Private Detective: BENNINGTON P.I.: A thrilling four-novel political murder mystery private detective series...

by D. W. Ulsterman

  The doctor’s eyes bored into the congresswoman as she strode to the reception desk to take the call. Her face took on several darkening shades of red while nodding her head at whoever was speaking with her on the other end. After the phone call was ended, the doctor turned back to us and in a low, barely audible yet seething hiss, indicated we could follow her down to the morgue.

  “I’m sorry to have had to contact Mr. Atchison like that Doctor, but you really left me no choice. Now by all means, show us to where Dedra is being kept.”

  Before reaching the elevator, I quietly asked the congresswoman who Mr. Atchison was. She replied, with more than a hint of satisfaction, that Doyle Atchison was among the most generous donors to George Washington University, and a longstanding member of its trustee board. He also happened to be a former member of the U.S. military, and an ardent political supporter of the congresswoman.

  “It’s good to have friends of influence, Mr. Bennington. Now let’s go see Dedra.”

  The mentioning of Dedra’s name broke apart my too temporary sense of victory at watching Dr. Stone being overruled. We were travelling down to the hospital’s morgue to see Dedra’s lifeless body, a fact that remained incomprehensible to me, my mind once again screaming out the certainty of wrongdoing.

  Dedra didn’t die in this hospital. These bastards murdered her.

  32.

  I attempted to brace myself for what was to come inside that hospital morgue, but fact is, I just about fell apart the moment I saw Dedra’s body laid out on the cold, stainless steel table. The lights above us were humming softly, like a swarm of flies hovering over their next meal. There was the strong smell of cleaning agents, mixed with the underlying, yet unmistakable scent of death and impending decay.

  Congresswoman Mears inhaled sharply at the sight of Dedra, her face going white as she walked very slowly toward the body. Alberto looked up, then down, then up again, his eyes already moist.

  The congresswoman stood over Dedra and stared down at her for well over a minute before turning away. I then made my way to the table and forced myself to look at Dedra’s face, both scarred and beautiful. Her eyes were closed, the mouth slightly open, the skin covered in an odd layer of moisture appeared thicker than sweat, almost oily. I reached out to touch her exposed left hand lightly, finding the skin ice cold, and somewhat hard. The skin on the bottom of her forearm had taken on a much darker hue, like it had been bruised badly. It was the unmoving fluid in her arm settling toward its lowest point.

  My pacemaker assisted heartbeat was pounding inside of my skull as I heard myself let out a pained groan. That darkened skin at the bottom of her arm brought the unmistakable reality of Dedra’s death. She was gone, and was never coming back. Whatever hopes and dreams she might have been carrying with her, were now absent a vessel, and thus, were lost along with her.

  It ain’t fair.

  As I squeezed Dedra’s hand lightly inside of my own, the sound of the heavy entrance door filled the morgue’s cold, deathly space. I turned to see the mocking smile of Magnus Tork looking back at me.

  My mind clamped down on the image of the FDA operative, as everything and everyone else in the room faded into a distant haze. My body seemed to move without thought as I slowly crept to the side of the Alberto’s wheelchair. Congresswoman Mears was already crossing the room, making her way to Tork.

  “I was told you were here at the hospital Congresswoman. Such a terrible tragedy. I am so sorry for your loss. I understand she was a valued member of your staff.”

  As the congresswoman was asking Magnus Tork who he was, and what interest he had in Dedra, I leaned down and whispered to Alberto.

  “Give me your gun.”

  My voice was somehow not my own. The terrible beast I had sensed earlier, was now out of its cage, pacing inside the walls of my quickly dissipating self control. I realized, seemingly from a great distance within myself, that the avenging monster was pacing in time to the priest’s song, Celtic New Year. The music grew louder and louder inside of my head as my eyes took in every detail of the FDA agent.

  “Alberto, don’t ask me why. You know why. Give me the gun.”

  As the former Army Ranger quietly placed the gun into my right hand, I looked ahead and saw Father Barnes as I had last seen him, nodding slowly to me as I closed the doors of the study. Then the priest faded, and in his place was the now moving figure of Magnus Tork.

  “Is Mr. Bennington among your staff as well, Congresswoman? He and I had a little disagreement recently. I’m surprised in fact, to see him back inside this hospital at all. I’m still considering filing a formal complaint against him. A rude, arrogant, and possibly dangerous old man.”

  Tork now stood over the body of Dedra, looking down upon her with feigned sadness.

  “She was beautiful in a way, wasn’t she? Cancer is truly a terrible, terrible thing. And to have gone so quickly! Very-very sad.”

  The room now held myself, Alberto, the congresswoman, Dr. Stone, and the just-arrived Magnus Tork, who, much to the shock of everyone, was moving the sheet covering Dedra’s body down just enough to catch a glimpse of her breasts.

  “Beautiful indeed.”

  “Get your hands off of her you monster!”

  Tork looked up at Dr. Stone and laughed.

  “Oh, I don’t think you should be speaking to me that way doctor. You were the one treating this patient by the way. Her life was literally in your hands.”

  The sneer that crept across Tork’s face nearly consumed me fully in my own rage at that moment, so much so I could feel a great roar welling up within me, the great beast demanding to be let loose upon the monster that I knew had something to do with Dedra’s death.

  Dr. Stone opened her mouth to say something, and then abruptly shut it, the corners of her eyes welling up in tears. I knew then, they were the tears of a great guilt – a terrible burden that manifested itself in the presence of Magnus Tork.

  And still the priest’s song played in my head, the music growing louder as with each second Tork stood across from me, the smirk on his face seeming to somehow engulf the entire room.

  “You killed her.”

  The words came forth from me in a scorched earth whisper.

  Tork’s eyes were again fixated on Dedra’s body, his right hand creeping toward her battle scarred shoulder.

  “Mr. Bennington, your relationship with a member of congress means nothing to me. For every one of her, I have many more to silence her. I’m the power in this room, not her, not you, not the cripple in that chair, or the doctor who has now, wisely, lost her tongue. Get out of here, all of you. Grieve for your friend here, put her into the ground, and then get on with your little lives, and leave me to the business of deciding who lives, and who dies.”

  The sheet was pulled down inches more, exposing each of Dedra’s nipples.

  “Look at me.”

  Magnus Tork ignored my demand.

  “LOOK-AT-ME.”

  The music grew even louder.

  “Take your gun out. The one you pulled on me earlier. Take it out you little worthless scum of a man. TAKE IT OUT!”

  The FDA agent glanced up to see Alberto’s gun in my hand, pointed no more than a foot from his face. The arrogant sneer vanished, replaced first by confusion, and then by fear.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing? I’m a government official! You can’t threaten me!”

  I smiled back at Tork, my lips parting just enough to expose my gritted teeth.

  “Oh, I’m well past making threats, asshole. You’re dying today. You, maybe me too, I don’t give a shit. Now take out the weapon, or I will shoot you dead where you stand.”

  “Mr. Bennington, this is not necessary! We have protocols. There can be an investigation.”

  The congresswoman meant well, of that I was certain, but I was in no mood for protocols, or yet another investigation. The only thing that mattered was that Magnus Tork die for what I knew he did to Dedra. He may not have a
cted alone, but he acted nevertheless, and the man was not walking out of that morgue alive.

  The fear that inhabited the FDA agent’s eyes was quickly replaced by their former, mocking contempt. He believed the congresswoman’s words would be enough to save him. There was no way an old, washed up political operative like me would actually kill anyone, and certainly not him. He was, after all, a government official, and Magnus Tork’s understanding of the world had been so twisted behind the bubble of bureaucracy, he actually believed that meant something.

  Then I realized what I needed to do to put in motion Tork’s final moments. It was simple really. I knew Tork was seething with his own rage at the audacity of someone like me pointing a gun at him. His pride, his conceit, and his utter belief in his own indispensable importance, made such an act unforgivable. At that moment, he likely wanted me dead as much as I wished to see the same done to him.

  I lowered Alberto’s gun.

  Magnus Tork’s right hand moved with snake like quickness into his jacket and withdrew the weapon he had pointed at me hours earlier.

  The beast was now fully unleashed, moving my hand upward without fear, shouting out its gleeful hate of the man who stood across from Dedra’s body.

  The bullet entered Tork’s left eye, and exited with an explosion of blood and brain, from the back lower right half of his skull. There was a frozen half second in time when I looked into the one remaining eye of the FDA official and recognized his full awareness of what had just happened, and that he was soon to be quite dead.

  The dark creature that still roared within me, treasured that awareness, devouring it hungrily, and wanting more. As Tork’s body fell with a heavy thud to the cold, hard, linoleum morgue floor, the more human, rational and reasoning doors of my subconscious pushed the beast back into its cage, locking it away in whatever before unknown corner of my being, it had apparently always resided.

  I stood motionless, as the others left alive in the room, stood equally silent until finally, Congresswoman Mears turned to Dr. Stone and grabbed her by her wrists.

  “You know that man was evil. I saw enough here to confirm that. The question now is if you let his evil continue to harm you? What I saw today, was someone who attempted to shoot me, and thankfully, was prevented from doing so by a member of my staff. Isn’t that right Mr. Diaz?”

  Alberto had already taken the gun from my hand and then proceeded to fire another round into the opposite wall of the room, behind where Magnus Tork had so recently stood.

  “That’s right congresswoman. I saved your life. He looked like he wanted to kill all of us. Ballistics will show it was me who fired that the gun. The first one missed, the second one got him. Thank goodness his gun must have jammed.”

  I looked down at Alberto and then over to Congresswoman Mears, my ears still ringing from the gunshots.

  “I don’t understand what---“

  The congresswoman cut me off, telling the doctor to clean my right hand off with antiseptic. By the time security entered the morgue, my hands had been completely wiped clean of most traces of fired gunpowder.

  The congresswoman quickly took over every aspect of the initial investigation, giving a statement to the hospital security team, and soon after, to the law enforcement officials who arrived ten minutes later. Alberto corroborated the congresswoman’s story, as did Dr. Stone.

  “What about you? Why are you here?”

  I had a moment of uncertainty as I looked back at the officer. Congresswoman Mears deftly stepped in for me before my silence created suspicion.

  “He’s a friend of mine, and Dedra’s, the woman on the table. We were here to say our goodbyes when the gentleman there attacked us. Maybe he had some kind of relationship with Dedra we weren’t aware of, maybe he was just a poor, unbalanced soul who’d gone off his meds. At any rate, you have my statement, and I have a job to do. Any more questions, you can contact my office.”

  And that, as they say, was that. We simply walked out of the morgue behind the confident stride of Congresswoman Mears. As we went down the elevator, I realized something I often heard over the years as being the truth, was actually, 100% bullshit.

  People say killing someone who did you or your loved ones wrong, won’t make you feel better.

  The fact is, knowing Magnus Tork was at that moment being tagged and bagged, felt pretty damn good.

  33.

  One week later.

  Following the death of Magnus Tork, I was required to spend another two hours answering questions from both D.C. Metro, and a Capitol Police detective assigned to the case, in which I re-affirmed the earlier story that it was Alberto who shot and killed Magnus Tork in order to protect Congresswoman Mears. The next day I was informed the entire case had been transferred to the Capitol P.D., after which both Alberto and I were to simply defer all questions from law enforcement directly to the congresswoman’s office. We may not have been entirely out of the pan, but we were no longer getting cooked over the fire.

  The following day was Dedra’s funeral. I sat alone in the very back of a small Catholic church in the beautifully idyllic city of Rockland, Maryland. I suppose it was a nice ceremony, as far as those things go, but the reality of Dedra truly being gone was hitting home again. It seemed the congresswoman was going through a similar realization as I was. Her seemingly impenetrable exterior finally broke down for a moment when Dedra’s former commanding officer told of the day Dedra received her horrific combat wounds, and how, despite excruciating pain and the awareness she would be losing her right hand, her focus remained on the safety of her fellow soldiers.

  Following the service, I began making my way to an awaiting cab when the voice of Congresswoman Mears called out from behind me.

  “Mr. Bennington, you’re not done yet. We still have some work to do.”

  I turned around, silently noting no trace of tears were found in the congresswoman’s eyes – she was back to her old, tough as nails, self.

  “What do you mean? I was just on my way to starting some serious drinking congresswoman. Never been a fan of funerals, and I’m sure as hell not a fan of this one. I’d rather start the process of wiping this day from memory under a good, heavy haze of black out drunk.”

  The congresswoman’s mouth turned downward into a frown as her withering, unblinking stare likely did a quick assessment of what I’m sure she deemed my particularly idiotic brand of run-away-from-my-feelings, stupidity. But hey, I’m a man, so am all too familiar with the concept of avoiding having to think about pain by simply drinking it away.

  “Get in the car, Mr. Bennington. You can play drunk after we’re done.”

  I had to admit, the congresswoman had me intrigued.

  “Done with what?”

  Congresswoman Mears was already walking toward a black limousine with darkened windows.

  “Hurry up, Mr. Bennington. We have an appointment and I’m certain Dedra would have wanted us to keep it.”

  The mention of doing something for Dedra was enough to get me moving myself into the backseat of the limo, and then watching intently as the congresswoman initiated a phone call.

  “This is Congresswoman Mears for Congressman Walter Mills. I will be arriving on time for our 3:30 meeting and I expect him to be doing so as well. Yes, thank you. Ok, please let him know I’m looking forward to our meeting.”

  Congressman Mills was the Chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and the man likely responsible for the successful tabling of the fast track cancer research legislation Dedra fought so hard to gain approval for.