The Edge

Chapter 72

As Devine and Alex were driving back to Putnam through the rain Devine said, “I think I should come and stay with you, at least for a while.”

“Why?”

“It’s a big house, and with Dak not being there and all...” He didn’t want to come out and tell her that he believed her life was in danger, but Dak was right: Benjamin Bing had every incentive to kill her.

“Are you going to tell me what my brother and his friend were doing at that outbuilding when they were shot? And what were you doing there?”

“The source of the money your brother has been using to invest in the town? It’s not partners from Boston.”

“What, then?”

“He’s been dealing illegally.”

“Oh please God, not drugs.”

“No. In elvers.”

“In what?” she said, her brow furrowing.

“Glass eels, which are apparently worth a ton of money.”

“He’s been selling eels? You’re joking, right?”

“I take it you know nothing about the illicit eel trade?”

“I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”

“Well, it is a thing. And I’ve left it up to the local police to sort it out. But if I were a betting man, I don’t think Harper will give him too tough a time. Dak broke the law and I can’t condone that. But his intentions were good, mostly.”

“Do you think that’s why he was shot? Are there, I don’t know, rival gangs in the eel business?”

“No, I don’t think that was it.”

“What, then?”

“I don’t know for sure, and until I do, I really don’t want to say.”

She sighed. “Well, thanks for telling me about Dak.”

“And what about me staying at Jocelyn Point?”

“If you want to, that’s fine.” She hesitated. “But I’m not sure we can... you know?”

He touched her arm. “That is not why I want to stay at Jocelyn Point. Your brother was just shot, and for all I know someone has a beef against your family. So I’d like to be close by in case they come back.”

“Do you really think someone is so mad at my family that they’d do that?”

“It’s amazing what people are capable of given the right motivation.” He paused and studied her. “Do you know how to shoot a gun?”

She leaned away from him at this blunt segue. “No! Why?”

“I can teach you. I have a spare pistol.”

“No, I don’t want that. I hate guns.”

He nodded slowly. “Okay, but I want you to have something to defend yourself with.” He glanced at her. “As an artist and sculptress you must have excellent hand strength, as well as good hand-eye coordination and finger dexterity.”

“So? Do you want me to gouge an attacker in the eye with a paintbrush?”

“Not a paintbrush.” From under the sun visor he slipped out a knife in a leather sheath.

She looked at the weapon. “I don’t like—”

“You don’t have to like it, Alex. You just have to use it, if necessary.”

He pulled off the road, unsheathed the knife, and then made a straight stabbing motion with it. “Into the belly, two inches above the navel, up to the hilt.” At the end of the thrust he twisted the knife to the left and right, and then upward. “They won’t hurt you after that.”

“I can’t possibly—”

He sheathed the knife and made her take it. “You have no idea what you’re capable of until you need to be capable of it. You have one life, Alex — don’t let anyone take it away from you without a fight.”

He drove back to Jocelyn Point.

“Can I catch a few hours’ sleep here before I head out?” he said.

“Of course. I have some things to do around the house. You can sleep in my bed. It’s a lot cleaner than Dak’s.”

Three hours later his phone alarm went off. Devine rose and found Alex in the kitchen.

He said, “I’ve been invited to dinner tonight. I don’t like leaving you, I really don’t. But my instincts are telling me it’s important. Now, keep the knife with you at all times, lock all the doors, and do not go to your studio. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Anything looks or feels weird, and I mean anything, call the cops and then call me. I’ll be here in a flash.”

On his way back to the inn, Campbell phoned him.

“Benjamin Bing was in the Army for eleven years. Enlisted. Topped out an E6.”

“He was still a staff sergeant after eleven years?”

“His career plateaued. He was not going to move higher than that. Disciplinary problems. Hotheaded. Unmanageable. Those were some terms I found in his file.”

“Why’d he leave?”

“I had to dig deep to find it. He was stalking a woman who lived near the base where he was deployed. There were some communications, written, that went way, way over the line. There was also some vandalism at the woman’s apartment, and a man that she was seeing was attacked and severely beaten. But he couldn’t identify his attacker.”

“How young was the woman?”

“A freshman in college.”

“So the Army cut him loose to go stalking and beating up other boyfriends?”

“They didn’t want the headache. You know how that works.”

“So Mister Angry and Perverted comes back here to become police chief. Great. How’d he get the Purple?”

“He was shot in the ass. Seems to have been friendly fire. It was just a graze. He was in and out of the hospital in a day or two.”

“And he wears it for everyone to see, the son of a bitch. Anything else?”

“Yes, and it might be the most important. While an E6, he successfully completed the Army Sniper School course.”

“How the hell did a guy with his record and temperament qualify for Sniper School?”

“Apparently the dings on his record came after his acceptance there. And there’s something else.”

“What?” said Devine sharply.

“I found a recommendation letter in his file from a VIP. It might have helped carry the day on his acceptance into Sniper School.”

“Who from?” asked Devine, even though he had a pretty good idea.

“Then congressman and military hero Curtis Silkwell.”

“Okay,” said Devine.

“So what are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to dinner.”

“Dinner?” said a surprised Campbell. “Where? And with whom?”

“With Françoise Guillaume. At the Bing mansion. At Françoise’s invitation.”

“Devine, you might be walking into a trap.”

“I’m sort of counting on it.”