A Pair of Second Chances (Ben Jensen Series Book 1)

by Brian Gore

  Ben dropped to his knees and crawled quickly to the edge to see the strange sight of the tail lights, surrounded by a halo of light from the headlights, as the car plummeted into the dark hole. The car threw off sparks and the sound of scraping metal came back up to him as the Saturn bounced off the sides of the shaft on its way down, but only for a couple of seconds.

  A thundering crash and a fireball racing up at him, attested to a ruptured fuel tank and sent Ben scurrying for the mine opening.

  Wasting no time, Ben grabbed up the hammer and went to replacing the planks over the opening, as smoke started pouring out of the hole.

  "Damn!" he cursed. "I'm a dumb bastard! Yeah she'll likely burn when she hits bottom, and destroy anything left... But fire makes smoke! You God Damn stupid son-of-a-bitch!" He laughed like a fool as he wildly pounded spikes into the beams surrounding the opening.

  The smoke was already tailing off when he nailed the last spike. He picked up the pillow case, and the hammer and trotted off across the clearing in front of the old mine, into the trees beyond.

  "With any luck, no body noticed that lil' pillar of smoke... and by the time they come looking, it'll have quit" he thought. "You dumb son of a bitch!" He turned, grinning, and trotted away though the trees.

  A mile along he came to small, stony, opening along a small creek. Stripping down as he had the previous morning, he piled the clothes up, pillow case and all, after he'd dumped out his fresh clothes, all except for his boots anyway, and lit up another fire!

  And again, he stepped into the creek with his nail brush and bar of soap, and repeated the scrubbing he'd done the previous day. This time, he included the boots in the scrubbing. They'd been exposed to dried blood at the most, so he had no worries about blood stains, just whatever dust they might have picked up in the car.

  Thoroughly sterilized to his satisfaction, he tossed the soap into the water and the brush into the fire as he climbed naked out of the creek.

  In a minute, he was dry, the towel he dried with going into the fire as well, followed by more sticks and pine cones. He kept that fire burning as he dressed, until nothing remained but grey ashes.

  Having done the best he could, he pulled the last thing that had been in the pillow case; a ball cap emblazoned with the Logo for King Ropes, onto his head and set off down the mountain, bound for the Lodge and Amanda.

  As he walked he looked back. It had been a bit over two hours since he shoved the car into the hole. Not a wisp of smoke to be seen. Ben scanned the sky all around, not a sign of a helicopter, or any circling airplanes either... He breathed a hesitant, but welcome, sigh of relief.

  "That was close dumb ass." he told himself as he walked. "You've used up 'bout twice the allotted breaks for drunks and fools. You'd best start payin' attention!"

  Long about three that afternoon, a tired Ben Jensen, limping still, walked into the yard at the lodge.

  Amanda and Timmy were sitting on the porch when he turned into the drive from the road. She stood and stepped off the porch as he approached.

  "Hey stranger" she said, shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun with her hand. "We don't get very many good looking gentleman callers of an afternoon." Amanda said, doing an exaggerated imitation of a southern accent. "Not out this far!" as she continued her teasing.

  "Yeah? Well, who said I was a gentleman?" he teased back, grabbing her as he walked up, and making a big show of planting a kiss on her lips.

  "Why sir!" Amanda squealed. "What kind of a woman do you take me for?"

  "Uh... Not one of them damn dried up prissy Ol' prudes in town I hope'!" Ben laughed as he hit her with another kiss, to the giggling delight of Timmy as he jumped off the porch.

  "Well sir! There are children present! You must behave yourself" Amanda scolded, slapping his hands away and continuing her heavily accented southern mimicry.

  Ben reached down and picked up the boy, to his continued delight, and together, they walked into the house.

  Chapter 36

  "How'd it go?" she asked as they walked into the kitchen. "And, what now?"

  "A glass of water... uh ... make that a beer!" Ben told her as he sat down at the table, "And then, I'll tell you."

  "Back less than a day, leave again in the morning without hardly a good bye, walk back in the door hours later, God only knows where you've been and you're already throwin' orders around! You've got your nerve mister!" She laughed.

  "Uh Huh! I do!" He replied. "And I said, BEER Woman!" smacking the table with his hand.

  "Watch it fella. You'll push that tough talk too far!" Amanda laughed as she handed him his bottled request.

  "Thank you kind lady!" Ben tipped his cap with an exaggerated, seated, bow as he accepted the cold bottle from her.

  "OK, smart ass, enough. Just fill me in!" she said as she sat down across the table from him.

  She called to her son, across the room; "Timmy, why don't you run outside, throw your ball for a while like you do. Let Momma and Ben talk for a bit, Ok?"

  "Ok, Momma." Timmy ran over to the couch to get his ball lying on the floor in front of it, and ran outside through the door they'd left open in the warm, early fall weather. She looked back at Ben as the sound of the ball, rapping against the logs, started up.

  "Ok cowboy, now spill."

  Ben told her all of what he'd done. Where he'd gone and why. Then he outlined the story that he'd concocted on his long walk back. The story that he intended to spin, for the State Police, when he went down to Helena in the morning.

  "At least, that's where I assume they're gonna want me to go." he said as he finished his soliloquy; "and actually, I figure I should call 'em pretty quick. Let 'em know I just got into phone range, and had got notified by family, that I'm a wanted man!"

  As he finished his tale he looked around and saw the phone and battery lying in the same spot he'd tossed it, nearly three days ago. He got up, walked over to the counter, picked up the cell and battery and returned to his seat at the table.

  Ben took a deep breath and pushed the battery into the phone, snapped the back in place and said to Amanda, with a weak smile, as he pressed the power button; "Think I missed any calls?"

  To say he was juuust a bit apprehensive as the phone powered up would have been being a little modest. He wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but his stomach was in his throat as the phone started dinging with notifications. He held the phone low in his lap so Amanda couldn't see his hands shaking.

  He took a deep breath as he pushed the button to retrieve his voice mail, and pressed the phone to his ear to conceal the shaking.

  "Yeah. Missed just a few it looks like." He grinned, weakly again, at Amanda.

  After running through all the messages he clicked end and told Amanda; "So, that makes six from Karen, each one a lil' bit angrier and a lil' bit louder than the last, wondering where in God's name, I am." Ben grinned, "and the other four, from a Lt. Sheinaker with the Montana State Police. He don't sound real happy with me either!"

  He'd hoped he knew his daughter well enough, and he learned he did. She'd already replaced the phone that he hoped was gone with the Jamaicans, and, was burning up the cell towers with messages demanding he call her immediately! Truth be known, he couldn't see her walking to the corner without a damn cell phone! She must have made Kevin stop at the Verizon store on their way home from Avon!

  Ben also thought that if he was correct in his judgment of the men that had done the ambush, and they were in deed the sort he had them pegged to be, they'd leave nothing to make identification of anything, easier for any one.

  For he and Karen, that would mean her old phone would not be found lying around to complicate matters.

  Those men would not leave, to even the faintest whisper of a chance, the unintended consequence, that something left behind however seemingly unrelated to them, would somehow be the start of a trail to them.

  Ben smiled to himself. He'd been right about Karen. He was sure that those men were one more time
that he'd calculated things right. Of that he was certain.

  The first thing he did was dial Karen's number. She answered on the second ring. "Dad? Where are you? Why haven't you called before now? I've been trying to get you all day? Damn it Daddy! What the hell is going on?"

  "Well, first off Darlin' I missed you too!" Ben laughed. "And second, many thanks for all the messages. Glad to know how much you care!"

  "Talk to me Daddy! What's happening?"

  "Uh... Daughter, I thought I was! Look. I just came off the mountain and turned my phone on when I got back into range. It's all filled up with your hollerin' at me about some shootings or some damn thing, down in Ennis or Helena? You were caterwaulin' so bad I couldn't really make sense of what you were sayin'! Something about they've got my face all over the news! Then there's a few from some cop with the State Police that wants to talk to me, he seemed kinda riled up too! I expect that's about whatever nonsense you're seein' on the news... I haven't a clue lil' bit... I been... uh ... chasin' cows with... uh ... a friend of mine... so, I'll call you as soon as I talk to the police, and get this all straightened out. I'll call you later. Bye!" Ben clicked the end button before Karen had the time to reply."

  He hoped she had the good sense to realize what he was doing. He thought she did, but then, you never could be completely sure what a woman was thinking.

  The thing that had not really occurred to him was that the news casts plastering his face all over the TV; the news that Amanda had called him about, came after they'd kidnapped Karen. Her squallin' at him in her messages, would seem to back up the story he was formulating in his head.

  His grin widened as he sat looking at Amanda. This was working out pretty fair!

  "One more call to make girl... and then, I'm gonna take a shower and a long, long nap!"

  "A shower?" Amanda questioned? "I thought you said you scrubbed till your skin was raw? Up there on the mountain?"

  "Well, Darlin'" Ben leered at her; "I didn't have anyone to scrub my back, up there!"

  Amanda had taken a sip of water just as he spoke, and spewed it across the table, all over Ben. "You are a lecherous old demon!" she said, still choking on the water.

  Ben sat there with a wide eyed grin. "Yes Ma'am." He replied; "That I am!"

  Still chuckling, but his confidence growing, Ben listened to the voice mail one more time, to get the number the Police Lieutenant had left.

  He dialed it and waited as the phone rang, two, three, four times. He was about to hang up when a man answered; "Lt. Sheinaker."

  "Are you sure?" Ben queried.

  "Sure? Of who I am? Yeah, I think so Mr." the man growled. "Who in hell am I speaking to?"

  "Well, I'm the cowboy you folks have plastered all over the TV, at least from what my daughter tells me. I've not seen a TV yet. According to her you seem to think I'm some sort of wild eyed, gun slingin', super man." Ben retorted; "My name is Ben Jensen."

  "Jensen!" the lieutenant exclaimed. Ben could hear the hard rap of what sounded like a chair hitting the floor. The vision of a man leaning back in a chair, his feet on his desk, the front legs off the floor and then slamming down hard as the man sat up suddenly, went through his mind.

  "Where the hell are you Jensen? I need to talk to you!" the officer demanded.

  "Me? I'm rollin' down the road up by Choteau... and I'm needin' to talk to you too! You bozos got my Daughter havin' seizures with the baloney you've plastered all over the TV. You boys actually do this for a livin'?" Ben chided the man, sounding incredulous. Warming to the game, Ben was actually starting to have a little fun with it.

  Amanda sat across the table in stunned silence, her mouth hanging open at his sheer audacity. The man never ceased to amaze her.

  "Where are you? We'll come get you." Sheinaker demanded again.

  "Aw take a breath deputy. You'll give yourself a hemorrhage or something. Where are you at? I'll just come on by in the morning and we'll settle this all out. Why'd I bother to call you if there was anything real in that nonsense you boys are peddling? I'd just stay gone, wouldn't I? Get real man, you boys really blew it with this one!" Ben made sure the officer could hear him laughing.

  Sheinaker, knowing he had little leverage at this point, and yielding to the sense Ben had made told him; "State Police Headquarters in Helena."

  Ben knew he'd better not hang on too long or they'd have a chance of locking down a pretty good location on him, so he finished the call with; "In the morning L.T.!" and shut off his phone.

  Amanda told him; "You've got brass Ben." Grinning, she made the gesture of a pair of large grapefruit, with her hands. "Great Big Shiny Ones!"

  "Yes Ma'am... Now... about my back?" he asked.

  Chapter 37

  The old green pickup left a blue smokescreen behind it as it rattled and belched it's way through the city of Helena. It turned into the parking lot behind the offices of the State Police at just after nine in the morning.

  Ben pushed his way through the glass doors and limped as he stepped up to a female Sgt. at the desk just inside the doors.

  "Can I help you she asked?" a look of surprise filled her eyes as recognition dawned.

  "Yeah, uh... I'm supposed to have a conversation with a Lt. Sheinaker here this morning?" Ben responded. "Could you point me in the right direction?"

  She stumbled on her words in answering; "Lt. Shein... uh Sheinaker... yes... just uh... take that elevator" she said, pointing at the pair of elevator doors in the wall behind her. "Third floor. Just turn left when the doors open. His name is on the door... I'm sure someone will show you" she rushed to add, as Ben stepped toward the elevators.

  She was right about that. She must have been on the phone as the doors were closing, because when they opened, three floors later, a half dozen officers were waiting.

  They surged through the doors as they parted. As one hit the stop button, two grabbed his arms, spun him and shoved him up against the rear wall of the car, while a fourth pressed his hand hard in the middle of Ben's back. The remaining two couldn't find room to do much else, so they just crowded in behind the others, just wanting to take part.

  Ben was quickly cuffed and searched. The most dangerous thing they found on him was the ball point pen in his pocket.

  "Be careful with that!" he warned. "It's one of those brand new ones. It'll write under water! I just bought it at Walmart and it's loaded!" He stood there with a silly, wide grin on his face as one of the officers hollered at him to; "Be quiet boy! You're in enough trouble already!"

  "Yeah you're right" Ben agreed. "Man shouldn't be allowed to walk the streets of Helena with a loaded, ball point pen!"

  He laughed out loud. "Jesus! You folks have all gone stark, raving mad!"

  "Here he is Lieutenant, its Ben Jensen sir." An officer handed the man Ben's wallet with his driver's license showing. Two other State troopers stood flanking Ben, tightly gripping his cuffed arms.

  "Yeah, L.T." Ben spoke to him with the military acronym. "Better watch out, or I'll get loose and write dirty words in your report book!" Again Ben laughed out loud. "Damn! I crack myself up sometimes!"

  "Watch your mouth Jensen. I already warned you once." The officer who'd warned him to be quiet, repeated his warning.

  "Oh shut up asshole." Ben snapped back. "I can't help it if you Yahoos ran off on some monkey humpin' wild goose chase. I don't know how you somehow came to the knot headed conclusion that a drunked up, broken down, wore out, Montana cowboy was some new fangled super vigilante."

  "It ain't my fault that now you're all embarrassed, and wonderin' what the hell? I can see that the truth is startin' to sink into those peeeee sized brains ya'll run around with rattlin' between your ears. I realize you're all comin' to understand that the whole damn world is gonna see ya'll are nuthin' but a bunch of stumblin', Barney Fife, keystone cop, Montana morons! It is embarrassing. But the fact that your momma's bred a litter of idiots, ain't my fault." The anger in Ben's voice echoed with a sincerity that almost made him
laugh... just, almost.

  "All right!" a new voice thundered. "Everybody shut the fuck up in my squad room!" The new voice belonged to Lt. John Sheinaker. He was the man assigned by the Commanding Officer of the State Police to head the investigation. The State Police were under growing pressure from the Governor. The state's Chief Executive was fearful of what seemed to be a drug war in Montana. Sheinaker's orders were simple; "Button this thing up, and get it done fast!"

  With twelve dead Jamaicans, late of Chicago, in three separate locations across the state, and little to no hard evidence, the investigation now centered on Ben Jensen. Their only person of interest was a widowed, nearly bankrupt, aging, reported chronically drunk, rancher; and three hitch veteran of the United States Army.

  "Jensen? You gonna be a problem here?" Sheinaker's voice again thundered across the room.

  "Look L.T., did I call you? Did I say I'd be here this morning? Am I here? Have I done anything more than do what I promised you I would? So I wounded the pride of these high grade dog catchers, big deal. Sue me. Jesus L.T. you boys are acting like a bunch of bullyin' runts on the playground! I wasn't impressed then, and I ain't now! You make up your own damn mind!" Ben replied.

  "Ok... Ok... take the cuffs off him, put him in interrogation 1. I'll be right there Jensen. We'll find out who's impressed with what!" Sheinaker commanded.

  The two officers herded him down the hallway to a door with a small, one way glass window and pushed him thru. They didn't remove the cuffs until he was in the room and the door was closed, with several other officers outside.

  "Many thanks girls" Ben told them as he sat in the plastic chair beside the small table in the room. "You girls really need to cool out some. You're gonna get a rash!" his laugh just made them glare ever more.

  Ben raised his hands as if to ward off a blow. "Sorry. Don't hurt me girls. I didn't realize I'd hurt your feelings. I'll just sit here and be quiet." He sat back and met their glare with his wide eyed, innocent grin.