Twisted Vengeance by Jeff Bennington

Author:Jeff Bennington
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
Publisher: Nexgate Press
Published: 2011-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Stella shoved the BMW in gear and squealed out of Anita’s driveway. She stared straight ahead and said, “Was she coming on to you?”

Rick gripped the armrest on the door. “Hell yeah. I couldn’t keep her hands off me.”

“I thought so. She’s not your type, Rick.”

“No shit.”

“She’s a liar.”

Rick turned in his seat. “Wh-what do you mean?”

Stella slipped her sunglasses over her eyes. “Exactly what I said. She’s a liar. She lied about Benji.”

“How do you know?”

“I saw her pictures—in the study.” Stella peeked over her dark lenses and grinned. “I kind of got lost.”

Rick chuckled, studying her expression. “Lost, as in a meandering sort of lost.”

“Yes. Exactly.”

“So what’d you find?”

“I found Benji. And he wasn’t a casual visitor. He was someone special, like an adopted son or something.”

“You know,” said Rick, “I vaguely remember seeing some family pictures in there.”

“Oh, there were lots of photos of him: baby pictures, Little League, kindergarten. Anita and Frank were with him a lot, like godparents or something. Anita held his hand and posed with Lyndsay and George, for crying out loud. They even had professional portraits taken with him.”

“You’re kidding me,” said Rick, biting on a piece of cheesy bruschetta.

“No. They were close, very close.”

Rick sat in the BMW, mulling over the significance of what he had just learned.

“So, if Benji was abused so badly, why didn’t Anita do anything to stop it?”

“Maybe she did,” said Stella.

“Okay,” said Rick. “Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and say she tried. But how does the generational-sin thing fit in if Benji allegedly had two sets of parents?”

“Not sure. Maybe they had an unusual relationship or maybe they were swingers? Maybe Frank was Benji’s father. Who knows.”

“Hey, what they did in their bedrooms is their business. My job is to focus on the killer, on the facts. Which brings me back to where I started.”

“And that is?” asked Stella.

“Why would Anita lie about him? What is she trying to hide? He’s dead, for God’s sake.”

“I was wondering the same thing. But I thought maybe she was preserving his memory. You know, leaving us with a doctored picture of him.”

“That could be. But she also said that George set the house on fire, like she knew something, like she had inside information. Remember, the cause of the fire was never determined. So why reveal the truth on the one hand, and hide it on the other?”

Stella stopped at a red light and turned toward Rick. “Because she’s involved?”

“And maybe,” said Rick, “she’s trying to divert us. But involved? Involved in what? Frank’s death, or all of them?”

“Good question,” said Stella. The light turned green and she drove on. “But why would she kill the others? And how could she? The strength needed to do that required an immeasurable supernatural strength. How could she possibly be involved in that?”

“She can’t. There’s no way she could throw a body or lift a boulder. The entity, or poltergeist or whatever it is, has no form. It’s like the boy said: it’s the devil.

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