Jason Deas - Benny James 02 - Pushed (17 page)

“Now?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t make you touch me. It’s just swimming,” Jessica said, standing and pulling off her shirt. She tossed it in Benny’s lap and her bra followed. Benny was speechless. Her jean shorts followed and Benny wondered if she would keep her panties on when he realized she was not wearing any. She tossed her jean shorts in his lap as well.

Benny felt a stirring and wanted to quickly get in the water before he had to walk in backwards. He stood in a flash and pulled off all his clothes. He ran past her and dove in, coming up quickly, hoping to catch a view of her front. She must have slowed down or backed up, because when Benny came up from under water, her knees were just entering the ocean. Benny pushed back as she neared him, staring all the way.

When they were both neck deep and standing, Benny said, “This is a dirty trick.”

“I told you, it’s just swimming.” Jessica dipped her head back into the water.

Benny wanted to begin questioning her, but he couldn’t think straight. He took a few deep breaths and tried to think of his first question.

“Are you sure you’re not scared that something might bite you out here?” Jessica asked.

Benny was not sure if she was talking about a shark or herself.

“No. Tell me a little bit about Brother Jim.”

“I don’t know much. But from his room it looked like he may be your typical PK.”

Benny stopped her. “PK?”

“Preacher’s kid.”

“Oh.”

“He’s 22. His room had religious things in it sitting on the furniture and hanging on the walls. Bibles, crosses, devotionals. Typical things you would expect a church going person to have. There were a couple of Penthouse magazines under his bed. You guys really need to find a new hiding spot for those.”

Benny laughed.

“We did find a map of Florida. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge had been circled. We did not find a computer. He either destroyed it before he took off on his big trip, hid it, or he has it with him. We still can’t figure out how he knew to go looking for Erin.”

“How did he find Charlene?” Benny asked.

“I’ll tell you in a minute. Do you know how he knew about Erin?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Well, if I am going to share all this with you, you better spill before I go on.”

Benny told her about the fashion design, which she knew about and the website, which had somehow slipped past her and her people.

“How the hell did the financial diggers not find a charge for Erin’s website hosting?”

“Maybe the hosting was free or somebody else paid for it?” Benny suggested.

“Hmm. Well Charlene was in a spread Penthouse did on Florida’s sexiest waitresses. Charlene was sexy waitress number four. And yes, it was one of the magazines under his bed.”

“Did he have any of those creepy braided snakes?” Benny asked.

“Oh God yes. The room was full of them. Was that your little secret you didn’t want to tell me?”

“Yeah.”

“I guess you saw the one on Stephanie Mitchell’s dresser?”

“Yeah.”

“Weird, aren’t they?”

“Very strange.”

“How do you think he found the other girls?” Benny asked.

“The Internet. Breeze is, or was, on the front page of the strip club’s website. They took her off shortly after her death. And Stephanie’s face is still plastered all over Florida billboards and she, of course, was on television commercials.”

They talked a few minutes more. Benny got her to describe Brother Jim’s room a little more without gathering any more important information.

“Can you promise me you won’t tell Rachael we did this?” Benny asked. “I don’t know how a person would believe two people went skinny dipping in the ocean at midnight and nothing happened. I don’t want to lie to her, but I don’t think she would believe the truth either.”

“I promise I won’t tell her if you promise not to tell her I did this.”

As soon as she finished her sentence, she lunged toward him and wrapped her legs around his waist. Benny froze, well most of him did. Jessica slowly put her arms around his neck and pushed her chest against his. With her mouth, she put a single, slow kiss on Benny’s neck.

Pushing away from him she said, “Be careful, a fish just poked me in the thigh. I think he’s hungry.” She laughed and swam to shore.

On the beach she quickly dressed, and Benny stayed in the ocean with his waist below the water.

As she walked off into the night, Benny yelled after her. “If I hear a word about this from anyone, I’m going to tell everyone what that tattoo says you have right above your ass!”

Jessica just laughed and kept walking.

Chapter 24

The next afternoon, with a theory in mind, Benny placed a call back home to his friend Ned. Ned just happened to be one step short of a mad scientist. Although he used his intelligence as a techno-wizard of sorts, his hair-brained ideas and inventions sometimes landed him in a bit of personal turmoil. He once, unsuccessfully, invented a dog shampoo. The shampoo was supposed to leave pets free of fleas and smelling good for over a month without another bath. Ned tried it on his sheepdog, and the poor animal died within hours. His timed refrigerator lock was a hit with dieters and he did earn a fairly large payout for that idea.

Aside from his inventions, Ned was a computer genius. He somehow had the ability to get into state files, federal databases, law enforcement records, and more without being discovered. He wouldn’t tell Benny how he accomplished such devious tasks, but he did sell his services to Benny from time to time.

“Yes?” Ned answered when Benny called.

“Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“No, no. I just rolled out of bed.”

“It’s two in the afternoon!”

“I know, I know. I was working into the wee hours of the night on my mushroom farm.”

“Farm?” Benny knew Ned grew mushrooms in a walk-in closet, but he had never heard him refer to it as a farm.

“I had a great idea, Benny.”

“Oh, goodness. What this time?”

“You know how I make the world’s best mushroom pizza with my produce?”

“I’m going to take your word for it, buddy. You know I won’t be eating mushrooms grown in a man’s closet.”

“Well, you’re just different. I decided a couple of weeks ago to clean out the basement and to turn it into a mushroom farm. I’ve been extremely busy collecting organic material to grow the different kinds of mushrooms. Did you know Benny, that mushrooms do not grow in soil?”

“I never really thought about it to tell you the truth.”

“Well, they don’t. I’ve collected aged manure and compost. I found the greatest and most perfect rotting log that took me forever to get down to the basement. I’ve collected sawdust and …”

“Ned.” Benny cut him off. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t really have time to get schooled in the mushroom growing process right now.”

“Of course. I’ll just give you a tour of the farm when you come home.”

“I would love that,” Benny lied. “Before I ask you what I called about, I would like to ask what you are going to do with all those mushrooms.”

“Sell them to restaurants, eat them, and give them to friends like you!”

“Great. Good luck with that.” Benny tried to shake the idea of homegrown mushrooms and turned his thoughts to his current needs. “I need you to do some searching around on the computer for me.”

“Sure. Hold on one second while I get a pen.” Drawers opened and shut and the sounds of rustling papers and something falling made Benny pull the phone away from his ear for a moment. “Did I ever tell you I invented a pen that never runs out of ink?” Ned asked.

“You gave me one.” 

“Did it run out of ink yet?”

“Nope. I don’t think it ever will.” The ink Ned concocted smelled like cat urine and the smell of a paper mill combined. Benny’s pen would never run out of ink, because he was never going to use it again.

“I should get in touch with Bic or Paper Mate.”

“Ned! Focus!”

“Sorry. I’m ready.”

“I need you to research two things for me. First, do you know who the television evangelist Reverend Jim is?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Great. Supposedly he has a son referred to as Brother Jim. He is an elusive person with no pictures or documents that prove to me he is actually alive. I need whatever you can find about him so I don’t feel like I’m chasing a ghost.”

“OK.”

“Second. A girl was interviewed as a witness to an attempted murder by Brother Jim, and she has disappeared as well. Her name is Beth Marvin. See what you can find out about her. If she has credit cards, I want to know where she was the last time she used them. Whatever kind of trace she has left of any sort, I want to know about it. I want to find this girl.”

“Got it,” Ned said.

“You know I’ll pay you well, right buddy.”

“You always do, Benny.”

“Can I ask you one more favor?”

“Sure.”

“Can you check up on Red for me? He’s having trouble with the phone again. I know he’s probably fine, but I worry about him.”

“I’ll check on him today. I went by the other day and he was making a big pot of vegetable soup. He told me to come back by with some containers and I could take some home. Too bad my mushrooms weren’t ready to add to the recipe.”

“Real shame,” Benny said.

Ned did as promised and dropped in on Red. He looked around Red’s expansive garden, surprised at his absence. Red spent most of his daylight hours in his garden either tending to his plants or talking to them. Red swore they also liked classic rock which he called “oldie guitar sounds.” Red still listened to his extensive cassette collection, but had recently discovered radio. He grew up deep in the Ozark Mountains, where radios did not pick up signals with any quality or consistency. Plus, his parents had been deaf and had no reason to own a radio. Luckily, his father had the good sense to buy Red a cassette player and books on tape, as well as music, so Red could hear the English language. His parents were mute in addition to being deaf. Red had fared pretty well for a kid who started his language development late and in an odd way.

Ned decided Red must be inside the house having lunch or using the bathroom. With one foot on the front porch, Ned heard Red yell out, “Amen!” Ned continued to the door, perplexed, and knocked.

Red opened the door and Ned spied the television on behind him. He had never seen Red watch television and at one point Red had even covered it with a quilt. When asked why he was keeping it under covers, Red explained that he did not want it watching him back. Ned tried to tell Red it didn’t work that way, but Red decided not to believe him.

Ned held up his large plastic container and said, “I’m here to get some of your vegetable soup.”

“It very good,” Red said, walking over to the television and turning it off. Red waved goodbye to the television, picked up a quilt off the floor next to the set, and covered the television.

Ned started to tell him again that the television could not watch him, but felt it wouldn’t do any good.

“Come in.”

“What were you watching on the tube, Red? I’ve never seen you watch it before.”

“It not a tube,” Red corrected. “It a telebision.”

“Right.”

“Bendy ask me to watch Reverend Jim show to help he find he son.”

“How exactly are you going to help?”

“I not know. I know he confuse.”

“Benny is confused?”

“No. Reverend Jim. He says three people be one people. He talk that three is one and one is three.”

“The trinity,” Ned said. “Some preachers explain it better than others.”

“Tell Bendy, Reverend Jim want to be a lady.”

“What?”

“Yep. Reverend Jim want to be a lady.”

“Was he wearing a dress?”

“He paint he face.”

“You mean make-up?” Ned asked. Red nodded his head with the affirmative. “Oh, a lot of people on television wear make-up so they’ll look better on screen.”

“He wear too much.”

Changing the subject, Ned said, “Benny says you’ve been having some trouble with the phone.”

“Both side looking the same.”

“Benny suggested we draw a mouth on the side you talk into and an ear on the side you listen with.”

“You draw,” Red instructed.

“OK.” Ned had brought a permanent marker from home because he thought, surely, Red would not own one. Ned had a talent for drawing as he did lots of sketching to come up with his ideas.

When finished, Ned showed Red his drawings on the phone and Red yelled, “Amen!”

Chapter 25

Brother Jim stood in shock and stared at the book of maps on the pillow. He felt the rage enter his mind he had experienced earlier on the beach as it flowed through his body once again. Jim picked up the Florida atlas and spiked it like a football. His toes kicked at the book and he stomped the cover with his bare foot. Picking it up once again, he hurled it against the bedroom wall and screamed as loud as his lungs would allow. Pounding his fists against the same wall, Brother Jim cried and knew what he had to do.

“Time to get baptized, Kendra!” he screamed at the ceiling.

Falling to the floor with great drama, Jim pulled the book of maps to his body. Sitting up with the book in his lap, he stroked it and tried to undo the harm he had caused with his kicks and his violent throw.

“Kendra,” he said again out loud as he turned pages. “Kendra, Kendra, Kendra. Damn the snakes, damn the serpent. Damn the snakes, damn the serpent.”

Brother Jim turned to the page that focused on the city of Jacksonville, and put his finger on the Dames Point Bridge.

He popped up off the floor and ran to the pants he had worn to the beach house the day before. Brother Jim put them on. He pulled on a shirt and felt something nudge his thigh from his pocket. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out something that felt hard and metal. The key to the van.

Kendra picked out two tomatoes and a package of pita bread at the grocery store near the house she rented. She also bought some celery and baby carrots. Behind the healthy food, on the checkout conveyor belt, she tried to hide a pint of cookie dough ice cream. Kendra was a regular at the store and knew the cashiers by name.