Trashy Entry #3 THE BENTLEY MYSTERY (Part Two)

Harry and Smith returned to the Bentley estate and hurriedly went inside Mr. Bentley’s study.

“Did you touch anything here since the last night’s break in?” Harry asked Mr. Bentley who shook his head confidently in denial.

“Good. Would you mind excusing us?” Smith ordered everyone to leave the room instantly.

Once alone, they both got to work. Harry looked around the desk for all the papers and important documents, while Smith brushed some powder around the window panes from where the unknown person supposedly entered last night. He easily matched those imprints with the one of the culprits and surprisingly they didn’t match with any of the staff members.

Harry observed some papers lying loosely in the last shelf of the desk, inside a diary of Mrs. Bentley. It was a site map of a children’s park, dated the year 2005. The park seemed to be planned to be completed by 2010 and was proposed on the site of the north of the woods at the outskirts of San York.

“Smith do you have any park around this area today?” Harry called out.

“No way. I’ve been here, it’s a restricted area. No construction is allowed there. It’s a military dump known for the radiation prone area. Building a kids’ park would mean open murders of kids.” They both looked at each other raising their eyebrows.

Just then Mrs. Bentley broke inside looking edgy.

“So, found anything?” She tried to hide her nervousness masking it with a brilliant smile. Harry hid those papers craftily inside his jacket pocket and they both shook their heads showing disappointment.

“Mr. Bentley wishes to see you both in the living area.” She spoke gesturing them to leave the room. They nodded and stepped out while Harry returned inside, startling her out of guilt.

“Sorry to surprise you, but I just wanted to return your briefcase.” She nodded while he left the place.

Mr. Bentley was waiting for them at the living room. “The kidnapper left this note on the door.” They unfolded the paper that read in the same handwriting:

‘Meet us in two hours on the Old Wicket Bridge with the money in the same briefcase.’

Harry and Smith suggested Mr. and Mrs. Bentley to take off with the money immediately. To the couple’s surprise, they refused to follow them. So, Mr. and Mrs. Bentley drove towards the Old Wicket Bridge while Harry and Smith stayed back.

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Smith went back to the study and called all the Bentley’s staff over there. He noticed that one of them was missing.

“Where is Max?” He asked the head servant.

“Max was unwell, so he didn’t come today.” He replied hesitatingly.

Smith nodded and asked again, “Give me his address.”

The staff members told that all of the employees of Bentleys’ lived in staff apartments in the estate.

Smith leaped towards the apartments to find Max’s apartment empty, while Harry searched the entire estate and found a passage to the basement of the house. He entered the dark and dingy basement and looked around.

 He heard some footsteps there and asked who was there. But there was no reply. But Harry sensed someone’s presence there. He quickly leaped and locked the door from inside and called, “Whosoever is there, come out right now.”

There was still no response but Harry didn’t give up. He swiftly leaped and caught hold of a shadow moving behind the large wooden cupboard. It was not a shadow, but an arm of a person. He pulled him out and unveiled his mask. It was Max!

On the other side, Smith hid himself in the Bentley’s bedroom for a long while till he heard some footsteps entering the room. The man silently trotted inside and noticed the papers of the site map lying on the side table. He hurriedly caught hold of the papers and tried to get away with them, but he was not fast enough. Smith had already locked the room and arrested the man. His name was Tommy and he was the same man who broke in last night into the study, searching for those papers.

Both Max and Tommy were arrested and dragged by Harry and Smith to the place where they had hidden the boy.

The men took the detectives to the Low-income housing society where in a one room apartment lied the boy all tied up and weak. They knocked at the door which was opened when Tommy spoke in a different language. Once the man opened the door, he was ambushed by Harry. He shouted and tried to run but was too late.

“You traitors!” He screamed at Max and Tommy who looked at him helplessly.

“Sorry Romeo. We’re done.” muttered Max.

The three of them were arrested and taken into custody while Andrew was safely taken by the detective duos till they tracked his parents.

Harry and Smith rushed towards the Old Wicket Bridge where Mr. and Mrs. Bentley were expected to be meeting the rest of the kidnappers.

Luckily they were well on time to track down the couple who were arguing with two men about something. The men wore masks and were trying to snatch the briefcase from Mr. Bentley. Harry pulled out his gun and shot in the air to alert the men. As soon as the gun gave out a loud sound, the men shuddered and pushed Mr. and Mrs. Bentley out of their way to run for their lives.

But Harry and Smith caught them expertly after a slight chase in the woods. They caught the two men and dragged them to the place where the others were locked. Mr. and Mrs. Bentley followed them to reach to the detectives’ office where the policemen had already summoned to keep an eye on the culprits.

As soon as the two of them were unmasked, Mrs. Bentley cried in horror.

“Shepherd and Ceaser!” She knew both of them.

“As we expected.” giggled Harry. Mr. Bentley stared at them confused and spoke;

“Where’s my son?”

“He’s resting inside. He’s fine. I hope you don’t want to involve your son anymore into your dirty works?” Smith looked at Mrs. Bentley gritting his teeth.

“W-What dirty work?” She tried to play innocence.

“You still want to get away clean? Even after seeing the height of danger your son faced because of your ugly deeds?” Harry stared at her angrily, at which she started weeping like a sissy girl.

Mr. Bentley looked confused at which Harry and Smith decided to narrate the entire incident:

Mrs. Bentley partnered with Shepherd and Ceaser five years back to build a children’s park illegally on the old military dump area that was still abandoned due to its adverse radiation effects. They got the land cheap as the military too intended to get rid of the land. They planned a park as a loud pomp and show construction might grab the attention of the environmentalists.

“Children parks are rarely objected by the authorities. Also, they attract a lot of charity money.” chuckled Smith.

As planned, things went perfect and they easily drew 1 million dollars from the charities.

“Mrs. Bentley grabbed sympathetic votes as well for her welfare societies’ elections.” Harry smirked.

The tables turned once the money was in. Mrs. Bentley quite cleverly swept the entire money and filed a case against Shepherd and Ceaser under forgery. They returned after five years of imprisonment maddening with revenge.

“So the master plan was grabbing the money back and unveiling Mrs. Bentley’s truth and making her endure imprisonment.” Smith smiled.

“Max being an in-house agent informed them about everything. Tommy and Romeo the local hit men were appointed for doing their dirty jobs.” Harry chuckled feeling victorious.

“Kindly tell us if we hit out any petty information.” Smith smirked at Mrs. Bentley who dug her head ashamed.