It Takes Two to Strangle by Stephen Kaminski

“Thanks, Damon, I needed that.”
    “So did Jordan give you a statement?” Damon asked.
    Gerry slathered cream cheese on the bagel, took a huge bite and covered his mouth with the back of his hand. “He did. It was just the wrong one.”
    Damon waited for Gerry to continue. He was happy to lend Gerry an ear.
    “He didn’t ask us for a lawyer. Margaret and I put him in an interview room and he told us his story. It was a story all right. It sounded wrong right from the start.”
    “Can you tell me what he said?”
    “No, but I will. I need to talk about it with someone.” Gerry inhaled deeply, breathing in the sweet-smelling air that filled the doughnut shop. “Jordan said he left the hotel room at midnight after Clara was asleep and drove over to the fairgrounds. He parked in the elementary school lot and walked down to Lirim’s trailer. That would have been around 12:15, which is when the bonfire was breaking up, so the timing is reasonable. Margaret asked him which trailer Lirim was in. Jordan said the one at the end.”
      “But he would have known that,” Damon said. “When he and Clara arrived at the fairgrounds on Thursday morning, there were police all over Lirim’s trailer.”
    “Exactly.”
    “So what was Jordan’s reason for visiting Lirim in the middle of the night?”
    “He wanted to talk about the money from Tabby’s estate without Clara knowing about it.”
    Gerry described Jordan’s account. “He said the light was still on in Lirim’s trailer when he knocked. Margaret asked him what Lirim was wearing. Jordan had to think about that one. He said Lirim had on a t-shirt and sweat shorts. That was our first signal that Jordan’s story was bogus. Lirim only had on boxers when we found him and when he yelled at the kids at the bonfire, he wasn’t wearing sweat shorts, either. So for Jordan’s story to make sense, Lirim would have put on shorts after he came out of his trailer and Jordan would have stripped off Lirim’s shorts after killing him.”
    “Did you ask Jordan if he pulled them off?”
    “No. We didn’t want to break up the flow of his story. We can always ask later.”
    Gerry paused for a sip of coffee, looking around to make sure no one had mounted the steps to the second floor. “Jordan said he came right out and confronted Lirim about Clara’s money. He thought Lirim already had it and was either spending it or hoarding it. Jordan told Lirim that he and Clara were going to get married and needed the sum for a down payment on a house. According to Jordan, Lirim became violent and started screaming at him. That seemed suspicious. No one in the neighboring trailers heard the altercation and those trailers are packed pretty close to each other.”
    “So they’re in Lirim’s trailer and Jordan’s getting yelled at,” Damon recapped.
    “Right. And then Jordan claims Lirim stepped really close and put his face right in Jordan’s. Jordan put his hands up defensively and backed away. Lirim picked up a knife from a block on the kitchen counter and started swinging it belligerently. Jordan claims he was cowering and shouting ‘calm down, calm down.’ And then Lirim lunged straight at his throat with the knife. Jordan dodged it, grabbed the hand wielding the blade and managed to wrench it free and onto the floor.”
    “Pretty dramatic.”
    “It gets better. Then Lirim reached for his throat and Jordan did the same in return.”
    “With his hands?”
    “You got it. According to the good doctor, they were locked in some sort of epic struggle, each gripping the other’s neck. And then Lirim just collapsed. Right there on the floor in the kitchen area. So that’s not even consistent with where we found the body.”
    “Jordan hadn’t heard that Lirim was strangled with a clothes line?”
    “Apparently not. We know word went around the Hollydale gossip circles and the carnival crew when we found the ligature, but that doesn’t mean Jordan heard. He’s an outsider who