Jason Deas - Benny James 02 - Pushed (13 page)

“Of course.”

“Thank you. Now, I’m probably going to ask you a bunch of questions you’ve already been asked a number of times.”

“Someone murdered my beautiful baby girl.” Gina’s eyes filled with tears.  “Whatever we can do to help you find whoever did this, so they won’t be able to do it again. Whoever did this needs to pay for what he’s done.”

There was a knock on the door and Benny heard a voice call in saying, “Need three.”

Shane grabbed three beers out of the fridge and quickly went to the door for the transaction. When he came back, he opened one of the cases and put a few more beers in the fridge. When he sat back down, Benny pulled a small notepad out of his pocket and for the next two hours he asked them every question from every angle of the story he could imagine. At the end of the questioning, unfortunately, Benny did not feel closer to any answers.

Standing to go, Benny thanked Shane and Gina profusely for their time and after saying no two or three times, finally agreed to take a case of beer.

Benny shook hands with Shane and gave Gina a hug.

“Can I ask you a favor?” Gina questioned.

“Sure,” Benny answered.

“As you can see, we like pictures.”

“I have noticed.”

“Can Shane take a picture of you and me?”

“I would be honored.”

Shane pulled a point and shoot camera out of a drawer in the living room. Benny put his arm around Gina. Shane took three shots in case somebody blinked and showed Gina the results on the camera’s little screen. Gina smiled with pleasure.

“You’re only the second famous person we’ve ever met. One time a few years ago at one of Stephanie’s appearances we had the pleasure of meeting Geraldo Rivera. I know you gotta run, but can I show you the picture real fast?”

“Sure.”

“It’s in Stephanie’s old room. Follow me.”

Benny followed Gina into Stephanie’s room. The room looked as though it had not been touched since the day she last walked out of it. All of her personal belongings still cluttered the room and Benny even noticed a pair of bedroom slippers sticking out from underneath the bed. In the picture of her with Geraldo Rivera, she was not looking at the camera, but at the journalist. He had clearly said something funny in the moments before the picture was snapped, because Stephanie was looking up at him with sheer pleasure and the beginning of a hearty laugh.

“Great picture,” Benny said.

“I think I love it so much because it shows her sense of humor. She had a great sense of humor.”

“I bet she did.”

As he turned to exit the room, something on her dresser caught his eye.

“This is odd,” Benny said, pointing to the bizarre object.

“Somebody used to send those to her in the mail all the time. Must have been a fan of hers or something. Most of them she threw away after a day or two, because she thought they were creepy, but she really liked that one.

In the middle of the dresser, as though slithering across, sat a braided snake.

Chapter 19

As Benny headed back north on I-95, he spotted what looked like an unmarked police car behind him. Just as he pulled his eyes down toward the speedometer to see how fast he was going, the blue lights flashed. He had only been going ten miles per hour over the limit.

Benny steered the car to the side of the road and waited patiently for the officer to emerge from the vehicle. The door to the police car opened, and Jessica Flynn got out. Benny would have rather received a ticket than the interrogation he was about to endure.

“Can I see your license and registration?”

“Really?”

“No, I’m just kidding. Unlock the passenger door and let me in.”

It was already unlocked, so Benny leaned over, grabbed the door handle, and pushed the door open for her.

“What a gentleman,” Jessica said.

“Have you been following me again?”

“Unfortunately, that was the detail I was assigned this morning. I don’t like it anymore than you do. Don’t you think I’d rather be pursuing my own leads instead of following you around as you play catch-up?”

“I’m not playing catch-up. I’m just trying to figure out what you guys missed.”

“And what have we missed?”

“For starters, did you know that Stephanie met Geraldo?” Benny joked.

“Yeah, Mrs. Mitchell showed me that picture, too.”

“Did she ask to have her picture made with you?”

“Get over yourself.”

Jessica glanced in the back seat and saw the case of Laguna Lager.

“You took one of those cases too?”

“They almost forced it on me.”

“It’s actually pretty darn good.”

“You took one?”

“I don’t think they were going to let me leave without it.” She batted her eyelashes and tried to feign innocence. “I’m not as much of a goody two-shoes as you might think,” Jessica said as she took her fingernail and ran it across Benny’s leg.

“Stop it,” Benny said as he pushed her hand away. He repositioned himself in his seat and pulled his shirt down as he did not want her to see what she was doing to him.

“Would you rather we got a room at The Breakers?”

“Very funny.”

“Are you surprised I know about that?”

“I would be surprised if you didn’t. It was all over the news.”

“I was too young to see that,” Jessica said, smiling coyly. “I’m even a few years younger than Rachael.” She touched him again. “I know you like them young.”

Benny exploded. “Get out of the goddamn car!”

“Tah tah,” Jessica said, opening the door. Before walking back to her car, she leaned in the door and whispered, “There’s something happening in your pants. Just let me know if you need help with that later.” With that, she strutted back to her car as Benny watched her every move in the rearview mirror.

Benny watched her pull out first and waited a good two or three minutes before he headed out. He didn’t want to pass her on the road. It was rare that Benny let someone get under his skin, but she had done just that.

He tried not to think about her, but he did, the entire way back to the hotel. She was definitely under his skin.

Since it looked as though Benny would be staying in town for at least the next couple of days, he needed to make sure it was fine with Dirk to keep driving the Trans Am. He sure hoped it was OK as he would rather walk than go back to the peach colored heap.

When Benny pulled into the lot, he immediately noticed Dirk about forty or so feet in the air, standing in the basket of a lift, waving his arms. He stopped flapping his arms back and forth when he saw Benny and even from as far away as he was, Benny could see the relief on his face.

Benny peered up at Dirk and couldn’t help grinning. Something was obviously not right.

“How’s it going?” Benny called up to him.

“Been better.”

“Looks like you’re in a bit of a predicament.”

“You could say that. I need you to help get me down.”

“No problem. Do you think I can keep the car for a few more days?” Benny yelled up to him.

“You help get me down, you can keep it for a few more days free of charge.”

“No, I wouldn’t do that. I’ll pay. I’ve just gotten kind of attached to it, and I think I’ll be around a little longer than I first intended. Now how do I let you down?”

“There is a manual release button somewhere under the ignition box.”

“OK. Wouldn’t it have made sense to put the manual release button up there where the person who is stuck could actually use it?”

“You would think. I guess most people don’t use one of these alone.”

Benny found the manual release knob and pushed it hard. The lift jerked, and Benny heard the noise of the hydraulics as the basket started to ease toward the ground, and the enormous arm began to fold and descend. Dirk gripped the sides of the basket as though he was on a roller coaster and about to shoot down a giant hill.

Once he was on the ground, Benny said, “If you wanted a good view of the city there are other ways to get one.”

“Very funny. That’s what you call a very unhappy and sneaky customer.”

“Huh?”

“I had a customer rent this from me yesterday, and the cunning old coot said he needed to show me something. Didn’t say he was angry or anything like that because he knew if he did, I wouldn’t have fallen for his dirty trick. So, I climbed in the basket and he cranked it up. Before I knew it, he had pushed the lever to raise the arm. When he had it all the way extended, he turned it off and threw the key on the roof of my building. He said this was the biggest piece of crap he had ever used, and I should be ashamed of myself for letting people risk their lives with it. He climbed in his car and drove away.”

“You should get one of those boxes for anonymous complaints.”

“This customer was way past an anonymous complaint. He might have taken an anonymous dump in the complaint box.”

“That’s a disgusting thought,” Benny said, trying to get the image out of his mind.

The office area had a speaker loosely hanging outside the front door. A ringing phone echoed across the lot. Dirk jumped from the basket and ran toward the building, calling over his shoulder for Benny to follow him inside. Benny laughed. It was funny to see someone running at full sprint in cowboy boots. Benny hadn’t been inside the office and wondered what strange things he might find. If it held anything like the contents of the lot, it would be an eclectic mix at best.

The inside of the office was strange indeed. It looked more like a pawn shop than a place to rent items. Benny expected a rental place to have mainly tools and things of that nature. He first noticed the jewelry case. Rolexes, diamond earrings, gaudy necklaces, and other expensive looking items filled the case. Tables and shelves also filled the room with everything from stereos to sleeping bags. High-end video equipment, fishing poles, shoes, sports jerseys, and costumes galore.

When Dirk hung up the phone, all Benny could say was, “Really?”

“You’d be surprised at the things people will rent.”

“Who rents a Rolex?”

“Guy on a first date.”

“Makes sense,” Benny said. “Shoes? Who is going to rent shoes?”

“That has not taken off like I thought it would,” Dirk said.

“Surprising.”

“I’ve got more stuff in the back if you’re in need of some specialty items.”

Benny thought Dirk was trying to hint around about some adult related content and said, “Oh, no thanks. I’m not into anything like that.”

Dirk picked up on what Benny was thinking and said, “No. No. I don’t have adult videos or anything like that back there. I’m talking about James Bond stuff, man.”

“Oh. Show me.”

Benny followed Dirk back through a curtain and a heavily fortified door. Dirk used three different keys to unlock it and one combination lock. The majority of the building was built with wood and Benny noticed the door was metal. The interior of the room also had metal walls that reminded Benny of a walk-in cooler.

“This almost seems like a really big walk-in cooler,” Benny said.

“It is! Friend of mine used to own a restaurant in town and the city bought him out to put up a government building. They were going to tear everything down and he sold the cooler to me for real cheap. One of the biggest walk-ins you can buy. Cost more to move it over here than it did to buy it. Took awhile to get the seafood smell out, but I did and actually built the rest of the building around it so most people don’t even know it’s here.”

The room was a James Bond paradise filled with techno gadgets, surveillance equipment, and other strange items that Benny puzzled over.

“Do you rent a lot of this stuff?”

“Oh, God yeah. Makes up for my dumb ideas like the Air Jordans.”

“How do people know it’s here?”

“Carefully selected ads in magazines like Guns and Ammo and others you probably never heard of. Craigslist. Word of mouth. A lot of private eyes in the area use my stuff. Cheaper than buying it.”

“Hmm. Do you have anything that I could use to pick up a tail?”

“Do you know who’s following you?”

“Yeah.”

“I do. I’ll even install it for you. You’d be surprised how easy it is. If you tell me the car, I put a sticker on the tag that looks like an emissions sticker, and it transmits a signal to a device like a pager, or if you have an iPhone, we can set it up where it will notify you with a text when the car is within a certain range of your choosing.”

“I’ll be,” Benny said. “How much?”

“Two hundred for the week.”

“That’s it?” Dirk seemed like more of a wheeler and dealer, and the two hundred dollar quote didn’t sound right to him.

“Two hundred for the equipment.”

“Oh, here we go,” Benny said.

“Installation is another hundred and fifty, and I imagine you want me to put this on Johnny Law’s car—another hundred for danger work. Then I have to rent myself one of my street sweeper uniforms.”

“You’re going to rent a uniform to yourself?”

“Actually, I am renting it to you, but I’m going to wear it.”

“I see.”

“Do you think I should rent myself the Air Jordans?” Dirk asked with a smile crawling across his face.

“No,” Benny answered.

“Just kidding.”

The two men left the walk-in cooler/James Bond outfitting area, and Benny told Dirk how to find Jessica’s car. Dirk promised to have the device up and running right after he closed up for the day. Benny could tell he was pretty jacked up about getting to use his equipment.

Before he left, Benny asked, “Do I get some sort of discount for getting you down off that lift?”

“Yep. I’m doing you an unsolicited favor.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m taking the tracking device off the Trans Am. I’ll tell the scraggly looking guy who paid me to put it on that you must have found it and took it off.”

Chapter 20

Benny and Rachael ordered pizza to the hotel room so they could speak freely without the threat of being overheard. He updated her on what he found, or didn’t find, at the Mitchell’s.

Benny told her most of what happened with Jessica, but left out the part where she came on to him again. When he got to the part about having a tracking device on the Trans Am she couldn’t believe Dirk wouldn’t give away more than he did.