The Detective #3: Benjy

 The Detective #3  – Benjy

 

One of the things that they don’t tell you at the Academy is that when you become a cop you atomically begin living two lives. One is the normal everyday life everyone is used to where you have wives, children, lovers, family friends and so on. The other is where you look at grizzly scenes, hear of horrible acts and associate with lowlifes and scumbags all day.  And if you’re smart you keep both worlds separate. Because if you don’t it’ll make you and everyone around you crazy.

 

As a detective I have two sets of friends and acquaintances. With one set I socialize with at concerts, barbeques, watch ball games and even go to church. With the other I drink in dingy bars, go to strip clubs and put money on horses when I get a tip…Benjy, the guy I want to talk about was an acquaintance from the second group. He was a low rent thief, occasional hustler, drug pusher and user, con man and sometimes informer.  I got to know him when I pulled him in on a second story gig where he was taking TVs and DVD’s from some warehouse and selling them on the street. He was given a year and got out after nine months for good behavior.  I had sorta forgotten about him when he turned up at a bar on Tenth Avenue where I was having a drink. He greeted me like an old friend. Like nothing had previously gone down between us… When I asked how things were going he said; “Not bad, not bad at all considering I’m out on the street again.”…”Keep your nose clean and it can stay that way.” I told him. He smiled that crooked smile of his and said; “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. “ Then he offered to buy me a drink, I told him no. “Let me buy you one instead.” He accepted and then left. I guess I should’ve hated the guy or at least disliked him a little because he was all the things I’d joined the police to rid the streets of. But I couldn’t help liking him. He was so open and honest about who he was. He was lowlife scum and wasn’t trying to act like he was anything more. He was also so guileless and friendly that you couldn’t help but to respond to him. We would meet at various places and buy each other drinks, laugh and joke like we were old friends.

 

Now I knew that he was up to his old tricks and doing stuff that had gotten him busted in the first place. But I found myself looking the other way in order not to have to pull him again. Sometimes he would even hit me up for a loan when he was broke and I never said no. I always gave him a ten or a twenty,

according to what I had in my pocket. He would thank me profusely and promise to pay me back which he never did of course. But I didn’t mind because the way I saw it as a way of keeping him from breaking into somebody’s place or hitting some old over the head for the welfare check in her purse.

 

Every now and then I would run into him on the street and I could tell by the way he was acting that he was up to some shit. I didn’t know what but I could sense it. So I would say to him; “Whatever it is you have in mind think twice about it. I’m on to you and let’s not forget that although I don’t look it I’m still a cop sworn to do what cops do when a crime is committed.”… “I hear you.” He would say to me. “I hear you loud and clear.” And in a matter of minutes he would be gone.

Benjy was part black and part Latino and not an attractive representation of either ethnic group. He was skinny, his features crooked and misshapen, his teeth bad and his hair always looked greasy and unclean. Still he seemed to have a way with some women. Every time I met up with him he was always with a different one. Somebody young, cheap looking and brassy… One night I ran into him with one that seemed a little younger than usual. She looked to be in her early twenties while Benjy was somewhere in his mid thirties. Upon spotting me he came over with the young lady and introduced her as his wife. I told him congratulations and bought them both a drink. The young woman whose name was Gloria smiled at me but didn’t say much except thanks for the drink. Benjy told me that they had gotten married two weeks before and that they had just gotten back from their honeymoon. The young lady then excused herself to go to the rest room. As she walked away Benjy nudged me and said; “Look at them legs and that ass. All mine and mine alone.” I congratulated him again and told him he was a lucky man. “And she takes care of me, if you know what I mean. Takes care of me in all kinds a way. She might be young but she knows how to make a man happy, I’ll say that for her. She really, really knows.” Again I told him that was nice and that I was happy for him. I wanted to get off the subject because that was his wife and I was a little uncomfortable talking about her that way. Whatever they did in bed was their business and I didn’t want to know anything about it. Wasn’t any of my business. But he persisted in bringing the subject up. Finally he said to me; “I ain’t the jealous type and I ain’t ever been if you know what I mean”.

I told him I didn’t.

“Well what I guess I’m saying is if a man want to try a sample a what I been getting I got nothing against it long as he make it worth my while.”

I looked at him and said; “I don’t believe what I just heard. Are you really trying to pimp your wife to me?”

He looked at me sheepishly and smiled that crooked smile of his. “Hey man, what can I say? A man got to try and make a buck anyway he can. Times are hard and look to be getting harder.”

“No sale.” I told him. “And here, take this. “ I gave him a fifty dollar bill.

“What’s this?”

“A wedding present. Take it and buy your wife something nice.” Then I finished my drink and left before Gloria returned.

 

The next time I saw him he was lying face down in a pool of blood with his eyes wide open. Somebody had put a knife in his chest and left it there. He bled out on the floor of this abandoned warehouse on the docks. Who the hell knows what happened and how it came to be. By the time we got to the place he was already dead close to twelve hours. Obviously he pissed somebody off, who knows why, and came out on the short end. Now he was no more.

 

We see things like this every day. Most of them never get solved. Their names are put in a file and promptly forgotten about. And that’s how it’ll be with Benjy. He was a nobody, a low life and his life wasn’t worth much, if anything at all… Still I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the poor bastard and bad about the way he got it. In fact I was in a funk about it for days, thinking about life, society, my job and about Benjy. And I think it was only then that I came to the conclusion that he wasn’t just an acquaintance but that he was also a friend. 

-RD.