CH68

Matlock had made an appointment to talk with Barbara Anderson, the secretary for Senator Bracken. He had made up a story about a neighbor of hers who had a cousin murdered. And he wanted to ask her some questions about what she knew about her neighbors.

He had arrived right on time and spent the next 10 minutes asking her meaningless questions. What he was really doing was looking her office over and making mental notes. Though how she answered some of the questions gave him some incite to her personality.

The one major thing he noticed was that her desk was in perfect shape. Everything had its place and it was kept nice and neat. To test this point he reached down and picked up a rather fat looking pen lying on her desk.

"This looks like a very nice pen. Family heirloom?" Ben asked.

Looking a little put out temporarily before she recovered. "No, it's just a pen. I think I got it from one of the Lobbyists that make their rounds."

When Ben puts the pen down he pushes something out of place when he does so.

In less than a minute she has everything back in its place.

"Thank you for your time Ms. Anderson." Ben tells her and starts to leave.

"Of course. I was glad to help." And Ben leaves.

In the elevator on the way down he pulls out his cell phone. He may be old fashioned but his daughter has been pushing him to move into the 21st Century. This had been his one concession to her wishes.

He had a number of things for her to track down. And make sure she gets pictures and operations data on the items.

Next up was Bracken's driver. Did he ever drive out to Ms. Anderson's house? Only twice he had mentioned. One of these instances was because she had been involved in a rear end collision. Senator Bracken had asked him to drive her into work and back home for two weeks while her car was repaired.

Did he ever see anyone suspicious at her neighbor's house? Any unusual cars that had never been there previous times.

He had responded that there was one car on one day that had caught his attention. It was parked crooked in the neighbor's driveway. It was an old broken down boat caddy. The type with the big tail light fins in the back. It didn't fit the upscale neighborhood.

Thanking him Ben headed for the nearest subway station. As soon as he reached the turn styles he pulled out his cell phone again and added one more item for her list to investigate.

Satisfied he got on the train and went back to his office. Entering his locked office he found he had a visitor.

"Can I help you with something?" Ben asks.

"Yes. You can leave Ms. Anderson alone." The voice is not kind.

"I was interviewing her as one of the neighbors of the family I'm working for." Ben tells him.

"What she knows about her neighbors is not your concern." Still not kind.

"If she knows nothing than she has nothing to worry about."

"She already has nothing to worry about. You should be more concerned about yourself."

"When you reach my age young man and take as many pills as my doctor has me taking, I'm already concerned about myself. I just hope she doesn't keep asking for more samples. Or I'm going to run out of samples."

"Just leave Ms. Anderson alone and you'll still have all the samples you need for your doctor." And turns and leaves.

On the way home Ben calls his friend Eddy. "Eddy, how about lunch tomorrow?"

"Yes. The usual place will be fine. It's nice and quit and we can eat in peace. When you get to be our age, quite is good."

"Thanks Eddy. Don't forget your inhaler this time." And Ben ends the call.

The next day Eddy meet Ben for lunch. It was not what anyone would expect. It was the

Dogmatic

26 E. 17th Street

New York, NY 10003

"I don't believe we ever found this place. All those kids at those mini dog stands don't know what they are missing." Eddy tells Ben. Not that he didn't already know that.

"Have you seen a picture of my new nephew?" Ben asks.

"No. You got another nephew? You're getting old Ben." Eddy kids him.

"Must I remind you that you are 2 months older than me?" Ben counters.

"No need. My back reminds me every day. You bring a picture of him?" Eddy is having fun.

"Of course. You don't think I would use one of those digital thingies do you?" Ben is having fun also.

"You're lucky you know how to use the remote for the TV." Eddy teases.

Ben just ignores him and slides the picture across the table.

Picking it up and taking a good look. "He's going to grow up into quite the heart breaker isn't he?"

"Yea, if he hasn't already." Ben tells him.

"Well, we'll just have to watch him. Won't we?" Eddy tells Ben.

"I'm sure you can keep your eyes open so he doesn't get into too much trouble." Ben offers.

"Not a problem. Happy to help." Eddy tells him.

"You open for dessert come Thursday (with today being Monday)? I found this new place in the same old block." Ben asks.

"Yea, should work out nice. I'll give you a call if it doesn't work out."

Come Thursday Eddy was waiting for Ben at the described place. It was a burned out office in the next block from Ben's office.

Ben finally enters and greets Eddy. "Any trouble?" Eddy asks.

"My shadow is still standing at the entrance a few doors down." Ben tells him.

"Good. Your new nephew is a very bad boy." Eddy tells him. "His new name is Jimmy Freeze. His old name was Mark Larkin. Your old nephew was a Special Forces guy tagged as having been killed in Iraq about 1-1/2 years ago. Your new nephew is also a Special Forces guy but is not stationed anywhere. He's hired out for projects and is very good at his job. Well, was until you left him standing there." Eddy tells him.

"Any clue as to who he works for?" Ben asks.

"Nothing so far. He seems to have multiple parents who have things to hide." Eddy apologizes.

"Anything recent?" Ben asks.

"He was last in contact with a Senator Bracken of NY." Eddy tells him. "Your poker face could use some work old friend."

"Good thing I don't play with you then."

"You be careful. Your new nephew has a quick temper." Eddy warns his friend.

"I'll try and remember to keep my hands free then. Thanks Eddy. There's a game next week. You up for a little viewing?" Ben asks his friend.

"Rangers game?" Eddy is interested.

"A friend gave up his seats right down at the glass." Ben tells him with a smile knowing Eddy would kill for tickets like this.

"Even if I had to get there in a wheelchair." Eddy is excited.

"Call when you are ready."

Two days later Ben unlocked the door to his office and walked in to find his Nephew waiting for him.

"Well two visits in one week. You must really like me." Ben tells him.

"You are still poking around Ms. Anderson's house. It would seem you need a reminder."

"Really. I hope you are not suggesting that I have early stage of Alzheimer's? It would be sad to think I'm losing my mind." Ben tells him.

The Nephew moved in close and grabbed Ben by his upper arm. What he didn't see or expect was Ben's other hand to come up and poke him in the stomach. There was a clickitie click sound and Ben's new friend falls to the floor.

Ben places his stun gun on the desk and makes a call. Soon after his daughter Charlene enters.

"You've been having fun without me again dad." Charlene chastises him for keeping her out of the fun.

"Where would you like him dad?"

"Same place as our last guest should work fine." Ben tells her.

Charlene wastes no time and zip ties on his hands and ankles and a little rope to tie his ankles as close to his hands as she could get them. Then pulls open one of her dad's desk drawers and pulls out an unusual contraption. The ball goes in his open mouth and the rest wraps around his head and is locked in place.

Now they both help to drag him to the back door and Ben risks a hernia putting him in the back of his daughter's mini SUV.

Ben then gets in the passenger seat while his daughter drives.

Sometime later Ben's new nephew wakes up from his encounter and finds himself tied to a support column of what looks like an abandoned building. Since he sees no windows, he's guessing a basement. And he's not alone. Ben's friend from the hot dog shop was with him. Just out of curiosity he had tried one of their hot dogs. It really was pretty good.

His mouth piece is still in place so insulting these guys or threatening them is presently out.

"I think your new family member is awake." Eddy tells Ben.

Ben steps over but does not remove the gag. "You've been a very bad boy. In my day, my dad would have put me over his knee and used his belt on my exposed rear end. However this is the 21st Century. Or so my daughter keeps reminding me. Things were so much more simple back then.

I need to know what YOU know. So we are going to play an old game of 20 questions. I'm an old fashioned kind of guy.

You are probably thinking that I don't have it in me to do anything to you. And you'd be right. Fortunately for me I have a friend who does not have any of my flaws. So I'm going to leave you in his tender care until all 20 questions have been answered.

I'm sure you'll like him. He has such a sweet personality." Ben informs his new family member.

"Hey, if you are going to insult me, maybe I should leave you two love birds alone." Eddy teases Ben.

Ben walks away and approaches his friend. "We need answers. I was never here. And I don't want to know how." And Ben walks out. Eddy is a friend. In another life Ben would see that he rots in prison. But he really is getting old. And the information on that thingy meant his daughter could end up in a very different world, if he wasn't careful.

There were a lot of things Ben wouldn't do. But leaving his daughter on a planet with Bracken in charge wasn't one of them. So he swallowed his pride and walked out.

Three days later Eddy made a phone call. It would be nice to grab a hot dog before the game. Yea, he was looking forward to sitting up against the glass. Maybe he would get lucky and some player would get smashed into it right in front of him. Maybe even better, there would be a hockey contest on the ice right in front of him. Yeah, tomorrow was going to be a good day.

Turning back to Ben's new nephew, who was still unconscious. He gave him a few bad thoughts and left him where he was. He didn't think Ben would miss his nephew very much.

Besides, his nephew was missing both fore fingers (let's see him pull the trigger now). He was also missing both pinky toes. (Missing a toe really does throw you off balance, even if it is just walking). There were also two white objects lying on the floor and the nephew's mouth was all bloody. And his right leg was bent in an unusual manner right at the knee cap. Though it was hard to tell with all the duct tape that was used to encase his body to the column.

There was also a good sized puddle of blood on the floor that was still being added to, slowly. That huge gash in his left thigh probably had something to do with it. And a lot of the rats in the area had already found it and him. The rest would soon follow.

It was time to go home and get cleaned up. Tomorrow was going to be an even better day than today was.

Eddy was a happy man. The game was great. The seats were great. The hot dog before the game was great. Eddy escorted his friend to his car. They hadn't talked much at the hot dog shop. They were now.

Your new nephew is a very bad man Ben. A very bad man. He had been hired by some fella connected to a Bracken fella to steal something. He decided to have a down on his luck ex marine do it for him. As soon as he handed over all the information, he killed him. Left him dead in an alley in his own car. He had a wife and newborn Ben.

That Bracken was involved didn't surprise him, but leaving a baby to grow up without his father. To never even know what his father even looked like, made his blood boil. Family was important!

Mental note: Send flowers and an 'I Love you' card to Charlene soon.

Eddy gave him the time, date and location. It was the only job he did for this one fella that he had any information on.

So Bracken was using a middle man to order all these actions. Unless you got to the middle man, you would never reach Bracken. He may be a real piece of political scum, but he wasn't stupid. Or was he?