The Zero Night

28

Serena pulled off the highway near the railroad tracks in Proctor. Not far away, a freight train rattled northwest out of town, its cars piled high with taconite. Graffiti was scrawled on the metal walls. A stiff, cold breeze blew rain across her windshield, and the rust-colored ground near the tracks was thick with mud and pools of water. Power lines drooped overhead. Almost a hundred yards away, a group of three teenagers hiked between the tracks.

From where she was, Serena had a clear vantage on Ben Larsen’s auto repair shop. It wasn’t a large business, just a white garage with a set of three oversized doors, all of which were open. Cars, rusted trailers, and empty semitrucks were parked around the lot. With a pair of binoculars, Serena could see Ben and another mechanic working inside the garage underneath a dark-green sedan. She’d bought a sandwich in town, and she ate her lunch and waited.

Shortly after two o’clock, she saw Ben take a phone call. A couple of minutes later, he climbed behind the wheel of his F-150. He had a flatbed trailer hitched behind it. As he drove out to the highway, Serena ducked down in the Mustang so that he wouldn’t see her. When the truck was out of sight, she jogged across the street, then hiked up the dirt lot toward the garage. She didn’t know how much time she had before Ben returned.

When she’d first investigated Nikki’s death, she’d been certain that Delaney was keeping things from her. Now she felt the same way about Ben Larsen.

She strolled into the open garage through a curtain of rain pouring from the roof. A handsome black man, probably in his midtwenties, worked below the green Dodge that was elevated by the car lift. He was dressed in blue coveralls and had earbuds in his ears. His head bobbed rhythmically as he worked, and he didn’t hear Serena call out to him. She had to touch his shoulder to get his attention, and when she did, he jumped in surprise.

He popped the earbuds out of his ears and let them dangle down his shirt. “Sorry. Didn’t see you there.”

“That’s okay.”

“What can I do for you? You got a car that needs some work?”

“No, it’s not that.” Serena showed him her badge and introduced herself. “Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?”

“Well, you probably want the owner if you’ve got questions. That’s Mr. Larsen. He just left. He’s picking up a car in Cloquet, so I imagine he’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“Actually, I was hoping you could tell me more about Mr. Larsen,” Serena said.

The young man frowned. He had short black hair and a trimmed beard, and he had the tall, lean build of a runner. She noticed that he was wearing a name tag on his coveralls that read: leon.

“Not sure I’m too comfortable with that,” Leon admitted. “I don’t like talking behind anybody’s back, you know?”

“I understand that. Anything you can tell me would help a lot. Have you worked for Ben long?”

“Five years. Since I got out of high school. That’s the thing, I like the job. I don’t want to mess that up.”

“Sure. I’m really just gathering background information. I’m working on a cold case from a couple of years ago, and I’m talking to everybody who knew the victim.”

“Victim?”

“A shooting death,” Serena said.

Leon scratched his nose with a greasy hand. “Well, shit, okay. I don’t want to mess around with that. I mean, if you think I can help, ask away.”

Serena glanced around at the interior of the garage. The concrete floor was stained with oil, and even with the doors open, it smelled of gasoline. She saw stacks of old tires and a long worktable at the back lined with tools and parts. Three others cars were parked inside in various stages of repair.

“You must know Ben pretty well after five years,” she said. “What’s he like?”

Leon shrugged. “Ben’s Ben. He has his opinions about things. I have mine.”

“Do you know Ben’s son, Zach?”

“Oh, sure. Before he went to college, Zach was in here all the time. I like the kid.”

“How do Ben and Zach get along?” Serena asked.

Leon rolled his eyes. “Ben’s pretty much the same as a boss or a daddy. He likes things done his way, and if you don’t measure up, he’ll let you hear about it. Ben was an athlete in school, so he figured Zach should be an athlete, too. But Zach isn’t cut out for that. Big and strong, but kinda clumsy, you know? Ben always thought it was because Zach didn’t try hard enough, and he’d ride the kid pretty hard.”

“Zach used to have a girlfriend,” Serena said.

Leon nodded. “You bet. Delaney.”

“You know her?”

“Oh, yeah. She’d come to the garage with Zach a lot. Ben liked to put Zach to work on the cars, and Delaney would hang out in the back and do her homework. She’s a brainiac. Really cute, too. Zach was crazy about her.”

“They broke up. Did you hear about that?”

“Yeah. It was pretty sudden. I never heard why.”

“Did Zach talk about it?”

“He said Delaney broke it off. That’s all I heard. I was surprised. I always thought Delaney liked Zach as much as Zach liked her. But teenagers are weird, huh?”

Serena eased smoothly into her next question. “What about Ben? What did he think about Zach dating Delaney?”

Leon glanced nervously through the open garage door, as if making sure Ben wasn’t standing there watching him. Without answering, he went to the counter at the back of the garage and grabbed an open can of Dr Pepper. He took a drink, wiped his mouth, and came back.

“Leon?” Serena asked. “What did Ben think about Delaney?”

“I guess Ben liked her okay.”

“Is that all?”

“I’m not sure what you want.”

“It sounds like Delaney spent a lot of time with Zach’s family. They went on trips together. She was over at their house. She was here at the garage. I’m wondering what Ben had to say about his son’s girlfriend.”

Leon scratched his nose. He checked his watch and studied the undercarriage of the car over his head. Anything to avoid answering her question.

“Come on, Leon,” Serena murmured. “Talk to me.”

“Hey, look. I like Ben. He pays me pretty well. He doesn’t dump a lot of racist shit on me. That’s why I stick around.”

“I get that, but this is important.”

Leon’s face contorted unhappily. “Ben and Delaney... I don’t know, he was just weird about her.”

Serena frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, shit, you know how men are. I’m not going to pretend I don’t notice when a girl’s got it going on. But Delaney was Zach’s girlfriend. Plus, she was what? Fourteen? Fifteen? Some of the things Ben said about her, I just couldn’t believe it.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Like talking about what kind of a hot body she had. Going on to me about whether I thought Zach was banging her. Talking about how she made him wish he was sixteen again. It was just creepy, creepy shit. Dads don’t talk about their son’s girlfriend that way, you know? And then one time—”

Leon stopped.

“Yes?” Serena prompted him.

“Well, one time, Zach and Delaney walked over to the garage from school. Delaney had been in gym class and hadn’t had time to change or shower or anything. So Ben was like, use the shower in back, go for it, no problem. I could tell Delaney didn’t want to, but Ben would not let it go. Kept pushing it and pushing it. So finally Delaney went in the office and took a shower just to shut him up. The thing is, after she changed her clothes, she forgot her backpack in there. So later — I mean, this is just too weird — later, Ben went into the office to get it for her, and when he did, he swiped her panties.”

Serena did a double take. “He did what?”

“Yeah! He just took them. The next day he was showing them off to me like he was fucking proud of it.”

Serena felt a sinking feeling deep in the pit of her stomach. “Did Delaney know about this?”

“About her underwear disappearing? How could she not?”

“What about Zach?”

“I don’t know. Not unless Delaney told him. Ben didn’t usually talk about Delaney in front of Zach. He saved that shit for me.”

“The breakup between Zach and Delaney,” Serena went on sharply. “Do you think it had something to do with Ben?”

Leon shook his head. “No idea. Zach said he didn’t know why Delaney dumped him.”

“What about Ben? Did he say anything?”

“Not a word. Zach would be crying about her, and Ben would tell him to shut up and grow a pair. He never talked about Delaney after that.”

Serena frowned. “Did you ever meet Delaney’s mother?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Did Delaney or Zach talk about her? Or did Ben?”

“Not that I recall.”

Serena slid her phone out of her pocket. She opened up her photos and found a picture of Nikki from the police file. It was the photograph of Nikki and Delaney together, and she enlarged the pic so that the focus was on Nikki’s face. She showed the phone screen to Leon.

“Do you recognize this woman?” she asked.

He squinted at the photo. At first, he looked ready to say no, but then he stopped and took a second look. “Oh, her. Yeah, that’s her. That’s the one.”

“Who?”

“The woman who had the big argument with Ben,” Leon said.

“When was this?”

“I don’t know. A while ago. She came into the garage white-hot mad and went after Ben. I mean, she went after him. She hit his face so hard she drew blood. Ben pulled her into the office and shut the door, and the two of them started screaming at each other.”

“Could you hear what it was about?”

“No, but it got so bad I called the cops.”

“You called the police?” Serena asked.

“Yeah. I was afraid she was going to kill him. Anyway, they were in there for a while, and then it got real quiet, and the woman stormed out and left, didn’t say anything else. Ben came out, and I told him the police were on their way, and he swore and said what did I do that for. He said she was just an unhappy customer, a drunk, it was no big deal.”

“Did the police come?”

Leon nodded. “Yeah, and Ben told him it was nothing. He blamed me. Said I overreacted, and it was all a misunderstanding. He told them he didn’t want to get the woman in any trouble and asked if they could forget about the whole thing. The cop was a bowling buddy of Ben’s, so he let it slide. That was that.”

Serena held up the photo of Nikki again. “And you’re sure this is the woman?”

“I’m sure.”

“All right. Thank you, Leon. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention our conversation to Ben.”

Leon looked relieved to be able to keep it to himself. “Whatever you say.”

Her emotions churning, Serena left the garage and walked back into the heavy rain. She was thinking about Nikki, thinking about Delaney, and thinking about Samantha. She was thinking about daughters protecting mothers and mothers protecting daughters.

In the Mustang, it didn’t take her long to retrieve the details of a 911 call in Proctor two years earlier at the location of Larsen Auto Repair. Ben was mentioned by name; the woman was unidentified. The resolution of the incident was written up simply as: Customer assault. Owner declined to press charges.

Serena was more concerned about the date of the altercation.

Nikki Candis had confronted Ben Larsen on a Wednesday afternoon. Two days later, she was dead.