Pseudonym

by Neal Penn

  The air at the airport felt familiar, and Crane felt content. He realized he hadn’t felt contentment in a long, long time. They waited at the shuttle stop until it came to take them to long-term parking. The shuttle was empty except for them, Minneapolis evidently not a destination for extended trips from Baltimore. Noelle sat next to him and reached into the crate to comfort Lolly as they rode.

  When the driver called their stop, the two got out of the shuttle and Crane let the dog out of the crate to walk beside them. “Say, Noelle, how would you feel about moving?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that Maryland has too many memories for me. I’m thinking about heading west, you know, maybe to New Mexico. I hear Albuquerque is the affair capital of the U.S. Lots of business there for me.”

  There was smoke up ahead. There was smoke as well as a fire truck and police cars.

  “Well, I guess there are libraries in …” She paused. “Roddie, that’s your car.”

  It was his car, or what was left of it.

  He moved ahead and asked the first officer, “What the hell happened? That’s my car.”

  The officer looked at him. “Just get into town?”

  Crane showed him his boarding pass. “Just arrived. What happened?”

  The officer shook his head and whistled. “Good thing your flight was delayed. There was an explosion about an hour ago. Bomb squad found an incendiary device under the driver’s seat. Where do you live?”

  “Marbury.”

  “You’d have been dead on the freeway.”

  Crane shook his head. “Jesus.” The detectives had already come and gone, but Crane gave the officer his card and assured the officer that he’d make himself available to them when they needed him. He called a cab and went back to the shuttle stop to wait for it.

  For a long time, Noelle was silent, before she finally said, “You said this was over, Roddie. Why are they still after you?”

  “It’s not the company, Elle. That part’s over.” How could he have missed it? It was obvious, really. It was about control, not cash.

  “I don’t understand, Roddie.”

  “I know, honey, but I’ll explain everything. We’ve got a little bit more to do.”

  Chapter One Hundred and One

  The estate was much as he’d seen it the previous visit, with its manicured lawn and the servants that looked like they’d be more at home in an old British movie than in the twenty-first century. Noelle parked the car and Crane took his briefcase and walked up to the door.

  The same butler as before answered. Crane figured he was something of a fixture here, like one of the paintings on the wall. He smiled brightly at him. “Rodney Crane to see Miss Winslow and Miss Winslow, Jeeves.” If he’d offended the man, he gave no indication.

  The man led him to the same parlor, told him that he would inform the ladies of their guest, and offered Crane a drink, which he refused. Perhaps fifteen minutes later, Evelyn and Olive Winslow walked in.

  Crane smiled at them. Evelyn sat opposite him and Olive took the chair to his left.

  “Thanks for seeing me, ladies. I imagine the events of this morning were quite a shock to you.”

  “Our brother has been dead for forty years,” said Evelyn. “We only had hopes of him being alive for about a week. It’s very sad, but we will persevere.”

  Crane opened his briefcase. He pulled a sheet of paper from it and handed it to her. “I hate to bring up business, but here is an accounting of the deposit you gave me against the actual expenses. As you can see, there’s four thousand dollars of the deposit unspent.”

  “Mr. Crane, you are welcome to keep the money. You’ve done all you can, and we can finally lay our brother’s memory to rest.” Evelyn took the paper and handed it to Olive.

  “Actually, Miss Winslow, you’re the one with an outstanding balance owed.” He reached back into his briefcase and pulled out another document. He handed it to her. “Item one is for $29,800. That’s the price of the Mini Cooper I’ll be buying to replace the one you destroyed.”

  “I don’t—”

  “When your man parked it he planted the device under the seat, the device you probably had him call with a cell phone or some such thing. Only our flight was delayed. Then there’s the matter of the hundred thousand dollar bonus you’ll be paying me for my work and the sizable contribution you’ll be making to the charity on the bottom of the invoice. That ought to keep your brother’s death a secret.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You absolutely know what I’m talking about. You two sit and act like you don’t know anything about the operations of the company, but you do. You both sit on the board and pull the strings. There was probably a point when you missed your brother and cared about him, but when Daddy died and you found out what happened to Dennis, the money won out.”

  Olive was silent, downcast. Evelyn, though, wasn’t.

  “It wasn’t about money, Mr. Crane.”

  “Of course not. It was all about control, wasn’t it? With your brother missing, you controlled his shares. Super majority. You owned everything. If he showed up, that went away. In fact, given his history, it’s likely Dennis would have a lot to say about the direction of the company. He’d probably be downright—”

  Olive cut across now: “He would unravel everything that Daddy built. Everything.” Her voice trembled.

  “Not just our Father, Olive.” Evelyn was still cold and distant. “Generations of Winslows built the business, and all that they did for us would have been lost.”

  “They built it, and I suppose they built it for their descendants.” Crane shook his head. “That included Dennis. Well, Miss Winslow and Miss Winslow. One phone call to the Minneapolis police is all it will take to identify his body. If that happens, well … Tell me, did the CEO know what you were doing? You did alert him to the books, right?”

  Olive sighed. “We’ve worked hard to act like doddering old maids. I told you we shouldn’t have done it, Evelyn. The CEO didn’t know we knew what Daddy did to Dennis. We told him about the picture, all innocent, like we really thought he could find Dennis. We told him about hiring you. We—”

  “Shut up!” Evelyn stared coldly at her sister.

  Crane shook his head. “Anyway, you know I was a lawyer, right? If they identify his body, then I’ll have to deliver his will. You see, I had an opportunity to talk to him, and I gave him some legal advice, helped him draft something up. Seems he wanted to leave all of his stock to the Red Panda Project.”

  “What’s that?” Olive’s voice was breaking.

  “It’s a group in Nepal that works for the conservation and protection of Red Pandas. I guess he came across them in his travels.” Crane had actually found the group online an hour before, but Sienna had really loved the animals, told him they were like big auburn raccoons.

  He remembered taking Sienna to the zoo when they were there on special loan, the girl holding his hand and smiling like tomorrow would never come.

  “What do you want, Mr. Crane?” Evelyn again.

  “I want my car, and I want my bonus. You can make the check out to Baltimore Mini, $29,800. As for my bonus, I have an arrangement with a local businessman, and he’ll be collecting the $100,000 you’ll be paying me. And finally, The Red Panda Project is going to receive an endowment to ensure their ongoing operations in perpetuity.”

  He sighed. “Why? When you had all that money, why?”

  “I’ll get the checkbook.” Olive stood and wiped a tear from her eye. She looked at Crane. “They wanted to change things at Daddy’s company. We’re the only ones who can keep that from happening.”

  Crane looked at Evelyn. “Why me? Did you think I’d find him and kill him?”

  Evelyn snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself, Crane. We thought you’d get drunk and spend our money and that would be the end of it. The company would find Dennis, but we’d be able to show our sisterly concern if they failed. Inst
ead, you tracked Dennis to Minneapolis.” She sighed. “I can’t expect a man like you to understand our motives.”

  Olive returned, and Evelyn took the checkbook, wrote out a check, and handed it to Crane.

  “Why try to kill me, though?”

  “Daddy despised loose ends, Mr. Crane,” said Olive, openly sobbing. “I’m sorry. It was supposed to be just business.”

  “You know, he was planning to come home. He didn’t care about the shares or the control. He just missed the two of you. I’ll show myself out.”

  Crane stood and walked out of the room, leaving Evelyn silent on the chair and Olive weeping quietly where she stood. He walked out the door and to the rental car where Noelle sat expectantly.

  “I’ll do it, Roddie,” she said when he sat down.

  He took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it up. “Do what?”

  “Go west with you. Find another job, help you set up a new agency.” She shook her head. “How can someone arrange the death of her own brother?”

  “How can someone sleep in the same house knowing her sister did?” Crane rolled his window down to let out the smoke. “Let’s go west, then. They have vodka everywhere, right?”

  “Smartass.”

  About the Author

  Neal Penn spends his days under fluorescent lights and his nights navigating the shadowy netherworld of Washington, DC. Learn more at http://www.nealpenn.com.

  Acknowledgments

  Books (and publishing them) are collaborative efforts. I’d like to thank Jerry Wright and Nick Ambrose (http://www.everything-indie.com) for editorial support and assistance. Also thanks to Carl Graves (http://extendedimagery.blogspot.com) for the kick-ass cover design, and Patrick Kelly for video production and other support.

  Table of Contents

  PSEUDONYM