Chapter Thirty-Nine
Ben scrambled back to his car and peeled out, leaving a patch of rubber on the pavement. He rushed around the corner and down the three blocks toward the restaurant. When he pulled up, he took out his phone, and called Vanessa.
“Hey, can you meet me outside, there’s been a slight change of plan,” he said, his tone noticeably shaken up.
Vanessa exited the restaurant with a concerned look on her face. When she got in the car, she saw that Ben had been beaten up.
“Honey, what happened?” she asked with great concern. She attempted to touch his face, but he pulled back.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, I was just mugged,” he replied.
“Oh my gosh, Ben, are you being serious!?” she said in a panicked tone. “We need to call the police?”
“No, I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“It wasn’t random, Vanessa,” Ben said mournfully. “It was payback.”
“Was it those two men from the university?”
“No, this was someone else. You know how I told you I used the contents of the manuscript to acquire some money?”
“Yeah, you told me you placed bets on the Grey Cup and the stock market, and that nobody was hurt. Was that not true?”
“That’s all true, but it’s not the whole story. You see, in order for me to make the kind of money I made on those bets, I needed to already have a bit of money, which I didn’t. When I moved out here, I was completely broke and desperate. I had nothing to lose and was willing to do some crazy things to get by. If I did not do what I did, I would have lost the house and Kyle would not have been able to afford school. I didn’t want to do that to him, I felt like I owed him. I’m not making any excuses for what I did; I just want to paint the proper context of the situation.”
“Ben, what did you do?”
“There was a man who robbed the bank on 12th Avenue… you may have heard about it on the news. Well, I happened to be there that day and I watched him do it. When he came out, I didn’t know what to do so I followed him. We coincidentally rode the same bus home, but when my stop came up, I didn’t get off. I continued to follow the robber back to his house. After several hours had passed, I returned and took the money from him.”
“How did you take the money from him?”
“I dressed all in black, snuck into his house, and tied him up. I then searched his room until I found the stash.”
“I can’t believe you did that, Ben.”
“I know, it was really stupid and I was much more opportunistic at the time.”
“So he must have seen your face, that’s why he came after you.”
“Yeah, he said he recognized me, but I denied it. I asked him how much money he wanted to make this problem go away and he told me twenty thousand.”
“Twenty thousand dollars! Ben, that’s a lot of money… do you have that kind of money?”
“I can pay him the money, but he took my ID so he knows where I live. If ever he wanted more money from me, which seems likely, he could return at any time and demand payment. Even if I’m not home, he could come in and hurt you. I can’t allow that to happen.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“The only thing I can do.”
Ben and Vanessa rushed to Ben’s house, hoping the robber would not be there waiting for him. Despite giving Ben until the end of the week to make the payment, Ben did not want to take any chances on the robber changing his mind. He and Vanessa ran into the house and quickly grabbed everything of value. Fortunately, there was not a lot. He did not own anything that could not be replaced. Ben went upstairs and packed some clothes and a little bit of money he had stashed in his room, while Vanessa grabbed his flash drive and some food. They put everything into his backpack and then left the house. They were in and out within five minutes.
They did not tell anyone they were leaving. Of course, Ben did not have anyone to tell, and Vanessa lived alone so no one would notice her absence. Depending on how long they planned to stay in Cold Lake, she figured she would have to come back to Calgary at some point. With a full tank of gas, they hit the highway, heading Northeast.
When they got out of the city, Vanessa reclined her chair, and put her feet up on the dash.
“You don’t mind, do you?” she asked.
“No, not at all, make yourself comfortable. We have a long drive ahead of us.”
“Do you think we’re doing the right thing?” Vanessa asked, having last-minute doubts.
“Given the alternatives, this is our best course of action.”
“Yeah, I think leaving town is the safest play, but why go back to Cold Lake?”
“It’s the only place I know, plus Kyle is there.”
“Do they have a Wal-Mart?”
Ben laughed. “No, unfortunately there’s no Wal-Mart, but there’s a Ray’s Superstore!”