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  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.

  “I can’t believe, that one, you had a tracking device on your rental, and two, Dirk won’t tell you any more than the guy had a scraggly beard!”

  “He said it was a matter of confidentiality, and he’d be sure to do the same for me.”

  “Well, that’s real nice of him.”

  “I honestly don’t think he knows much more. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who keeps detailed records. He deals in cash and if someone doesn’t want to be traced, they pay extra for people to forget.”

  “Do you think the Feds will get anything out of him?”

  “No. I honestly don’t think there is anything to get. The tracking device could have been placed by one of two people—Brother Jim, or the Feds. My guess is it was put on by the Feds and somebody dressed how they thought Brother Jim might be dressed to throw me off in case I discovered it.”

  “Sounds about right,” Rachael said. “I can’t believe Jessica was following you. It certainly shows who they think is going to solve this case. Do you think she is going to have that detail every day?”

  “I don’t care if she does. Now that I know they’re following me, with the device Dirk is putting on her car and a little extra care, I can easily shake a tail.”

  “So, what’s on the docket for tomorrow?”

  “I’m going to drive over to Bradenton Beach and visit the first victim’s boyfriend and take a look at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge where Erin was killed. I want to see it for myself.”

  “How far of a drive is that?”

  “I think it’s about a hundred and eighty-five miles. Should take me less than four hours to get there.”

  “I wish I could come with you, but I already made plans to meet Azim again. He found some of Breeze’s, I mean, Josephine’s personal belongings that he wants to show me. He said some of them are pretty strange.”

  “Did he say what was strange about them?”

  “He wouldn’t say. He said I just had to see them in person.”

  “So, after I meet Erin’s boyfriend tomorrow, one of us has met with somebody close to the all the victims except for Beth,” Benny said.

  “The girl that got away,” Rachael added.

  “Any word on where she might be?”

  “Nope. She has basically disappeared. FBI doesn’t know where she is, police don’t know, it’s weird. No family, no acquaintances.”

  “She doesn’t want to be found,” Benny said.

  “You’ll find her.”

  Benny gassed the car up early and was ready to head toward Bradenton Beach when he got a text that Jessica’s car was within five hundred yards of him. An ingenious idea crossed his mind and he hoped Dirk was already at the office. Benny dialed Dirk’s number.

  “Shoot,” Dirk answered.

  “Is that how you really answer the phone?”

  “Sometimes,” Dirk laughed.

  “Are you at the office already?”

  “Sure am.”

  “Do you still have the big front end loader in your lot?”

  “I do. What you gonna do with that?”

  “I’m not going to do anything with it. I’m about to leave the gas station and I’m going to drive by there in about five minutes. After I go past, I immediately want you to block the road for about five minutes while I lose my tail.”

  “I don’t know. I’m kind of busy.”

 
; “I’ve got a hundred dollar bill in my pocket.”

  “I’m going to crank it up now, and I’ll be ready.”

  Benny finished filling up the tank and bought a cup of coffee for the trip. He slowly made his way toward Dirk’s Rentals to give him enough time to get the front end loader warmed up and ready. As he drove, he looked for Jessica in his rear view mirror, but she was pretty good at running a tail. He couldn’t spot her in the heavy traffic.

  When he rounded the corner to head down the road to Dirk’s business, he saw the front end loader waiting at the edge of the lot. Large mushrooms of black smoke were puffing out of a silver exhaust pipe sticking up from the back of the tractor. Benny sped up the street, hopped out of the car, and handed Dirk the hundred dollar bill. Dirk grabbed the bill and saluted. Benny jumped back in the Trans Am and punched it down the road. When he looked in the rear view mirror, Dirk had the front end loader across the road, blocking the entire passage. He saw Dirk jump from the driver’s seat and act as though he was inspecting the giant piece of equipment. Benny laughed and sped off toward State Road 710.

  As Benny traveled northwest along SR 710, his phone rang.

  “You really pissed that broad off,” Dirk said.

  “I would pay to see that.”

  “I can probably pull some footage off the parking lot cameras. How much we talking?”

  “I’m kidding, Dirk.”

  “I know that.”

  Benny wasn’t so sure he was.

  “That girl is a looker. I wish she was chasing me. I think I would let her catch me,” Dirk said.

  “I’ll see if I can arrange that.”

  “Really?”

  “No, Dirk, not really.”

  “I knew that. Gotta go—got a customer.”

  “Thanks, bud.”

  Benny drove up SR 710 for about forty-five minutes before he headed west on SR 70. He was pleased with how well the Trans Am handled at seventy miles an hour. As the sun continued to rise in the Florida sky, the temperature rose as well. Benny rolled up his window and turned on the air conditioner. He didn’t mind a little sweat, but he wanted to be presentable when he met Erin’s boyfriend.

  The boyfriend, a young man by the name of Robert Turner, had been hit hard with the news of his girlfriend’s murder. He’d been hospitalized with severe depression and suicidal leanings. Benny hadn’t formulated a plan to get the staff at the hospital to let him in, but he was confident he would come up with something.

  Erin’s parents lived overseas and had come home for a few weeks following the tragic event. Her father had lived in Germany for many years and her mother had joined him when Erin reached the age of eighteen. They left her with a nice condominium on the beach, and although Robert did not officially live with her, Benny learned he spent an average of six nights a week with Erin.

  Erin had worked as a lifeguard on Siesta Key, not too far a drive from the Bradenton Beach condominium. She also took a few classes at a community college and led her parents to believe she wanted to pursue a degree in fashion design. Her mother taught her to sew at an early age, and Erin had always possessed a knack for making any outfit she could imagine. She enjoyed keeping sketchbooks and filling them with ideas that seemed to spill from her mind with little or no effort. Secretly, she recognized her talent and thought a degree was unnecessary, but took a light load of classes to keep the money from her parents coming.

  Erin hoped to be discovered through a website she created where she modeled her designs. On the site, she had separate pages for different types of clothing and the page that got the most hits was the one dedicated to bathing suits—most probably discovered by men. Erin was made for the Florida beaches with her blonde hair, long legs, a Kim Kardashian backside, and a chest large enough to balance it all out perfectly.

  Benny found a spot in the Manatee Memorial Hospital lot and checked his appearance in the rearview mirror. With his hand, he tried to push his windblown hair back down, checked that his nose was clean, and popped a Tic Tac to cover his coffee breath. Reaching into the backseat, he grabbed his sports coat and slipped it on. He always found that people were more responsive to a well dressed interrogator.

  Benny decided to use one of his favorite methods of operation in which he just pretended like he was supposed to be somewhere. Most of the time, when he acted this way, people just assumed he should be there. Putting on a stern face, Benny walked right past the reception area without looking at any of the people behind the desk or giving them the chance to speak to him. He listened for a voice to call after him or the footsteps of someone in pursuit. Not hearing anything, Benny continued down the hall in search of the Behavioral Health Unit.

  After a bit of hunting, Benny finally found a sign that pointed him in the right direction. Once on the ward, he employed another of his favorite tricks. With this trick, he did not ask for permission to do something, but phrased his question in a way to get a wanted response.

  Instead of asking what room Robert Turner was in, Benny said, “Can’t remember what room Robbie Turner’s in.”

  Who you asked also made a huge difference. Benny made sure in this case to ask the youngest, least experienced looking person he could find.”

  “Um, room thirty-five,” the green nurse answered, with only the slightest bit of hesitation.

  “That’s right,” Benny said. “Thanks.”

  Benny tapped lightly and pushed the door open. A tall, skinny man stood looking out the window with his back to Benny. He didn’t move or turn to see who had entered the room. Benny shut the door behind him.

  “Am I late for group again?” Robert asked as he continued to peer out the window.

  “I hope not,” Benny said. He decided to switch to a new strategy that some found refreshing—honesty. “I snuck in here, and if they come to get you for group, the nurses are probably going to throw me out of here on my ear.”

  Robert turned around. A beard hid a sunken face. Hollow eyes stared through Benny. Benny could tell that Robert had the potential to be a handsome man, but his sorrow had taken away his will to live and his desire to eat and to care about anything other than his pain.

  “Why would anyone sneak in here to see me?”

  “Because I want to help.”

  “Everybody here wants to help me.”

  “But I’m the only one who can offer you justice.”

  “Justice won’t bring Erin back.”

  “No, it won’t.”

  “It would be nice, though. I want to kill him myself,” Robert said as tears began to fall down his face.

  “That would feel good. Sometimes a life in prison is even more painful than death, I think.”

  A nurse flew in the door and both men’s eyes darted to the door.

  “Are you OK?” she asked Robert.

  Benny saw the young nurse behind the veteran at the door and realized she must have recognized her error and decided to report the incident.

  Benny moved his mouth to speak when Robert spoke first. “I’m so sorry. I forgot to tell you my uncle was coming.”

  “Robert,” the nurse said annoyed, “you know the rules.”

  “I’m sorry,” Robert said. He wiped the tears from his face.

  “Did he upset you?” the nurse asked.

  “No.” Robert could not think of anything to say to cover for the tears.

  “I’m sorry I just rushed in,” Benny said, “but I wanted to be the first to tell Robert that he was an uncle. His brand new niece had a few complications during the delivery, but she’s out of the woods and everything is going to be just fine.”

  “Tears of joy,” Robert added.

  “That’s wonderful,” the veteran nurse said. “What’s her name?”

  At the same time, Benny said, “Polly,” and Robert said, “Fiona.”

  “They are going to call her Polly Fiona,” Benny said.

  “Or Fiona Polly I hear,” Robert said.

  “Her parents can’t decide,” Benny said.
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br />   “Both names are beautiful,” the nurse lied. “I’ll let you two celebrate this joy alone.” She hurried out the door and shut it behind her.

  As soon as she left the room, Robert bent over laughing.

  “Thanks,” Benny said. “That was a close one.”

  “Fiona Polly? Polly Fiona?” Robert said, still laughing. “Those names are horrible.”

  “I’m usually better on the fly.”

  “Oh my God,” Robert said. “I haven’t laughed like that in a long time. Thanks.”

  “My pleasure. My name is Benny James by the way.” Benny stuck out his hand and the two men shook. “Mind if we sit down for a few minutes?”

  “Sure.”

  “How long you been in here?” Benny asked.

  “A few weeks. I made it about a week at home after they found her. I was killing the pain with liquor, lots and lots of liquor. First thing I did when I woke up from my drunk the night before, was drink. I usually passed out the first time during the day around one in the afternoon and then I did it again. I hit the drinks harder on my second go around and usually most nights I made it until close to midnight. After about a week I started throwing up blood and ended up here.”

  “How long you plan on staying?”

  “I don’t know. I’m scared to leave, but I think my insurance said if I stay much longer it’s going to be on my dime.”

  “What did you do before all this happened?”

  “I own a little vintage clothing store. Mostly second hand clothes. It’s how I met Erin. She is, um, she was, really into fashion and I used to sell some of her designs. I sold them as fast as she could make them. She was incredibly talented.”

  Robert told Benny all about Erin’s desires to make her mark in the fashion world. He told Benny all about her stack of sketchbooks filled with enough designs to produce different lines of clothes for years.

  “I have a partner who was helping her make some of the clothes since she couldn’t keep up.”

  “Why don’t you use that as your motivation to get out of here?”

  “You mean take her ideas?”

  “No. I’m not telling you to steal her ideas. Get permission from her parents to keep the sketchbooks and continue on in her memory. Tell her parents you want to do this in her memory and that you will take a portion of the proceeds and set up some sort of charity in her name—maybe give some of the profits to a victims’ fund.”