Shannon bit her lip. It was getting numb from all the biting. She nodded. She was glad he was being careful.
She held her breath as Jack clenched his fist and knocked on the door. A rather heavy woman opened the door. She was wearing a flowery dress and sunglasses. She was holding a baby in her arms. She smiled.
“Yes?”
Chapter Seventy-Eight
February 2015
“Well, hello there, Officer Jack,” the woman said.
I stared at her. She looked like Mrs. Hampton, but how could it be? I had only seen her a few times at the motel, but I was pretty sure it was her. But, who was the baby in her arms? It looked an awful lot like Sebastian Schultz…
What the heck was going on?
I was confused, but one thing I did know for certain. Something was very wrong here. My hand resting on the handle of my gun tightened its grip. I really didn’t want to have to pull my gun and endanger the life of the child in her arms and whoever else was in the room behind her.
“I had a feeling you might stop by,” she said. The baby in her arms burst into tears. The woman tried to comfort her. As she moved her arm, I spotted a gun underneath her dress. She pulled it out and held it to the child’s head. Shannon gasped behind me.
“Lose the gun, Officer, or the kid dies.”
I pulled it out and placed it on the ground. Mrs. Hampton picked it up. “Now, get in here,” she said. “Hands were I can see them.”
We both put our hands behind our necks and walked inside the motel room. Mrs. Hampton closed the door behind us and locked it.
“Mommy!”
Angela ran towards Shannon and threw herself in her arms. Shannon was shaking heavily as she held her daughter in her arms. Tears were streaming across her face. Angela’s hair had been colored and cut short.
“Where were you, Mommy? I couldn’t find you.”
“I was looking for you, sweetie. And now I found you. I’m so happy to have found you.”
“Mommy, the man has a gun,” she said.
I turned and looked at Mrs. Hampton. She put the baby down, then removed her sunglasses. Looking into her chilly black eyes, I immediately recognized who was hiding behind them.
It was Brandon Bennett.
“You?”
“Yes, me, Officer Jack Ryder. Thanks for all the help with my suitcases, by the way. You sure are helpful to a lady. Especially when the suitcases are as heavy as dead body weight.”
I felt sick to my stomach. “You had them in the suitcases, didn’t you? Your victims? You had Melanie and Sebastian Schultz in the suitcases?”
“I like my women light,” he said with a grin, as the wig came off. “But, no. I would never do that to a child. Will here was always with me.”
Brandon Bennett handed the baby a pacifier to make him calm. Sebastian Schultz stopped crying and sucked eagerly on the pacifier. He found a block that he started playing with. He seemed like he was well fed and had been well taken care of. I couldn’t believe it.
“What’s going on, Dad?” It was Ben. He came out from the restroom.
“We have visitors,” Brandon Bennett said. “You remember Detective Jack Ryder, right?”
Ben nodded and sat on the bed. I wondered if he knew what his dad had been up to lately.
Brandon Bennett took off the dress and zipped down his fat suit. “Boy, it gets warm in these things,” he said. “Son, could you help me a little?” Ben got up and helped his dad get out of the female body suit. Brandon made sure to still be pointing his gun at us while getting out. Underneath, he was wearing a shirt and pants. His sweat had left marks under the armpits of his light blue shirt. He picked up a fake moustache and put it on. It looked awfully real.
“I must admit,” he said. “I was tempted to finish you off at the parking lot, while I had the chance. But I was hoping you would follow me here. You see, Officer, we have a lot to talk about. Now, please sit down.”
He pointed the gun at two chairs he had placed in the middle of the room, back to back. Shannon and I looked at one another. There was no way around it. We had to do as he told us. For the children’s sake. We sat down with our backs to each other and Brandon Bennett grabbed a roll of duct tape and started taping us to the chairs, then taping my hands in front of me, putting tape on my wrists.
“They always do this in the movies,” he said, grinning.
“You watch way too much TV,” I said.
“Well, that’s what happens when your wife inherits millions. You don’t have to work. There isn’t much to do when you don’t have to work, is there? Well, I could go out and have an affair like so many other men, but my wife beat me to it, didn’t she? Ah, you know all about that, Officer Jack.”
“I know some,” I said, thinking about Tom. Had Brandon Bennett killed his wife because she slept with Tom?
“Yeah, but there is a lot you don’t know.”
“Like what? Tell me. Explain all this to me,” I said.
“Please, sir. Please don’t tie up my mother,” Angela said. “Don’t hurt her. She’s a good mother. I promise you.”
“NO!” Brandon yelled. “No, she is not a good mother!” His hand was shaking as he pointed the gun at Shannon’s head.
Angela cried. “Please. Please, don’t hurt her.”
“She’s about to ruin everything,” he yelled so hard spit was flying. “She needs to understand that when you fool around you DESTROY lives. Children’s lives. Husband’s lives. Everything falls apart. Everything.”
I was starting to see a picture. “Your mother cheated, didn’t she?” I asked Brandon. “She cheated on you and your father? She hurt you. Both of you. Is that why you hurt Melanie? Is that why you hurt Laura? Because they were cheating? Did you hurt your mother as well?”
Brandon looked at me. His nostrils were flaring rapidly. He looked like a madman. It terrified me.
“I made her stay with me,” he said, his voice cracking. “She hurt us, so I hurt her so she couldn’t leave us. I made her stay with me. I made her love me.”
“Just like you did to Laura and Melanie. You killed your mother, but it didn’t satisfy your need, your desire; it didn’t make the pain go away. So now, you keep killing her over and over again. Starting with Janelle, your girlfriend.”
Brandon Bennett stared at me, pointing the gun at my face. His anger turned into a smile.
“I’ve been looking forward to having this little chat with you, Officer Jack Ryder,” he said. “Or should I say, Detective? Yes, you have come far in your career, haven’t you? Homicide detective. Just like your old man. Before he retired and became a motel owner.”
I froze. What was this? How did he know about my dad? He had been a detective back in Ft. Lauderdale, but that was many years ago. He had retired early.
“How do you know about my father?” I asked.
“Ah, you don’t know, do you? Let’s just say I bumped into him once…in my apartment. What was he doing there? Oh, yes, that’s right. He was doing MY MOTHER!”
Chapter Seventy-Nine
February 2015
I couldn’t believe my own ears. Was he really saying what I thought he was? My dad? My father? Albert Ryder? Cheating on his wife of forty years? No. It couldn’t be. I was shocked. My mother and father were so into each other. They loved each other; they would never…he would never.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Brandon Bennett continued. “Your beloved father slept with my mother and destroyed my entire existence. Why do you think I chose his motel? Why do you think you’re sitting here?”
“So, you’re doing this to me because of my dad?” I asked. “You want to kill me?”
Brandon Bennett laughed loudly. “Oh, I have something better in mind. You see, I have already done something to you.”
My heart dropped. I thought about the children. Abigail, Austin, Emily. Had he hurt them somehow? Then, I thought about my parents. Had he hurt my parents? The blood was rushing through my veins. My anger was rising at the very thought of him being
close to anyone in my family.
Brandon Bennett reached into his pocket and pulled out something. He held it between his fingers in front of my face. My heart stopped.
It was a ring. A very special ring.
“How did you get that?” I asked, trying to get out of the chair.
“I took it off her finger,” he said, holding it up in the light. “As a souvenir. After I killed her back in 2012.”
I went completely numb. Every cell in my body screamed in pain. “You killed her? You killed Arianna?”
Brandon Bennett’s eyes shone when he looked at me. “Yes. Isn’t it beautiful? Your dad destroyed my family, and now I have destroyed his. You and your kids have been miserable without her. And now you know why she never came back. She was on her way, though. I found her in North Carolina. She wanted to come back to you; she told her friend at the diner where she had worked for a couple of months while figuring her life out. She told her friend she was going back to Cocoa Beach the following week to be with her husband and children…that she had been thinking it through and realized what she had. That she loved you and the kids, but just needed some time. Isn’t it perfect? I grabbed her in her studio, sedated her, and took her to the motel. To your father’s motel. I kept her there for a week before I strangled her in the bathtub. I sedated her, then when she woke up, I let her watch her children come and go from the window. The desperation on her face was priceless. She whimpered when she could hear their little voices. Oh, how badly she wanted to be with them again. I sedated her with chloroform and washed her every night. Washed her with bleach to clean the impurity from the other man she had slept with. I even sang to her. You want to know what I sang?”
I couldn’t even answer. I wanted to scream; I wanted to yell, but I couldn’t. I was too stunned, too torn apart in pain and sorrow. I could hardly breathe.
“You really can’t guess it? I sang Hit the Road, Jack, of course,” he said, and laughed. “No, seriously. I did you a favor there. She was sleeping around. Would have made you so miserable if she had ever come back to you. Once a cheater always a cheater.”
If I hadn’t been tied down, I would have killed him on the spot. The cruelty of what he had done felt like a kick in the stomach. I had no more words. Shannon was crying next to me.
“You sick bastard,” she yelled at him.
Brandon Bennett walked to her and knelt in front of her. He stroked her cheek. I could sense how she shivered in terror and anger.
“I know Joe didn’t treat you right,” he said. “But that’s not an excuse for sleeping around like some WHORE!”
Shannon jumped when he yelled at her. Angela cried. I tried to gather my thoughts. I kept picturing Arianna. It hurt so badly inside of me, knowing she had been so close, knowing I could have saved her, had I only known she was right there, right in that room where I walked past every day when picking up the children from the school bus. Arianna hadn’t left me and stayed away. She had wanted to come back. She had been planning on it. Oh, the terror of knowing this. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to live with that knowledge.
“Now,” Brandon Bennett said, and looked at us. “I have to figure out what to do with the two of you. The kids and I have to go, you see. We’re flying out tonight from Ft. Lauderdale to Grand Cayman, where all this nice money is waiting for us, and where no one can reach us. We might stay there, we might continue to another island, who knows? At least the kids will be safe from their parents and all their crap. But first, I have to get rid of her,” he said, and pointed the gun at Shannon. “Jack, I’ll let you live. I need you to remember what I did to you for every day for the rest of your life. I need you to tell your father what he did and what I did in return. Otherwise, it will all be in vain, right?”
I had stopped looking at him. Instead, my eyes had locked with those of Ben. Something had stirred inside of him. I looked at my gun on the dresser, where Brandon had put it, then back at Ben, who now saw it too.
Chapter Eighty
February 2015
“IT ENDS HERE, DAD.”
The gun in Ben’s hands was shaking heavily. So was his voice when he spoke.
Brandon Bennett turned around and looked at his son, who was pointing the gun at him. My gun. I had no idea if the kid had ever held one in his hands before, let alone fired one. Would he be able to fire at his dad if he had to? I wasn’t so sure. He was, after all, just five years old.
“Ben? What the…? What are you doing, buddy? We’re a team, remember? You and me?”
Ben shook his head. He was sweating heavily. “Not any more, Dad. You killed Mom. I can’t let this go on anymore. It’s not right, Dad. What we’re doing is not right.”
Brandon Bennett was getting angry now. He took a couple of steps towards his son. Ben walked backwards.
“I will shoot you,” Ben said.
Brandon Bennett stopped when he saw the seriousness in his son’s eyes. “Give me the gun,” he said. “Hand it over. Ben, you listen to me, Son. I don’t want to hurt you. Not again, Son.”
Ben started crying now. I could tell he was about to cave. He couldn’t stand up to his father. At least, I thought he couldn’t, but a new strength suddenly showed in him. He was crying, but also snorting in anger.
“You killed Mom,” he said. “You told me you were asleep. You told me you didn’t see who did it. You lied to me, Dad. You killed her. I just heard you say you did. And other women. You killed them too. They were somebody’s mom, Dad. I don’t care what Mom did to you. She’s still my mom.”
“Don’t make me shoot you, Ben,” Brandon Bennett yelled. “I will if I have to, Son.”
The two of them were pointing their guns at each other. This was a bad situation. I feared it would end very badly.
Meanwhile, I had made eye contact with Angela and signaled her to come closer. To get out of the shooting range, in case shots were fired. She walked silently behind Brandon Bennett without him noticing it and hid behind a recliner. I put my hands high above my head and came down past my hips, causing the duct tape to split and my hands to get free.
“You always were an ungrateful kid. A real mommy’s boy, huh? Well, I can get by without you.”
This was going in the wrong direction.
I reached down and grabbed the duct tape on my feet and ripped it off, then sprang for Brandon’s back, just as he fired a shot towards Ben.
Shannon screamed and so did Angela, while Sebastian cried from his play area on the floor. I landed on top of Brandon Bennett. The fall made the gun fly out of his hand. I threw in a couple of punches to his face and knocked him out immediately. Being an amateur boxer in my teen-years, I knew exactly how to do that to make sure he wouldn’t get up anytime soon. Then I rushed towards Ben, who was on the floor in a pool of blood. Angela helped her mother get loose. Ben’s small body was pulsing and he was shivering with cold already. I took off my T-shirt and tried to stop the blood with it, then screamed for Shannon to call 911.
“Don’t leave us, Ben,” I cried. “Stay here. Stay with us.”
Epilogue
March 2015
It was a beautiful funeral ceremony at Club Zion, our local church, where Ben used to come with his mother. We were singing hymns. Shannon stood by my side, along with all of our kids and my parents. I couldn’t believe all that had happened in the past couple of months. I still hadn’t recuperated from what Brandon Bennett had told me about my father and Arianna. I hadn’t asked my mother about any of it, whether she knew my dad had cheated or not. I decided to let it go. It was, after all, none of my business. They seemed to be doing well now and loved each other dearly. That was all I needed to know. I had decided to leave it all behind me and move on. Even Arianna.
Pastor Daniel took the stage.
“We’re gathered here today to say goodbye to Ben…” The pastor paused. All eyes were on him.
“…’s right arm.”
I looked at Ben, who was standing in front of the church with his dog on one
side and his grandfather in a wheelchair on the other. He had lost his arm, where his dad had shot him. The boy had been depressed for days afterwards while lying in the hospital, even when his grandfather had brought him the dog. Nothing seemed to cheer him up. So, I had come up with the idea of performing a ceremony for his arm in the church, a funeral, where he could say goodbye to it. I got the idea from one of my favorite movies, Fried Green Tomatoes.
Ben had loved it, and luckily, my good friend and surf buddy, Pastor Daniel, liked the idea as well. I was happy to soothe things a little for the poor kid. He was about to leave town to go live with his aunt, the oldest of John Platt’s children. She had told us she would take care of him, even though she hadn’t known Laura at all.
“Family sticks together no matter what, right?” she had said when we contacted her, telling her Ben had no one else.
I felt reassured she would take good care of him. She had a husband and another kid of her own. She would provide a real family for Ben. And he needed a stable home more than anyone right now.
Brandon Bennett had been taken to a secure prison, while awaiting his trial. I was building a case against him that, hopefully, would end up keeping him in there for the rest of his life. I had, little by little, found out what he had been up to. How he had done it. He had stolen an Animal Control van many years ago, down in Ft. Lauderdale. We found the report from when it was reported stolen. He had used it to spy on the women he planned on attacking. We had found snakes at his father’s house, and my theory was that he had used them to get access to these women’s houses. He had simply let the snakes into their garages, and then appeared on their doorsteps and told them he was from Animal Control. No one suspected a van from Animal Control when parked in a driveway or on the street. I still didn’t know exactly how many women he had killed, but he had taken pictures of his victims with his phone, and that told an entire story of its own.
My first thought was I hoped that he would get the death penalty, but now I hoped he would just suffer for the rest of his life, knowing what he had done. It was a much worse fate than death. Besides, the death penalty was very rarely used in Florida.