Benji in Control
by: E Walk
(© 2009-2011 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 51 

The Pot of Gold

R. B.’s comment, ‘Just think what boys like to do best and you will find them.’  rather had me puzzled.  If R. B. and Benji had been older, I would probably started looking in the bathroom or looking for a cum cloth.  Given the age of the two boys, that didn’t make sense.

Benji thought for a minute, “R. B., that could mean different things depending on what time it is and where we are.  Since I don’t see a lake, that rules out going skinning dipping.”

R. B. laughed, “We don’t have a lake, but we do have a swimming pool.  That’s a good thought, but the pool is probably empty.  Think of something else that you like to do.”

Benji thought, “I always like to eat.”

R. B. nodded, “You’re on the right track.  What do you like to eat when you go to a Pizza Hut or Godfather’s?”

“Pizza, of course.”

R. B. grinned, “I bet there’s lots of frozen pizzas in the freezers.  Why don’t we get one out and eat it while the FBI guys look for the film.”

Mr. Lansberry complained, “I thought you were to show us where the films were hidden.  What does pizza have to do with the films your mother described?”

R. B. nodded, “Be patient, I’m getting to the films.  Benji, go to the big freezer and find a pizza that you think we would like.  They’re in the big freezer in the pantry.”

Benji did as he was told and returned with two large pizzas, “I figured it would take two to feed us all.  Why do these pizzas seem so heavy?”

R. B. grinned, “Good thinking.  You probably got the kind that has everything on them. I’ll get some cooking trays while you open the boxes.”

Benji opened the boxes, but instead of pizza there were rolls of film in each of the boxes.  Benji giggled, “R. B., I don’t think I’ve ever had pizza like these before.  Do all the pizza boxes have films in them?”

“I would guess that most of them do, because my mother is allergic to anything with tomatoes in it.”

Benji stood looking befuddled, “But your Mother said that you received a piece of candy that was wrapped in gold at the end of the rainbow.”

R. B. nodded, “The candy was always on top of the boxes that I thought contained pizzas, until last year, when I tried to cook one and found that it contained a roll of film.  My mother made me promise that I would never tell anyone about the film until she gave me the signal and that was the gold coin at end of the rainbow.”

Benji was as confused as I was, “If people were looking for the film, wouldn’t they have looked in the freezer and thought it was funny that there were so many pizzas?”

R. B. giggled, “My mother was pretty smart.  She put some actual plain pizzas on top, so if anyone opened the boxes all they saw was pizzas. Benji was lucky enough to get a box that had a film in it.”

Mr. Lansberry asked, “You mentioned that you knew how we could get out of here without the bad guys seeing us.  They’re watching the front gate which we can’t get open because of the crash and they’re watching the back gate.  I’m surprised they haven’t tried to break in through it.”

R. B. laughed, “If they tried to break through the back gate the bells and whistles would alert any police in the area that there was an attempted break in.”

I looked at R. B., “Son, you said that you could get out of here without going through one of the gates.  What did you mean by that?”

“There’s a storm cellar and a passageway that leads to a park down the street.  I found it by accident.  I don’t think my mother even knows that it exists.  I found it one day when I was home on vacation from the military school and there was nothing to do.”

Mr. Rimmey, who was now the FBI agent in charge, asked, “Would it be safe for all of us to exit that way?”

R. B. wasn’t sure what Mr. Rimmey was asking, “I don’t know why not.  It seems safe to me.”

Mr. Rimmey was thinking, “I have a plan.  Mr. Lewis and I will take one roll of the film and take it through the tunnel to the park.  The rest of you stay here.  When Mr. Lewis and I arrive at the park, I’ll call the press and announce that Mr. Lewis is safe and we have recovered the mysterious film that Ms Bradford referred to in her testimony.  That should be enough to cause the bad guys to scramble.”

We watched as Mr. Rimmey and R. B. pulled a bookcase away from the wall and disappeared into a passageway with only a flashlight.  It was about fifteen minutes later when Mr. Lansberry’s cell phone rang, “This is Lansberry. … Great, we’ll turn the television on to Channel 7. … We won’t let the pizzas out of our sight.”

Mr. Lansberry turned on the large screen television and we were watching the soap opera that was on.  All of a sudden, there was an announcement,

The films that Gwen Bradford reported that she had in her possession are now in the hands of the FBI.  We have a reporter on the scene in Lincoln Park with one of the movies and Mr. Raymond Burnside Lewis, Jr. who led the FBI to the collection of pornographic films.”

We heard a voice ask, “Mr. Lewis, where did you find the films?”

R. B. was smart enough to know that person was looking for a specific location.

“They were right where my mother said they would be.  They were at the end of the rainbow.”

“How come you never found them before?”

“I was always looking for the gold coins, not pizza boxes.”

“How many more films are there?”

“I honestly don’t know, since the FBI agents have confiscated them.”

Benji looked at me, “Why did R. B. say that?  The films haven’t gone anywhere, yet.”

“Benji, Mr. Rimmey may have told R. B. to say that so the bad guys will stop thinking that the films are here at the house.”

A reporter asked, “Will the films be made available for public viewing?

Mr. Rimmey  answered, “That determination will be made once the authorities have had the opportunity to review the films.  It is my personal opinion that they will not be made available to the public if they are as explicit as Ms Bradford indicated.  Now, if you will excuse us, we need to go to the Federal building and get rid of the films.”

We watched as the vehicles at the front and back gates pulled away almost unison.  That was the signal for the dummy pizzas to be loaded into the back of two FBI vans that were standing by.  Benji challenged the FBI agents; I want to make a list of all the films to make sure they are delivered to the proper authorities.”

I tried to stop him from listing the films, “Benji, these are all FBI agents.  They work for the government.”

“Just because they work for the government doesn’t mean they’re honest.  The bad guys would pay big money for the films.”

“Okay, okay.  Let’s get the inventory done.  How do you plan to account for the films once they’re loaded in the vans?

“Easy, I’ll ride in one van and you will ride in the other.  They can’t destroy or steal the movies while we’re watching.”

“Benji, if these films are as graphic as I think they are, the bad guys will go to any measure to destroy them.  I don’t like the idea of us riding in separate vans I still don’t understand how these films came to be in the possession of R. B.’s Mother.”

Benji shrugged his shoulders, “We’ll have to ask her when we see here.”

Benji asked Mr. Lansberry, “Wouldn’t it be bad for the films to be in the freezer?”

Mr. Lansberry nodded yes, “Ordinarily probably so; but it looks to me as if they are in hermetically sealed bags that keeps all the moisture and air away from the film”

Mr. Lansberry’s cell phone rang. “Lansberry here. … Yes sir, the films are all accounted for, thanks to Benji. … We’ll leave as soon as the police escort arrives.”

Benji insisted that he ride in the back of one of the vans and that I ride in the back of the other.   When we arrived at the federal building, we were met by R. B. and Mr. Rimmey.  Benji checked off all the films as they were taken to a vault.

Benji asked, “When will someone be looking at the films?”

Mr. Rimmey indicated that he didn’t know, “Benji, now that we have delivered the films, they will be looked at by another team and they will decide who will be prosecuted.”

“Good, that means that me and R. B. won’t need to be involved anymore.”

Mr. Rimmey grinned, “Benji, you never know what the prosecuting attorneys are going to do, but I would think that you and R. B. are free to move about the country at will and not having people trying to gain control of you.”

When we arrived back in Georgia, things finally settled down.  We kept going to the home Atlanta football games but they were boring compared to the beginning of the season.

The next crisis happened the weekend before Halloween when Grandmother Bertie Cunningham developed a severe case of pneumonia.  I took Rocky to see his grandmother on Sunday, since Atlanta was playing a Monday night game.  When we arrived, a Mr. Rigby was in the room with Grandma Bertie. 

Grandmother Bertie was extremely week, “Rocky, Mr. Rigby has drawn up my will.  Rocky, you will be receiving everything when something happens to me,  but Dr. Christiansen will be your guardian and in charge of managing your money until you’re 21.”

I got a call during the night on Sunday, telling me that Grandma Bertie had died.  I thought to myself, ’She must have had a premonition that she was going to die.  I’ll tell Rocky in the morning.  There’s no sense waking him tonight.”

Mrs. Cunningham had prearranged for her funeral so it was a breeze.  I just needed to have the boys at the predetermined places at the right time.  I was overwhelmed when we received an accounting of Rocky’s assets. 

It was the night of Grandma Bertie’s funeral when the guys and I were watching the news on television.  The commentator was saying, “This item is just in from Brazil, It seems that Hope Starr had just finished the last scene of her movie Queen of the Amazon when the boat she was standing in capsized and Ms Starr’s body literally disappeared.  Rescuers spent several hours searching for her body.  The only thing that they could find was the large gold and diamond headpiece she was wearing.”

I had just gotten the boys settled when the phone rang.  “This is Doug Christiansen.”

“Doug, it‘s Dale Burris.  Have you heard that Gwen Bradford has been declared dead?’”

“The last we heard was that she had fallen overboard and all they had found was the head piece she was wearing.”

Mr. Burris was quiet, “I‘m surprised the authorities hadn‘t called you.  The area where Gwen fell overboard is infested with crocodiles and piranhas.  They have recovered bits and pieces of Gwen’s body.  We need to arrange for a memorial service as soon as possible.  The studio wants to make a big splash of her death and get the movie on the screen as soon as possible while the incident is fresh in people’s minds.”

“Dale, we just buried one of the boy’s great grandmothers today.  Why don’t you make the arrangements and I’ll make sure that Ray, Jr. is there?  It’s rather difficult to make funeral arrangements long distance and I do have a college to run.”

“I’ll talk to the studio and we’ll make arrangements.  Hope is the talk of the town now that the films have been recovered and some well known people are facing charges based on the examinations of the films.”

“Dale, try to get the service scheduled for after this weekend, since the boys’ other Dad has a football game this weekend, in San Francisco.  We need to be in attendance for him.”

“Doug, I’ll try to get the service set for Monday so you don’t have to be flying back and forth across the country.”

I had just hung up from talking to Mr. Burris when the phone rang again.  “This is Doug Christiansen.”

“Hi stud, who’ve you been talking to?”

“Hi Cole.  I was just talking to R. B’s mother’s lawyer.  It seems that the authorities have declared she is dead.  The studio wants to have a memorial service as soon as possible.  I told him that it had to be after Sunday since the boys and I are planning to go to the game in San Francisco if you can get us tickets.”

“I have arranged for the tickets and they’ll be at will call booth when you go to the stadium.  Depending on when the service is, I might be able to go to the memorial service or whatever.  We have another game on the West Coast next week against the San Diego Chargers.”

“That would be great.  Rocky was a little disappointed that you weren’t able to make it for Grandma Bertie’s funeral services but he understood.  He really appreciated the note that you sent him.”

“Doug, we’re leaving for San Francisco first thing in the morning so you will have to contact me by my cell until we get settled in our hotel.  Do you have your hotel arrangements made?”

“Yep, we have a suite at the Hyatt Regency downtown.  I figure you could spend the nights with us.  We‘re scheduled to arrive Saturday afternoon and we have reservations for both Saturday and Sunday nights.”

Cole laughed, “We’ll have to see what we can do about taking care of your needs.”

I woke R. B. early and told him that his Mother had been declared dead and that we would probably have to go to Los Angeles for the funeral service the first part of the next week.

He looked at me, “Dad, please don’t let them make it a spectacle.  The stars will all show in their finest trying to get the most attention.  Please don’t let them have a red carpet or take photos inside the church where the service is going to be.”

“R. B., I’ll do what I can, but I’m not used to dealing with the hot shots in Hollywood.  They are trying to create as much hype as possible to make people want to go see your mother’s film.”

“Dad, I don’t care what they want.  She was my mother, so I should have the final say on what happens.  I just want to be a regular kid.”

To be continued...

Editor's Notes: First of all, I have serious concerns, as to the reason for that boat capsizing.  It is, of course, possible that her death was a simple accident, but I know that when someone does something to get the mob in trouble, there is often a swift reaction, which is not a pleasant one.  I am sure that it will not be easy to prove anything, but I doubt that her death was an accident. 

I am certain that R.B. will be well taken care of, not only because Doug and Cole both love him, but because his mother was very wealthy, and had invested a great deal of money for him, in the event that something happened to her.

Although she didn't really want a child, I believe that she did love him, even if she didn't know how to show it.

In the end, she did the right thing. 

Oh, yes, I must admit that I didn't tumble to the Pizza hiding place.

I was forgetting how old the guys are, or should I say how young they are. I had something a bit more adult in mind, than eating Pizza.

I hope a lot of questions will be answered in the next chapter.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 01/21/11