Page 18 of Last Resort

“What made you draw your weapon?” Hendricks asked, more intrigued than accusatory.

“Old habit. Gut feeling. I smelled blood,” Ben said. “I was hoping the guy had a bad fall, but something just feltoff.I called out and no one answered. When I saw the body—from a distance—I backed out, and Sean called it in.”

“Was there anything before today that made you wonder about Mr. McRaney?”

“If I’d have thought he was trouble up front, we would have declined him,” Ben replied. “There weren’t any red flags. But in hindsight…” He pulled out the folder with a copy of the results of his recent sleuthing.

“The old guy wasn’t as harmless as he looked. We think he was Tom Raines, Mob accountant and long-time missing person,” Ben said with a bit of a smirk as he handed off the folder. “You can probably validate that if you run his prints.”

“I’m not going to ask how you got this.” Hendricks looked like he might be getting a headache.

“All completely legal sources for a licensed private eye and someone with good Google-fu,” Ben replied. “I take anything that could be a threat to Erik’s and my safety very seriously,” he said, humor fading. “We both thought we got out of the Mob’s sights when we moved here, but you know better than anyone that didn’t happen.”

“Not every mobster on the Jersey Shore is after you, Nolan,” Hendricks said.

“Sure feels like it.”

“Are you going to let us do our job investigating this? Unless you have a tip, and then you report it like a good citizenwho does not take the law into his own hands?”

“There’s no law against armchair sleuthing,” Ben countered. “I know for a fact you don’t have a homicide detective on staff. Although the way things are going, maybe you should put that in the budget.”

“Very funny.”

“I’m just saying that as long as I stay in my lane, I’ve got skills your staff is thin on,” Ben said. “And I’m not a civvie. Had the badge; got my license.”

“Do you have any reason to think McRaney—or Raines, if that’s who he turns out to be—had any connection to the cases you or Mitchell handled?”

Ben took it as a positive that Hendricks hadn’t shot his proposal down right out of the gate. “No. At least, not yet. And I’ll be glad if nothing shows up. But considering our history, I’d rather not make assumptions.”

Hendricks looked like he was fighting down an upset stomach. Ben bet the chief was weighing his options. “If you stick to authorized, legitimate sources…and you don’t interfere with our investigation…I can’t stop you from being an ‘armchair detective,’” he finally said. “But…step outside those lines, and I will take action. Am I clear?”

“Crystal,” Ben replied. It was better than he had hoped, and while he counted Hendricks as an ally, he still felt like their interactions often turned into pissing matches.

“Then get out of here. If you find anything that’s pertinent to the case, I expect you to let me know.”

“And if you discover that McRaney is somehow tangled up with something from my past or Erik’s, I’m trusting you to warn us,” Ben returned in a level voice.

“Ifit turns out that something about the case might put either of you in danger, I will certainly alert you,” Hendricks said. “And that’s subject to my judgment.”

Ben nodded with a straight face, but he figured that Hendricks also knew that his mother—Erik’s friend Susan—would never let him hear the last of it otherwise.

“Deal,” Ben agreed as he and Sean got up to leave.

“And if you’ve got your food truck with you, make sure you’ve got all the permits,” Hendricks called as they headed out. Sean shot him a thumbs-up.

“Well, at least you used the correct finger,” Ben said once they were outside. “The one that didn’t get us arrested.”

“And people doubt my intelligence,” Sean scoffed. “What now?”

Ben glanced at his phone, which he had silenced while he was at the police station. The string of texts and voice messages from Erik made his next steps clear.

“I need to fill Erik in on what’s going on before he makes me sleep on the couch,” Ben replied. “Go see your friends and do whatever else you wanted to do while you’re here. Do you need to stay in one of the rentals? We have a lot of vacancies.”

“That works for me.” Sean followed Ben back to the office and Ben handed off a set of keys.

“I don’t think anyone will bother you, but considering what happened…just keep your eyes open,” Ben warned.

“I always do,” Sean assured him with a jaunty, mocking salute as he headed for his car.

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