Jason Deas - Benny James 03 - Brushed Away (14 page)

Taking the oar back outside and putting it back where he found it, Benny decided it must have just been his overexcited imagination. He decided he had left the door to the houseboat open and for some reason shut the door to his bedroom. And the boat speeding away, ignoring the no wake rule, was just a coincidence.

Benny’s thoughts slipped back to Rachael and he picked up the phone to tell Vernon the good news.

“Why don’t I come by for a quick beer to celebrate?” Vernon suggested. “I’m just around the corner.”

“Sounds good. That’ll give me a chance to tell you about my visit to the Oglethorpe place today.”

A few minutes later Vernon arrived and the two men clinked glass beer bottles together.

“She couldn’t live without you, huh?”

“She sounded pretty homesick. I hope she doesn’t regret her decision and in the end regret me.”

“Nah. She’s a smart girl. Maybe she made one bad decision, but I don’t see her making two in a row. She knows what she’s doing.”

“I certainly hope so. Do you want to go up on the top deck and talk?”

“You inviting me to watch the sunset with you?” Vernon teased. “Gotta practice your romantic moves with lover girl on her way home.”

“Very funny. If you’re lucky I won’t throw you off.”

Benny led the way out the back sliding door and up the stairwell to the top deck. The sun had just slipped behind what looked like a small mountain of pines. Orange glowed atop the pines and hugged the water curling around the cove. It changed with every blink of the eye and for a moment the two were silent.

“I hear the sun rising is just as pretty,” Benny said.

“Don’t see that one too often, do you?”

“Nope.”

“I see why you like it out here so much, though. The ripples on the water don’t even look real. Some are going that way and others are going that way and somehow it all seems to be in synch.”

“It never gets old. That’s for sure.”

“Tell me about the Oglethorpe’s.”

“Well, it all started today at Red’s place. I woke up almost early enough to catch the sunrise. I was worrying. I called Red because he somehow always makes me feel better no matter what is going on. He told me Uncle Karl had someone coming by who talked funny.”

“As in stutters?”

“You guessed it. I stopped by the station to pick up a picture of Little E to show Red, but Officer Mandelino was the only person there. I actually tried to call you this morning, but you didn’t answer.”

“I actually slept in. Walking around last night kept me up until three or so.”

“I showed Red the photo and he says it’s the guy who’s been coming by and asking Uncle Karl for money.”

“Oh, damn,” Vernon said. “This is all making my head hurt.”

“Tell me about it.”

Benny ran down below to get two more beers and proceeded to tell Vernon about Uncle Karl pretending to be him and then Red, and then turning back into himself again.  

“So what did he say when you got him alone again?”

“It wasn’t really what he said. It was what he did that blew my mind.”

“Which was?” Vernon coaxed.

“So there I was rocking back and forth on a wooden rocking horse, talking to a man in a cowboy hat sitting in a purple bean bag chair.”

“Quite a picture.”

“I don’t know where the idea came from, but I pointed my hand at him like it was a gun and told him that I challenged him to a duel.”

“You did what?”

“A painting duel. He accepted and got out two fresh canvases. Mine took me about forty-five minutes and his took six hours. He won.” Benny took a deep pull from his bottle of beer. “Remember when I told you that Nina told me Uncle Karl really couldn’t paint? That he was just pretending to be an artist?”

“Yeah.”

“He can paint. He painted one of the best, most extraordinary pictures that I have ever seen. It had layers upon layers of paint. It was as though he would paint an entire picture and then paint another one on top of it. When I was finished with mine I sat back in the purple bean bag chair and watched in absolute amazement the entire time. In the six hours that I watched, at no point was I bored or wished that he would hurry up and finish. It was a show like I have never seen and I’ll remember it my entire life.”

“Now my head hurts even more. Why would Nina tell you that he can’t paint?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she doesn’t know. Maybe she didn’t want us to know for some reason. I really have no idea.”

“What’s that shining in the water?” Vernon asked.

“Probably the moon.”

Vernon peered over the side of the boat and studied the lake.

“No, it’s an inner tube you got tied to the back of your boat. Is that really where you were all day, floating around on your inner tube?”

“I don’t own an inner tube,” Benny protested.

“Well, then explain to me why a man who doesn’t own an inner tube has one tied up to the back of his houseboat?”

Benny’s mind reeled to earlier when he had thought someone had intruded into his space. He immediately knew the two were connected.

“Let me get my flashlight,” Benny said rushing below. “Don’t touch it in case it’s rigged.”

Benny flew down the steps and was back up before Vernon could even collect his thoughts.

“Shine it on what you saw,” Benny said, handing the flashlight to Vernon.

Vernon pointed the light on the floating inner tube and said, “There it is.”

Both men looked below and saw a painting sitting snugly inside a black inner tube.

“I’ll be damned,” Benny said.

“I don’t think it’s booby trapped. Let’s go get it.”

“OK.” He felt duped for not looking around the outside of the boat after he felt invaded. He was glad that his senses were still intact, but felt let down by his lack of thoroughness.

Benny and Vernon made their way to the back of the boat. Vernon held the light above his head, shining it down on the water below, and Benny shuffled close behind him. Once at the stern, they could clearly see where the line was tied to the boat, which was holding the inner tube. Benny leaned over and grabbed it, and began pulling it toward him.

Once the inner tube was near, Vernon yelled, “Stop!”

Benny stopped pulling the line and Vernon inspected it carefully. He passed the beam over every inch of the floating tube.

“Pull it all the way in,” he said, when he felt sure there was nothing that would explode or harm them in any way.

Vernon pulled two pairs of examination gloves out of his jacket pocket and handed one pair to Benny. He gently lifted the painting out of the inner tube and passed it to Benny. Bending over, Vernon grabbed the inner tube and pulled it out of the water and set it on the deck.

“Maybe we can get some prints off the tube,” Vernon said.

“Maybe, but I doubt it. Let’s go inside and take a look at this painting.”

Vernon followed Benny inside. Benny propped the painting on the counter and leaned it against the kitchen cabinets. He stepped back.

“No numbers,” Benny said.

“This one is definitely different. Beautiful, really.”

The painting was of a ballerina. She was on point, with one leg and both arms stretched out. Her head was pointed up toward an unseen light source, and her eyes were shut. She looked as though she was lost in her dance. The background was a blur of pinks and baby blues. There were no numbers on the canvas.

“That is amazing,” Benny agreed. “Maybe there are numbers on the back.”

He reached over and turned the painting around to find a single word written. It read, “Multiply.”

“Multiply?” Benny said, turning the painting around again and stepping back. “Multiply what?”

“Multiply ballerinas?” Vernon tried.

“What about tutus? Ballerinas wear tutus. Could be two, twos which would be four?”

“But he’s already used the number four. Tricky bastard. I figure he thinks we’ll see the ballerina’s tutu and make the connection and think four. What do you think?”

“I think you’re right. We can keep it as our backup, but I think the number four is a wild goose chase this time.”

“Then multiply what?” Vernon said aloud.

“Let’s try something that I used to do with one of my old partners. For two minutes you’ll think out loud and I’ll listen. I won’t be trying to figure this out at all—I’ll just be listening, and then we’ll switch roles.”

“Can’t hurt.”

“Go.”

“Pink, blue, smudged paint, dancing, closed eyes, heavenly, deep thoughts, balance, toes, arms out, lady, lady dancing…”

“Stop!”

“What?”

“Lady dancing.”

“And…”

“Multiply it.”

“Ladies dancing.” Vernon thought. “Ladies dancing,” he said again.

“Sing it,” Benny instructed.

Vernon did as instructed. “Ladies dancing.” He sang it again. And again. And it struck. His face lit up. Benny’s face brightened.

Together they sang, “Nine ladies dancing.”

“The twelve days of Christmas!” Vernon said. “Multiply one lady dancing and you get nine ladies dancing. Could it be?”

“I don’t know,” Benny said. “It’s a hell of a stretch. Let’s inspect the inner tube and see if it gives us any answers.”

“If it doesn’t, you have to come back in here and do that thinking out loud bullshit,” Vernon laughed.

With their gloves still on, the two men each grabbed an end of the inner tube and brought it inside. Benny let Vernon hold it alone as he cleared the coffee table and asked Vernon to set it down. With the inner tube on the coffee table, they both fell silent and studied the black surface.

“I don’t see anything,” Vernon said. “I was hoping it would have something written on it.”

“Me too. You would think it would have a number at least telling somebody how much to inflate it.”

“Maybe it’s on the bottom,” Vernon said.

He grabbed the inner tube carefully and turned it over.

A nine volt battery was taped to the bottom.

Chapter 17

“Nine!” the two men screamed triumphantly.

“Son of a bitch,” Vernon said. “It is nine ladies dancing.”

“Nine,” Benny said to no one. “Here we go again. What in town relates to the number nine?”

“Whatever it is, I imagine we got another dead body waiting for us.”

“You can be sure of that. I guess my home is now a crime scene. Why don’t you go ahead and make the call so I can get the boys in and out of here. I don’t know when Rachael’s going to be here and the last thing I need is a bunch of guys walking around dusting things and taking pictures. Nothing quite as romantic as a crime scene.”

“When’s she getting in?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t say if it would be today or tomorrow or if she was coming straight here or what.”

“The crime scene guys are probably going to go over absolutely everything in this place. Have you bought anything special to cook that you put in the fridge? If so, you might want to go hide it at Donny’s or something. You don’t want them fingering all your food.”

“I haven’t had time to think that far ahead. She’ll probably want to go eat at the little German restaurant in town. It was always her favorite.”

Vernon’s eyes doubled in size.

“What?”

“The German restaurant.”

“What?” Benny asked again.

“That’s where the dead body is. The German word for no sounds like nine—it’s nein.”

“Let’s go,” Benny said grabbing his keys. “Let your crime scene boys know the door is unlocked.”

Benny drove.

Halfway there Vernon said, “You’re awfully quiet.”

Benny almost choked on his laugh. “Last time we were in a car together you yelled at me for talking while you were trying to think. Now I’m too quiet? I’m not so sure I need a woman back in my life when I have somebody like you who can make me feel bad about everything I do already.”

Vernon lost it and snot flew out his nose he was laughing so hard. When he finally stopped he asked, “Do you happen to have a tissue?”

“Glove compartment.”

Vernon opened it and pulled out a few napkins from a hamburger restaurant. He wiped his nose and the snot off the dashboard.

“You sure do like Wendy’s,” he said, admiring the stash of napkins. “And sorry about that. I’m just nervous. And I bet Rachael isn’t one of those type of women you were joking about.”

“She’s not.”

Benny pulled the Jeep into the gravel lot of the German restaurant. Being about dinner time the lot was fairly full.

“I don’t get it,” Vernon said. “Is there a dead body under the buffet table and nobody has seen it yet? How can there be a dead body inside a restaurant full of people that nobody has noticed?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Benny and Vernon walked in to find the dining room three-quarters full. The owner saw Benny and his face brightened.

“Mr. Benny,” he said. “You no come to see me sometime soon.”

“It’s been awhile.”

“Where you sweet young lady?”

“She’s out of town,” Benny said, not wanting to explain the situation. “I’m not here to eat tonight,” Benny started. “Have you noticed anything unusual today?”

“Yes.”

Benny waited for him to tell him what strange thing he had noticed but he didn’t.

“What?”

“Just some kids.”

“You’ve noticed some strange kids?”

“No, kids do some funny prank.”

“What prank?”

“The kids, they cut off my lock on the outside freezer and put on another one lock.”

“Let me get this straight. You have an outdoor freezer you keep a lock on.”

“Yes.”

“Your lock was cut off and another one is now on there?”

“Yes.”

“OK. You just keep doing what you’re doing here and I’ll cut it off for you,” Benny said, not wanting to frighten him with his suspicions.

“Thank you, Mr. Benny.”

“I’ll be back with Rachael soon.”

“Very much the excellent!”

Benny walked back to his Jeep and opened the back where he kept a few tools, one of which happened to be a hack saw. He grabbed it with purpose and walked toward the freezer behind the restaurant.

“You ever cut one of these off?” he asked Vernon.

“No.”

“It’s not as easy as it looks. We’ll have to take turns. You go first,” he said, smiling and handing the saw to Vernon.