Wicked As He Comes (Tiger in Her Bed)
Page 12
“I want you to take another look at this particular case. Not just Lynn Benedict, but Rob Benedict as well. I was told there had been attempts on the twins’ lives as well.”
“The twins?”
“George and Harry Benedict.” John briefed the investigator on the short version of the twins’ strange accidents.
Markus didn’t say anything but John could see the investigator was intrigued.
“So, you’ll look at these cases for me?” asked John.
Markus nodded.
“Let me know if you find anything.”
Markus’ attention seemed somewhere else.
John was about to leave when Markus suddenly said, “I heard rumors about Alfred Benedict a while ago.”
“Oh yeah? What about him?”
“Some unsettling rumors.”
“Come on man, the suspense is killing me.”
“Did you know that Rob and Alfred Benedict are actually half-brothers?”
&
nbsp; That was news to him. John’s dad had never mentioned that to his children. And besides, their family had been out of touch with the Benedicts long before his dad died.
“They said Rob was a lovechild with the woman who got away, so the old man, William, favored him more than Alfred, his legitimate child with his wife Dorothy. They said that tension in the house made Dorothy want to protect Alfred to the point that the relationship between mother and son seemed kind of unnatural, if you know what I mean. We’re talking about Norma and Norman Bates here.”
Yikes.
John suppressed a shiver. Who would have guessed? He’d never met William Benedict, the grand patriarch, or Dorothy, when his father was still close friends with Rob. He remembered that William Benedict had passed away and Dorothy was in a private clinic in Europe, convalescing. He later heard that she died from chronic illness. As far as what transpired inside the household had remained unknown. John’s mother rarely spoke of the Benedicts since dad passed away. John didn’t even know that his family had invested a substantial amount of money into the Benedicts’ company. He would have to ask Quinn about it, since he was the one who ran the family business.
“Unsettling, indeed,” John said. “Where did you hear that?”
Markus shrugged. “I have my sources.”
“Wrong answer. Try again.”
“Lynn Benedict’s longtime friend. Dora Marsh.”
“You don’t think she could make things up?”
“Could be. But I also dug around for Alfred’s ex-wife at that time and she didn’t have anything good to say about him.”
“Ex-wives rarely have anything good to say about their ex-husbands.”
“True. But this one is particularly nasty. Read my notes.”
John stared at the thick folders. “I will.”
“A word of advice: stay away from Alfred Benedict. He’s dangerous.”
“Is that so?” John accepted this as a challenge. He couldn’t wait to meet the man who made his new wife and the twins’ life so miserable.
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