Jason Deas - Benny James 03 - Brushed Away (20 page)

Benny tried calling and calling without success, which wasn’t weird, but the fact that he didn’t answer the door was out of the ordinary. Benny even tried the side door and two back doors plus a window or two trying to get inside. Ned rarely if ever went anywhere. Although it was possible he was out, Benny doubted it and decided if Ned didn’t answer the door on his next attempt he was going to kick it in and ask for forgiveness later.

As he drove toward Ned’s, he had a great idea and called Red for a favor.

“Red here,” he answered.

“Hey buddy. I need your help this morning.”

“Sure, Bendy. Red helping with anything.”

“Can you still climb like a Billy goat?”

“Oh sure. Red not even needing a ladder to get on you house.”

“It’s your house now, don’t forget that.”

“Right.”

“I’ll pick you up in a few minutes.”

“OK. Red making you coffee.”

Red met Benny in the driveway with a cup of coffee. Benny took it gratefully and thanked him for his thoughtfulness. Benny explained to Red what was going on and what he needed him to do.

The front door of Ned’s house was locked once again. Ned was not a morning person, so Benny did not expect him to be awake. He did expect him to answer the knocking and the incessant ringing. He did not.

Benny nodded to Red and said, “Let’s see your stuff, kid.”

Red grabbed a column on the porch, put a foot up on the railing and launched himself upward. Standing on the railing he moved one hand to an old flag holder attached to the column. He pulled at it to test its strength. His other hand reached to the brick facade of the house and found a place to wedge his fingers into. He crouched momentarily and then in one fluid motion somehow jumped, pulled, and pushed his way onto the roof.

Benny walked into the yard where he could see him.

“How the hell did you do that?”

“Red not know.”

“Start checking windows.”

The second window he tried opened. He turned and beamed.

“Now do what I said so you don’t scare the piss out of him and get shot or something.”

“Ned!” Red screamed into the house. “Open you door or Red come in to open for you. Bendy very worry.” Red listened. He yelled down to Benny, “He say Jesus Christ he coming.” Red yelled back into the house, “It not Jesus Christ, it Bendy James.”

Ned reluctantly pulled the door open. His nose was taped, lip split, and bruises were still forming on the left and right side of his face.

“My God,” was all Benny could say.

Red appeared behind Benny.

“You not looky so good. Who bees mad at you?”

“Me,” Benny answered. “I’m angry with him. Did you start that ridiculous research project again after it almost killed you last time?”

“Afraid so,” Ned lied.

Benny walked into the house.

“Let me see you in good light so I can decide if I’m going to kill you or take you to a hospital. Get him some ice in a Ziploc bag or something,” he instructed Red.

Red walked to the kitchen. A minute later he came back with a baggie of ice and a question. “Why you break you pewter, Ned. Is that what you fight about?”

Ned shook his head from side to side trying to tell Red to drop the subject. Red missed the communication.

“What are you talking about, Red?”

“They bees a pewter in he kitchen with all the alphabets around. Come look.”

“Aw geez,” Ned said.

Benny walked to the kitchen. Ned had put the broken laptop on the kitchen table. The keys from the keyboard were scattered around the table along with a few tools.

“This is interesting,” Benny said. “Ned, my friend, you’ve got some explaining to do. Why is a piece of my evidence that I entrusted to you in shambles? I’m guessing you are lying to me about restarting your research and your face has something to do with this computer, but for the life of me I think it would take a million years or more for me to guess what. Why don’t you end all of this suspense right now and tell me what is going on.”

“OK. I was taking the computer downstairs to work on it. I moved my workstation for these type of things to the basement. As I was walking down the stairs I tripped and fell all the way down the stairs hitting my face several times and dropping and rolling over the computer.”

“Fascinating,” Benny said.

Red walked back into the living room and returned to the kitchen.

“Since you he friend, Red help Ned buying he a new couch.”

Again, Ned shook his head back and forth to Red trying to tell him to stop. Again, Red missed it.

“Why is that, Red?” Benny asked.

“He missing one of he cushion and they some blood on side.”

“Explain,” Benny said to Ned.

“I…”

“Let me help,” Benny offered. “Let’s play a game.”

“OK,” Ned said, not sure where Benny was going with his thought process.

“I’ll give you a word to start a sentence with and you say whatever comes to mind out loud.”

“OK.” Ned’s bruised and battered face scrunched with confusion.

“Mushroom,” Benny said.

“Mushrooms are delicious.”

“You’re very good at this game.” Benny looked Ned in the eyes. “Round two.” Benny paused. “Big E.”

Ned’s yellow and purple face turned red where it could.

“Big E is an unfamiliar term to me.”

“Wrong.”

“Big E is a person I have never met.”

“Wrong.”

“Big E will kill me if I tell.”

“Ding, ding, ding. Although you are not entirely correct, you do win a prize.”

“I hope it’s Vicodin.”

“No, it’s protection until you decide to tell me the truth.”

“I’ll take it.”

After gathering a few of Ned’s belongings, Benny dropped them at Red’s house. He promised to take good care of him and said he wouldn’t let anyone know where he was.

Benny’s next stop was the Oglethorpe place. He decided it was time for Nina to take a look at the art found at the murder scenes. He remembered her saying that if she knew the artist who had made a piece, she would be able to tell.

Heading down the long dirt drive, Benny’s attention wandered from the road as he marveled at the metal sculptures off to the side. When he glanced back at the road, a car barreled toward him. The driver was trying to scrunch down in the seat and get out of sight. Benny slammed on his brakes and pulled off to the side to let the car pass. As the car passed he lifted himself as much as he could to get a better view and swore to himself that he recognized the driver. It was Dr. Walton.

The roofers were already set up and crawling all over the house. Benny wondered how long it would be until Uncle Karl started speaking Spanish and acting like some of the workers. He peeked into his studio. Uncle Karl was wearing a sombrero he had noticed in there on another occasion.

“
Buenos dias
,” Benny joked.

“
Hola, amigo
,” Uncle Karl answered. “Can you tell them to stop making all that doggone racket?”

“It’s going to be awful hard for them to put a new roof on your house without making any noise.”

“I don’t go in there much anyways.”

“Did I just see Dr. Walton leaving here?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t know he made house calls?”

“He wasn’t here to see me.”

“Who was he here to see?”

“Ah, God. Do I have to tell this story again?”

Benny’s forehead wrinkled.

“Who did you already have to tell?”

“Clarice.”

“Your ostrich?”

“Yes. She’s the nosiest thing you’ve ever met. I just finished telling her why he was here.”

“Be a pal and tell the story one more time,” Benny said, climbing onto the rocking horse. “Do you mind?” he asked, pointing to the wooden horse under him.

“Nah, she hasn’t been ridden in a while and could use a good workout. Warm her up slow.”

Uncle Karl took off the sombrero and tossed it to his right without looking. This time he didn’t knock off any jars, break, or spill anything.

“Dr. Walton was in love with Nina, but his mother didn’t approve.”

Uncle Karl started scratching his knee.

“That’s it?”

“Yep.”

“You were complaining about having to tell me one sentence? That’s not a story. It’s more like a fact or something.”

“It’s a short story.”

“I’ll say. Why didn’t Hazel like Nina?”

“She thought Nina was after his money.”

“Does Dr. Walton have a lot of money?”

“From what I hear he does. The family owns a prime piece of real estate in town. He’s a doctor. What more do you want?”

“Fair enough.”

Uncle Karl stood and walked over to one of his canvases propped against the wall. He picked it up and began to study it as if Benny was no longer in the room.

“I’ll be going then.” Uncle Karl turned to Benny, startled. “I’m going to take Nina into town to help me out with something. Is it OK with you if I ask her about her relationship with Dr. Walton?”

“Who told you about that?” Uncle Karl said running up to him. “Did Clarice blab all that to you? I told her to stop gossiping to strangers.” He turned around and kicked the canvas he had been looking at. “
Que demonios es eso?
”

Benny shook his head as he left the studio.

Nina answered the front door.

“You got an hour to run up to the police station and look at the two paintings?”

“Sure, but I thought there were three?”

“One is a sculpture.”

“I can’t help you with that one—maybe Uncle Karl can.”

In the Jeep on the way to the station, Benny questioned her about Uncle Karl.

“I talked with him this morning and he seemed somewhat normal. Then it was as if someone threw a light switch and he didn’t remember talking to me.”

“I wish I knew what to tell you. As soon as you think you’ve got him figured out he changes. Sometimes I think he does it on purpose, but I can’t prove it—and why would somebody do stuff like that?”

“What does your doctor friend think?”

Nina blushed. “Did you see him leaving here a little while ago?”

“I did. I assumed he was making a house call, but Uncle Karl tells me different.”

“Oh, God.” Nina pulled her fingers to her flushed face. “I feel like a schoolgirl. I guess it’s a good thing your girlfriend came back into town and nothing happened between us.”

“I’m guessing so. We would’ve had one unhappy doctor on our hands.” Benny pulled the car onto the main road off the long dirt driveway. “So, from your point of view, why didn’t Hazel like you?”

“She knew we’d lost all our money, for one. She also thought my husband would come back one day and didn’t want me breaking her son’s heart.”

“I guess I can understand that. Do you ever talk to your ex-husband?”

“Rarely. Maybe once every five years or so.”

“Where does he live?”

“Small town in Tennessee.”

“Does Angel ever see him?”

“She’s mailed him a few things over the years, but he doesn’t write back from either guilt or the booze. Maybe both.”

“A real winner, huh?”

“Yeah. He’s also never gotten over the fact that I went back to my maiden name and legally had Angel’s name changed to Oglethorpe.”

“What was it before?”

“Preston.”

The conversation from this point shifted to lighter topics. Pulling into the police station parking lot, Benny had one last probing question.

“How much do you think you will have made selling your paintings when it’s all said and done with what’s happened in town?”

“Fifty thousand dollars.”

“That’s a lot of money for paintings.”

“They see them more like investments. That’s the sad part. Some people love art for the art and for others it’s just another way to make some money.”

Inside, Chief Neighbors and Rachael were talking. They stopped as Benny and Nina walked in the door.

“I need the key for the property room, Chief,” Benny said, holding up his hand signaling for him to toss them.

Chief Neighbors grabbed at his belt and pulled out his giant ring of keys. He twisted the key to the property room off and tossed it across the counter.

Nina followed Benny to the door. He slid the key in the lock and the two entered. Benny turned on the light and shut the door behind them.

The room had a locker for the drugs with an extra lock attached. It also contained multiple shelves with white boxes, two tables, and a small closet. One of the tables held the metal sculpture found at the second crime scene, which happened to be the police department. They didn’t have to transport it far.

“This is the sculpture we found. It had something else in it which has been removed, but it wasn’t something made by an artist.”

Nina stepped closer to it.

“Whoever did it can weld pretty well. They ran a very nice and steady bead where they joined these two pieces,” she said, pointing without touching to an area of the metal. “This could have been a number of people. A good bit of the artists I know have a welder like the one used here and with a little practice, it’s not too hard to run a smooth bead.”

“Is Uncle Karl’s welder the same type that was used to do this?”

“Yes.”

Benny grabbed two latex gloves out of a box on the same table and put them on.

“I forgot to tell you. Don’t touch anything. You don’t want your finger prints on anything in this room.”

He walked to the small closet and opened the door. The two canvases were the only thing inside. Benny pulled one out. He showed Nina the back side.

“Is this a normal canvas?”

“Yeah. It’s not homemade or anything. Most of the artists I know stretch their own. This one is store bought and could’ve been bought at any art store.”

Benny turned the canvas around so she could see the painting. Nina’s face immediately went white.

Chapter 26

“I’m not feeling well,” Nina said. “I… I think I may have eaten something bad this morning. I have to go.”

She ran out of the room.

“I’ll give you a ride home,” Benny called after her. “Wait!”

He shut the door to the property room and walked back into the main area. The front door was already closing. Chief Neighbors and Rachael looked at Benny.