“He might have been aiming at me. But I don’t really believe that.”
“So why me then?”
“You’re thinking of selling Jocelyn Point. So Alex would be leaving there. Maybe he got wind of that.”
“But Bing lives in Florida. What does he care where Alex lives?”
“It’s hard to get inside the head of someone like him. Maybe he’s afraid if she leaves here her memory will come back and the truth will come out.”
“Maybe,” said Dak doubtfully. “And how does this tie into Earl?”
“I think Bing put Earl up to finding the body. For myriad reasons I didn’t believe his account of finding Jenny. Now, I saw a video of Wilbur Kingman’s funeral. In that video Bing was sitting right next to Earl. And whatever he was saying Earl was not happy about. I think he had something over Earl and he used it all these years later to make him pretend to find Jenny’s body.”
“And then what, Earl killed himself from the guilt?”
“No. There is no way that Earl could have hanged himself.”
“Holy shit, you think Bing killed him, too?”
“Not only that, I’m pretty sure he killed Alberta, as well.”
With that statement Dak sat up in bed so fast he nearly ripped out a fluid line. “What!”
Devine gently pushed him back down and explained. “Your sister had an episode in front of Bertie just days before she was killed. Now, she had one of those episodes with me and one with Annie. And in the one with me and the event with Annie she was clearly fighting someone. I think she was fighting her attacker fifteen years ago. She didn’t say his name but Annie told me that Alex called the person a friend. But I think with Bertie Alex named her attacker. Bertie might have told someone and word got back to Bing. So he comes up here and takes care of that problem. And Alex’s rape kit disappeared from the department’s evidence room years ago. And Bing, as the chief, could easily have done that.”
“But isn’t there a statute of limitations on rape? And if you can’t prove he killed anyone, so what if the truth comes out about Alex? The law couldn’t touch him.”
“I did some quick research this morning after remembering something Alex told me.”
“What?”
“That she wasn’t sixteen yet when she was raped. Now in Maine, if the victim is under sixteen when the act occurs, there is no statute of limitation for rape. So Bing can still go to prison, for a long time, maybe the rest of his life.”
“My God,” said Dak, putting a hand to his face. “This is a nightmare.” He looked at Devine. “So what are you going to do?”
“Nail the guy.”
Dak looked terrified. “But, Devine, Alex could remember the truth any minute. And Bing knows that. And so if he did kill all those people, what’s one more?”
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.”