Free Jason Deas - Benny James 03 - Brushed Away by Jason Deas Page A

mouth full of yellow and at least two missing teeth.
    “How you doing this afternoon?” Benny asked.
    The clerk coughed up some phlegm and cleared his throat as he muttered, “Hanging.”
    “Hanging,” Benny repeated. “Like hanging in there?”
    “Yeah. You being smart with me?”
    “No. I just wasn’t too sure what you meant.”
    “What do you need?”
    “I need to take a look around,” Benny said watching his eyes.
    “What are you looking for?”
    “I’ll know it when I see it.”
    The clerk’s eyes twitched, and he studied Benny as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep.
    “Well, look on then,” he said as his hands started to fidget. He scratched his face nervously and pulled a pack of Camel’s out of his dirty shirt pocket. With a trembling hand he put one in his mouth and lit it.
    “I’ve been around the block a time or two,” the clerk told Benny.
    “I can tell.”
    “And I can tell you’re the law.”
    Benny flashed him his credentials.
    “Oh, Jesus.”
    “Calm down,” Benny said holding out his hand.
    “I don’t know anything about the video slots and poker machines in the back. If the customers win, they have to come back when the boss is here for the payout. I swear. And the pipes and bongs, I know people buy them to smoke grass, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
    “I’m not here about anything like that. I just want to ask you a few questions.”
    “OK.”
    “How long have you worked here?”
    “Not even a week, man.”
    “How many days?”
    “Five.”
    “Have you noticed anything strange or out of the ordinary?”
    “Oh yeah.”
    “What?”
    “This guy came in this morning at 6:30 and bought coffee, Crisco, and a copy of Super Jugs,” he said pointing over his shoulder to the adult magazines behind him.
    “That is a little strange,” Benny agreed. Anything else?”
    “Yeah,” the clerk said stubbing out his cigarette and lighting another one. “A girl came in yesterday and bought a whole roll of lottery tickets and paid with all one dollar bills. She also bought a lollipop. Green.”
    Benny nodded his head. “Again, strange, but not exactly what I was looking for.”
    “I can go on for days and I have only worked here for six days.”
    “I thought you said five days before?”
    “Yeah. Five. They all run together, man.”
    “Is it OK if I look around now? You’re not in any trouble. I’m working on a case that has nothing to do with the day to day operations of this gas station. I just think the person I’m looking for might have come by here and left something.”
    “Why didn’t you just say that man?”
    “I don’t know,” Benny answered. “I don’t know.”
    Benny turned and walked toward the soda cooler to get Vernon’s Dr. Pepper before he forgot. As he neared the cooler, the room opened up and a soda display filled the open area. Twelve-packs of soda were stacked at least six feet high in a rainbow shape around the biggest cooler Benny had ever seen. Taped to the wall of twelve pack containers was a handwritten sign that read, “It’s the One.”
    Benny’s heart began racing. “What’s this?” he yelled to the front of the store. “Get back here!”
    The clerk hustled to the back with a cigarette flapping between his lips.
    “It’s a soda display, man.”
    “What’s with the slogan and the giant cooler?”
    “You drink it and it cools you down. That’s what the commercials say. Don’t you watch television man?”
    “Not much,” Benny admitted.
    “I guess there’s a contest to win the cooler or something. I don’t really know anything about that,” the clerk said.
    “Did you see the person who set this up?”
    “Yeah, man. Some fat guy. He had a real hard time. I thought he was going to pass out and die here on the floor. He was sweating like a whore in church.”
    “Nice,” Benny said. “Have you ever seen a cooler this big?”
    “No. Kind of ridiculous if you ask me.”
    “Mind if I look inside?”
    “Be