“Someone pulled in the driveway and parked,” she whispered. “I saw the reflection of the headlights on the trees from my window. I think I heard a car door slam … maybe two.”
“What time is it?” I asked.
“Almost midnight.”
“Nobody would be stopping by at this hour. If it were Netter, he would’ve called.” I put my shoes on and grabbed Pure Reason. We stayed in the shadows and crept slowly to one side of the large front window. We both knelt down, scooted over, and peered out into the darkness.
“There!” Lainie whispered. “By the screened porch. Did you see that?”
“Yeah, somebody’s walkin’ around the back of the main house.” I looked at her in the dark. “So what’s the plan, Agent MacKenzie?”
“First, we call 911. You stay here, and I’ll go out the back door and work my way around and catch them by surprise.”
“Horse shit!” I said.
“I know what I’m doing, Tucker.” She dialed 911 and gave the dispatcher the details.
“You’re not going out there alone. And I don’t want to be in here alone. The two of us go out together.” I said. “You take the shotgun.”
I grabbed a flashlight from the duffle, and we moved to the kitchen. I put Oscar in his crate in the corner. “Sit tight, little guy.” We quietly unlocked the back door and slowly opened it. Lainie walked out first, and I followed, both of us with our weapons raised, ready to fire.
When we got around the corner of the guesthouse, we could see someone standing in the shrubbery looking in the large window of the main house great room. I was a tightly wound spring as we silently inched our way closer. Finally, Lainie nodded, and I hit the flashlight, blinding the figure in front of us.
“Federal Agent!” Lainie shouted. “Don’t move a muscle!”
The figure turned around. “What the hell? Take that damn light out of my face!”
I looked at him in astonishment and lowered my weapon. “Dad? What the hell are you doing here?” Lainie snapped her head toward me and then lowered her weapon as well.
Marshall Tucker turned to the left. “Ruth! I found him! We’re out in back.”
“What? Mom’s here too?” Ruth Tucker made her way around the corner of the main house.
“My god, it’s pitch dark back here,” she said. She worked her way over to me and gave me a brief kiss and a hug. “It’s so good to see you, Son.”
“We rang the bell, but nobody answered,” Dad said. “It seems like nobody’s in there. Where’s Margaret?”
“Maggie and the rest of the family went to the beach house. Lainie and I are staying in the guesthouse.”
“I see,” my father said. “The truth finally comes out.” He turned to my mother. “Margaret left him.” Then he eyed Lainie. “So you must be the new girl. Well, I’d be careful about what I was getting myself into” He looked at me. “I hope to hell she’s not pregnant.”
“Jesus Christ, Dad! This is Special Agent MacKenzie with the FBI.”
Mom looked at Lainie’s red hair sticking out like pins in a pincushion. “Oh, please,” she said.
“Show ‘em your badge, MacKenzie.”
Lainie looked at me, exasperated. “Does it look like I have my badge with me?”
“Why are you two half dressed?” Mom asked.
“Because it’s midnight, Mom. This is the way normal people dress at midnight when they’re asleep,” I said. “Now you two can’t be here. Not right now. Didn’t George tell you? We’ve got a situation here! All you’ve done is provide this lunatic with two more potential victims.” My mother ignored me and walked past us into the guesthouse and turned on the lights.
My dad huffed. “What? You want us to leave right now? It’s midnight!”
I looked at Lainie. Help me. “I need to call 911 and tell them it’s a false alarm, Ben.” She hurried back to the guesthouse to get her phone.
“Okay,” I surrendered and said to my father. “You can stay tonight, but tomorrow you have to get back on a plane to Chicago. Let’s go get your things and set you up in the guesthouse master bedroom.”
He pointed to the main house. “Why don’t we just stay there? We don’t want to intrude.”
“Dad, you’re not listening! There’s a lunatic running around who’s trying to kill us! We’ll all stay in the guesthouse where I can at least try to defend us. Ain’t no way there’s enough of Lainie and me to go around in the big house.”
A police patrol car pulled into the drive. Two officers got out as my father traipsed to the guesthouse. They left the car running with the headlights on, and I could hear the crackle from the police radio inside.
The older officer spoke. “We were just informed that things were okay, but we wanted to check it out anyway, with everything that’s been going on.”
“Thanks. Sorry for the inconvenience. It’s just my parents. They decided to show up from Chicago. Unannounced.”
“The younger officer grinned and said. “This is where that rich dame lives, isn’t it?”
“Yep. I’m Benjamin Tucker, Mister Rich Dame.”
He cringed. “I’m sorry, Mr. Tucker. I didn’t mean anything—”
“Don’t worry about it. Happens all the time.” I folded my arms in front of me. “Listen, thanks again for coming out. I’m gonna head back in—I’m freezin’.” I turned to walk away and added, “But if you guys get a call later about an elderly couple being murdered here, it was temporary insanity.”
They laughed as they got into the patrol car and left.
I got my keys from the guesthouse and made a short trip to the main house to get Nora’s bag of money. When I returned, Lainie was sitting in the armchair with her legs tucked under her, and Mom was perched on the edge of the sofa.
“Why has only one bed been slept in?” Mom asked. I ignored her nosey question.
Dad was standing in the middle of the living area frowning at Oscar, who was on the floor in front of him crouching down on his front paws barking away. “Why’d ya get one of these damn yappers? You shoulda got a real dog—like a German Shepherd?”
I snapped back. “Oscar is a real dog!”
“And why couldn’t ya get a dog with even legs? Look how lopsided he is.”
One more word about my dog, and you’re gonna be lopsided, I thought to myself.
Totally aggravated, I said, “Look, the airlines will skin you for changing your itinerary on such short notice.” I opened the paper bag, pulled out a bundle of bank-strapped twenty dollar bills and handed it to my dad. “Here’s two grand. That should cover it.”
He leaned over and looked in the bag. “Where did all this money come from?” I set the bag on the floor by the duffle.
“Where did it come from?” he repeated. “Are you selling drugs?”
“Well, ya caught me,” I said, “Lainie and I knocked off a couple of dealers earlier tonight … then we came back and had a wild ol’ binge on drugs, alcohol, and sex.”
“Don’t be impudent,” Mom said. “You answer your father!”
I looked at her. “All right. The money is legal. As for where it came from, that’s none of your business. I’m just trying to pick up the difference for your travel. You can take it or leave it here. Either way, I don’t give a damn!”
My father tossed the bundle on the desk without another word, and he and Mom headed for the master bedroom. I looked at Lainie, who had silently watched the exchange.
“I’m sorry, Ben. That was rough. Is there anything I can do? I know you must be worried sick about them being here, with Plum and all.”
I sank down heavily on the sofa. “Are you kidding? One minute with those two, and Plum would cut his own head off.”
CHAPTER 39
Sunday morning, I took Oscar, and we walked over to the main house where I showered, shaved and dressed. When we returned to the guesthouse, Lainie was making a pot of fresh-ground coffee. She’d found some raspberry almond scones in the freezer and was defrosting them in th
e microwave. She had a pitcher of orange juice and four glasses on the counter along with a bowl of sweet butter. The place smelled terrific, and it would have been idyllic had it not been for my mother and dad sitting in the living area.
Dad had called American Airlines and changed their itinerary to leave Monday afternoon. “I also made a reservation for your mother and me to stay at the Hilton up by the airport tonight.”
“I’m sorry about that, Dad, but it’s really for the best. The situation here is just too dangerous.” I took a note card from my desk and scribbled a phone number on it. “That’s Amanda Jane’s cell phone number. She’s staying with Jennifer’s sister, Patty, in Durham, not that far from the airport. Maybe you can go up and spend the day with her. If you decide to go though, please watch carefully and make sure you aren’t followed. I’d love to go with you, but I have things I need to do.”
There was a strained silence. I looked at my father and said, “Maybe later, after this is all over, you can come back for a real visit … or Maggie and I can come and see you.”
Lainie poured four mugs of coffee and handed them out. She smiled warmly at my parents and said, “I have cream and sugar on the counter. And I have scones and orange juice and fresh fruit over here. I don’t know where the scones came from, but I tested one, and they’re delicious.”
The conversation switched to safe subjects—the weather, how nice the RDU airport terminal was, how beautiful the spring gardens were in the Raleigh area, how Lainie became an FBI agent.
I listened to the chatter silently for awhile and then took a deep sigh.
Mom noticed and said, “What is it, Benjamin?”
“I need to ask you and Dad something … something that’s bothering me. I thought I’d have more time to think about it, but then you guys showed up here last night.”
Dad peeled a banana and cut it into bite-size pieces on his plate. “Spit it out, Son. You’ve never been bashful before.”
I hesitated and said, “I need to know if there’s any possibility that I have a twin brother.” Lainie’s face told me she had wondered the same thing.
Mom was startled by the question. “Good lord, Benjamin, why on earth would you ask such a thing?”
I pulled a file folder from the desk drawer, took out a digital photograph taken at the museum and handed it to my father.
He gazed at it, puzzled, until he realized what he was seeing. “My god! Is that you shooting a gun at a police officer?”
“It’s not me,” I said.
“Of course it’s you!” he said, looking at me. “What’s going on here? Are you back doin’ that crazy reckless shit again?”
I said nothing and just stared.
My father became irate. “Don’t stand there and look at me like you don’t know what the hell I’m talkin’ about! I’m referring to the time after Christine’s murder.”
“I’m way past that, Dad. That was a long time ago.” Seventeen years, two days, and fourteen hours. No, wait—thirteen hours—there’s a time zone difference.
“The man in that photo is not Ben, Mr. Tucker,” Lainie said. “He’s a man known by authorities as Jack Plum, a sociopathic killer. Your son is in grave danger.”
“Are you saying this man wants to kill my Ben?” Mom asked, alarmed.
“I believe it’s highly likely,” Lainie replied, “but it’s even worse than that. All of the local authorities have that photograph of the killer. An inexperienced officer may panic and fire his weapon at Ben, thinking he’s Plum.”
Fear spread over my mother’s face.
“I’m grasping at straws here,” I said to her. “Did you deliver twins when I was born?”
She looked in my eyes and slowly shook her head. “I swear to you, son. When you were born, I didn’t deliver twins, or triplets, or any other number of babies.”
“I apologize for asking this, but what about egg or sperm donations?”
“No.” An almost imperceptible flicker of uneasiness flashed across her face.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” I said.
“No, no,” she fidgeted. “It’s just upsetting to have you ask questions like this.”
I felt badly for distressing my mother and apologized for putting my parents through this interrogation. Mom stood, hugged me, and tousled my hair.
She smiled up at me. “You need a haircut, Benjamin.”
“Maybe you should come back with us,” my father said.
“Thanks, Dad, but no. If there’s anything I learned from you, it’s that you don’t run away from a fight when you’re on the right side.”
He smiled, happy that I had just paid him a tremendous complement.
Lainie and I waited until my parents had loaded their car and left the estate. Once they were gone, we took Oscar out for a quickie, and then we locked up and were on our way to Cary. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something that wasn’t being said—something my parents were hiding. Did they learn something new about Christine?
I dropped Lainie off at the door and parked in my usual spot at the Cary PD. I rolled down the windows and spent most of the next hour talking to Maggie. They were all fine and desperately wanted to come home, but I was unwavering in my insistence that they stay put, and used the words “forbid” and “over my dead body.” After I hung up, I thought twice about “over my dead body.”
After the task force meeting, Lainie came out and headed toward the car. She rummaged through her purse as she walked.
“We need to stop by my apartment,” she said. “I left my phone charger there.”
“You can use mine.”
“Thanks, but I’d rather use my own. I want to pick up a couple of other things, too.”
I really didn’t want to take her to her apartment in case she could tell that Netter and Cox had been there. “Let’s pick them up tomorrow. Besides, we’d have to drive all the way back to Holly Springs to get your key.”
She pulled the key card out of her purse and held it up playfully. “Brought it with me,” she said and wiggled her eyebrows.
Sunk. I prayed those two knotheads had cleaned up and removed their evidence.
Fifteen minutes later, we were on our way up the front walk to Lainie’s building. She used the key card to open the main entry door, and we walked up to the second floor and down the hall to her apartment. She used the key card again to open her apartment door, walked in, and stopped dead in her tracks.
“What the hell?” she yelled.
I played dumb as I walked in behind her. The place was a mess, and it reeked of stale cigar smoke. There were maybe a dozen empty beer and soda cans on various tables and counters and several opened packages of chips and fried pork rinds. Netter had used a cereal bowl for an ashtray and it was half full of ashes and cigar butts. The armchairs were pulled to the center of the living room floor and parked right in front of the TV.
“Netter and Cox!” she shouted. “I will kill their sorry asses!” She narrowed her eyes and looked at me.
“They set up a stakeout to try and catch Plum,” I said innocently.
Lainie said nothing. She was fuming. She grabbed a garbage bag from the kitchen and began dropping empty cans into it.
“Here,” I said. “I’ll do that. You get your charger.” I continued picking up trash as she stormed into the bedroom.
She came back holding her charger and stopped short in front of the bathroom. “And the damn toilet seat is up! Both of their asses are toast!” I grinned behind her back.
She set the charger on the counter and took the trash bag from me. “Let me finish this.” I quickly handed it to her and got out of the way. I knew when to get small. She picked up an empty junk food bag. “Pork rinds? For Christ’s sake! At least I won’t have to kill them. Cholesterol will do it for me.” She finished picking up and angrily tied the bag. “I’m so pissed at those guys,” she said. “C’mon. Let’s go.”
We locked up and were heading down the hall when she
stopped. “Dammit!” she said. “These guys have me so worked up, I forgot what I came here for. I left that damn charger on the counter.”
I wanted to say, “You eat with that mouth?” But my momma didn’t raise no fool.
She handed me her key card. “Will you please go get it while I take this trash bag to the chute down the hall?”
I retrieved Lainie’s phone charger, and we left.
Nothing much was said during the drive back to Holly Springs as Lainie plotted revenge on Netter and Cox.
Back at the estate, everything looked normal—and there was no Marshall and Ruth. Thank god.
I started a load of laundry and went outside with Oscar while Lainie called Netter. We could hear her from outside, and in fact, I think she called him a lot of things. Oscar had been getting cheated on playtime lately so we played Frisbee for awhile. He couldn’t catch it very well because where he ran and where he wanted to run were two different things. But even though he didn’t catch it, he always tore after it and snapped it up and shook it to death and brought it back. I praised him every time, and he thought that was how you played the game. Didn’t matter. He was the best dog in the world to me.
Lainie had finished her call when we came back inside.
“Feel better now?” I asked.
“They’re staying another night.” She grunted and continued on before I could say a word. “I know, I know, I chickened out, but Netter said he has a strong hunch Plum’s going to do something tonight. And you know how he is with his hunches.”
“Yeah, he was right-on about the cemetery.”
We found minestrone in the freezer and heated it up for dinner. Lainie pulled together a plate of cheese and crackers and poured two glasses of iced tea with lime wedges. It was simple, but delicious. Lainie asked who left all the wonderful things in the freezer, and I told her all about Roberta. My heart ached for missing my family as I talked about them.
Lainie looked at me and understood. “We’ll get him soon, Ben. Then they can all come back where they belong.”
After we cleaned up, Lainie did some work on her computer, and I spent the next few hours doing more laundry and documenting details of the Plum investigation.
Vengeance is Mine - A Benjamin Tucker Mystery Page 23
