Chapter 8 Overdue Encounter #3
Benjie’s face turned red again. “No, I just felt sorry for her.” He clasped his hands in front of him on the table.
“She stopped her car, got out, and apologized. It wasn’t easy to understand her.
Like I said, she was crying pretty hard.
Said she’d been in a fender bender, which was why her bumper had taken a bit of a beating.
She was soaked. We both were. It was both funny and not funny.
” He shrugged. “At the time, I didn’t think much of it.
I was pretty distracted trying to figure out why Tiana had stood me up on our lunch date.
” His voice hitched, and he removed his reading glasses to hold the sleeve of his lab coat against his eyes.
There was something about his poignant gesture that tore at Bear’s heart. He didn’t want it to, but it did.
“You know what happened next.” Benjie sniffled as he set his glasses back on his nose.
“After Tiana’s bike was found on the side of the road, my path crossed with Verity’s again and again.
We usually ended up at the diner for coffee.
I know it was too soon after losing my girlfriend to move on with someone else, and I’ll probably never forgive myself for doing it, but it wasn’t what everyone assumed.
” His face contorted with emotion. “Verity and I bonded over our mutual loss. The longer Tiana stayed gone, the more Verity and I leaned on each other. We talked for hours, and it helped us both. It was the most normal…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, leaving Bear wallowing in curiosity about what he’d left unsaid. If Bear had been forced to finish it for him, it would’ve sounded something like:
It was the most normal my loony future wife ever acted.
“It was our way of keeping her memory alive,” Benjie rushed to add, sounding defensive.
“We never got to say goodbye. There wasn’t a body to bury, no casket to mourn over.
Pardon my crassness. I’m not trying to be insensitive.
” He sniffled again. “We never got any real closure, and it’s hard to move on from that. ”
Bear stared at the guy, aghast that he’d spent so many years harboring so much resentment against him. It was clear he was speaking to a man who’d never gotten over his feelings for Tiana, something that had never occurred to Bear.
“You say a fender bender is what caused you and Verity to meet, eh?” That was the one part of Benjie’s story that Bear’s brain kept going back to. What had caused the fender bender? Was it why she’d been weeping so hard when she’d nearly run Benjie over?
Benjie spread his hands, making a rueful face. “It wasn’t a romantic start, I know, but our marriage has…lasted.” The note of uncertainty was back in his voice.
Bear could only speculate on its significance. “Was her car pretty beat up?” he pressed.
Benjie’s shoulders stiffened. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. It’s natural to want someone to blame, but playing the blame game won’t make you feel any better. Ask me how I know.”
“I just want answers.” Bear wasn’t ready to let it rest, nor would Benjie be if their roles were reversed.
“So do I.” The dentist’s voice was flat. “Even though our lives would be in quite a tailspin if Tiana ever shows up again. I’m a married man now.”
Bear gave him a searching look, trying to decide if he really believed Tiana was coming back. What reason would he have for believing such a thing?
Benjie was the first to look away. “You don’t think she’s coming back. That’s why you’re really here.” He stood and moved behind his desk, dropping heavily into his office chair. “This is about those bones our housekeeper saw you carrying to the drop box at the police station, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Bear watched him closely for his reaction, taken aback by how misinformed the man was. Number one, Bear hadn’t come anywhere near the bones in question. Number two, the bones didn’t belong to Tiana.
Dr. Haywood’s features crumbled. “If you were guilty of anything, you wouldn’t be standing here.” He dropped his face into his hands, weeping. Raw and jagged rasping sounds filled the room.
“Believe it or not, I had nothing to do with finding the bones.” Bear was deeply moved by the man’s grief, largely because he hadn’t been expecting it.
“The police have cleared my name, but something tells me you already knew that. I think you’ve always known I had nothing to do with my sister’s disappearance. ”
A groan escaped Benjie. He raised his head, fighting to regain control of his emotions.
“I know what you’re implying, but the only damage to Verity’s car was a busted headlight.
It wasn’t a full-blown fender-bender.” He had his suspicions, though.
If not back then, he was having them now. That much was obvious.
As I am.
Bear mulled over everything Benjie had told him.
If Verity had fatally hit Tiana on her bike that day — whether on purpose or by accident — where was the body buried?
And who had moved Willow Chaska’s corpse to the barn at Haywood Ranch?
Was it simply to muddy the evidence? Had Kaya’s poking into Tiana’s cold case gotten too close to the truth?
If it were about pinning a murder charge on Bear, they’d done a sloppy job of it. There had to be more to it.
He had one last question before leaving the Haywood Dental Clinic, a question he was sure Benjie would be willing to answer. “If you don’t mind me asking, what was Verity driving the day she almost hit you?”
“I mind,” Benjie let out a weary breath, “but I’m more interested in the truth, the same as you.
Verity was driving the Corvette we still own.
It was a high school graduation gift from her parents, so she’ll never get rid of it.
It mostly sits in our garage, but she drives it now and then.
I think she does it to remember. She took it out a few days ago and came back home crying again.
I’m telling you, man, she loved Tiana. Everybody did. ”
Bear couldn’t believe what he was hearing. If Verity had been in her car a few days ago, weeping along the old highway where Tiana had disappeared, then she was the driver who’d tried to run him over. It was another thing he’d be reporting to the police the moment he left the dental clinic.
Something was terribly wrong with Verity Haywood.
He thought back to the tiny, sickly high school kid who’d grown into a spoiled college student.
A filthy rich one, whose entire life had been served to her on a silver platter.
A woman who’d purposely tried to run Bear over, then kept on driving.
He was beginning to believe it wasn’t the first time she’d done something like that.
It was possible Dr. Benjamin Haywood was married to a dangerous lunatic, and he didn’t even know it. Or maybe he did. There was something buried deep in the man’s red-rimmed eyes that Bear found haunting.
“Thank you for your honesty.” He couldn’t think of anything else to say. Benjie had already been more open about the matter than Bear had expected. He stood and turned to leave.
“I never stopped loving her,” Benjie choked, slowing Bear’s exit. “I know it may not have appeared that way. That’s why I’ve had a hard time looking you in the eye over the years.”
“I believe you.” Bear found comfort in his confession. It helped to know that Benjie hadn’t callously abandoned Tiana for another woman. It helped to know that he’d loved her until the end — that he loved her even now. It was the way Tiana had deserved to be loved.
“Thank you.” Benjie grated out the words, standing and leaning his hands on his desk. He looked exhausted.
“I’ll let myself out.” Bear reached the door. “I’m glad we talked.” The next time they met, they wouldn’t have to keep staring anywhere but at each other. He doubted they would ever be friends, but they were no longer enemies. It was progress.
“I’m glad we talked, too.” Benjie’s voice was stronger this time, though still filled with sadness. “It won’t bring Tiana back, but I’ll contact the police and tell them what I know. It’s something I should’ve done a long time ago.”
“Good idea.” Bear found it noteworthy that Benjie assumed the bones belonged to Tiana. Why? What else did he know about her disappearance?
Bear didn’t look at Verity on his way out of the building, but he could feel her gaze burning a hole between his shoulder blades. He waited until he was a few blocks away before dialing Adriel.
His friend answered on the first ring.
Bear grunted. “One ring? That’s got to be a record. You usually make me wait longer.”
“You’re usually not eyeballs-deep in a murder investigation,” Adriel shot back.
“Fair enough.” Bear repeated everything Benjie Haywood had told him. “It’s safe to say the noose is closing around Verity and old Callie.” Only time would tell how far the rot had spread through the Haywood family.
“I’ll do my part to cinch it down.” Adriel sounded eager to get back to work. “I’ve got your back on this, you hear?”
“Loud and clear.” Without Adriel, April, Gil, and Luke working so diligently to uncover the truth, who knows who the Haywoods might’ve paid off to pin a murder charge on Bear. The lengths some people would go to cover their crimes! But someone would soon be in handcuffs. Probably several someones.
He returned to the hotel, hoping to bump into April, but nobody answered his knock on the door of her hotel suite. He made the short trek to the medical center next. He could’ve called her on his burner phone, but radio silence felt like the best policy right now.
He nearly ran into Kaya as she flew out of the morgue. “Hey!” She looked delighted to see him. “I’m going on a celebratory coffee run. You want something?” She held the door open for him so it wouldn’t slam shut and lock him out of the morgue.
He glanced around them in search of Bo.
She rolled her eyes. “He’s pulling the armored tank around to the back of the hospital as we speak.”