The Railroad

by Neil Douglas Newton

  He grimaced and pulled out his pad. “Just give me a few details and I can take him out of here.”

  I gave him a short version of what had happened. By the time I was finished, I could see he believed me. “He’s going to make trouble but I don’t think there’s a good explanation for why he’s in your house except that he was trespassing in the first place. I wonder what he’ll try to charge you with.”

  “Who knows?”

  He grunted and pulled out his handcuffs. Standing by the basement door he shook his head before he began speaking. “Mr. Benoit? This is Detective Wills. I’m going to open the door now. I want you to stay where you are and grab onto something so you don’t fall. Do you understand me?”

  “Get me the fuck out of here!”

  “That’s what I want to do. If you stand back a couple of steps from the door so I can open it, we can leave.”

  “What are you going to do about that scumbag?”

  “We can talk about that later. Please move a couple of steps back from the door. Let me know when you’re ready.”

  “Oh shit. Okay. I’m ready.”

  Wills opened the door to reveal a squinting Bob, hunched over and grasping at the banister. I couldn’t help but laugh and neither could Wills. “Come up here,” Wills ordered.

  “I can’t fucking see.” He made his way slowly up the stairs. Wills waited until he was clear of the doorframe before he pushed the door shut. “I’m going to have to place you under arrest.”

  “What? What the fuck are you doing?”

  “You’re trespassing and Mr. Dobbs has made a complaint against you. Now please turn around.”

  “I’m not doing anything.”

  “Mr. Benoit, I’m not going to tell you again. Please turn around and put your hands on the wall.”

  “I don’t have to do a fucking thing. I can have my lawyer here in...”

  “Your lawyer can see you when we get to the precinct. Right now, you’re under arrest.” With that, Wills skillfully took his shoulder and turned him around; amazingly, he managed to keep him from falling over. Almost in the same motion he pulled his left hand behind him and snapped one of the cuffs on his wrist.

  “What are you doing?” Bob screamed, shaking his body in an attempt to loosen the Detective’s grip.

  “I want you to stop moving around.”

  “I’m going to get you fired, you piece of shit!”

  Wills jerked his other arm backwards and snapped on the other cuff. Bob threatened to fall over, but Wills had him by the arm. “I don’t want to hear any more crap from you. We can add resisting arrest to your charges.”

  “Wait until I speak to your Captain. You’re going to be really fucking sorry.”

  “Maybe.” And then to me he said, “You can come down tomorrow and file formal charges, if you like. I’d suggest you do that because he can probably get his lawyer to set him loose if you don’t. Even then I don’t know what will happen.”

  “I’ll be by around ten.”

  “Okay. Next time call 911.”

  “Hopefully there won’t be a next time.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  *

  Oddly, I woke clearheaded and determined the next day around 9 A.M. Wills was at the precinct looking somewhat annoyed and perhaps a little frightened. So be it. I didn’t hate the man, but I did hate the callous nature of his job. As far as I was concerned, he was another nail in Eileen’s coffin; just another functionary doing his job while a child was raped and terrorized.

  “Bob Benoit has already been to see my boss.” Wills told me. “He’s the kind who can make trouble just by getting his lawyer working. He doesn’t need evidence or corroboration to back up what he says. I’d be careful if I were you.”

  “What can he do to me?”

  “You didn’t hear me say this, but he can get a detective and find something nasty on you. Or maybe he can make it look like you did something wrong. It’s not that easy to make something like that stick, but he can tie you up in court and eat away at your savings. He likes to see people dangling from a stick.”

  “Well I have some money as well and also some very nasty lawyer friends. I can do some damage.”

  “I suppose you can. It’s just that he's probably more ruthless than you. He keeps on coming.”

  “This is based on experience?”

  “Second hand experience. But I trust the people who told me.”

  “I appreciate the advice. And now I guess we should do whatever paperwork I need to do.”

  I was out of there and home in a couple of hours. When I gave it some thought I realized that I might have a lever in my new criminal charges against Benoit. So I did what I had dreaded doing since I started my downward slide in the City: I called one of my old fast-track friends.

  It felt odd to be dialing a number I had dialed frequently back when I was a true New Yorker; I felt a strange pang in my stomach as the phone rang.

  “Peltzer and Michaels,” I heard a familiar voice say.

  “And which are you sleeping with?” I answered.

  There was a pause and then, “Mike!! Oh shit! Oops! Not supposed to say that. Where have you been?”

  “Upstate,” I told her. “How are you, Karen?”

  “Fine. What happened to you?”

  “I’m okay. Just not in the City anymore.”

  “Oh.” I could see that she wanted to say more, but my brusqueness made her uncomfortable. “I guess you want to speak to Jeff.”

  “It’s important.”

  “Okay. Take care of yourself.”

  “You too, Karen.”

  “I’ll get Jeff for you.”

  “Thanks.”

  I listened to canned music for a few seconds before the phone clicked. “Mike?”

  “It’s me.”

  “I thought I’d never hear from you again. The only news I get from you is the occasional bit from Barbara. And that’s colored by her anger.”

  “I don’t know what news she’d give you. I haven’t spoken to her since I moved up here. How is she?” I found that I was suddenly slightly concerned now that a door back to my old world had opened.

  “How is she ever? She’s a force of nature. I met her by accident the other night at El Gato’s and she didn’t want to talk about you, but you kept coming up in conversation anyway. She’s not happy with you.”

  “I’m not surprised.”

  “Forget about her. Is it okay if I tell you I never liked her?”

  “That was pretty obvious. I guess she started going out with Phil.” I immediately regretted saying it, but I found that I was jealous. Phil was a successful plastic surgeon who Barbara had used as a weapon whenever she wanted to knock me off my perch. There was no secret that he was interested in her. I played over what I’d just asked in my mind and I was appalled. Eileen was my concern right then.

  “No. But she’s been conspicuously seen with a few men in places she could expect to be recognized. She told one of my friends that the best revenge is looking good. Isn’t that precious?”

  “Ugh. Look, Jeff, I didn’t call you for information and I shouldn’t have asked any questions. I have something legal to discuss with you.”

  “Okay. Whatever I can do…”

  “It’s an odd situation. I have a friend who is running. If she gets caught she’ll be arrested.”

  “For what?”

  “I guess for kidnapping or maybe violating a custody agreement. She took her child and went underground because she accused her husband of abusing her daughter, and the judge on the case gave him unsupervised visitation. So she ran.”

  “Oh.”

  “You don’t sound very encouraging.”

  “I’m not trying to sound like anything. But she’s not in a very strong position.”

  “I know. I’m trying to find a lawyer in Rockland or Westchester who’s experienced with this kind of thing. You know: custody, child abuse. The whole thing.”

  “That’s a tall or
der. But I think I know someone who can help you. He’s actually a divorce lawyer, but he’s dealt with the kind of stuff you’re talking about in his practice.”

  “I’d appreciate it if you gave me his number.”

  “You know I’ll do anything I can. Is there any chance that we’ll see you? Paula misses you.”

  I thought of his wife Paula and her Chicken Marsala. “It’s not that I don’t miss you guys. It’s just that my life has changed so much. I can’t just go back there right now.”

  “We didn’t make 9/11 happen, Mike.” He sounded hurt.

  “I’m not blaming you. I just can’t come back right now. I don’t think I can make you understand. But it’s not you or any of our friends.”

  “Okay. Look, I’ll give you this guy’s number, but can I have yours, just in case?”

  “In case of what?”

  “I don’t know. It’ll just make us feel better.”

  At that moment it hit me that not everyone in my New York life had been selfish and greedy. I guess I hadn’t been able to tell the wheat from the chaff, and maybe I hadn’t been such an asshole after all.

  “Okay, Jeff. Say hello to Paula.” We swapped numbers and I hung up.

  *

  Later that afternoon I made an appointment with Bruce Byers for seven P.M. at his house in Ardsley. From speaking to him for a while I’d gotten the impression that he was just the type of piranha lawyer I was looking for. His clientele read like a who’s who of Westchester society.

  He fit the mold perfectly; he looked just like I expected his clients to look. He was a little less than six feet tall and had a “fashionable” tan. I had always wondered why people of his sort didn’t realize that each of them was sporting the same tan so they could impress each other.

  He greeted me at the door of his outsized house and immediately offered me a drink. On some perverse impulse I asked for Metaxa 7 Stars, a relatively obscure Greek liqueur. I suppose I was hoping to stump him in the alcohol department, but it turned out he was well equipped.

  “Rocks?” he asked me.

  My ego had taken a bruising that day so I suppose I was feeling macho. “Straight up,” I told him, a bit of Brando in my voice.

  He seemed to appreciate my fortitude. “I spend several weeks a year on Mykonos. I’ve developed a taste for this.”

  “I used to have a Greek girlfriend in college,” I told him.

  He took a good sip. “Jeff told me you have a case for me?”

  “I’m not sure if it’s a case. You have to tell me that. It involves a woman who ran with her child when the system let her down.”

  His eyes widened. “We’re not talking about Eileen Benoit, are we?”

  “We are.”

  He shook his head. “Why did Jeff give you any idea I could help you? I wish he’d told me who this was about.”

  “This isn’t such a popular case in Manhattan. Up here…”

  “Up here it’s made the rounds. Bob Benoit is a wealthy man, but it’s the sensationalism that got it a lot of attention. Lawyers who serve the same set of wealthy people talk to each other.”

  “So you won’t do anything for me because of the notoriety of the case?”

  “No. That’s not it. I’m not afraid of Bob Benoit or his lawyers. I just happen to know the current status of the case.”

  “Which is?”

  He grunted. “Come on, Mike. You must know what it is or you wouldn’t be here.”

  “Okay. She didn’t just run. She ran and took her daughter.”

  “Yes. Now she’s got a warrant out on her. If she’s found she’ll go to jail.”

  I felt my temperature rising a bit. I was getting tired of hearing that I couldn’t help Megan and her mother. “So the fact that there is at least evidence that she’s been raped by her father is unimportant? We’re supposed to let that go on just to satisfy the law?”

  “No. We don’t have to do that. The law will take care of itself. It will let the alleged abuse go on. I don’t like it either. But that’s what will happen. No one is going to go to bat for Eileen now. The person who makes these decisions is a judge whose custody ruling she’s violated. Do you know about that?”

  “Actually she never told me exactly how the judge ruled.”

  “They are separated, but the judge ruled that they have joint custody. That means unsupervised visitation. That was in the custody hearing that happened after the criminal trial against Bob Benoit. They tried to introduce the criminal charges in the custody hearing, but the judge wouldn’t allow it.”

  “I had the feeling it was something like that. What if I told you he assaulted me last night and that I have charges against him?”

  “I’d say you have criminal charges against him that haven’t been substantiated by an indictment or a conviction. And that even if he was convicted of assaulting you it has nothing to do with Eileen.”

  “The fact that he has criminal charges pending isn’t important?”

  He stared at me. “Mike, there’s nothing I can do. Nothing anyone can do unless she turns herself in. Even if we can prove that Bob Benoit broke the law, there’s the fact that Eileen also broke the law. She has to answer for that no matter what happens to her husband.”

  “The case can’t be appealed?”

  “That’s the problem. There are three cases now and I’m not including your charges of assault; they’re irrelevant. There’s the criminal case that ended last year where Bob Benoit was acquitted of the charges of child abuse. Then there’s the family court case where the judge decided on custody arrangements. Now there is a new case, the criminal case of the State of New York vs. Eileen Benoit. But that case hasn’t been tried because she’s…well basically she’s thumbing her nose at the system as far as the State of New York is concerned; she’s not around. So there’s no appeal because there’s been no trial.”

  “There’s nothing we can do?”

  “Not now. Maybe in a few years. You know the case of Elizabeth Morgan? The one who ran to New Zealand? The husband dropped his charges, but that took years and a long trial in New Zealand. Eileen is a criminal now and she’s spit in the face of the system. It doesn’t tolerate that.”

  I made a fist. “You said that already and I’ve heard this from everyone.”

  “Believe me there are things I can try but the law has chewed Eileen and her daughter up and the verdict is what it is. She isn’t allowed to just run away from that.”

  I got angry again. “And what if she had to?”

  “She may very well have done the right thing. I don’t know that, but I can’t save her from the law. I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do.”

  “The question is what can I do?”

  “You want a personal opinion or a professional one?”

  “Which will help me more?”

  “The personal one. You’ve already gotten my professional opinion. Help her any way you can, but don’t let anyone find out about it.”

  “She’s beyond my help now. She’s gone to the underground.”

  “I heard about that. Then I guess she’s in the best place she can be right now, as awful as that is.” He stood up and shook my hand. I left the Metaxa sitting unfinished on the coffee table.

  *

  The next morning I called Jeff at Peltzer and Michaels “You struck out with Beyers, didn’t you?” he asked me.

  “Do lawyers have a psychic link?”

  “No we talk all the time. Who else would talk to us?”

  “Actually I did strike out. Is it true that there isn’t anything I can do for Eileen and Megan?”

  “From what I understand, they really don’t have any legal avenues open to them. She could try to bring another charge against her husband, but then there’s the fact that she’s a fugitive. She can’t deal with a lawyer by phone and any charge she made would be ignored. The weird thing is that, if she was in jail, she could make some kind of trouble for her husband.”

  My mind went into overdr
ive, trying to come up with some clever angle of attack. Of course I knew, deep down, that I was a novice when it came to the law. “What if someone else made a charge? Like me.”

  He laughed which didn’t do my heart any good. “You can’t be a plaintiff because no one did anything to you.”

  I sighed. “What about someone making a complaint on behalf of Megan? An aunt maybe.”

  “Any aunt or uncle you could find won’t be Megan’s legal guardian. That’s her mother and, unfortunately, her father…”

  “There’s nothing I can do?”

  I heard nothing for a few moments. “I’m thinking. Honestly, the only way that Eileen has a chance of working the system is if she turns herself in. And you know what that means.”

  “It means Megan has to come in also.”

  “Exactly.”

  “What if Megan stayed with someone while Eileen turned herself in?”

  “Oh boy! Imagine what a lawyer would do with that in front of a jury. ‘She left her child with some unknown strangers so she could fight her husband in court.

  “If they knew why she had run in the first place?”

  “I’m not even sure that would be allowed into a trial. It’s another case. What you have to realize is that the next case to be tried will be against Eileen. I would assume the charges would be kidnapping, violating custodial regulations, and anything else the DA can think of.”

  Something went click. “What about the DA?

  “Oh no. You’re not thinking of talking to him?”

  “How do you know it’s a him?”

  “I did a little research yesterday. I’d advise against it.”

  “He’s a public servant, isn’t he?”

  “He’s also a politician. He’s going to have to walk a fine line here. He prosecuted the criminal case against Benoit and it didn’t go his way; a black mark against him he’s still living down. He’s got a pending criminal case on one hand, but the prospective defendant is a mother of a child who some people will believe was sexually abused. He can’t buck the system because he’s part of it. Trying to soften Eileen’s sentence through plea bargaining would be political suicide. Coming down hard on her would be, well it would also be political suicide. This is a very volatile issue and there are people on both sides that are crazy on the subject.”