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

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Chapter 57 

Here Come The Judge

Benji, R. B. and Rocky watched as the three imposters were lead away by the police and the FBI.  Benji asked, “How did Mr. Burris have everyone convinced that he was a good guy.”

Rax answered, “Benji, I don’t know this for sure, but I’m guessing that the Tomasek mob was blackmailing him and using him to get to whatever your Mother had on them.  He, at one time, was a very highly respected member of the California Bar Association.  If he was demanding that he receive a ten percent commission for selling the house, then I’m guessing that he is in some sort of financial difficulties.”

After the police and the FBI had departed, I looked at R. B., “What do you want to do now?”

“What do you mean, Dad?  You’re the adult.  You need to tell me what to do?”

“R. B., take Benji and Rocky to see your room and see if there is anything that you want to save and send to Summerhill.”

After the boys went to see what Ray, Jr., might want to have shipped to Summerhill,  I turned to Rax and Boyce, “Guys, I’m at a loss as to where to start.  There is obviously something special in this house that Mr. Tomasek wanted very badly. Unfortunately, it’s Saturday and none of the moving companies is open and they couldn‘t react to taking on a shipment this quickly.”

Rax shrugged his shoulders, “I suggest that we go back to the hotel and see if there are any clues in the mail.  There are so many questions that we don’t know the answer to.”

I was more perplexed than ever. “Like what?” 

“Where did Ms Starr do her banking and under what name did she do it?  Where is the copy of her will if she had one?  Was Mr. Burris always her lawyer?”

I shook my head, “There is no way that we can take care of all of it this weekend.  I can’t be away from the college much more.  There are too many things happening right now.  The board will fire me if I’m gone much more.”

Rax laughed, “Doug, would that be so bad?  Wouldn’t you like to stay home and play at being a gentleman farmer?  After all, you do have six boys to take care of and they would be a heck of a lot safer if you weren’t always in the spotlight.”

The three boys came running down the stairs. R. B. was holding something, “These are probably what the bad guys are looking for.”

I took one look at what R. B. handed me, “Why would they want video games for kids?”

Benji started giggling, “Daddy, that’s just it; they aren’t video games.  R. B. put one of the games into his computer and it wasn’t a game.  It was a video with a naked man and woman.”

I felt my stomach tighten as if I was going to barf.  Fortunately I was saved by Boyce.  “Guys, why don’t you get us all of the video games that R. B. has?  Rax, call the FBI and tell them that we have some additional evidence for them.  See if Mr. Strickler is still available.  We know who he is, and that he hasn‘t been bought by the Tomasek gang.”

The three boys did as they were told and appeared carrying a backpack full of what appeared to be young peoples’ video games for the computer.  Benji started to complain, “Dad, how soon are we going to leave for San Diego?  How are we going to get there?”

Boyce said, “Benji, we might want to spend the night here in Los Angeles and get as much business taken care of as possible, to save us a trip back again.  It will only take us a little over two hours to get to San Diego in the morning.”

Rocky looked skeptical, "What’s to say that the bad guys aren’t going to torch the house in the meantime.”

I shook my head, “Okay R. B., do you know where your mom kept her important papers, like insurance papers?”

R. B. shook his head, “She had a safe deposit box at the bank where she did business.  I’m not sure where the bank was located.  I just remember her dragging me to the bank right after her divorce from dad and having me sign some sort of card saying I could get into the safe deposit box if I had the key.”

Rax looked thoughtful. “R. B. where would the first place you would look if you were home here by yourself?”

“Probably the refrigerator; especially if I was hungry.”

Rax laughed, “Well, tear the refrigerator apart and see what you can find.  Meanwhile, Dr, Christiansen and Boyce, you go through two boxes of mail and see if you can find anything that might give us a clue as to what bank the safe deposit box would be in.”

It was about fifteen minutes later when Rax and the boys returned, Benji was mumbling, “It would be so much nicer if we knew what we were looking for.  I can’t understand why those people would want to buy this house for $350,000.  There’s no room for us to ride horses or our bicycles.”

We all jumped when the intercom sounded.  “This is Helen and Wayne Lauck.  We’ve heard that your property might be for sale.  We’d like to come in and look at it to see if it would meet our requirements”

Rax looked at the three guys, “Guys, it would probably be best if you disappeared until we make sure that these people aren’t connected with the Tomasek gang.  Doug, go invite the visitors in, since you have a plausible reason for being here in that you’re R. B.’s guardian.”

I went to the gate and opened the doorway in the gate so the visitors could enter the property. I introduced myself, “I’m Dr. Doug Christiansen.  I’m the guardian of the young man who owns this house”

The gentlemen shook my hand, “We’re Helen and Wayne Lauck, we heard from a friend in the area that you were thinking about selling the house.  We’ve decided to downsize, since our children are all grown and have flown the nest, so to speak.  Plus, we’re tired of driving forty miles each way to and from work each day.  With the price of gasoline anymore, it almost doesn’t make it even profitable to work.”

When we entered the house, I introduced the couple to Rax and Boyce, Rax was very guarded, “Mr. and Mrs. Lauck, why would you be interested in this house?”

Mr. Lauck laughed, “Mr. Fox, I just explained to Dr. Christiansen that we have decided to downsize, since our family is grown and the price of gasoline is such that it’s almost not profitable to drive into the city every day.”

Boyce asked, “How did you find out that this property was for sale?”

We were at a party next door last evening and the host mentioned that he thought the house was up for sale because of all the traffic that has been taking place.  He said the previous owner was some movie star who died in an accident while making a movie in Brazil.”

Mrs. Lauck asked, “Could we have a tour of the house?”

I shook my head yes, “Let me get the owner, for you.  He can probably show you more of the house and explain it better than any of us, since the rest of us are not from this area.”

I retrieved the three boys and introduced them to the Laucks.  “Ray Jr., these people are interested in buying your house.  Would you show them around?”

Mr. Lauck had a puzzled look on his face, “Ray, you look familiar.  Who were your parents?”

R. B. looked at me, “Answer Mr. Lauck, son.”

R. B. started, “My Dad was Raymond Burnside Lewis.  He was the coach of the Atlanta Falcons when he died.  My mother was Gwen Bradford, alias Belle Starr, when she died while she was making a movie.

R. B. led us through a tour of the house.  He explained, “I never had much of a chance to live here.  After my parents divorce, I spent the summers with Dad and during the school year I went to the Military Academy and rarely got to come home.”

As we were walking around, Benji was listening, “Mr. and Mrs. Lauck, what is it you do if you need a big house like this?

Mrs. Lauck laughed, “Benji, this is about half the size of our present home.  We have a small ranch in the valley and raise horses.”

“Why would you want to move to this big smoggy city if you live on a ranch?  We have a horse farm and raise appaloosa horses.”

Mrs. Lauck chuckled, “To each his own, we raise palomino horses.”

Benji thought about that and asked, “What are you going to do with your ranch and horses if you move to town?”

Mr. Lauck answered, “We’re planning to keep the ranch and spend most of our weekends there if we don’t have a function that we have to attend in the city.”

Rocky looked at the Laucks, “Gees, you must be rich if you can pay over $500,000.00 for this house and keep your ranch, too.”

Mr. Lauck patted Rocky on the back, “Son, we were just lucky.”

Rax added, “The appraisal that I received indicated that the house was worth $505,000.00 on today’s market and that is without furnishings.”

Mrs. Lauck grinned, “Good, the furnishings are not to my taste.  They’re much too glitzy for our taste and besides, we have a storage area full of antiques from our parents homes.”

Benji asked, “Daddy, why was Mr. Burris wanting him to sell R. B.’s house for only $350,000.00 with the furnishings?

Mr. Lauck asked, “Was Mr. Burris handling the sale of R. B.’s house?”

R. B. answered, “He was my Mother’s lawyer.  The police and the FBI took him away earlier this afternoon with the other bad guys.”

Mr. Lauck started to laugh, “You guys have saved me a whole lot of work.  On Monday, I was going to have to hear a case pertaining to the unethical practices of Mr. Burris.  He used to be a well respected lawyer, but he began to gamble after his wife’s death.  R. B., how long was he your mother’s lawyer?”

“He started being her lawyer after his father died which was right after my parents got divorced.”

Benji was getting bored, “Dad, are we going to spend the night here or go to San Diego.  If we’re going to stay here then I think we need to eat.  It’s dinner time back home and I’m starving.”

Mr. Lauck looked at Benji, “Why would you want to go to San Diego when there is so much more to do here in Los Angeles?”

“Because our other Dad is playing a game against San Diego tomorrow afternoon.”

Mr. Lauck shook his head, “I don’t recognize anyone by the name of Christiansen on either team.”

The three boys started to laugh.  Benji answered, “His last name isn’t Christiansen.  His name is Cole Weaver.”

Mr. Lauck nodded, “Why wouldn’t I have guessed?  Does that mean you live in Georgia somewhere, since I don’t think you live in Atlanta if you raise horses?  I’ll tell you what, why don’t you spend the night at our ranch and we can get to San Diego in about an hour and half in the morning.  We have season tickets to the Chargers games.”

I interjected, “We thank you for the offer. Mr. Lauck, but we have reservations for the night at the Omni.  In fact we’re already checked in.”

Mrs. Lauck grinned, “You can always check out.  I’ll call Isabel and tell her that we will be bringing home three starving boys and three starving men for dinner.  In the meantime I’ll get you starving people a snack to hold you till dinner time.”

The intercom rang, “This is Doug Christiansen.”

“Dr. Christiansen, it’s Ron Strickler.  We’re here to pick up some unwanted belongings that you found.”

“Thanks for coming, Mr. Strickler.  I’ll have R. B. get the merchandise for you.  Come to the house and walk right in.  We have visitors and we’ll probably be leaving town this evening and going to the game in San Diego in the morning.”

I turned to R. B., “Go get the stuff for Mr. Strickler.  He’ll be here shortly.”

I watched Mr. and Mrs. Lauck to see if there would be any response. They seemed as if they were oblivious to anything strange going on which was refreshing.  I answered the door and greeted the two visitors and introduced them to the Laucks. 

R. B. came down the stairs, “Hi Mr. Strickler, here are the games for your sons.  We made a list of the games so I can annotate where they are in my catalogue.  Would you sign the bottom of the paper in case I forget where they are?”

After Mr. Strickler and his partner had departed, Mr. Lauck commented, “There are some strange things going on here.  Why is the FBI involved?  I didn’t recognize Mr. Strickler but I know that his partner, Mr. Everett, is stationed here in the Los Angeles FBI office.”

Benji went and stood by where Mr. Lauck was seated, “Sir, how did you know that Mr. Everett works for the FBI?”

Mr. Lauck was quiet for a second but answered, “I’m the federal district judge for the City of Los Angeles.  I’ve met him in court.”

“Then why would you want to live here instead of at the ranch”? asked Rocky.

“Rocky, I could get to work in ten minutes from here.  I could even walk to work from here if I had to.  Helen works at the Medical Center which is only three blocks from this house.”

Benji frowned, “Who’s going to take care of the ranch while you’re here?”

“We have a foreman and he takes care of the horses and the ranch.  He has some young men who help.”

“Who’s Isabel whom you said would be fixing dinner for us?”

Mrs. Lauck answered, “Isabel is our foreman’s wife.  They have worked for us ever since they were married, thirty some years ago.”

We went to the Omni Hotel and checked out and I took care of the bills for our suite and Rax and Boyce’s room.  Judge Everett and Boyce decided that we would only need two cars to get to the ranch and to the football game so we dropped the limousine off at the rental place.

As the limo was being turned in, Benji pulled my hand, so he could whisper to me, “Daddy, I think that you and I should ride with Mr. and Mrs. Lauck, in case they aren’t whom they seem to be.  R. B. and Rocky will be safe with Mr. Rax and Mr. Kauffman in case something strange happens.”

My mind felt like it was hit by bomb, ‘Why does Benji have to even suggest that something bad is going to happen?’

To be continued...

Editor's Notes: 

Doug has a point, and then again, it seems that whenever things seem to be going good, something nasty happens. 

For some reason, I think that Mr. and Mrs. Lauck are who they say they are.  I'm not sure why, since no one else seems to be who they say they are. 

I am still not certain that R. B.'s mom is dead.  And, no one is going to be able to convince me that it was an accident, even if she is dead.

I can hardly wait for the next chapter.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 03/11/11