Forever Fudge

by Nancy CoCo

  “I can ask the manager, but in general we keep that information among the staff.”

  “You seem to keep close tabs on who is in your building,” I pointed out.

  “We do,” she said. “As part of our safety measures. Now, we do have a restaurant that is open to the public, but that is monitored with a camera.”

  “Has Trent Jessop come into the Grand in the last week?” I asked.

  Rex glanced at me as if wondering what I was thinking.

  “Let me see,” the receptionist said, and went to her computer. I waited patiently while she dug through her computer records. “It seems he was here two days ago.”

  “Do you know why he was here?” Rex asked.

  “No,” she said. “There’s a note that he met with Dirk in the lobby. The two men left. Mr. Benjamin came back alone some hours later.”

  I looked at Rex. “That means Dirk might have been the last person to have seen Trent alive.”

  “It could be why the killer abducted Dirk,” Rex said. He turned to the receptionist. “Thank you. We’re going to see Mr. Benjamin now.”

  “I’ll make a note,” she said.

  We hurried down the hall to the elevators. Dirk was staying in a suite on the third floor.

  “What do you think Trent wanted with Dirk?” I asked as we stepped out of the elevator.

  “We’re about to find out,” Rex said. We walked by the security guard at the end of the hall. The guard acknowledged Rex with a nod of his head.

  “Have you been here before?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “How does he know you?”

  “The uniform,” Rex said.

  “Hmm.”

  Rex knocked on the door to a room.

  “Yeah,” Simon said, and opened the door. “Oh, Officer Manning.”

  “Can we come in?” Rex asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Simon said. “Dirk is out on the balcony recovering from his ordeal.”

  We walked through the room, which was decorated in bright red and green florals. There was a large four-poster bed on one side of the room and a couch with two chairs on the other. Rex wasted no time going straight to the balcony. We stepped out to the cool breeze blowing off the lake and a lovely lake view of the sunset. Dirk was lounging in a chair. He had a bandage on his forehead and a bruise on his jaw. Rather than marring his good looks, it simply made him look more masculine.

  “Rex, my man,” he said, and straightened. “Allie! What a surprise. Come, sit, sit. Simon, get these people something to drink. What would you like? Tea? Water? A beer? We have gin and tonic . . .”

  “Water, please,” I said, and took a seat on the patio chair he pointed toward. “How are you?”

  “Better now,” he said, and touched the bruise on his chin. “I understand you were the one to find me, Allie. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said.

  “How did you know I was there?”

  “We were chasing clues looking for Trent Jessop,” I said. “I’m glad we found you. No one seems to even know that you were missing before we found you.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t blame anyone,” he said with a shrug. “I’m a bit of a wild thing when it comes to being on set or not. That’s why our illustrious leader has assigned poor Simon to babysit me.”

  “We understand you saw Trent Jessop two days ago. Is that correct?” Rex asked.

  “Sure.” Dirk sat up and put his elbows on his knees. “You said you were looking for Trent . . .”

  “He’s missing,” I said. “We think the killer took him.”

  “Gee, that’s one busy killer,” Dirk said, and ran his hand through his thick, blond hair. “He jumped me and Trent?”

  “We think he has Trent, yes,” Rex said. “What did you meet with Jessop for?”

  “Oh, dude, the guy wanted to make sure his sister was getting her money’s worth on the shoots, you know? I guess she won the bid for the outside shots for the show.” He shrugged. “I told him that I’m not the one that schedules those things. He needed to go see Troy.”

  “The director,” Rex said.

  “Yeah, dude, it’s his job to plan these things. I’m just the talent. You know? I show up, say the lines, and I get paid.”

  “The reception desk says you left with Trent. Where did you go?”

  “Dude, I walked him down to see Troy. You know, with the rest of the crew. I think they were working near the stables that day.”

  “Did you introduce Trent to Troy?”

  “Dude, no, I got stopped to sign some autographs. When I finished the dude was gone. You know? So I figured he’s a smart dude. He’ll find Troy.”

  “What did you do next?”

  “Went for a jog. Seriously, it takes a lot of work to keep this bod. You know?”

  “I can imagine,” Rex said.

  Simon walked out onto the balcony with a bucket of ice and bottles of water and soda. He offered me the bucket. I took out a bottle of water and twisted the top off. I took a swallow of cold water and watched as Rex declined anything and Dirk grabbed a beer.

  “What happened this morning?” I asked. “The front desk says you went out for a jog.”

  “Yeah, I go out pretty much the same time every day and run the island. It’s like eight miles around, right?”

  “The bike trail along the coast is, yes,” I said.

  “So I started jogging and I see this wagon stopped by the side of the road. It was early and there wasn’t anyone else around. So I thought I should check it out. The last thing I remember is walking around to the back. Next thing I know I wake up in that basement. My hands were tied and I had a sock or something in my mouth. It was freaking cold and there was one lightbulb overhead.”

  “Was anyone with you?”

  He shrugged. “I thought I heard someone walking around, but didn’t see anyone.”

  “So you don’t know if it was a male or female who took you?”

  He laughed. “I doubt some girl is going to transport two hundred twenty pounds of muscle anywhere. It had to be a dude.”

  “Or two dudes,” Rex said.

  Dirk leaned forward. “You think there are two guys involved?”

  “Trent isn’t a small guy, either,” I said. “Whoever is doing this is strong enough to haul around dead weight.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t know why they would want to take me,” he said. “I’m glad you found me.”

  “Me too,” I said. “But I really need to find Trent. The killer left a note that says we only had forty-eight hours and that was over twenty four hours ago.”

  “Ouch, I hope you find him.”

  “I have a question,” I said.

  He took a swig of his beer from the bottle. “Shoot.”

  “Do you jog in jeans? I mean, you were wearing jeans when we found you.”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said, and touched the bottle to his head. “Caught that, did you? They told me you were clever.”

  “And?” Rex asked.

  “It’s no mystery really,” he said. “I jog in jeans. I got this thing about pictures of me in shorts. Not the best calves, if you know what I mean.” He shrugged. “It’s a thing. Gotta protect my brand, you know?”

  “Do you know where Jeffery Jenas is?” I asked.

  “Jeffery? I don’t know,” he said, shrugging. “The dude’s always walking about the island. I think he told me his uncle lives here.”

  “So he is related to the Jenases who own the building you were found in . . .”

  “What?” Dirk sat up straight. “You think Jeffery has something to do with this? No way, no way, the dude is a writer. They don’t actually do stuff. They just imagine what it’d be like to do stuff. You know?”

  “When was the last time you saw Jeffery Jenas?”

  “Yesterday,” Dirk said. “The dude had some cool ending to the last show he wanted to tell me about, but I’m a busy guy, you know? I told him I’d look at it later. Look, I’m sure it’s fine.
You know?”

  “Right,” Rex said, and stood. “Thank you for your time.”

  “Cool,” Dirk said, and relaxed back into his chair.

  “Come on, Allie, let’s get you home.”

  I stood. “There’s just one thing I don’t understand. Why would the killer let us find you but keep Trent?”

  Chapter 28

  “I told you I thought Jeffery was behind this,” I said as we left the Grand.

  “I’ve got my people out looking for him,” he said. “No one’s seen the man since last night.”

  “The thing I still can’t get my mind around is how Jeffery could have dragged Dirk and Trent around. Jeffery’s only about five foot ten and super thin.”

  “There has to be two,” Rex said as we walked down the street.

  “So Jeffery is the mastermind and someone else is the muscle,” I said. “But who? And more importantly, where is Trent?”

  “We’ve exhausted the clues, Allie,” Rex said.

  “I’m missing something,” I said.

  “That’s what the killer wants, right? To outsmart you?”

  We walked toward the stables. I glanced down the first alley on the right and stopped.

  “What?” Rex asked.

  “What if they didn’t take Trent anywhere,” I said.

  “What do you mean?”

  I walked over to the alley. “This is the way Trent went, right? He left Dirk at the Grand and the crew was shooting at the stables. What if, as I thought earlier, the killer paid a woman to scream? Trent would have run in and the killer would have knocked him out.”

  “And?” We stood in the mouth of the alley.

  “What if instead of taking him out to an abandoned building, they simply moved him inside one of these businesses?”

  “Hmmm,” Rex said, and pulled out his flashlight. We walked door-to-door and accessed the back doors as if they would tell us something.

  “I’m going to knock like I did when we found Dirk.” I banged on each door and held my breath while I listened.

  “We can’t knock on every door,” Rex said after the third door.

  “Shush,” I said, and put my ear to the door of the third building. I knocked again. I heard a faint noise. I pounded harder. The noise came back in response. I rattled the doorknob. “What is this building?”

  Rex walked around the side, running his flashlight along the building, spotting a basement window. He knelt down and peered into the window. “Knock again.”

  I raced back to the door and pounded as hard as I could. No one answered. Frustrated, I knocked twice. The faint sound of two knocks came through the door. It sounded far away. “Did you hear that?” I called to Rex.

  “Hey,” said the neighbor who came out on his fire escape from the second-floor apartment. “What’s going on?”

  “Have you seen Trent Jessop?” I asked.

  “No,” the man said. “But I work nights and sleep days.”

  Rex came around and shined his flashlight up. “Kerry Mentor,” he said.

  “Hey, Rex, are you looking for Trent?”

  “Have you seen anything unusual?”

  “Like I was telling the lady, I work nights so no, I don’t see anything.”

  A faint sound of banging came from deep inside the building. I turned to Rex. “We have to check it out.”

  “I can’t enter without a warrant or cause,” Rex said.

  “Hang on,” Kerry said. “That’s the Billsleys’ place. I have a key.” He disappeared back into his apartment for a moment, then came loping down the stairs. “Bill Billsley is gone for the season. I stay year-round so I have a key to check for things like pipes breaking and such.” He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. He flipped on the light. “Hello?”

  We all walked into the back room of the building.

  “Hello?” I called. “Trent?”

  Rex cleared the first and second rooms, then found a door in the short hall that led down to the basement. He flipped on the switch. I stood at the top of the stairs. The basement smelled musty. The temperature was noticeably cooler.

  “Police,” Rex said.

  I heard muffled pounding and went racing down the stairs. “Trent?” I called.

  Rex caught me. “Stop.” I froze at the bottom of the stairs.

  Rex cautiously turned the corner from the bottom of the steps. “Clear,” he called after what seemed like an hour of my holding my breath, but was only a minute or so.

  I raced around the corner to see a dirty mattress on the floor. Trent was tied up and lying on the mattress. His eyes were covered with a bandanna. Rex pulled something out of his mouth. “Trent!” I went over to him. He was warm to the touch. That meant he wasn’t dead, at least not yet. Rex pulled Trent up to sit and pushed the covering off his eyes. Trent blinked and winced against the light from the single bare bulb hanging from the joists. “We found you. Are you okay?”

  His lips were dry and cracked. There was an old cut on his temple and blood on the corners of his mouth. “Allie,” he croaked out my name.

  I grabbed him and hugged him hard while Rex untied his hands.

  “What the hell happened?” Rex asked him.

  “Water,” Trent said.

  I looked up at Rex. He called the ambulance to the spot. “We’ll get you some water. First, are you hurt? Is anything broken? Can you walk?”

  Trent tried to stand, but fell back. “Weak,” he said. “I don’t think anything is broken.”

  Rex and I helped Trent to his feet. I held my arm around his waist as he took his first wobbly steps. It took a while, but we managed to go up the stairs. By this time George was there along with Joy Emmerson. The ambulance filled the tight alleyway. They bundled him into the back of the ambulance and started an IV drip.

  Brent and Officer Lasko showed up along with Shane and his evidence kit. I heard Rex tell them to interview the neighbor. I climbed up in the back of the ambulance with Trent and held his hand.

  “Your mother and sister are pretty worried about you,” I said, and squeezed his hand.

  “Mom’s here?”

  “Yes, and she will probably meet us at the clinic. Who did this to you Trent?”

  “I’m not quite sure,” he said, and closed his eyes against the glare of the lights in the ambulance.

  “Was it Jeffery Jenas?”

  “Who?”

  “The writer, Jeffery Jenas,” I said. “Did he do this to you?”

  “No,” Trent said with a shake of his head.

  “Then who?”

  “Dirk Benjamin,” he said.

  “I’m putting something in to keep him calm until we can better assess the damage to his body,” George said. “Are you coming to the clinic with us?”

  I glanced out at the building. Brent stood by the door with his hands clasped behind him. “Yes,” I said.

  “Wait,” Rex said, and climbed in the back. “I need his statement.”

  “He’s in no shape,” George said.

  “I can talk,” Trent croaked. “It was Dirk Benjamin who took me. Dirk is the killer.”

  “I think you’re mistaken,” I said. “You mean Jeffery Jenas, the writer.”

  “No,” Trent croaked. “Dirk, Dirk Benjamin. He said he was coming back to administer poisoning.” Trent winced as the IV needle punched through his skin.

  “Lasko,” Rex said, and stepped out of the ambulance. “Escort the ambulance to the clinic and keep an eye on Trent and Allie.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, and climbed up into the ambulance with a sober face. She took a seat. The doors of the vehicle closed behind her and we moved slowly along. I held Trent’s hand the entire time. George worked on him, checking vital signs and looking for bumps and bruises.

  We got to the clinic in no time and the doors opened. Mrs. Jessop was there and so was Paige.

  “Trent!” they called, tears running down their faces. I let go of his hand as George and Joy pulled the stretcher out of the amb
ulance and took Trent off inside the clinic. Mrs. Jessop and Paige went in with him. I stood outside and gave them room to assure themselves that Trent was going to be okay.

  “I’m glad you found him,” Officer Lasko said.

  “Me too.”

  “He said Dirk Benjamin did this to him?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I want to go wrench that man from the Grand Hotel and give him a piece of my mind.”

  “Relax,” Lasko said, and put her hand on my arm. “Rex has this.”

  I went inside the clinic to find Trent. Paige and Mrs. Jessop were fussing over him. He looked exhausted.

  “I’m flying in Doctor Hendricks in the morning,” Mrs. Jessop said.

  “There’s no need,” Trent muttered.

  “He seems to be dehydrated, but none the worse for wear,” the nurse said as she checked his vitals. “We’re going to want to keep him on an IV drip overnight and then he can go home. The doctor will want to observe him for a while.”

  I noticed that someone had bandaged Trent’s wrists where the ties had dug in.

  “I’d just like a shower and to go home,” Trent said.

  “I want him home,” Mrs. Jessop said.

  “Doctor’s order to keep him here overnight,” the nurse insisted.

  “And I must insist that he goes home with me,” Mrs. Jessop said. “I won’t have him in this place overnight.”

  I stood in the corner and watched as Mrs. Jessop bullied the staff. Trent turned to me and held out his hand. “Allie.”

  Taking his hand, I smiled at him. “We thought you were dead.”

  “I’m glad I’m not,” he said with a hint of his handsome smile.

  “I don’t understand how it could be Dirk,” I said. “Earlier today, your mother, Paige, and Jenn and I found Dirk in the basement of the Jenas warehouse. He was tied to a chair. It was clear he was in the place where the other two men were killed.”

  “That man is not as stupid as he wants us all to think,” Trent said.

  I remembered suddenly how Dirk was able to mimic Rex so quickly and so easily. “He was playing the part of the dumb actor.” I looked at Trent. “Did he tell you why he chose you?”

  “It drove him nuts that you weren’t really investigating. He said he had to up the pain point to get you to take notice.”