Benny James Mystery Series Box Set

by Jason Deas

  “Ned wouldn’t do anything like that,” Vernon said.

  “And I think that’s exactly why his face is all busted up.”

  Over lunch Benny explained how he and Rachael were going to take a quick drive to Tennessee to check out Phillip Preston. Vernon agreed that it couldn’t hurt, and promised to look in on Ned.

  The drive to the small town in Tennessee took a little under five hours. The conversation for the most part was light. At one point, Rachael did ask Benny a serious question.

  “Do you think you’ll always live on your boat?”

  “I haven’t really put much thought into it.”

  “Did you see what just went on the market across the street from Red’s house?”

  “Yeah, the Thompson place.”

  Benny turned the radio to a different station.

  “Birdsongs would be small for two people to live on day after day,” he said.

  Rachael nodded her head and turned up the volume on the radio.

  Phillip Preston lived in a mobile home positioned in front of a large storage facility. A billboard above his home displayed a rocket heading toward earth and the words, “Inner Space—Your First Month is Free.” A smaller sign in front of his trailer stated an attendant was on duty and guarding the premises around the clock. The sign had a picture of an astronaut waving.

  As they got out of the Jeep, Phillip walked out the front door.

  “First month’s free if you sign today,” he said, as if he was reading a script. “We have units for forty, seventy-five, and a hundred a month. You’ll get a code to the gate behind me and rent’s due by the fifth of every month.” He hadn’t looked at either of them once.

  “We aren’t interested in storage, Phillip,” Benny said.

  His eyes popped with Benny’s usage of his name.

  “Hey, I haven’t missed any payments and was only three days late on the last one.”

  “We’re from Tilley,” Benny said.

  “Oh. You two the law?”

  “We’re working the case in Tilley.”

  “Haven’t heard about it.”

  “That’s hard to believe,” Rachael said. “Don’t you have a TV in there?” She pointed at the mobile home.

  “I have a TV, but I don’t have the cable or satellite to go with it. This job doesn’t pay for much more than the place to stay.”

  “If you really don’t know what’s going on in Tilley, why haven’t you asked if your family is OK?” Benny asked.

  “We’re not real close. But I guess you already knew that if you came this far to find me. Is it against the law if I don’t care how they are?”

  “I guess not.” Benny paused as the gate opened. It squeaked and made such a racket that Phillip wouldn’t have been able to hear his voice. When the gate closed and the car passed, Benny continued, “They’re all fine.”

  “I’m so relieved,” Phillip said, deadpan. “Now, what do you want?”

  “When’s the last time you came to Tilley?” Benny asked.

  “Probably been ten years at least.”

  “And you’re sure you haven’t been there at all this week?”

  “I haven’t left the property other than to go to the convenience store and maybe the grocery store once or twice.”

  Rachael’s phone chirped and she walked away from the conversation to take the call.

  Benny stepped closer to Phillip and continued.

  “Do you feel as though you have any unfinished business in Tilley?”

  “No.”

  “Let me get this straight. You married into a beautiful plantation house with lots of land. They have a well-respected family name. And you go from all that to living in a mobile home in front of a storage facility with little or nothing to your name. And you’re not bitter? You don’t feel cheated and want some sort of revenge on somebody?”

  “No! First of all, that beautiful plantation house you were talking about has been falling apart for years. Last time I was there the paint was peeling off the walls. The air conditioner had been broken for so long and the humidity in the house was so high that the floorboards were warped. We had sold so much land that we basically were down to nothing. It was an embarrassment.”

  Benny nodded, hoping he would go on.

  “I guarantee you I’m safer living in a mobile home than that place. And I don’t have to live with the eyes of the town on me thinking that I’m such a failure. That well-respected family name you were talking about is the distant past. That family name now means loser, failure, incompetent, bunch of…”

  “I get it,” Benny said, stopping him from going on a rant. “Tell me about the ice cream recipe.”

  “Is that what this is all about? So I stole Karl’s stupid recipe. Yes, I did that. It didn’t do me any good because the stubborn bastard wouldn’t finish it. I thought I could and I tried countless ingredients. I even tried to sell the unfinished idea to a few different companies. I had a few bites but nothing panned out. As you know, the people associated with that house of late aren’t much in the way of business people.”

  “Do you mind me asking what the idea was?”

  Phillip’s eyes bubbled. “Ice cream cupcakes. Take a cupcake made with the most delicious yellow cake mix you can imagine. Inside of that is homemade chocolate ice cream and it’s all topped off with a chocolate icing that is so good you would go weak in the knees. You know how you go to a birthday party and they always serve the cake with ice cream?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you eat the ice cream and cake separately?”

  “No, I like to get cake and ice cream together in the same bite.”

  “Exactly,” Phillip said. “This was all that in one bite.”

  “It sounds like a pretty good idea.”

  Rachael ended her phone call. As she walked back she noticed a soft drink can on the ground. Remembering the game she played as a kid, kick-the-can, she gave it a good kick. A few bees had been sipping on the left over sugar and before she could jump out of their way, two yellow jackets stung her on the ankle.

  “Ah, crap,” she said stumbling over to Benny and slumping into him. “I got stung.”

  “Bring her in the house,” Phillip said. “I’ve got some tobacco we can put on there.”

  Benny sat her at the kitchen table. Phillip pulled a cigarette out of a pack. He ripped off the paper and dumped the loose tobacco on the table. He pinched some together, quickly ran it under the faucet, and handed it to Benny.

  “Squeeze some of that juice and hold that on there. It sucks some of the toxins out.”

  “I always wondered if this really worked,” he said.

  Benny placed the wet tobacco on Rachael’s ankle and within seconds the tension in her face and body eased.

  “It does work,” she said. “Thank you.”

  “You look familiar,” Phillip said.

  “I used to be on television,” Rachael answered as Benny continued to focus on her ankle. Changing the subject she said, “That’s a beautiful painting.”

  Benny’s head jerked around as Phillip walked over to the canvas hanging on the wall.

  “Yeah, she’s certainly talented. She sent it to me about a year ago trying to reconcile or something. She’s definitely the most talented artist in the bunch.”

  “Who?” Benny asked.

  “My daughter, Angel.”

  Chapter 28

  “Angel paints?” Benny asked as he tried to keep his voice calm.

  “Like I said, she’s the most talented one in the family.”

  “You said she tried to reconcile with you last year, why?”

  “She’s one of the reasons I left. She had been talking all kinds of crazy stuff like she was going to burn the house down and get it rebuilt with insurance money. One time, when she was having an unusually violent tantrum she told me she was going to kill me and collect what was rightfully hers. All that happened about the time Karl was getting weird with the recipe, so I took it and left town.
I thought she might have felt bad about all the crazy things she said to me.”

  “You didn’t write her back or call?”

  “I did. You have to remember that was all about ten years ago and Angel was only twelve years old. First thing out of her mouth was a question about the recipe and if I had found a buyer. She didn’t care about me. She cares about money and getting that house fixed. I was embarrassed by it, but she was mortified.”

  “Do you think she could be responsible for the things going on in Tilley?”

  “You never told me what was going on.”

  “I figured you really knew and were lying.”

  “Turn on the TV, see for yourself. I don’t watch it, don’t read papers, and don’t have many friends.”

  Benny gave him a quick version of the murders.

  “Sounds like she’s tired of waiting to get the house fixed. Show one of the paintings you found to her mother. She’ll know if she painted it or not.”

  “I already did,” Benny said.

  “And?”

  “She turned white and ran out of the room.”

  “I think you have the answer you came looking for,” Phillip said, grabbing a cigarette.

  “We have to get back to town,” Benny said. “Do me a favor, don’t call anybody or talk about this for a few days. Especially don’t tell Angel. I don’t want her to know that I know.”

  “I don’t have a phone either.”

  “Perfect,” Benny said, helping Rachael to her feet. “I’ll be in touch.”

  “Don’t trouble yourself,” Phillip said, taking a bottle of booze out of the freezer. “Like I said before, I don’t really care.”

  Speeding down I-75 south heading back to Tilley, Benny’s phone rang. It was Vernon.

  “I just checked on Ned and it seems like those two are having a blast.”

  “Were they still looking at vegetable porn?”

  “No, Red was making grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches for dinner.”

  “It’s ten o’clock at night.”

  “Don’t shoot the messenger. And Ned was on his computer laughing hysterically about something. He made me promise if he went missing in the next day or two I would drag the lake looking for his body. I asked him if it had anything to do with Big E and he laughed harder.”

  “What do you think he’s up to?”

  “I don’t know. Ned doesn’t seem like the type to seek revenge, but he sure was beat up badly.”

  “He already acts like he has brain damage,” Benny joked. “We’ll be back in town a little after midnight. Probably close to one. I think I know who did this.”

  “Who?”

  “Angel Oglethorpe.”

  “What?”

  Benny explained to him what happened in Tennessee and the conversation he had with Phillip.

  “You need to somehow make sure she’s home and make sure she stays there.”

  “I drove by Rene’s earlier and she was working. There was a pretty good crowd inside. I bet she’s working until close. I’ll find out and make sure she goes home from there and stays.”

  “Good. We’ll put our heads together when I get back and maybe we can arrest her in the morning. I want to make sure it’s a surprise and she doesn’t have time to cover her tracks.”

  “Yeah, we certainly have to make sure the arrest sticks.”

  “I’ll call you when we’re about twenty minutes away. Looks like an all-nighter.”

  “I’ll be ready.”

  Benny’s phone rang at about the same time he smelled the smoke.

  “The huge service bay at Big E’s marina is on fire,” Vernon said as Benny answered. Vernon was out of breath. “We just got a call requesting all the help our county could offer theirs.”

  “Must be a big fire. We’re about five miles out and we can smell the smoke.” Benny paused as Vernon yelled directions to one of the deputies. “We’re starting to drive into smoke now. What have you heard?”

  “Rumor has it Big E was servicing a lot of the boats he rents out and had them all docked at the indoor service bay. Somebody else claims they heard an explosion.”

  “What about Angel? Who’s keeping up with her?”

  “Nobody. We lost her. Somebody called Rene’s about the fire and when word got out, people scattered. So did she.”

  “Dammit.”

  “I need you to drop Rachael at the station to help me with the phones. Then you can make an excuse to go over to the Oglethorpe’s and lay eyes on Angel.”

  “It’s nearly one in the morning.”

  “You’ll think of something.”

  Benny dropped Rachael at the station. He racked his brain as he drove toward the Oglethorpe’s trying to decide what to say as to why he was bothering them so late. As the house came into view he decided to lie and to say Rene was worried sick that Angel disappeared and she hadn’t been able to get in touch with her. By the time Angel had time to validate the story it would be too late.

  Benny rang the bell and knocked in case the bell didn’t work. He waited and listened for footsteps. Not hearing any he decided to walk around the house to see if any lights were on. The lights in Nina’s studio were blazing.

  Sheers covered the windows, but Benny could tell someone was in the room. Benny rapped his knuckles lightly on the glass. The figure inside stopped for a moment before walking over to the window.

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s Benny.”

  The window lock clicked and opened. The sheers separated and Angel appeared. She had yellow paint on her forehead.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Rene said things got crazy at the café and didn’t know if you made it home safely or not. I promised I would check. She said with all the crazy stuff going on in town she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she knew you were home and safe.”

  “Oh. That’s nice of her. Tell her I’m here. I was just about to go to bed. I noticed mom left the lights on in here and was just shutting everything off for her.”

  “Glad you’re safe. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Angel shut the window. When she turned around she caught her reflection in a mirror and froze. The large yellow streak of paint across her forehead was impossible to miss. She gritted her teeth. Angel was certain Benny knew.

  Chapter 29

  Benny walked around the house just in time to see his Jeep speed down the long driveway. He regretted stopping to say hi to Clarice the ostrich. He dialed Vernon on his cell.

  “I’m gonna need a ride back to town.”

  “Did you break down?”

  “No, Angel stole my Jeep. She knows we know.”

  “Where do you think she’s going?”

  “Probably out of town. Come get me and we’ll figure it out.”

  “Can’t. You wouldn’t believe how crazy it is up here. The smoke from the fire is blowing this way and people are scared. I’ll let Ned have the keys to my car. He can come get you.”

  “Ned?”

  “Yeah, he just came up here to make a confession. I told him I didn’t have time right now. You can take his confession on the way back to the station.”

  Benny shook his head and slapped his free hand to his forehead.

  “OK.”

  Benny heard the siren first. A minute later he saw the blue lights. Ned turned both off when he saw Benny’s face.

  “Do you really think that was necessary?” Benny scolded.

  Red leaned over from the passenger side and said, “Yep, it be necessary. He the baddest driver I ever ride with.”

  “Get in the back,” Benny said. “Let’s get out of here before Nina and Uncle Karl come out.”

  On the way back to town, Ned confessed.

  “The fire’s my fault,” he began. “Big E somehow knew I could hack websites and databases. He wanted me to change some numbers for him dealing with boats. He beat me up and said if I didn’t do what he asked he would kill me. And I believe him. I almost changed the numbers for him, but Red
changed my mind.”

  “Ned not a bad man. He a good man.”

  “And Red reminded me that I wouldn’t be able to have a mushroom garden in prison.”

  “That would be a travesty,” Benny said. “ So, what’d you do?”

  “This be the bestest part,” Red offered.

  “Oh, no. What did you do?”

  “Since he tortured me in a way I thought I would give him a taste of karma and torture him back.” Ned rubbed his hands together. “I composed an email that I addressed to the head of the United States Coast Guard, and the FBI, revealing all the numbers of the stolen boats and where to find them. I wrote a simple program on my computer that is counting down to zero, and when it gets there, it will automatically send the email.”

  “Like a bomb,” Benny commented.

  “Yes indeed,” Ned said. “I sent Big E a video message earlier so he could see it.”

  “That’s evil, Ned. I like it.”

  “Thanks. I figure he’s trying to cover his tracks, and then he’ll be coming for me.”

  “The night just got a little more interesting,” Benny said.

  The tiny Tilley Police station was a madhouse. Dark smoke drifted across the parking lot. Townspeople and media milled about clamoring for information. Both parties assumed the smoke had something to do with the murders and all wanted some clarity and comfort.

  Benny asked Red to turn on the police car’s blue lights as they entered the lot. The sea of people parted allowing them to enter and park. A throng of anticipating faces waited for them to get out of the car.

  When Benny stepped out, the owner of the marina, Donny asked, “Now what in the blue blazes are you doing back here so fast?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I just came from the marina and I saw your houseboat motoring away. I figured you were heading to check out the fire.”

  “I’ll be damned,” Benny said, realizing his boat had just been stolen by Angel.

  Angel steered the boat away from the marina into the darkness. She watched the lights from shore as she tried to gauge how far she would be able to swim back. Angel killed the motor when she reached the point she decided was her limit.

  Down below in the living quarters, Angel picked up a metal sculpture off Benny’s coffee table and threw it into the sliding glass door. The first toss bounced off the glass leaving deep fractures that splintered like a spider web throughout the door. The second attempt sent the sculpture crashing through the glass to the other side. Glass rained down.