Birdsongs by Jason Deas Read Free Book Online Page B

couple of bucks. He hopped on a bus with a skinny, running dog on the side and nineteen hours later, exhausted and frightened by the foreign world, he stepped off the bus in the town of Tilley.
     
     

Chapter 13
     
        Benny’s boat was not decorated as though it was a weekender’s paradise. The houseboat contained a gallery of art and furniture exhibiting exquisite taste. A majority of the houseboats on the lake contained foam couches, press wood or plastic tables, and other mismatched flea markets finds. The walls that were not bare in the other boats displayed neon signs and beer banners. Benny’s houseboat was well equipped with a leather couch, matching love seat, a single rocker accompanied by an ottoman, and a table that would turn many interior decorators green. Benny purchased the table during an estate sale resulting from one of his homicide cases. There was a small amount of blood on one of the bench seats greatly reducing the price. To further spruce up the place, Benny replaced the standard putting green carpet with short shag. Sitting anywhere on the boat, the fact that one was on a boat was undetectable aside from a slight rocking. Benny continued to deny this was his home with the state of mind that the boat was solely his office where he sometimes worked late and spent the night. The queen sized antique bed with his favorite pillow told a different story. Benny’s “house” with the red picket fence contained a collection of garage sale misfits. One day Benny would come to his senses and realize he should sell the place, but Jezebel the cat hoped the day would not be one in the near future.
        The town of Tilley was old school. Everybody who considered themselves natives had breakfast at the local drug store, lunch at the country buffet, and dinner at home. The other establishments in town catered to two different groups of people. The fortunate and financially secure folks who inhabited the town fell into the first category. The second contained the weekly migration of out-of-towners who came to visit lake homes and boats in search of relaxation. These souls, pray tell, were the ones who usually committed the out of the ordinary crimes. Oftentimes, alcohol was involved. Benny made a living off these two groups and their turbulent lives. They were mostly rich, felt entitled and above the law, bored, and sometimes ignorant when it came to common sense. This case was a new one for all involved. Tilley was not accustomed to murders. The town was especially not used to serial killers, or as some may call them, compulsive murderers. The town of Tilley was about to get turned on its backside and spanked with the wrath of a thousand angry Gods.
        Tilley was located in north Georgia, lakeside. It was close enough to the city of Atlanta to attend major sporting events, concerts, and to utilize the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, but far enough away to take deep breaths. Benny made a name for himself in the big cities of the country. Tilley was the pot of gold at the end of his escape route. He preferred to call it his getaway town. As much as he liked to imagine himself as retired, the town of Tilley helped him feel out of the game. The cases he worked were child’s play. He equated it to searching for stolen lunch money versus missing documents disappearing from fortune 500 companies, or a bully pulling at a ponytail versus decapitation. The suburban cities were growing out into Tilley and the big city problems would eventually become Tilley’s problems. Until now, Tilley was still a small town with small town problems. All was about to change and put Tilley on the map, as well as on Fox News and CNN.
     
     

Chapter 14
     
       Benny noticed the changes immediately as he turned down his street. His lawn, which earlier in the day resembled an unkempt cow pasture minus the patties looked manicured with the precision of a major league baseball grounds crew. The weeds that