by Sandra Ryan
“We know you know where that baby is located. Rest assured, we will not stop until we find out what you know and then we would hunt you down.” Burns said. He was looking squarely at Anderson. Their eyes were locked.
“You do not have a warrant, do you?” Anderson broke eye contact briefly to look at Holly. She did not need to respond.
“Good. That means I am under no obligation to answer any of your questions. I would advise that you leave this place while you still can.”
“Let’s get out of this place,” Holly said to Burns who looked like he was about to lunge at the man.
“How are you able to sleep at night?” It was Olga who spoke. She had been silent throughout the entire exchange. Her face was set as stone in stone. Her palm was balled into a fist. She held close to her rigid frame as though afraid she would explode.
“Now you have to realize that it is nothing personal…”
“Bullshit,’ she said, cutting Anderson short. “Do you know Samuel Clark has not spoken for almost three weeks? Do you remember him? The man who is being hounded for the crime you obviously helped your boss commit? He just stares at the television all day even when there is nothing but commercials on. He sits there broken because of the selfishness of heartless men like you. So forgive me, it is as personal as it gets.”
“Now, young lady…” the older Mr. Anderson said.
“Have you no conscience? How can you bear knowing that you have ruined the life of an innocent man forever? Do you not realize that this cloud will always hang over him for the rest of his life? He will be lucky if he is not thrown in jail. However, if by some stroke of luck he is not sent to live out the rest of his life in a maximum security prison somewhere, he will always walk around with that suspicion tied around his neck.”
The room was silent. The fire crackled, with the silence amplifying the sound the wood made. Holly stared at Olga with new-found wonder in her eyes.
“I am sorry. I sincerely wish I could help you.” Anderson Singleton genuinely sounded weary.
“I won’t even bother talking about the child who is somewhere, missing the warmth of his mother’s touch for almost 6 weeks now,” Olga said, ignoring what he said. “Or the mother herself even. For weeks now she has been rotting away, longing for her son’s touch. Do you know she was the one who led us to you? She risked her life and everything to make sure we got to you.”
Olga paused and stared at the two men.
“Do you tell me that this does not prick your heart? When you lay in your bed at night you do not ponder on these things?” she looked at the two men each at a time. They both turned away from her.
“That’s right, turn away from me. You both should be ashamed of yourselves. You are despicable.”
She then turned to Holly.
“I think I am done here. We can leave now.”
Holly looked like she wanted to wrap her in a bear hug. Instead she nodded and took her hand and the three of them started walking out.
“I want immunity.” Anderson Singleton called out after them.
“No, you cannot throw your life away just like that,” Silas Singleton yelled at his son.
“Pops, I told you I was ready. It is time to face what I know is coming.” Anderson looked at his father affectionately. “So, like I said, would I get immunity?” his question was directed at Burns.
“I cannot promise you that right now. What I can promise is that it would definitely be taken into account that you chose to help us of your own volition,” Burns answered.
“That is fair, I guess.” Anderson gave a wry smile.
“Y’all would need to grab seats then.” He continued.
******
“Before we begin I must first tell you that whatever I did, I had no intentions of hurting anyone. As a matter of fact, I actually was helping my boss. It is just unfortunate that things escalated to this point.”
At this point, Silas Anderson stood up and walking gingerly, he left the room. Anderson acknowledged his leaving with a shake of his head, and then continued speaking.
“And I do not seek your pity. I do not even seek absolution. I am doing this for Elizabeth. I hope that this could help her understand. This is the reason I am letting you record this.”
The trio was seated in a semi circle facing him. He spoke solemnly, his words measured.
“Okay, let us start from the beginning, shall we?”
“Well, that is a little ambiguous. I mean, how one ascertains when exactly the seed for a crime is planted. Because for all intents and purposes, that is the actual beginning of anything. But if I am to answer your question, I think the idea of taking his wife’s money had always occurred to Nathan Benson. I do think that it may have been even part of the reasons he married her. A man like Nathan Benson is very particular about things so when he married her he probably had his eyes on the prize.”
“What I do not understand is why he did not ask her directly? Elizabeth told us that he may have gotten the idea that she may not have been willing to part with the money, but I am still nonplussed that he did not even ask in the first place,” Holly said.
“You have to realize that Nathan Benson was seeking the path of least resistance. He may not have realized it before he married her, but as soon as they were married it became instantly clear that Elizabeth was never going to let him have his hands on her money. Each night as I drove him home he would look at the amount that had accumulated over the years and his anger would keep increasing. I do think he felt entitled to the money. I mean, he was her husband after all, and the reason in itself why Elizabeth refused to part with the money was just on sentimental basis; she wanted to leave the money for her child.”
“That explains his resentment towards the child as well, I suppose,” Burns chipped in.
“Exactly!” Anderson answered.
“But Elizabeth said she was willing to lend him some money from her personal account. I still believe that if he had asked, she would perhaps have lent him the money anyway,” Olga said.
Anderson gave a throaty laugh.
“You guys do not know the extent of his debts do you? There was no amount that Elizabeth would have given that would have been able to offset the debt Nathan had been in.”
“I see. So, what was his plan? How was kidnapping the child supposed to grant him access to the money?”
Anderson heaved a sigh and kept mute for a few minutes.
“The idea was for the kidnap to happen, and for Nathan to pin it on the wife, making her out to be unstable, and then have her incarcerated for a long time.”
“Really? Benson’s plan was to make it seem like a woman who has being an attorney for the better part of a decade was unstable? How was that even supposed to work?” Olga asked.
“Do you follow celebrity news?”
“No,” Olga replied.
“If you did you would realize that Mrs. Benson’s attempts to get pregnant was extensively covered by most of the celebrity newspapers. She was practically going crazy during the period she had not conceived. She dragged Benson to every fertility clinic in town and spent a fortune on IVF routines. They tried their best to keep it out of the news but the gossip tabloids still managed to get their hands on the details somehow. Nathan was going to exploit this narrative. The way he planned to spin it, it would seem as though the stress of looking for the child finally caught up with her and all.”
“Damn!” Olga swore.
“He already had people in place who would testify to her instability. He even had psychiatrists who had prepared fake documents chronicling fake evaluations about her mental state. If that failed, he had been prepared to go ahead with the other narrative of it being postpartum depression. Either ways, he had it all planned out.”
“Then what changed? Why did he not go along with this plan?” Burns asked.
“Well, Samuel Clark happened.”
“Samuel Clark?” the trio asked in unison.
“Yes,” Anderson resp
onded. “Samuel was the wrinkle that spoiled a really good plan. When he showed up on that plan and the FBI and the media focused on him, it messed up Mr. Benson’s plans. Of course it accomplished the intention of providing an alternative suspect for the kidnap of the baby but it, at the same time, removed the focus of the media from Elizabeth Benson.”
“It doesn’t seem like that stopped him anyway,” Holly said.
“For a man as powerful as Nathan Benson, for a man with such unlimited resources and a target in sight, very little can stop him. He decided to adjust his plans to accommodate that problem that manifested itself.”
“Pray, how did he manage to do that?” Holly asked.
“He decided to make Clark the scapegoat. His intention was to pin the kidnap and eventual murder of the baby on Samuel Clark.”
“And how about Elizabeth Clark? How did he intend to take care of that wrinkle?” Burns asked.
“He intended to put her out of the picture permanently.”
“Are you saying what I think you are?”
Anderson nodded.
“Nathan Benson was going to stage the suicide of his wife, and then blame it on the grief for the loss of the child. Once Clark had taken the fall for the kidnap and murder of the child and the wife was out of the picture, he would then take control of her money.”
“That escalated rather quickly. How does a man move from planning a kidnap to an attempt to stage the suicide of his own wife?” Holly asked.
“Things moved really fast, I agree. You see, Nathan Benson had been so confident that his first plan would work that he had availed himself of his wife’s fund while she was away. He did not wait for the kidnap to happen before doing that. So when the plan fell apart, he needed something in place to patch up the already leaking plan and staging the death of his wife seemed like the perfect cover up,” Anderson answered.
“I’m sorry I have to make an important call,” Burns said.
“Who do you want to call?” Holly mouthed to him as he stood.
“The bureau. I believe what he has told us thus far we should be able to get a warrant against Nathan Benson.”
He walked out the door and stood making a few calls. They could see him talking animatedly to whoever was on the line. When he stepped back inside, he avoided looking directly at Holly. He spoke directly to Anderson,
“This is an FBI case right now. I will be taking over the questioning. Law enforcement agents would be here soon.”
“What is going on?” Holly asked. “Are you freezing us out?”
“No. I am just going to be taking point on this from now on. You can stay on if you want to.”
“As if! You want me to sit on my hands here while you do the investigating? What happens to my client in the first place? Damn! I should have known that you are not to be trusted. You agency guys will always look out for yourself first, before everyone else.”
There was a note of bitterness in Holly’s voice. Burns turned to look at her.
“I am sorry. When you look at it, your work here is done. You have brought me to this place, now let me do my job and solve this case. I promise you that Clark will be proven innocent at the end, isn’t that the aim?”
“But that was not the plan…”
“Let him,” Olga said, resting her hand gently on Holly’s. Holly heaved a sigh, then leaned back in her seat.
“Please let’s continue, Mr. Singleton. First, I have express authority to tell you that you need to know that whatever you say from this point should be done willfully and without coercion because there is the likelihood that everything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
Anderson seemed to consider this for a while.
“Well, since you’ve got the bureau’s backing right now, how about my immunity deal?”
“On that, I am instructed to tell you that your statement, if it proves useful, would definitely help in convicting Mr. Nathan Benson. If that is the case, the judge will be minded to give you a lighter sentence based on that.”
“So you do not have any concrete offer for me at this point?”
“I’m afraid not.”
Anderson stood and walked to the window. He looked out at the sea.
“Oh well, I guess I am in already. I should probably get this over with once and for all.”
“Good,” Burns said. “Now about Sheridan Cox, how is he involved in the whole saga?”
“He kidnapped the child off of the aircraft. Nathan Benson trusted that with his years of expertise in the field that he was the perfect party to carry out the job, and he had been right.”
“How?”
“You have figured out how, haven’t you?” Nathan turned to look directly at Holly. “That was what led you to Cox in the first place. That was why you were at his place the day he was murdered.”
“Yes,” Holly said. She proceeded to explain to Burns how the kidnap was staged on the plane.
“Wow, that must have taken elaborate planning,” he said when she was done. “But how did he get him to do it?”
“Nathan Benson had dirt on Cox. Nathan Benson has dirt on almost anyone anyway.”
“What did he have on him?”
“Cox fenced expired drugs. Not really expired drugs in the sense of the word but drugs that the FDA may not have granted approval to be sold. Nathan found some of his company’s product which was still undergoing the clinical trial stages with Cox. He fired the member of staff who had sold the drugs to Cox but kept Cox on his pay roll. When that particular opportunity came up, he leveraged on that to get Cox to do his bidding.”
“I see. Here is the thing Mr. Singleton, all you have told us is from your personal knowledge…”
“You have a problem with that?” he cut in.
“Not necessarily. The thing is, when it gets to court, it would be your word against Benson’s. Any smart lawyer would be able to dismantle all you have said with the most minimal of efforts. Is there any evidence that could back up what you are saying?”
Anderson did not say a word to him. He walked to a chest of drawers near the fireplace and pulled open one of them. He walked to Burns seat and placed what he had on the table beside Burns.
“In here you would find a recording of how the entire thing went down. From the planning stages to the execution, I recorded everything while I was seated in that car.”
“This was your insurance?” Burns smiled.
“It was. I may be a driver, but I am not dumb.”
“I have a question,” Holly said, looking at Burns. He sighed, then nodded. “You knew I was with Clark at the scene of the murder, how is that possible?”
“Because I was there too. I killed Sheridan Cox and Heather Kline.”
Holly gave a gasp.
“Well, Mr. Singleton, this certainly changes everything. We cannot have the deal I promised you if you are a murderer,” Burns said.
“I understand,” Anderson sighed. “You were going to find out eventually though. Nathan felt that those two were loose ends. He wanted me to take care of them quietly.”
“Wait, this means you killed the baby too?” Holly cried, this time not bothering to gain permission from Burns.
“Who said anything about the baby being dead?” Burns said.
CHAPTER 15
HEALING
Elizabeth sat on the low bench in the court’s chapel. She wasn’t exactly there for say a prayer or even to meditate, she was trying to avoid the court reporters loitering around the courthouse. Over the course of the past month, the trial of her husband had taken place. There had been heavy media presence with the sensational trial. The attention had mostly been on her husband and his illegal activities but some of the attention had also spilled over to her.
It turned out that Anderson had had a bout of conscience and thus had not murdered the baby alongside Heather Kline and Sheridan Cox. The baby had been with his sister and she had even had to testify.
When she got back her child, she
did not let him out of her sights for several days. When he slept she would keep watch over him. She had thought of traveling with him outside of the country but she had not been able to get over what happened the last time she set foot on a plane with the baby. So, instead she took him to the summer house her parents had left her, and there she had spent a full month with him before returning home for the trial.
Her phone rang. She checked the caller ID: it was Holly Hackett. She was probably calling to inform her that the members of the jury had reconvened and was ready to deliver their judgment. Elizabeth searched her heart to check if there was any malice there directed at her husband, and was surprised there was none. At first when Holly had revealed the extent of his treachery, she had been broken by his betrayal. When she heard that he had even ordered the execution of their only child she had been filled with such murderous rage. But over the course of the weeks the anger had petered out, to be replaced with ambivalence. She was no longer angry with him, perhaps mostly because she no longer cared about what happened to him either way. She had her baby back and that was all that mattered to her.
Her phone rang again. This time she picked.
“They are back” Holly said.
“I will be in soon,” she said.
********
Nathan Benson stared out of the window down at the traffic. He was enjoying the view the same way a dying man enjoyed his last meal. The jury had recessed to ponder the case and deliver their judgment. His lawyer had informed him that they would probably not take a lot of time because the case of the prosecution had been pretty tight against him.
At first, they had thought that by stroke of luck they would be able to win the case. The judge had even granted him bail – an extraordinary feat considering the extent of his alleged crimes. However as the case progressed, they realized that there was no way they were going to win the case. First, Nathan’s driver had testified, and then the paperwork detailing his fraudulent conversion of his wife’s money was tendered as evidence. Then finally, the audio recording of his conversation with the various parties he had arranged to carry out the crime had been played in court.