Jason Deas - Benny James 03 - Brushed Away

by Jason Deas

  “The phone has been ringing off the hook at the station,” Rachael said.

  “Any tips, or just media inquiries?”

  “Mostly media. I did have a few angry women call for Charles.”

  “Did he hit on you this morning?”

  “Of course he did!”

  They both laughed as the drinks arrived.

  “Are you guys ready to order?” Angel asked.

  Benny and Rachael ordered and Angel disappeared again.

  “I don’t know how Charles keeps his job,” Rachael said, taking a sip of her drink.

  “Nobody runs against him. I’ve been putting a bug in Vernon’s ear trying to get him to run in the next election.”

  “He’s too loyal. He won’t do it.”

  “And he’s scared. He thinks the county would still vote by skin color.”

  “It’s not 1950!”

  “And you’re not black. You don’t know how he feels.”

  “I think African American is more appropriate.”

  Benny laughed. “I asked Vernon because I thought the same thing, and he said he didn’t care. He said black was OK.”

  “Whatever. It’s beside the point. He would make a great chief and sheriff. Tell me again how Charles is both Chief of Police and Sheriff of Gladdis County?”

  “Gladdis County is the smallest county in the state of Georgia and Chuckie had the ingenious idea of combining the two positions to save the taxpayers money. They voted on it and it passed.”

  “That’s right.”

  When the food arrived, the conversation paused.

  As Angel walked away, Rachael’s eyes lit up. “I have a great idea.”

  “Shoot,” Benny said, as he tried to figure out a way to pick up his mammoth sandwich and sink his teeth into it.

  “Instead of interviewing you tonight at the seven o’clock news conference, I’ll interview Vernon. It’ll be his coming out party. Once he’s a star on the national stage, he’ll be a shoo-in for Sheriff of Gladdis County.”

  “You think he can handle the pressure?”

  “I guess we’ll find out.”

  Benny and Rachael ate their lunch and chatted, catching up on random things that had happened in their lives since the last time they had seen each other.

  As they were finishing their food, Benny noticed Dr. Walton entering the café. Benny was surprised to see Angel not only greeting him with a gregarious smile, but also a tight hug as she twisted him back and forth in her embrace. He beamed like a man without a care in the world.

  “Did you see that?” Benny asked Rachael.

  “Yeah. What did I just see?”

  “Angel just hugged Dr. Walton. His mother was found dead last night.”

  “Then, why is he so happy?” Rachael asked.

  “That’s what I want to know.”

  Chapter 23

  After a long lunch, Benny and Rachael split up again. She headed back to the police station to field more calls. She also wanted to break the news to Vernon that he would be going on television later in the day. Rachael hoped he would agree to the idea without seeing her and Benny’s motives. They agreed he might balk at the idea if he knew the big picture.

  Benny switched to iced tea and waited for the lunch rush to die as he pored over his thoughts and observed the room and all of its characters. His plan for the day was to eliminate at least a couple of suspects from his list. He decided to start with Rene. Benny felt that he knew her pretty well from all the lunches and drinks he had consumed in the past few years in her café, but he had hardly had any dealings with her away from her business.

  Benny decided Rene had the most to gain monetarily from the murders, as she was getting a hefty cut of all the art sales. He wondered if her business was in some sort of financial jeopardy or if she had borrowed money to buy her boat and was having trouble paying it back. He made a mental note to go by Ned’s when he left to get him digging into her bank records. Benny also remembered he had not picked up the laptop computer he’d dropped off a few days earlier.

  Rene noticed Benny staring out the window deep in thought.

  “Everything OK?” she asked quietly so as not to frighten him.

  “We need to talk in private.”

  “Sure. Everything seems to be under control at the minute and I’m not expecting any more art to come in until this evening. We can go in my office and shut the door.”

  “That would be great.”

  Rene’s office was small. It had four exposed brick walls, a desk, and two chairs. A painting of Venice and a calendar were the only two things hanging on the wall.

  Rene did not walk to the other side of the desk and sit down, but pulled the two chairs apart and sat directly across from Benny.

  She slapped his knee playfully and said, “Grill me. I’m ready.” Rene gave him her best smile.

  Benny was used to being the one that had the psychological advantage. He couldn’t help noticing how she didn’t separate herself from him with the desk, and how she was very much in his personal space.

  Two can play this game. Benny scooted his chair a little closer to her.

  “I feel like I’ve known you a long time,” he began.

  “You have. You moved to town right after I opened, so I guess you could say you’ve known me as long as anybody else in town.”

  “Tell me again why you moved here?”

  “You know the story,” Rene said, losing the smile. “What is this?”

  “I know you were kidding when you told me to grill you, but I have to. So let’s get it over with. Then we can go back to being friends. Let me do my job, and then you can hopefully forgive me for doing it thoroughly. If you didn’t have anything to do with the murders we can both look back on this uncomfortable situation and laugh.”

  “OK. Do your job.”

  “Why did you move from Italy to Georgia?”

  “My husband was transferred.”

  “Were you happy to leave Italy?”

  “I was excited, yes. I had never been to the United States, and I was curious to see what life was like here.”

  “Were there any other reasons?”

  “What kind of question is that?”

  “Were you running away from anything? Was there anything or anybody you were happy to get far away from?”

  “No! I don’t have any enemies and I’ve never been in trouble with the law in this country or my own. I’ve never had a parking ticket or even a library fine.”

  “Why didn’t you go back?”

  Rene sighed. “I fell in love with this town and out of love with my husband. He worked constantly and I felt like the townspeople had become a family of sorts.” She fidgeted and bit at her knuckle. “I don’t see what any of my past has to do with the current murders.”

  “People kill for crazy reasons, and I’ve seen problems follow people across oceans before.”

  “I’m telling you the truth.”

  “You have lied to me before,” Benny said, staring straight into her eyes.

  “I never!” Rene said, standing up quickly and plopping back down.

  “Think about it,” Benny said, holding his gaze. “If it’s the only lie you’ve ever told me you should be able to think of what I’m thinking about. I know what I know. If not, then we may have more problems to look into.”

  “Ah, Jesus,” she said, as it hit her. “Big E.”

  “Bingo. Tell me about it.”

  “I didn’t think you guys saw him leaving that day. I should have known you knew when you made that smartass comment about smelling cologne even though he doesn’t wear any. You were already suspicious and testing me.”

  “Nature of the business. Now, spill.”

  “When my husband moved back to Italy I decided I wanted to live on a sailboat. I didn’t need a big place and knew I would be working most of the time, so I went sailboat shopping. I was shocked at how much they cost. An acquaintance told me about Big E. The acquaintance said he had heard a few
people leased boats from him. I drove over to the marina and he leased me a boat.”

  “Does he lease a lot of boats?”

  “I don’t really know.”

  “Go on.” Benny scratched his forehead.

  “When the lease paperwork was finished he asked me where I was going to keep the boat. I told him at either the Sleepy Cove Marina where you live or at his marina. I had hoped the Sleepy Cove Marina as it would’ve been closer to work, but that didn’t work out. I thought it would cost fifty to a hundred bucks a month to keep a boat at a marina.”

  Benny tried not to smile but did anyway.

  “As you know,” Rene continued, “it can cost as much as a boat payment. I was floored. Big E knew he had me. I had just leased a boat and had nowhere to keep it.” Rene paused. “What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this room.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Even to Vernon and Rachael.”

  “I promise,” Benny said.

  “Big E said something about being a busy man and not having time for a steady girlfriend and blah, blah, blah. What he basically offered me was a free slip for sex once a month. He calls it a date. I call it paying the rent.”

  Benny nodded.

  “I know it’s terrible and that’s why I lied. I’m not the kind of person that lies or does horrible things. I just got caught in a really bad situation and made some bad choices.”

  “That’s it?” Benny asked.

  “I swear, that’s it.”

  “Then we’re done here.”

  They both let out sighs of relief. The stress that had filled the room dissipated.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me any more about the situation with Big E?”

  “No. I don’t think that has anything to do with the case—so that’s a question that Benny your friend would have to ask you, not Benny the investigator.”

  Benny stood up.

  “Will my friend please sit down for a second?”

  “We’re still friends?” Benny asked, raising his eyebrows.

  “Of course. I understand you have an important job to do.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Do you think I’m a horrible person?”

  Benny recalled it was the second time in less than twenty-four hours he had been asked the exact same question.

  He gave the exact same answer. “No, I think you’re human.”

  Benny called Vernon on his way back to the ice cream kid’s house.

  “I think Rene’s clean,” Benny said, when Vernon answered.

  “I figured she would be, but you never know.”

  “She admitted that she had some dealings with Big E and explained why he was on her boat that day. I hope you don’t mind but she asked me to keep it private.”

  “Hey, I don’t care if it doesn’t have anything to do with the case. If you’re happy, I’m happy.”

  “That’s what I like about you. I’m headed to see if I can eliminate another suspect. Remember all that mud we saw on the front of Big E’s boat?”

  “Yeah. We had talked about how he might’ve been the one who ran their boat into the shore at the first murder site.”

  “I’m going to try to shake some information out of him. What’s on your docket for the next few hours?”

  “Thanks to you, I’m about to have PR 101 with Rachael.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “I didn’t say thank you.”

  “You’ll thank me later.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “You’ll be great—talk to you later.”

  Benny hung up and pulled into the kid’s driveway. His mother was sitting in the carport smoking a cigarette.

  “Is this all you do?” Benny joked, getting out of his car.

  She didn’t think it was funny.

  “No. Sometimes I drink vodka while I smoke.”

  Benny wasn’t sure if she was humoring him or not.

  “I need to borrow your son, if that’s OK.”

  “You can have him for all I care,” she said, deadpan.

  “I imagine he’s shooting imaginary people in his room?”

  She nodded as she took a drag on her cigarette.

  Benny found the kid in his room doing just as he expected. Benny cleared his throat to announce his presence. The kid turned.

  “You’re not going to kick the door in this time?”

  “Very funny. It’s time to pay the piper, kid.”

  “Fine.”

  “Let’s go for a ride. Bring your cell phone. The call needs to come from your phone. I’m sure he has caller ID.”

  Once inside the Jeep, Benny told the kid the rules.

  “Here’s how you earn the envelope full of cash I gave you,” Benny started. “First of all, you will never, ever, speak of this to anyone. Not even me again. After you make the call and hang up, it never happened.”

  “You already paid me, and I already put the money in my bank account,” the kid said, looking smug.

  “How would you like to use that money to fix your broken windshield and your broken taillights? Maybe a slashed tire or two?”

  “I don’t have a broken… oh,” the kid said catching on. “I won’t say a word to anyone.”

  “Good, because I’m not kidding. You ever smashed a windshield out of a car with a baseball bat?”

  “No.”

  “It feels so good. I’ve been looking for a reason to have that feeling again.”

  “I said I wouldn’t talk about it.”

  “Perfect. Here’s how the call is going to go,” Benny said pulling the Jeep into a vacant lot and shutting off the engine.”

  He explained what he wanted to happen, trying to cover all the things that could possibly come up. The point he tried to drive home the hardest was for the kid to stay vague and let Big E do most of the talking.

  The kid placed the call.

  “What do you want?” Big E answered. “I told you that you could come back to work tomorrow.”

  “I just had a really weird visitor come to my house,” the kid started.

  “And why would I care?”

  “It was an FBI agent and he was asking questions about you.”

  “What?”

  The kid now had Big E’s undivided attention.

  “Yeah, I told you it was weird.”

  “What does this have to do with me?”

  “He kept asking me about two things.”

  Benny gave the kid a signal to pause.

  “What two things? What?” There was hysteria in his voice.

  Benny nodded and held up one finger.

  “First of all the guy kept asking me about the missing cooler. He said that a guy was found dead inside the cooler.”

  Big E didn’t say anything.

  “I passed a lie detector about it. I told them I didn’t have anything to do with the missing cooler. I passed.”

  Benny gave the kid a gesture and a look saying he was off script. The kid gave him a little grin and a shrug of his own.

  “Don’t worry about the cooler. I guess you didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  Benny noticed Big E didn’t apologize. As Benny held his head close to the phone, almost head to head with the kid he could also tell by Big E’s voice that the cooler issue wasn’t striking a chord. He held up two fingers signaling the kid to move on to the second topic they had previously discussed.

  “The second thing they wanted to know about was your dirty boat.”

  “Oh, son of a …” Big E’s voice whimpered and trailed off. The kid had struck a chord.

  The kid started to speak and Benny held his hand over the kid’s mouth and shook his head back and forth.

  “What do they know?” Big E pleaded.

  “The guy just kept asking me if I knew anything about your dirty boat. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “I told him I didn’t know anything about a dirty boat. What should I tell him if he
comes back and asks again?”

  Benny gave the kid a thumbs up.

  “Did they say boat or boats? Think hard and try to remember.”

  Benny had a paper and pen ready. He quickly wrote boat on the paper.

  “Boat.”

  “OK. Good.” Benny heard relief in the two simple words.

  “Thanks for the heads-up.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Let me ask you one more thing,” Big E said. “Did he say anything about a guy named Ned?”

  Benny’s eyes shot wide open.

  Chapter 24

  Chief Neighbors watched as Rachael put on makeup for the news conference. Vernon had gone home to take a shower and to change clothes.

  “You’re drooling, Charles,” Rachael said, eyeing him in the mirror.

  It wasn’t a figure of speech. Chief Neighbors wiped away the moisture from under his lip.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “No you’re not.”

  “Can I ask you for some advice?”

  Rachael turned around. “That depends on if it’s appropriate or not.”

  “It’s appropriate,” Chief Neighbors promised, “but you can’t tell Benny or Vernon.”

  “This sounds like a slippery slope.”

  “I assure you it’s not.”

  “How about we do this,” Rachael suggested. “You start, and if you cross the line or begin to talk about anything that I won’t be able to keep secret, I will tell you to stop.”

  “Fair enough. Jane called this morning.”

  “Jane as in your and Benny’s ex-wife? That Jane?”

  “Yeah. That Jane. She wants me back.

  “Again?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hasn’t she learned?”

  “She’s willing to give me one more chance.”

  Rachael turned back to the mirror, mascara pen in hand. She shot him a quizzical look. “Can you?”

  “I do love her.”

  “That’s not what I asked. Are you physically and mentally able to be with just one woman for the rest of your life?”

  Chief Neighbors didn’t answer the question. “She wants me to move to Arizona. She says I’d love it there.”

  Rachael turned around again. “Move?”

  “Yeah. She thinks it would be good for me. I was born and raised in this town. The farthest I’ve ever been from here is Louisiana. She said I wouldn’t have to work if I didn’t want to and we could travel to all the places we talked about when we were young. She thinks that now we’re older it might work.”