CHAPTER SEVEN 
CHAPTER SEVEN 
BENJAMIN PEDALED as fast as he could down the road. He didn’t bother to look over at Jessica Howell’s yard for the pug. Mrs. Crane was dead and he was the only one who knew it. He shivered as he pedaled harder and harder. His tired mind tossed around crazy thoughts. He didn’t know what happened to people who discovered a death. Will I go to jail? Will I be in trouble? He wasn’t paying any attention and soon found himself at his mailbox. He was up the driveway in seconds, then remembered how his mom felt about Pugsly’s collar. He slipped it off his wrist and shoved it in the front pocket of his jeans. Jumping off his bike, he let it fall beside the garage and raced inside the house. Panting, he opened the door and shouted, “Mom?! Dad?! Are you home?!”
His mom called from the kitchen, “Hi, sweetie. Your dad’s at the auto glass shop getting a new windshield put in. Are you done mowing already?”
“Mom…” Benjamin took a second to catch his breath. “…Mrs. Crane is dead!”
Loud footsteps immediately came his way. “What?!”
“She’s dead.” He leaned over, resting his hands on his knees. “I-I walked inside when she didn’t hear me at the door…she was sitting in her chair watching TV and I thought she just couldn’t hear me.” Carol’s hands were clasped, covering her mouth. “So I went inside and walked up to her…” His heart pounded in his chest “And she was dead!”
“No, I—”
“You didn’t call 911?!”
“Mom, I couldn’t find her phone! I looked all over! I didn’t have mine with me!”
Carol tried to calm down. “Okay. Okay. I’m gonna call the police.” She exhaled through her puffed-out lips and grabbed the phone. Benjamin went to sit on the couch but quickly stretched out from exhaustion. He could faintly hear her talking to the 911 operator. He grabbed a couch pillow and covered his head to mute her voice. His nerves were shot. He expected the worst. After a few minutes of silence he was startled.
“Ben?” His mom patted the pillow covering his face. “Why are you doing that?”
He moved the pillow off his face. “So what’s going to happen? Am I going to jail?”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Carol let out a little laugh. “No, sweetie, you’re not going to jail.” He felt a sense of relief until she said, in the deepest voice she could, “But you will get the death penalty!” Then she smiled and he returned it. “The police and coroner are going out to examine her.”
“Oh.” He let out a sigh of relief.
“Then they’ll be coming by here to ask you a few questions.”
“Oh no!” Benjamin put his hands on the back of his stressed head.
“Now, sweetie, it’s not what you think.” She saw the scared look on his face. “They’ll just ask you some questions about how you found her, and things like that.”
Benjamin took a deep breath. “Okay.”
The front door suddenly opened and Tom came in. “Whew! That was some day!”
“We’re in here, dear.”
With his hair all messy and a few black feathers stuck to his beige suit, Tom loosened the brown tie around his neck. “Well, I got a new windshield!”
“That’s nice. Tom, Mrs. Crane—”
“And ya know what’s crazy? This morning I tried pulling that buzzard out of the windshield and I couldn’t!” Tom looked at them in amazement as their faces remained stoic. “And I had to drive to work like this…” He stretched his neck far out to the side as he mimicked steering the wheel. “…with my head out the window!”
“That’s nice, honey, listen. Ben just found—”
“You know how many honks and laughs I got driving around town?”
“Tom!” Her husband jumped. “Ben found Mrs. Crane dead this afternoon.”
His face quickly changed from cheery to, well, less-cheery. “Dead? Ben, are you okay?”
“I guess so.” Benjamin thought for a moment. “Better than that buzzard you hit.”
Tom guffawed, his buzzard incident acknowledged.
“The police are coming by to ask him a few questions.” The boy still didn’t like hearing his mom say that, even if he wasn’t in trouble.
“What happened, son?”
“Well, I walked up to Mrs. Crane’s screen door and looked in. She was sitting in her chair watching TV and I told her I was there to mow the lawn. She never answered so I walked inside because I thought maybe the TV was too loud. I went up to her and…she was dead.”
His dad grabbed him and gave him a hug, which Benjamin needed. “I’m sorry you had to see that, son.” Tom gave him a couple of gentle pats on the back, “She was old. It was just her time.”
Where’ve I heard that before? Benjamin thought, but this time knew it was true. He went to his room to wait for the police. Pulling the collar from his pocket, he noticed a slightly sour smell from Mrs. Crane’s dog. The tag was just as silvery-blue as before. The thought of giving it away for good to Pugsly’s rightful heir made him a little sad. In just a month he’d grown attached to the animals in the kingdom. One named Paco had given his life to save him. They made him feel special and wanted, ever since the incident at the barn, but he understood their eagerness to see Pugsly’s son…Benjamin more than the others.
He lay on his bed and recapped everything from the moment he’d ridden up Mrs. Crane’s driveway until he raced home. He wanted to get the details straight, minus the part about the talking dog, so the police would know exactly what happened.
It didn’t take long for the doorbell to ring, causing Benjamin to spring from his bed and run upstairs. He heard his parents open the door.
“Hello, Mr. and Mr. Biggs? I’m Officer Mica Hunter.”
“Hi. Please come in.”
Benjamin walked into the room to see a thirty-something-year-old woman holding a clipboard. “Are you Benjamin?” she said softly, looking him in the eye.
“Yes.” Benjamin wasn’t as scared to talk to the police officer as he’d thought. He stared into her big, brown eyes.
“Do you mind if I ask you some questions?”
“Sure.” They sat on the couch and Carol and Tom left the room to give them privacy. Carol stayed busy in the kitchen but kept an ear open as her son retold the events of the day. When he was through and Officer Hunter finished her notes, she cleared her throat and looked him in the eye. “Benjamin, did you see any snakes around the house?”
He flinched. “Snakes?”
“Yes, rattlesnakes.”
“Uh…umm, no, no, I didn’t see any–”
She leaned forward and said gently, “Mrs. Crane was bitten by a rattlesnake. The coroner found a bite mark on her shin.” Benjamin gasped. “He also found bite marks on her cat. So you saw no sign of any rattlesnake?”
It took him a moment to speak. “No.”
The officer stood and put her pen in her shirt pocket. “Okay, Benjamin, that’s all the information I need. Sorry you had to see that, but thank you for your help.” She held out her hand to the open-mouthed boy and shook his limp hand firmly.
“Uh, you’re welcome.” Benjamin was dazed.
“Have a good evening.” Officer Hunter walked out the front door and got into her patrol car, took a minute to make a phone call, then drove off.
Benjamin stood staring out the large front window. The clouds in the eastern sky were building as the sun set. He glanced at the calm pond and orange and red leaves on the tall oak, deceivingly peaceful. He knew something evil was brewing again.