Waking up early, Nell felt invigorated until she remembered Northwoodsman. What a letdown. Sometime today she would call all her friends and fill them in. First, she’d call about getting a quote on a security system. Next, she’d call the tech and change the filter on her blog so everyone couldn’t read all the comments. Then she would just read his venom. No one else had to see them. Of course, this whole situation could be stopped right now if she stopped her blog completely.
Nell didn’t want to, though. She enjoyed it and wanted to make it a career. But she wouldn’t go on for months like this. She’d give it a deadline and if the stalking didn’t end, she would discontinue Noshes Up North.
The usual chores were taken care of quickly and a whole day was before her. Nell debated whether or not to write up a review for Bayshore Tap. She could just make it a lazy day and read her book or watch old movies. She didn’t have the energy to do much of anything. She was losing heart.
The phone rang at about 9:30. It was Benita.
“Hello, Benita.”
“Nell. You don’t have to worry. Northwoodsman is gone.”
“What? What do you mean?” Nell shrieked.
“Can you come up here? I want to explain in person and Dad wants to be in on it, too.”
“Of course. I’ll be right up. But tell me first. Who is it?”
Benita let out a sigh, “Ben Huffman.”
“You mentioned him a couple days ago, but I blew it off thinking the killer was Jim Hanson and that the murderer and stalker was the same person.” Nell acknowledged. “Why, Benita? Why did he do it?”
“Please come up, Nell. I don’t want to explain over the phone.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I possibly can.”
Half an hour later, Nell was seated at a table at Sam’s Slam with Sam, Benita, and Ben’s friend, Steve.
“Are you absolutely sure Ben is Northwoodsman?” Nell looked around the table at each of them.
“Without a doubt, Mrs. Bailey,” Steve said. “He admitted it to me.”
“Can you tell me why, Steve?”
“I’ll try. Ben had some trouble last fall at UW-Madison. He liked one of his classmates and started stalking her online. Then he started hanging around her and asking her out and just making a nuisance of himself in general.” Steve took a big gulp of his Mountain Dew.
“Like he was starting to do to me,” added Benita.
“Right. Turns out she had a boyfriend who visited her from their hometown and scared the hell out of Ben. He confronted Ben in a bar and roughed him up. Then this girl gave his name and that he had been stalking her both on campus and online to the university officials. Ben left before he was asked to leave.”
“Did you leave college, too?”
“No, I graduated last year, but couldn’t find a job in my field so I picked up a bartending job and hung around. When Ben wanted to leave town, I thought about my cousin, Tom living up here, so we decided to head on up north.”
“What does any of this have to do with me, Steve?” Nell asked.
“Ben liked Benita immediately and tried to get into her good graces. She didn’t pay any attention to him. She talked a lot about her work and how much she liked cooking. Then when that review came out, she took it pretty hard. She was concerned about all the money her dad had put into the renovation. Ben said some mean things about you and I’ll admit it, I did, too.” Steve looked at Nell sheepishly.
“But I had no idea what he was doing. Finally Benita asked all of us about doing the blogging. That was the first time it entered my head that Ben might be up to his old tricks. But I really didn’t think so, because, well, no offense, Ms. Bailey, we knew who you were and you’re not really girlfriend material.”
“I don’t know about that,” Sam grinned at Nell.
Steve smiled and added, “I think Ben thought making trouble for you would make Benita like him.”
“Nell, yesterday after Dad told me about Northwoodsman still blogging, I called Steve and told him my suspicions,” Benita explained.
Steve continued, “I got off the phone and confronted Ben. This time he admitted it right away. He said he wasn’t going to do anything, but it was fun because you were so upset and scared of a real murderer. He knew he wasn’t a killer so he thought it was harmless. Ben said that he wasn’t going to ever confront you because that was how the chick in Madison found out who he was.
“I told him I was going to the police about the stalking. He was really pissed. Ben packed his bags into his car and took off. His parting words were ‘I’m going back to Madtown. Everything is nauseous up north!’”
“He’s really gone?” Nell asked.
“He’s really gone. Ben never wants any trouble with the police. I’m going to the station when I’m done here and make out a report on him.” Steve looked at Nell and nodded. “Maybe they’ll let the cops in Madison know, too. He shouldn’t get away with harassing anyone. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to figure this out. It could have saved you a lot of grief.”
“That’s alright. I appreciate all you did.” Nell paused. “I don’t understand nattering nabobs of negativism, though.”
“Spiro Agnew,” Steve said.
“Yes, but how did he know that fact from way before he was born? And how do you know that?”
Steve smiled and said, “We were both Political Science majors.”