Water's Edge

Chapter XVI

They Killed Benny Harrison

Yazmin had taken a statement the moment she'd arrived, with that ferocious charm of hers. A security guard had finally found us, cleaners coming out to remove any trace of petrol from the scene. Dobson, myself and Joseph Quintana took a side room so I could ask some questions—lucky prerogative of a P.I. We get to interview first if we find them in the act. Whoever catches the thief redhanded gets first chatter: the ancient law of finders-keepers. Quintana did not have a lawyer to speak of. I was a good man though, and said Yazmin could join us when she had finished getting HQ up to speed. And she took me up on that.

"What do you mean they killed Benny Harrison?"

Dobson was furious, "We didn't kill anyone. The boy is gone in the head."

"You did!" He squealed through his tears. I pulled up a chair and sat akimbo, rolling my fags on the table before him to rub it in how long he would be here. I gave time for Yazmin to come back into the room, leaning against the only available exit. The office was dire. Everything in Thorngumbald seemed unfinished, half built, unfurnished. The village had been turned into a town overnight and you could tell.

"Detective, please. This is slander."

"Shut up." I muttered and let the silence descend again. Yazmin even cracked a smile at that. Dobson looked like he would either punch me or keel over, "Who's Benny Harrison, Josep?"

Josep calmed down a bit, taking one of the roll-ups. I had to light the cig, his hands were shaking too much.

He told us about another environmentalist called Benny Harrison, showing us a picture from his phone of a tall, bulky blonde lad with a killer smile. Benny had come from Canada, fighting for the release of Mi'kmaw fisherman by the Canadian government. After some mild success – and with ties to underground Extinction Rebellion activists – he had come over to the UK to help a variety of causes, to lead the revolution, bless his heart.

"He was like, co-leader. Wren was the head, but Harrison was the shoulders."

"Thought you kids were anarchists."

Joseph scoffed, "We are, but that doesn't mean we're idiots. We know we need some organisation. We just don't want you guys to be it."

I respected that, "So why do you think Benny Harrison was killed by Dobson here."

"Not Dobson specific. I don't know who he is." Dobson seemed offended by this for some reason, "But Soames. They're on the jack!"

'On the Jack' was a prerogative term for those who covertly supported Unionism, terrorist cells on the border to Scotland and Wales who believed in the United Kingdom even though that dream was long since over. To be 'On the Jack' is to sieg heil Winston Churchill, ban books, and bomb borders. To accuse Soames Construction of being 'on the Jack' was tantamount to saying they were terrorist sympathisers.

"That's quite the claim."

"It's not a claim. Look at who Soames is. You tell them Dobson. Tell them who funds you."

I had to admit I was intrigued and blew smoke in his direction, following it 'til I could look Sykes in the eye, "The man gave you a simple request, Mr. Sykes."

Sykes kept shtum for a moment, "Soames Construction is a subsidiary of Soames-Churchill Enterprises. It's not a secret." It wasn't. I already knew that the Media Conglomerate must have fingers in this pie, but everything did. Victoria Soames ran a conglomerate of enterprises all over the globe; to assume irresponsibility just because the money came from the great-great-whatever-great granddaughter of Winston would never end: everyone would be culpable. Even me.

"You guys hated Harrison sniffing around and calling you out. Soames-Churchill is worse than fucking Murdoch, their on the jack, they're taking money from the pockets of the working classes and spending it on a dam that doesn't even work!"

That got some people's attentions, but I was getting tired of the hippy whining. I rubbed my face, took a huge gulp of smoke, and looked up at Yazmin, "Can you tell the Undertaker to check if one of our bodies is this Harrison fella?"

"You calling her that as well now?"

"Feels appropriate."

Yazmin called HQ again, going somewhere a bit more private.

"Dobson," I asked, "Leave us alone a minute." I nodded to the door, "Your guy is outside, Yazmin can keep an eye on you."

Dobson fumed, ready for any kind of fight, but he stormed to the door; he didn't want to become more culpable. Josep was screwed, but anything he said I would have too look into, and Sykes knew this. He stormed out, even slammed the door. Charming.

I gave Joseph Quintana another roll-up. He seemed to be able to light it himself this time. For someone that didn't smoke he sure did get through them. He was petrified.

"You know what you did?"

"Yeah..." At least we had got that far.

"You know what happens next?"

"They take me in."

"They do." I leant forward a little, nearly conspiratorially, to give him some hope, "I'm going to find out who killed Benny Harrison, and the rest of them. But you guys have to help me. You can't keep doing this."

He nodded, "I'm certain."

"What exactly happened?"

He told me that Benny had been helping organise rallies, bake sales, anything that would help the cause. For all my mockery, it seemed that without Benny Harrison the Humberside Environmentalists would have dissolved very quickly. Wren had taken a fancy to Benny, but Joseph didn't seem to mind. Without Benny they'd not be where they are. But Benny had wanted to find out exactly what was happening at the dam, and after an argument with Wren had stormed off on his own one night to have a look around. Benny had found something damning, but had vanished shortly afterwards. The word on the street is that he had returned to Canada, but no one knew where the rumour had come from.

"What had he found out there?"

"I dunno, he told Wren."

"And Wren told you?"

"Something about it being built on the cheap, that it wouldn't hold for long. Only half a decade or so."

"Did he ring, text, what?"

"WhatsApp. We do all our communicae through it." Posh word, unnecessary, "Learnt it from journalists, WhatsApp is hard to hack nowadays." I had no idea about technology, so I took his word for it, "Benny Harrison found out the dam is rubbish and then disappears. I bet he's one of those bodies."

I let Joseph go, into the back of the police car. Yazmin said she'd drive him back.

"Any of the bodies Benny?"

"'Fraid so."

Fuck. Well there went my first theory.