“He was the police chief back when you were attacked. I was just wondering what you thought of him, how he handled things.”
“I don’t remember dealing with him directly. Chief Harper was a sergeant then, I believe, and they had other officers, too, but my family mostly dealt with Harper.”
“How about before you were attacked? Anything with Bing?”
“I’d see him in the little Christmas parade we have every year. My father knew him quite well. It was a political friendship, I gathered. I do recall that one of the boys I went to high school with stole a car for a joyride and wrecked it while Bing was chasing him. The story was Bing pulled the boy out of the car and...”
“And what?” prompted Devine.
“Well, beat him up.”
“How did his parents take that?”
“They sided with the chief. They thought Tim deserved to be taught a lesson. It was so unfair. He only stole that car to take a girl for a ride. And if Bing hadn’t been chasing him, none of that would have happened.”
“How do you know Tim wanted to take a girl for a ride?”
Alex blushed and rubbed the condensation off her glass. “We were sort of seeing each other then. Nothing serious. We were only fifteen. Well, he was sixteen. I was always the youngest in the class.”
“Because of your late birthday and the fact that you skipped a grade.” She looked at him in surprise. “Your mother told me, with a lot of pride in her voice. She said something like ‘not even Jenny managed to do that.’”
Alex looked down and didn’t comment.
“Did Bing know you and Tim were... dating?”
“It’s a small town, Travis. Everyone knows your business. But why is this important?”
“Benjamin Bing hasn’t been seen in Florida in about two weeks.”
“So?” she said.
“So that means he could be up here.”
“Why would he be in Maine as opposed to Florida? In the winter?”
“He could have been up here when Jenny was killed, when I was shot at, and when Earl was killed.”
“Wait, you think Bing did those things?”
“It’s possible.”
“But what would be his motive? Why would he want to kill Jenny?”
“Jenny was up here on unfinished business.”
“But that was about what happened to me, so...” She paused, her eyes becoming rigid, her gaze fixed.
For one awful moment Devine thought she was going to have another episode. And part of me hopes she does and names Benjamin Bing as her rapist.
“You actually think Benjamin Bing attacked me?” said Alex incredulously.
Devine looked around at the other patrons and said, “Let’s keep it between us, okay? No need to let others in on this.”
“I’m... I’m sorry. I just can’t comprehend what you’re saying.”
“Look, it wouldn’t be the first time a cop went bad. And he chases down and beats up your boyfriend? What are the odds? And then your rape kit goes missing? He would have had unfettered access to that. And then the Palmers? What if they saw him fleeing a minute before they found you?”
“There’s no proof of that.”
“Actually, there is. Or at least the Palmers seeing someone that night.” He went on to explain to Alex about Jenny having pulled the satellite footage showing the car, and Steve and Valerie Palmer crossing paths with another car right around the time of the attack on her.
“But then why didn’t they report it?” she said, looking distraught.
“They were having money problems. Maybe they were putting the squeeze on him. Frederic Bing Sr. was an early disciple of Warren Buffett. They could afford to pay so their good name would not be dragged through the mud. And Benjamin was the police chief. The Palmers might have been afraid to go up against him. And they had no real proof. But then Jenny comes up here looking for the truth and he gets wind of it? He has to nip that in the bud.”
“That sounds very far-fetched. And what about Earl? You said someone killed him. What possible reason would Benjamin Bing have to kill Earl?”
“Because he got Earl to pretend to find your sister’s body, and was probably afraid he would have a change of heart.”
She looked gobsmacked. “How would he get Earl to lie about finding Jenny’s body?”
“That one I haven’t figured out yet,” Devine conceded. “But you remember nothing else with Bing? Nothing that would show he might have been infatuated with you?”
“No, that’s gross. He’s my father’s age.”
“He was only forty-five when you were attacked.”
“I wasn’t even sixteen!” she said heatedly, drawing stares from some of the customers.
“I don’t want to believe he was interested in you that way.” He gripped her hand. “But if he was, Alex, it was his issue, not yours.”
“But I’m the one suffering.”
“Yes, you are,” said Devine. “But I will help you in any way I can, to get through this.”
Chapter 64
He drove her back to Jocelyn Point. They went out to the art studio where Alex had told him she needed to work on a painting for a client that was due to be shipped out soon. He watched her work away as the night fell more deeply around them. Her movements were fluid, her concentration complete. Devine had seen that level of intensity before.
Me, in combat.
“What’s that look for?”
He came out of his musings to find her staring at him as she cleaned off a brush.
“Admiration for your obvious skills,” he said.
“You’re such a sweet talker,” she cracked.
“It’s sincere, Alex.”
She put down the brush and wiped off her hands. “I know, Travis. My bullshit meter is pretty sophisticated and it hasn’t made a peep while you’re around.”
“But, like all women, you have so much more practice at it than men.”
“You really are far more evolved than many of your brethren,” she said, smiling.
“I try to see people for who they really are.”
She drew a step closer. “And who am I, really?”
He could tell, despite the flippant and flirty content and tone of their conversation, Alex was now quite serious. “I see a young woman maybe at a crossroads.”
Her features tensed. “Go on.”
“There’s a military term for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, though it’s now used throughout popular culture: No Man’s Land. But if you dig deeper, it gets more complicated.”
“How so?” she said quickly.
“Typically, to get to No Man’s Land, you had to take action. You had to move from where you were. So now you’re in a bad place, a place where you don’t think you should be and maybe your own survival is at stake.”
Here Devine paused and contemplated stopping. He wasn’t sure why he had chosen to bring up this topic, and now that he was here, he, ironically, felt like he was in No Man’s Land. Yet the look on Alex’s face told him there was only one path to take with this conversation.
“So, you have three choices: stay where you are, go back, or go forward.”
“And how do you know which is the right one?” she said, a tremble in her voice.
“I wish I could tell you that there’s a foolproof way to figure that out, but there’s not. Sometimes it’s trial and error.”
She slumped and looked beaten.
“But sometimes there is a sign to tell you which way to go.”
“What?” she said eagerly.
He leaned against a table and said, “When I was pulling a tour of combat duty in Iraq I would rotate through this same large village, looking for enemy combatants, informants, people who just needed help or wanted to escape certain situations. I’d go there regularly and felt like I’d gotten to know some of the villagers pretty well. Established a rapport, to the extent you can during a war. One of my jobs was to memorize every detail I could during each visit so that on future trips I could see if anything looked off. It was critical because my life and my colleagues’ lives depended on it.”