Chapter 3
The medi-vac chopper came flying over the Lake not ten minutes later. Jeddrick was glad to see it come, even though Benji’s color was good and his breathing wasn’t faltering. He stood up and went to go wave a hand in the air to show the chopper pilot where to land, and the bird dropped down into the dirt of the driveway near his cruiser. Two paramedics leapt off of it and came hurrying toward him. He turned and pointed toward the still figure of Benji. “He took a blow to the back of the head!” Jeddrick yelled over the sound of the rotors.
The paramedics nodded to show that they understood, and headed purposefully toward Benji. They knelt down on either side of him and began to do the mysterious things that they did. He stood back and let them get to it, knowing better than to interfere. As they worked over him, the artist began to groan and move. Jeddrick was relieved to see that; he knew that it was a good sign. One of the paramedics restrained Benji while the other spoke to him. Finally they let him sit up very carefully, and one of them used a little penlight to check the artist’s pupil reactions while the other asked him questions to see if he was coherent. Benji looked dazed and bewildered, but his eyes finally fell on Jeddrick. A look of relief moved over his face, and he actually managed to conjure up a painful little smile for the deputy.
The paramedics finished their check-up, and one of them came over to Jeddrick. “He has a mild concussion,” the woman told Jeddrick. “And a cut on the back of his head. But he should be all right. The thing is, though…he said that he lives here alone. We can’t leave him here by himself, just in case. Somebody either needs to stay with him for the night and wake him up every few hours, or he’ll have to go to the hospital with us now so that we can monitor him.”
Jeddrick’s pale-blue eyes flashed to Benji’s face. The artist looked woeful. Clearly he imagined that he’d be stuck in the hospital for the night. “I’ll stay with him,” he called to the paramedic. “I’ll call in later after my shift is done so you can tell me what I have to do,” he added.
She nodded. “We’ll tell him. You can pick up a prescription for some painkillers, too; he’ll need those,” she went on.
He nodded. She turned away to go and tell Benji that he didn’t have to go to the hospital after all. His face glowed at her words, and the happy look he turned on Jeddrick was payment enough for any inconvenience to him. The paramedics spoke to Benji briefly, and then departed back to the medi-vac. It took off as soon as they were aboard, and powered its way back up into the air. It swung out over the Lake, headed back toward town. Jeddrick waited until it had gone, then walked over to where Benji was still sitting. “Can you get up?” he asked gently.
“I think so,” Benji said doubtfully. “Can you help me?”
Jeddrick held out his hand, but grunted under Benji’s considerable weight as the artist slowly stood up on wavering legs. “Oww,” he said miserably, clutching at the front of his head in lieu of touching the back.
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Jeddrick said sympathetically. “You gave me quite a fright. Can you tell me what happened?”
“I don’t know,” Benji replied in confusion. “One second I was walking down the path out of the forest, coming back from my hike. The next I felt this pain in my head, and everything went dark.”
“So you didn’t see anybody?” Jeddrick asked, disappointed.
Benji started to shake his head, then whimpered and clutched at his abused skull even more tightly. “No,” he whispered, his eyes scrunching up in pain.
“They must have come up behind you and hit you with something,” Jeddrick commented, looking around. His eyes fell on a length of branch lying nearby. He walked over and knelt down next to it. There were traces of blood on the wood. “They used this,” he commented. “Then once you were out of it, they broke into your cabin again. Come to think of it, this black SUV that passed me on my way in was coming from this direction. I’ll bet that was whoever conked you on the head and broke into your cabin. Fortunately I remember the license plate number. I’ll get an APB out on it as soon as possible.”
He stopped and looked at Benji, who was pale and looked miserable. “Come inside,” he said gently, taking the artist’s arm and steering him toward the cabin. “And sit down. You need to rest.”
“Thank you, Jed. I’m glad that you’re here,” Benji said gratefully.
“So am I. If I hadn’t been, you might have laid there for God only knows how long.” The deputy remarked grimly as he guided Benji into his cabin and steered him over to the couch.
Benji sat down gingerly, looking happier when his head wasn’t jarred by the motion. “Did they take anything else?” he asked miserably, not wanting to turn his head and look around.
Jeddrick glanced around the cabin. “Doesn’t look like it,” he remarked thoughtfully. “Although I presume that they came back for the rest of your grandfather’s paintings. Sorry, I guess they got what they wanted this time.”
“No, they didn’t,” Benji said triumphantly.
Jeddrick turned back to him. “What do you mean?” he asked curiously.
Benji smiled, although it still looked painful for him to do so. “I had the other three stored in the bank’s vault in town. You said they’d probably come back, and I figured that you knew best. So I had them locked up where those thieves can’t get at them,” he went on.
“Smart,” Jeddrick complimented him. “Too bad we can’t make that fact known to them so they’ll stop trying to get at paintings that aren’t here anymore.”
“Maybe we could leave a big note up for the next time? Like a big post-it note? One that says: Dear thieves, the paintings that you want aren’t here anymore, so could you please stop breaking into my house?” Benji said.
“Maybe we should,” Jeddrick said in faint amusement. “And in the meantime, we should try to find out just what the hell is so important about those paintings that these guys keep trying to get their hands on them.”
Jeddrick called in the APB for the vehicle with the black-tinted windows that had almost hit him earlier. He told Dolores that he was going to stay awhile to take Benji’s statement, and there was faint amusement in her voice when she acknowledged what he’d said. When he was done, he went back into the cabin. Poor Benji was sitting on the couch with a bag of frozen peas carefully held to the bump on the back of his head, his eyes half-closed. But he hadn’t gone to sleep; Jeddrick had warned him that he had to stay awake for now because once he had to leave to go back to work he wouldn’t be here to wake Benji up just in case. He’d be staying the night later, and could wake Benji up every hour, but for now the artist would simply have to stay awake whether he liked it or not.
“How are you feeling?” he asked as he circled the couch.
Benji replied in a whisper: “My head really hurts.”
“I’ll bet,” Jeddrick said sympathetically. “Are the peas helping at all?” he asked with just a trace of humor in his voice.
“Yes, a bit. I’ve got some carrots I can replace them with when they go all soggy,” Benji said, making Jeddrick chuckle.
“All right. I’ll stay for a bit, but then I’ve got to get back to work for now. I’ll come back when my shift is over with the painkillers for your head. Is that all right?”
“Yes, thanks. If you hadn’t agreed to stay with me, I’d have had to go to the hospital. So thank you, Jed. I really appreciate it,” Benji said with a grateful look for him.
He shrugged uncomfortably. “It's no big deal. I don’t mind hanging out here. And it’ll make me feel better to know that I can guard you tonight; I’d worry anyway if I’d had to leave you alone. Whoever this is seems pretty desperate. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Benji’s big brown eyes lifted to his. Jeddrick felt an impact in the region of his gut as he stared down into those warm brown orbs. “You’re really nice, Jed,” Benji said softly.
He wouldn’t think so if he could see some of the thoughts going through Jeddrick’s head right now! Especially the urge to lean over and kiss Benji and see if his lips tasted as sweet as they looked. Damn it! Bad time for his hormones to be rearing their ugly heads, but what could he do? He was a man, after all. He cleared his throat hurriedly. “I’m just doing what any friend would do, ‘he said, then wanted to kick himself for bringing up the ‘friendship’ card when he’d been thinking of asking Benji out. Stupid!
Benji’s smile was open and honest. “I’m glad we’re friends, Jed,” he said earnestly. “And not just because somebody keeps trying to steal granddad’s paintings, either. I really like having you come here every day for lunch,” he added more shyly, his lashes falling over his eyes as he looked down. He had the cutest blush imaginable, especially on such a big guy. Jeddrick found himself entranced by the sight of it.
“And I really like coming here,” he answered aloud, hearing how hoarse his voice sounded. He studiously avoided the double entendre that could be gotten from those words, reminding himself severely that Benji was injured and vulnerable. He didn’t need Jeddrick drooling over him at the moment, he needed to be taken care of and coddled. “Anyway,” he went on swiftly, do you want anything to eat or drink? Then I’ll do a patrol of the grounds and make sure everything’s buttoned up tight, before I go back to work. Okay?”
Benji started to nod instinctively, then yelped and looked miserable. It was all Jeddrick could do not to sit down and take Benji into his arms, but he forced himself to stay in control. “It’s fine,” the artist whispered. “And I’d like some water, please. No food, not right now – I feel nauseous. I’d just get sick if I tried to eat anything. “
“Understood. Let me get you some water, and I’ll pick up some take-out for us when I come back. You’ll probably feel more like eating then,” Jeddrick remarked as he went into the kitchen to fetch a couple of bottled waters for Benji from the fridge. He brought these back and set them down on the couch right next to the artist, within reach so he wouldn’t have to stretch in any way. He also fetched the remote and put it within reach, in case Benji wanted to watch some television to take his mind off of sleeping. Benji just looked grateful for his attentions, and Jeddrick smiled at him reassuringly before he went off to do a patrol of the perimeter of the cabin and make sure that all of the security measures were still in place.
When he was outside, he went over to the spot where Benji had been lying when he’d arrived and studied the ground. He saw several sets of tracks, one of a pair of tennis shoes like those Benji was wearing, and another that looked like they might belong to a pair of loafers. The thieves? Thieves who wore loafers. Interesting. He pondered this as he went back to the cabin and checked the front door, then stepped inside again. “Everything’s good,” he told Benji. “You’ll be safe once I lock the door and close it after myself. You have the number of my cell, call me if you need anything or you start to feel bad. Don’t just think you should buck up and suffer in silence – head trauma can be very dangerous. So you call me if your headache gets worse or your vision starts to blur or you feel dizzy .Got that?”
His stern words made Benji reply fervently: “I will, Jed.”
“Good. I’ll be back at about five-thirty or six. Rest, relax, and take care of yourself. I’ll see you later.”
“Okay. Bye,” Benji said as Jeddrick left the cabin and locked the door after himself. Benji would have to let him in later, but he preferred it this way. He didn’t want those bastards to be able to get back in if they returned later on while he wasn’t here. He wasn’t going to let anything else happen to Benji if he could help it.
The rest of the day seemed to pass very, very slowly for Jeddrick. He went about his duties, but his ear and his mind were both tuned to the cell phone at his belt. He just managed to stop himself from calling Benji every half hour to see how he was feeling – and he worried that the artist might have passed out and might even now be lying on his couch in bad shape. Finally his worries got the best of him, and he dialed Benji’s home number. He almost panicked when the phone rang six or seven times, but finally he heard Benji’s wan-sounded voice come over the line, and breathed an inaudible sigh of relief: “Hello?”
“Hi, Benji, it’s me, Jed. I’m just calling to check up on you. How are you feeling?”
“Not that great, but a bit better,” the artist replied wearily. “My head still throbs, but I haven’t felt dizzy and my eyes are still focusing .That’s a good sign, right?”
“Yes it is,” he agreed. “Okay, that’s good. I’m almost done with my shift, and I called in a take-out order at the steak house downtown. It’ll be ready to go when I swing by there after I go to the hospital. I’ll pick up your prescription and talk to a doctor about what I should do for you tonight. Then I’ll swing by my place and pick up a clean uniform for tomorrow and some personal stuff. It shouldn’t take more than forty-five minutes to do all of that. I’ll call you again just before I arrive so you’ll know it’s me when I knock on the door. Don’t let anybody else in, you got that?”
“Yes, I got it. Thanks again for doing all of this for me, Jed.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’d do the same for me if our positions were reversed. Now you keep resting, and I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Okay. See you, Jed.” Benji hung up, and he sighed as he folded up his cell phone one-handed. He was turning into an old mother hen, he really was. Something about Benji benign hurt was bringing all of his protective instincts to the fore. Maybe because the artist really did remind him of a big, sweet puppy, someone who needed to be looked after and taken care of. And right now he really did need those things, since somebody was out to get his granddad’s paintings and obviously wasn’t going to let anything stand in their way.
He finished his shift and bolted out of the station, making Dolores grin and wave at him as he went by. He returned the gesture, but didn’t slow down. First stop was the hospital, where he filled a prescription for Benji’s painkillers and talked to a doctor about what should be done for people with a concussion; then he drove to the restaurant to pick up the take-out that he’d ordered. He’d told them to make it at five-thirty, so the food was nice and hot as he collected the plastic bag with the white Styrofoam containers in it. It smelled great, and he could feel himself drooling a bit as he drove toward his house. Because of Benji’s attack, he’d been forced to eat a drive-thru hamburger for lunch. It hadn’t been that good, and he’d discarded half of it in the trash. Now his stomach was reminding him that he was very hungry, and he knew that Benji must be ravenous by now since he hadn’t eaten all day.
A quick trip into his bedroom and bathroom snagged him a clean uniform, a razor, a toothbrush and some toothpaste, and some fresh socks and underwear. He also grabbed a pair of sweat pants to wear tonight, and a watch that could be set to go off every hour so that he could wake Benji up. He threw all of this into a small travel bag and headed back out the door, closing it behind him as he strode down the walk toward where his cruiser was parked at the curb. Then he did something he knew he shouldn’t but which he really didn’t care about right now – he drove swiftly out of town with his lights flashing but with no siren on. People would still get out of his way and assume he was going somewhere important, but wouldn’t be freaked out because he didn’t have his siren on. If one of his fellow deputies pulled him over, so be it.
But nobody stopped him, and he made the trip out to the lake in less than half an hour. He called Benji when he was on the dirt road, and the artist sounded very happy when Jeddrick told him that he was arriving within five minutes. “I’ve got dinner for us,” he told Benji. “Are you hungry now?”
“Starving! I could eat a horse!” Benji cried enthusiastically.
He grinned to himself. “All right. Open the door for more when I knock. “
“I will. Oh, I did some research on the internet today, once I realized that my eyes weren’t going out of focus.” He added.
Jeddrick frowned. “You shouldn’t have done that.” He said rebukingly. “You need to rest your eyes.”
Benji sounded apologetic. “I’m sorry, but I was just so BORED! I couldn’t watch TV, because the sound made my headache worse. And I have a filter on my computer screen anyway, because staring at it when it’s too bright gives me a headache even normally.”
“All right,” Jeddrick conceded reluctantly. “What did you research?”
“I looked up more on that artist Werner Van Pietz. I mean, it’s his paintings underneath granddad’s, maybe there IS something special about them after all.”
“Okay, I can see that. What’d you discover?”
“Just this,” Benji said, sounding excited. “Werner Van Pietz had a daughter, who had two kids of her own. And I found them, Jed! I found where they live in Germany! And I have his granddaughter’s phone number, so we can call her and ask her if she knows if there was anything special about her grandfather’s paintings.”
He sounded so proud of himself that Jeddrick couldn’t help but smile. “All right,” he said. “That’s great work, Benji. We’ll call her tomorrow before I go to work. Hopefully she can shed some light on the mystery of why those thieves want your granddad’s paintings so badly.”
Jeddrick pulled up in front of Benji’s cabin, warily scanning the area. But he saw nothing suspicious, and he started to get out of his patrol car. But as he did so, his cell phone rang. He answered it, and it was Dolores. “It’s about that APB you put out,” she told him.
“Yeah? Did they find the vehicle?” he asked hopefully.
“Yes, they did, but you’re not going to like it. The SUV was found abandoned in the parking lot of a grocery store
about a hundred miles away. It was a rental, and when we called the rental place it came from they say the two guys who rented it paid in cash. They had to give i.d.s, of course, but when I ran them through the system they came up as not existing. In other words, they were fakes. And the clerk at the rental place couldn’t give me a good description of them other than that they were both dark haired and that they spoke with an accent.”
“What kind of accent?” Jeddrick asked.
“She didn’t know, but she thought that it might have been German,” Dolores told him. “Sorry, but she had a rush on her counter because a plane had just come in, so she didn’t pay particular attention to just another pair of foreign tourists.”
He sighed. “Thanks, Dolores. Any little bit of info helps. What about where the SUV was abandoned? Are there any car rental places around there?”
“No, strangely,” she replied promptly. “I checked. But there WAS a report filed about a car being stolen from the grocery store’s parking lot. So I guess they decided to forgo renting a car and just took one this time. There were no witnesses to the theft, unfortunately. So the trail goes cold.”
“Great.” He said sarcastically. “Damn it, who ARE these guys? I’d give a month’s pay to figure out why they want Benji’s granddad’s paintings so bad that they’re willing to go to these lengths to get them.” He growled in frustration.
“I understand,” she said sympathetically. "Anyway, say hello to Benji for me, and tell him I hope that he’s feeling better.”
“Thanks, Dolores. Talk to you tomorrow,” Jeddrick closed his phone with a frown and another sigh. He was frustrated and irritated that all of these leads were coming up dead ends. He’d hoped being able to remember that SUV’s license plate number would help, even though he’d noticed the rental tags. Damn it! He cursed in his head as he got all of his stuff and the food out of the back of his cruiser. He hated the fact that these two foreigners were still running around free, and that they’d probably make another attempt to get those paintings sometime soon.
Jeddrick carried all of the bags up to the front door and knocked on it. “It’s me, Benji!” he called through it, and after a moment the door opened. Benji stood there smiling in welcome, and only a slight squinting around his eyes betrayed the fact that he obviously still had a headache. “Hey, Jed. Here, let me take that,” he said, liberating the food bag from his arm. “Mmm, this smells delicious,” he added eagerly.
Jeddrick laughed. “Yeah, it does. I thought we’d eat right away, after you take some painkiller. It says on the bottle it should be eaten with food, so that will be ideal.”
“Okay. Should I set the table?” Benji asked.
He shook his head. “No. Sit down at it and I’ll take care of that. I’ll serve you for once. Here,” he handed Benji the little white bag from the hospital’s pharmacy. “Now sit down,” he said sternly.
Benji’s brown eyes twinkled. “Yes, Master,” he murmured, even as he eased his large body into a chair at the table.
Jeddrick didn’t know whether to chuckle at his comment or gasp a little, because something about being called ‘master’ by Benji made his insides stir something fierce. He settled for laughing in a slightly cracked sort of way, as he set his overnight bag down on the couch and went to fetch the food bag from the table. He took it into the kitchen and rummaged in the cupboards. By now he knew where the artist kept everything, and he carried two plates, two glasses, and some silverware out into the other room and set the table. Benji looked rather restless, as he was used to doing all of those homey chores himself. But when he made any move to get up, Jeddrick gave him such a fierce stare that he sat right back down hurriedly.
Jeddrick opened the white food containers and sniffed appreciatively. Grabbing a serving spoon, he took the food back out to the dining table and began to heap mashed potatoes and gravy, steak, and buttered veggies onto Benji’s plate. The artist was practically drooling, but Jeddrick went to get him a glass of water and told him to take his painkillers before eating. He obediently swallowed two, and then picked up his fork and knife with a near manic look in his eyes. A big guy like him had to be starving by now, and Jeddrick didn’t blame him for digging right in.
He himself was glad to sit down and start on his own food. It was wonderful – the roast beef was tender, the gravy rich and thick, and the mashed potatoes homemade and fluffy. He almost moaned aloud in delight, and Benji had a beatific expression on his gentle face as he scooped food rapidly into his mouth. Then he relaxed into his chair, nearly oozing out of it, and looked blissful. “Ohh, that’s nice,” he crooned. “Those painkillers are great. My head doesn’t hurt.”
Jeddrick smiled as he chewed on a bite of roast beef. “That’s the whole point of painkillers,” he noted.
“Yeah,” Benji happily went back to eating, devouring the entire plate of food until there were only a few smears of gravy left on it. “Oo, that was good,” he moaned, patting his stomach.
Jeddrick’s attention was diverted from his own food by that moan and the little gesture, and he felt his cock grow hard in his uniform pants. He moved uncomfortably in his chair, trying to concentrate once more on what was on his plate and not on a certain adorably sexy artist. He managed after a moment, and was able to finish his dinner in relative peace. Benji was leaning back in his own chair, letting his food digest while he savored having a head that wasn’t throbbing sullenly.
When he was done eating, Jeddrick carried the plates and silverware into the kitchen and rinsed them out in the sink. When he came back out, he saw that Benji had gone back to the couch and was leaning forward to read the screen of his laptop. “Here’s the number for Werner Van Pietz’s granddaughter,” he told Jeddrick, turning the machine so that the deputy could read it. “Should we call her now?”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Jeddrick said doubtfully. “Isn’t it the middle of the night there right now?”
Benji blinked, and then typed a query into a search engine. “Oops,” he said regretfully. “You’re right. I doubt she’d like to be called at two am by some weird Americans.”
“Well, we’ll call her in the morning before I go to work,” Jeddrick told him. “It should be early evening there by then. Okay?”
Benji nodded carefully. “That’ll be cool. I can’t wait to find out if she knows why these thieves want Granddad’s paintings.”
“Me, too,” Jeddrick agreed dryly, although he had less of an academic interest or any curiosity and more of a wish to find something out that would help him stop and/or catch these thieves before they struck again.
“What should we do now?” Benji asked.
“We could just talk,” Jeddrick replied as he sat down on the smaller couch across from Benji.
“That’d be great. I love talking to you, Jed,” the artist said earnestly. His smile was gentle and sunny.
Go to Next Chapter
The medi-vac chopper came flying over the Lake not ten minutes later. Jeddrick was glad to see it come, even though Benji’s color was good and his breathing wasn’t faltering. He stood up and went to go wave a hand in the air to show the chopper pilot where to land, and the bird dropped down into the dirt of the driveway near his cruiser. Two paramedics leapt off of it and came hurrying toward him. He turned and pointed toward the still figure of Benji. “He took a blow to the back of the head!” Jeddrick yelled over the sound of the rotors.
The paramedics nodded to show that they understood, and headed purposefully toward Benji. They knelt down on either side of him and began to do the mysterious things that they did. He stood back and let them get to it, knowing better than to interfere. As they worked over him, the artist began to groan and move. Jeddrick was relieved to see that; he knew that it was a good sign. One of the paramedics restrained Benji while the other spoke to him. Finally they let him sit up very carefully, and one of them used a little penlight to check the artist’s pupil reactions while the other asked him questions to see if he was coherent. Benji looked dazed and bewildered, but his eyes finally fell on Jeddrick. A look of relief moved over his face, and he actually managed to conjure up a painful little smile for the deputy.
The paramedics finished their check-up, and one of them came over to Jeddrick. “He has a mild concussion,” the woman told Jeddrick. “And a cut on the back of his head. But he should be all right. The thing is, though…he said that he lives here alone. We can’t leave him here by himself, just in case. Somebody either needs to stay with him for the night and wake him up every few hours, or he’ll have to go to the hospital with us now so that we can monitor him.”
Jeddrick’s pale-blue eyes flashed to Benji’s face. The artist looked woeful. Clearly he imagined that he’d be stuck in the hospital for the night. “I’ll stay with him,” he called to the paramedic. “I’ll call in later after my shift is done so you can tell me what I have to do,” he added.
She nodded. “We’ll tell him. You can pick up a prescription for some painkillers, too; he’ll need those,” she went on.
He nodded. She turned away to go and tell Benji that he didn’t have to go to the hospital after all. His face glowed at her words, and the happy look he turned on Jeddrick was payment enough for any inconvenience to him. The paramedics spoke to Benji briefly, and then departed back to the medi-vac. It took off as soon as they were aboard, and powered its way back up into the air. It swung out over the Lake, headed back toward town. Jeddrick waited until it had gone, then walked over to where Benji was still sitting. “Can you get up?” he asked gently.
“I think so,” Benji said doubtfully. “Can you help me?”
Jeddrick held out his hand, but grunted under Benji’s considerable weight as the artist slowly stood up on wavering legs. “Oww,” he said miserably, clutching at the front of his head in lieu of touching the back.
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Jeddrick said sympathetically. “You gave me quite a fright. Can you tell me what happened?”
“I don’t know,” Benji replied in confusion. “One second I was walking down the path out of the forest, coming back from my hike. The next I felt this pain in my head, and everything went dark.”
“So you didn’t see anybody?” Jeddrick asked, disappointed.
Benji started to shake his head, then whimpered and clutched at his abused skull even more tightly. “No,” he whispered, his eyes scrunching up in pain.
“They must have come up behind you and hit you with something,” Jeddrick commented, looking around. His eyes fell on a length of branch lying nearby. He walked over and knelt down next to it. There were traces of blood on the wood. “They used this,” he commented. “Then once you were out of it, they broke into your cabin again. Come to think of it, this black SUV that passed me on my way in was coming from this direction. I’ll bet that was whoever conked you on the head and broke into your cabin. Fortunately I remember the license plate number. I’ll get an APB out on it as soon as possible.”
He stopped and looked at Benji, who was pale and looked miserable. “Come inside,” he said gently, taking the artist’s arm and steering him toward the cabin. “And sit down. You need to rest.”
“Thank you, Jed. I’m glad that you’re here,” Benji said gratefully.
“So am I. If I hadn’t been, you might have laid there for God only knows how long.” The deputy remarked grimly as he guided Benji into his cabin and steered him over to the couch.
Benji sat down gingerly, looking happier when his head wasn’t jarred by the motion. “Did they take anything else?” he asked miserably, not wanting to turn his head and look around.
Jeddrick glanced around the cabin. “Doesn’t look like it,” he remarked thoughtfully. “Although I presume that they came back for the rest of your grandfather’s paintings. Sorry, I guess they got what they wanted this time.”
“No, they didn’t,” Benji said triumphantly.
Jeddrick turned back to him. “What do you mean?” he asked curiously.
Benji smiled, although it still looked painful for him to do so. “I had the other three stored in the bank’s vault in town. You said they’d probably come back, and I figured that you knew best. So I had them locked up where those thieves can’t get at them,” he went on.
“Smart,” Jeddrick complimented him. “Too bad we can’t make that fact known to them so they’ll stop trying to get at paintings that aren’t here anymore.”
“Maybe we could leave a big note up for the next time? Like a big post-it note? One that says: Dear thieves, the paintings that you want aren’t here anymore, so could you please stop breaking into my house?” Benji said.
“Maybe we should,” Jeddrick said in faint amusement. “And in the meantime, we should try to find out just what the hell is so important about those paintings that these guys keep trying to get their hands on them.”
Jeddrick called in the APB for the vehicle with the black-tinted windows that had almost hit him earlier. He told Dolores that he was going to stay awhile to take Benji’s statement, and there was faint amusement in her voice when she acknowledged what he’d said. When he was done, he went back into the cabin. Poor Benji was sitting on the couch with a bag of frozen peas carefully held to the bump on the back of his head, his eyes half-closed. But he hadn’t gone to sleep; Jeddrick had warned him that he had to stay awake for now because once he had to leave to go back to work he wouldn’t be here to wake Benji up just in case. He’d be staying the night later, and could wake Benji up every hour, but for now the artist would simply have to stay awake whether he liked it or not.
“How are you feeling?” he asked as he circled the couch.
Benji replied in a whisper: “My head really hurts.”
“I’ll bet,” Jeddrick said sympathetically. “Are the peas helping at all?” he asked with just a trace of humor in his voice.
“Yes, a bit. I’ve got some carrots I can replace them with when they go all soggy,” Benji said, making Jeddrick chuckle.
“All right. I’ll stay for a bit, but then I’ve got to get back to work for now. I’ll come back when my shift is over with the painkillers for your head. Is that all right?”
“Yes, thanks. If you hadn’t agreed to stay with me, I’d have had to go to the hospital. So thank you, Jed. I really appreciate it,” Benji said with a grateful look for him.
He shrugged uncomfortably. “It's no big deal. I don’t mind hanging out here. And it’ll make me feel better to know that I can guard you tonight; I’d worry anyway if I’d had to leave you alone. Whoever this is seems pretty desperate. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Benji’s big brown eyes lifted to his. Jeddrick felt an impact in the region of his gut as he stared down into those warm brown orbs. “You’re really nice, Jed,” Benji said softly.
He wouldn’t think so if he could see some of the thoughts going through Jeddrick’s head right now! Especially the urge to lean over and kiss Benji and see if his lips tasted as sweet as they looked. Damn it! Bad time for his hormones to be rearing their ugly heads, but what could he do? He was a man, after all. He cleared his throat hurriedly. “I’m just doing what any friend would do, ‘he said, then wanted to kick himself for bringing up the ‘friendship’ card when he’d been thinking of asking Benji out. Stupid!
Benji’s smile was open and honest. “I’m glad we’re friends, Jed,” he said earnestly. “And not just because somebody keeps trying to steal granddad’s paintings, either. I really like having you come here every day for lunch,” he added more shyly, his lashes falling over his eyes as he looked down. He had the cutest blush imaginable, especially on such a big guy. Jeddrick found himself entranced by the sight of it.
“And I really like coming here,” he answered aloud, hearing how hoarse his voice sounded. He studiously avoided the double entendre that could be gotten from those words, reminding himself severely that Benji was injured and vulnerable. He didn’t need Jeddrick drooling over him at the moment, he needed to be taken care of and coddled. “Anyway,” he went on swiftly, do you want anything to eat or drink? Then I’ll do a patrol of the grounds and make sure everything’s buttoned up tight, before I go back to work. Okay?”
Benji started to nod instinctively, then yelped and looked miserable. It was all Jeddrick could do not to sit down and take Benji into his arms, but he forced himself to stay in control. “It’s fine,” the artist whispered. “And I’d like some water, please. No food, not right now – I feel nauseous. I’d just get sick if I tried to eat anything. “
“Understood. Let me get you some water, and I’ll pick up some take-out for us when I come back. You’ll probably feel more like eating then,” Jeddrick remarked as he went into the kitchen to fetch a couple of bottled waters for Benji from the fridge. He brought these back and set them down on the couch right next to the artist, within reach so he wouldn’t have to stretch in any way. He also fetched the remote and put it within reach, in case Benji wanted to watch some television to take his mind off of sleeping. Benji just looked grateful for his attentions, and Jeddrick smiled at him reassuringly before he went off to do a patrol of the perimeter of the cabin and make sure that all of the security measures were still in place.
When he was outside, he went over to the spot where Benji had been lying when he’d arrived and studied the ground. He saw several sets of tracks, one of a pair of tennis shoes like those Benji was wearing, and another that looked like they might belong to a pair of loafers. The thieves? Thieves who wore loafers. Interesting. He pondered this as he went back to the cabin and checked the front door, then stepped inside again. “Everything’s good,” he told Benji. “You’ll be safe once I lock the door and close it after myself. You have the number of my cell, call me if you need anything or you start to feel bad. Don’t just think you should buck up and suffer in silence – head trauma can be very dangerous. So you call me if your headache gets worse or your vision starts to blur or you feel dizzy .Got that?”
His stern words made Benji reply fervently: “I will, Jed.”
“Good. I’ll be back at about five-thirty or six. Rest, relax, and take care of yourself. I’ll see you later.”
“Okay. Bye,” Benji said as Jeddrick left the cabin and locked the door after himself. Benji would have to let him in later, but he preferred it this way. He didn’t want those bastards to be able to get back in if they returned later on while he wasn’t here. He wasn’t going to let anything else happen to Benji if he could help it.
The rest of the day seemed to pass very, very slowly for Jeddrick. He went about his duties, but his ear and his mind were both tuned to the cell phone at his belt. He just managed to stop himself from calling Benji every half hour to see how he was feeling – and he worried that the artist might have passed out and might even now be lying on his couch in bad shape. Finally his worries got the best of him, and he dialed Benji’s home number. He almost panicked when the phone rang six or seven times, but finally he heard Benji’s wan-sounded voice come over the line, and breathed an inaudible sigh of relief: “Hello?”
“Hi, Benji, it’s me, Jed. I’m just calling to check up on you. How are you feeling?”
“Not that great, but a bit better,” the artist replied wearily. “My head still throbs, but I haven’t felt dizzy and my eyes are still focusing .That’s a good sign, right?”
“Yes it is,” he agreed. “Okay, that’s good. I’m almost done with my shift, and I called in a take-out order at the steak house downtown. It’ll be ready to go when I swing by there after I go to the hospital. I’ll pick up your prescription and talk to a doctor about what I should do for you tonight. Then I’ll swing by my place and pick up a clean uniform for tomorrow and some personal stuff. It shouldn’t take more than forty-five minutes to do all of that. I’ll call you again just before I arrive so you’ll know it’s me when I knock on the door. Don’t let anybody else in, you got that?”
“Yes, I got it. Thanks again for doing all of this for me, Jed.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’d do the same for me if our positions were reversed. Now you keep resting, and I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Okay. See you, Jed.” Benji hung up, and he sighed as he folded up his cell phone one-handed. He was turning into an old mother hen, he really was. Something about Benji benign hurt was bringing all of his protective instincts to the fore. Maybe because the artist really did remind him of a big, sweet puppy, someone who needed to be looked after and taken care of. And right now he really did need those things, since somebody was out to get his granddad’s paintings and obviously wasn’t going to let anything stand in their way.
He finished his shift and bolted out of the station, making Dolores grin and wave at him as he went by. He returned the gesture, but didn’t slow down. First stop was the hospital, where he filled a prescription for Benji’s painkillers and talked to a doctor about what should be done for people with a concussion; then he drove to the restaurant to pick up the take-out that he’d ordered. He’d told them to make it at five-thirty, so the food was nice and hot as he collected the plastic bag with the white Styrofoam containers in it. It smelled great, and he could feel himself drooling a bit as he drove toward his house. Because of Benji’s attack, he’d been forced to eat a drive-thru hamburger for lunch. It hadn’t been that good, and he’d discarded half of it in the trash. Now his stomach was reminding him that he was very hungry, and he knew that Benji must be ravenous by now since he hadn’t eaten all day.
A quick trip into his bedroom and bathroom snagged him a clean uniform, a razor, a toothbrush and some toothpaste, and some fresh socks and underwear. He also grabbed a pair of sweat pants to wear tonight, and a watch that could be set to go off every hour so that he could wake Benji up. He threw all of this into a small travel bag and headed back out the door, closing it behind him as he strode down the walk toward where his cruiser was parked at the curb. Then he did something he knew he shouldn’t but which he really didn’t care about right now – he drove swiftly out of town with his lights flashing but with no siren on. People would still get out of his way and assume he was going somewhere important, but wouldn’t be freaked out because he didn’t have his siren on. If one of his fellow deputies pulled him over, so be it.
But nobody stopped him, and he made the trip out to the lake in less than half an hour. He called Benji when he was on the dirt road, and the artist sounded very happy when Jeddrick told him that he was arriving within five minutes. “I’ve got dinner for us,” he told Benji. “Are you hungry now?”
“Starving! I could eat a horse!” Benji cried enthusiastically.
He grinned to himself. “All right. Open the door for more when I knock. “
“I will. Oh, I did some research on the internet today, once I realized that my eyes weren’t going out of focus.” He added.
Jeddrick frowned. “You shouldn’t have done that.” He said rebukingly. “You need to rest your eyes.”
Benji sounded apologetic. “I’m sorry, but I was just so BORED! I couldn’t watch TV, because the sound made my headache worse. And I have a filter on my computer screen anyway, because staring at it when it’s too bright gives me a headache even normally.”
“All right,” Jeddrick conceded reluctantly. “What did you research?”
“I looked up more on that artist Werner Van Pietz. I mean, it’s his paintings underneath granddad’s, maybe there IS something special about them after all.”
“Okay, I can see that. What’d you discover?”
“Just this,” Benji said, sounding excited. “Werner Van Pietz had a daughter, who had two kids of her own. And I found them, Jed! I found where they live in Germany! And I have his granddaughter’s phone number, so we can call her and ask her if she knows if there was anything special about her grandfather’s paintings.”
He sounded so proud of himself that Jeddrick couldn’t help but smile. “All right,” he said. “That’s great work, Benji. We’ll call her tomorrow before I go to work. Hopefully she can shed some light on the mystery of why those thieves want your granddad’s paintings so badly.”
Jeddrick pulled up in front of Benji’s cabin, warily scanning the area. But he saw nothing suspicious, and he started to get out of his patrol car. But as he did so, his cell phone rang. He answered it, and it was Dolores. “It’s about that APB you put out,” she told him.
“Yeah? Did they find the vehicle?” he asked hopefully.
“Yes, they did, but you’re not going to like it. The SUV was found abandoned in the parking lot of a grocery store
about a hundred miles away. It was a rental, and when we called the rental place it came from they say the two guys who rented it paid in cash. They had to give i.d.s, of course, but when I ran them through the system they came up as not existing. In other words, they were fakes. And the clerk at the rental place couldn’t give me a good description of them other than that they were both dark haired and that they spoke with an accent.”
“What kind of accent?” Jeddrick asked.
“She didn’t know, but she thought that it might have been German,” Dolores told him. “Sorry, but she had a rush on her counter because a plane had just come in, so she didn’t pay particular attention to just another pair of foreign tourists.”
He sighed. “Thanks, Dolores. Any little bit of info helps. What about where the SUV was abandoned? Are there any car rental places around there?”
“No, strangely,” she replied promptly. “I checked. But there WAS a report filed about a car being stolen from the grocery store’s parking lot. So I guess they decided to forgo renting a car and just took one this time. There were no witnesses to the theft, unfortunately. So the trail goes cold.”
“Great.” He said sarcastically. “Damn it, who ARE these guys? I’d give a month’s pay to figure out why they want Benji’s granddad’s paintings so bad that they’re willing to go to these lengths to get them.” He growled in frustration.
“I understand,” she said sympathetically. "Anyway, say hello to Benji for me, and tell him I hope that he’s feeling better.”
“Thanks, Dolores. Talk to you tomorrow,” Jeddrick closed his phone with a frown and another sigh. He was frustrated and irritated that all of these leads were coming up dead ends. He’d hoped being able to remember that SUV’s license plate number would help, even though he’d noticed the rental tags. Damn it! He cursed in his head as he got all of his stuff and the food out of the back of his cruiser. He hated the fact that these two foreigners were still running around free, and that they’d probably make another attempt to get those paintings sometime soon.
Jeddrick carried all of the bags up to the front door and knocked on it. “It’s me, Benji!” he called through it, and after a moment the door opened. Benji stood there smiling in welcome, and only a slight squinting around his eyes betrayed the fact that he obviously still had a headache. “Hey, Jed. Here, let me take that,” he said, liberating the food bag from his arm. “Mmm, this smells delicious,” he added eagerly.
Jeddrick laughed. “Yeah, it does. I thought we’d eat right away, after you take some painkiller. It says on the bottle it should be eaten with food, so that will be ideal.”
“Okay. Should I set the table?” Benji asked.
He shook his head. “No. Sit down at it and I’ll take care of that. I’ll serve you for once. Here,” he handed Benji the little white bag from the hospital’s pharmacy. “Now sit down,” he said sternly.
Benji’s brown eyes twinkled. “Yes, Master,” he murmured, even as he eased his large body into a chair at the table.
Jeddrick didn’t know whether to chuckle at his comment or gasp a little, because something about being called ‘master’ by Benji made his insides stir something fierce. He settled for laughing in a slightly cracked sort of way, as he set his overnight bag down on the couch and went to fetch the food bag from the table. He took it into the kitchen and rummaged in the cupboards. By now he knew where the artist kept everything, and he carried two plates, two glasses, and some silverware out into the other room and set the table. Benji looked rather restless, as he was used to doing all of those homey chores himself. But when he made any move to get up, Jeddrick gave him such a fierce stare that he sat right back down hurriedly.
Jeddrick opened the white food containers and sniffed appreciatively. Grabbing a serving spoon, he took the food back out to the dining table and began to heap mashed potatoes and gravy, steak, and buttered veggies onto Benji’s plate. The artist was practically drooling, but Jeddrick went to get him a glass of water and told him to take his painkillers before eating. He obediently swallowed two, and then picked up his fork and knife with a near manic look in his eyes. A big guy like him had to be starving by now, and Jeddrick didn’t blame him for digging right in.
He himself was glad to sit down and start on his own food. It was wonderful – the roast beef was tender, the gravy rich and thick, and the mashed potatoes homemade and fluffy. He almost moaned aloud in delight, and Benji had a beatific expression on his gentle face as he scooped food rapidly into his mouth. Then he relaxed into his chair, nearly oozing out of it, and looked blissful. “Ohh, that’s nice,” he crooned. “Those painkillers are great. My head doesn’t hurt.”
Jeddrick smiled as he chewed on a bite of roast beef. “That’s the whole point of painkillers,” he noted.
“Yeah,” Benji happily went back to eating, devouring the entire plate of food until there were only a few smears of gravy left on it. “Oo, that was good,” he moaned, patting his stomach.
Jeddrick’s attention was diverted from his own food by that moan and the little gesture, and he felt his cock grow hard in his uniform pants. He moved uncomfortably in his chair, trying to concentrate once more on what was on his plate and not on a certain adorably sexy artist. He managed after a moment, and was able to finish his dinner in relative peace. Benji was leaning back in his own chair, letting his food digest while he savored having a head that wasn’t throbbing sullenly.
When he was done eating, Jeddrick carried the plates and silverware into the kitchen and rinsed them out in the sink. When he came back out, he saw that Benji had gone back to the couch and was leaning forward to read the screen of his laptop. “Here’s the number for Werner Van Pietz’s granddaughter,” he told Jeddrick, turning the machine so that the deputy could read it. “Should we call her now?”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Jeddrick said doubtfully. “Isn’t it the middle of the night there right now?”
Benji blinked, and then typed a query into a search engine. “Oops,” he said regretfully. “You’re right. I doubt she’d like to be called at two am by some weird Americans.”
“Well, we’ll call her in the morning before I go to work,” Jeddrick told him. “It should be early evening there by then. Okay?”
Benji nodded carefully. “That’ll be cool. I can’t wait to find out if she knows why these thieves want Granddad’s paintings.”
“Me, too,” Jeddrick agreed dryly, although he had less of an academic interest or any curiosity and more of a wish to find something out that would help him stop and/or catch these thieves before they struck again.
“What should we do now?” Benji asked.
“We could just talk,” Jeddrick replied as he sat down on the smaller couch across from Benji.
“That’d be great. I love talking to you, Jed,” the artist said earnestly. His smile was gentle and sunny.
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