brian sighed.

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