“Mike was a friend, I would think we would all want his killer found,” I said. I had forgotten for a moment that police weren’t always popular with the crowd I was with now, for various reasons. That wasn’t always true anymore, this was the new bus after all, the new bus wasn’t only frequented by the dregs of society, and the willingly dispossessed. But the people who I was talking to at the moment were parts of the original group, the group who had ridden the old bus at first with me. Hard to imagine that I had been a high school student back in those days, times had changed and yet I still stuck around. I guess I am the most pathetic of them all, unable to let go of the past at all, still hanging around in places I have no business in. The others had the sense to move on, but I always was the stupid one.
“I don’t know if I do want to find out who killed Mike,” Jane admitted and I looked at her in shock. “If it wasn’t his neighbor then it was probably one of our number,” she explained. “Having lost Mike I don’t know if I want to lose another friend. Even if they are a murderer,” her voice trailed off. I knew what she meant though. The remnants of our crowd were dwindling already, without this blow.
“It might be someone we don’t know about who has a grudge, it doesn’t have to be one of our group,” I said, even though I knew it was doubtful.
“Mike had his enemies but he didn’t have any that didn’t ride on this bus,” said Paul, looking resigned. “He didn’t talk to anyone much except here, we all know that.”
“We don’t know that much about his life,” I argued weakly. “He might have had people who hated him that we don’t know about. It’s not like we followed him everywhere he went.”
“You can think that if you want,” said Jane dismissively. “It would be better if it was true of course. If we are going to look for the murderer though I think we should probably investigate our own. This was your idea after all Mathew.” I sank a little lower in my seat.
“I say if the neighbor is willing to defend and protect whoever it is who killed Mike then we let him,” Paul said. I had to admit that he had a point. Sometimes my sense of justice was tainted by my companions and their practicality. I doubted that even the people I used to have the club with back in high school would have seen any reason why a man who wanted to take a fall for someone else shouldn’t be allowed to. These were the sort of people who thought that a decision like that should be respected. Sometimes I found it difficult to argue with, even though I knew why it shouldn’t be allowed.
“Let’s go down the list of people who might want to kill Mike, out of the ones that we know. Just as an exercise,” Jane said. She was looking at me and I knew it was a challenge. She wanted to make a point.
“There’s Billy, that kid who liked Mike’s daughter. You wouldn’t think that Mike would object to Billy’s bad habits, like the fact that he was a smalltime crook, but he did. Told Billy to stay away in the end and the daughter didn’t seem to upset about her father’s decision. Billy never forgave Mike though. Talked big around town for awhile but nothing ever came of it,” I said. As a writer that whole situation had peaked my interest, I had changed some of the details, and the names of course, and used it in one of my books.
To be continued...
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