I turned to look at the man I was there to protect.
“What? What do you want me to say?”
“Why weren’t you screaming your ass off the whole time?” I growled at him.
“The man was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs to scream.”
“And you never got a look at his face?” Brasher questioned.
Benji shook his head. “It was at night, and he was wearing a dark-colored ski mask. I didn’t even get a good look at his eyes.”
“Do you still have the coat?” Brasher wanted to know.
Benji shook his head. “No. It was in Sian’s car, but someone broke in and took our night-vision camera and the parka.”
“A night-vision camera and a shredded parka?” Rais recapped, looking pointedly at Benji. “Do you think maybe the night-vision camera was taken so it wouldn’t look suspicious if someone snatched the coat but nothing else?”
“That’s what Sian said,” Benji conceded. “It was an old camera held together with duct tape, but someone grabbed it anyway. What they wanted was the parka.”
“Makes sense,” Brasher snapped, staring at him. “Did you report that to Gage as well?”
“Sure. But he told us that finding the camera would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. He said the only way it was ever going to turn up would be in one of the pawn shops in town.”
“And did it ever turn up?”
“No.”
“How did you get away?”
“I remember thinking that if I tried to fight the guy, he was going to put that knife in me, so I twisted and rolled and did everything I could to get free.”
“Jesus,” I husked out, and Benji, who was still holding my hand, squeezed tight, but he held Brasher’s gaze.
“I never once stopped moving, and I was wrapped in so many layers that it was hard for him to get a good hold of me.”
“How?” Brasher pressed. I knew it was Gage he was frustrated with, not Benji, but I still bristled at his tone. “You’re not a big guy, Mr. Grace, and––”
“Call me Benji, please,” he insisted. “And yes, I’m aware, but remember, it was dark and raining, and I thrashed around enough that I eventually bucked him off so I could finally scream, and then Javier came along. I don’t know how, but I ended up without a scratch on me.”
“You’re kidding,” Brasher huffed, turning to Javier.
“Not a single one,” Javier seconded. “If you’d seen the parka, the stuffing was—but somehow Benji was fine.”
Brasher shook his head and stared at Benji a moment before reiterating, “Someone tried to stab you to death, and you came away unscathed.”
Benji nodded, smiling at him.
“I second your Jesus,” Brasher told me.
“He’s been extremely fuckin’ lucky up to this point,” Javier assured me, meeting my gaze, “which is why I’m so glad to hear you’re here to protect him.”
“Especially since Gage was worthless.” Brasher bit out the words, squinting at Benji. “What other incidents have you encountered, Mr. Grace?”
“Benji,” he corrected.
“Benji,” Brasher repeated.
Quick shrug as he winced. “Um, David and I got stranded at the cemetery.”
“I’m sorry?” Brasher sounded like he was in pain.
“Well, you see––”
“Wait,” Brasher interrupted, looking across the table at David. “I’d like to hear this from you, Mr. Cotton, if you’d be so kind.”
Benji tended to ramble a bit, so I understood.
“Yes, of course,” David agreed. “Benji wanted to go out to this older cemetery in Gearhart to do some research. Everything was fine, he finished up, and we were ready to leave, but then the car wouldn’t start.” David leaned forward in his chair, getting into the telling. “And I checked all the usual suspects, gas, battery, spark plugs, but they were all good.”
“What did you finally determine the problem was?” Brasher pressed him.
“The distributor cap was missing.”
“Missing?” Brasher almost yelled.
David nodded.
“Like it disappeared into thin air.”
Second nod.
“And you noticed no one else in the cemetery with you?”
“Nope. Therein lies the mystery,” David acknowledged, “Obviously it had to have been there in order for us to drive to the graveyard, so the only logical conclusion is that somebody stole it while we were walking around.”
He turned to Benji. “And you didn’t see anybody either?”
Benji shook his head.
“What happened next?”
“I called Javier and waited at the entrance for him while Benji used the time productively.”
“The hell does that mean?” Brasher snapped at Benji.
“What? Why are you mad?”
“Because you should’ve stayed with David instead of, I dunno, traipsing around a graveyard alone. And you went at night, didn’t you? I’m betting it was after dark.”
“It was,” Benji acknowledged, “but Chief Brasher, you have to understand that sitting around doing nothing would have been a terrible waste of time. It was far better for me to get more research done on some of the inhabitants of the older part of the cemetery.”
Brasher growled again and returned his attention to David. “So you’re at the front entrance, and Benji’s walking around alone.”