“Bullshit.You’d marry him if he asked, but he won’t ask.”
“You sound like you two have discussed it.”
“We don’t have to.I have eyes.I see what Cooper’s feeling and what he isn’t.I’m notthatdense, Jill.”
“I never thought you were dense.All I thought was that maybe something happened on the boat, something that seemed perfectly normal at the time but that in hindsight could be looked at a different way.”I held up a hand.I didn’t want to fight, not with Benjie, who was just then more boy than man.“Okay.For the sake of discussion, we’ll assume that the crew of theFree Reignis innocent.We know that the diamonds had to have been stowed in Cooper’s cabin while the boat was docked at Grand Bank, since that was the only stop she made.Who could have done it?”
He looked at me as though I were the dense one.“Any one of a hundred people who were walkin’ around the docks.”
“Did you notice anyone paying an unusual amount of attention to theFree Reign?”
“Sure.There was a waitress at a lunch place right there.We went out the first night.She couldn’t take her eyes off the boat after that.Couldn’t get enough of catching looks at me.I know, ’cause I watched her, too.”He cupped his hands in front of his chest and grinned.“Great pair of jugs.”
I made a face.“That’s disgusting.”
He looked at my breasts.“Yours aren’t bad, either.”The grin vanished when his eyes rose.“But it doesn’t mean a thing to Cooper.He wouldn’t give a damn what kind of boobs you got.He’s not interested.”
Unable to help myself, I cried, “Benjie, what’swithyou?Why are you so hung up on my relationship with Cooper?Iknowhe’s not interested in me, either for marrying or for sex, and I’m not interested in him those ways, either.If you think I’m going to barge in and steal some of his attention away from you, you can relax.I won’t do that.I’m no threat to you.”It seemed absurd that he’d think I was.If he’d been ten, or twelve or fifteen, I might have bought it.But at twenty?
Tossing the bag of chips to the counter, he tugged open the refrigerator, took out a halfgallon bottle of milk, put it to his mouth and drank.My first thought was that it was going tospill all over him.My second thought, when it didn’t, was that he was obviously practiced in drinking that way.My third thought was that it was a pretty unsanitary thing to do.My fourth thought was that it wasn’t my job to tell him.
Wearing a ridiculous white mustache over his dark stubble, he looked at me and said, “I never thought you were a threat.More like a pest.You butted in where you didn’t belong.Cooper was doin’ just fine with McHenry.”
“Wrong.McHenry is a local lawyer who does just fine when the charge is disturbing the peace or driving to endanger.Smuggling of stolen goods is a little over his head.”I paused.“But I thought you had confidence in Peter.You said before that he’d get him off.”
“Sure, he will.So would McHenry if you’d left him alone.”None too gently, he returned the milk to the fridge.“Cooper isn’t as helpless as you think.And he isn’t alone.He has people b’side you to take care of him.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” I said and pushed myself to my feet.Benjie wasn’t going to tell me anything new, and I’d had enough of him for one day.“Thanks for the warning, Benj.”I headed for the door.“I’ll make sure that I don’t set myself up for a fall where Cooper’s concerned.”
I was halfway out the door when Benjie’s voice followed.“You don’t have to be sarcastic—”
Gently but firmly, I closed the door.
That run-in with Benjie—and it could only be called that—bothered me.I didn’t mentionit to Swansy at first, because I thought maybe I was making something out of nothing.Benjie had always been contrary.He wasn’t really behaving out of character—except for those references to Cooper and me.He’d never made them before.I wondered why he did now.
Obviously it had to do with the case, but I wasn’t sure which part.Was it the case itself, or Peter’s involvement in it, or something as simple as my presence in his kitchen when he wanted to be alone?Fragments of his thoughts kept echoing in my mind, unsettling me enough so that by the time Friday rolled around, I was ready to talk.
“It’s infuriating,” I told Swansy soon after I arrived.“Cooper shouldn’t be going through this, and given the fact that he is, Benjie shouldn’t be adding to his grief.What’s the matter with that boy?”
“He’s a victim of circumstance.”
“I know that, and I try to be gentle, but it’s hard.He doesn’t like me.”
“You’re smarter ’n he is, so you make him nervous.”
I shook my head.“He thinks I’m going to come between Cooper and him.I told him I’d never do that.”
Swansy was silent.She gave me that gentle smile of hers that urged me on.I fell easy prey to it.
“He thinks I have designs on Cooper.Seriousdesigns—like marriage.Isn’t that a hoot?Cooper and me and marriage?Forget the me part.Cooper and marriage?Somehow I don’t associate the two.”
She remained silent.
“Why is that?”I asked.“There’ve never been starbursts between Cooper and me, but why not with someone else?He’s a special guy.He doesn’t say much.He takes a little getting to know, but once you do he has so much to offer.”
“He doesn’t think so.”
“That’s crazy.”
