Page 5 of Midnight

He leaned over and patted Pete’s shoulder. “Hey, Pop. It’s me, Freddie.”

Everett followed suit and took hold of his dad’s hand. “Pop, it’s me, Everett. I’m here, too.”

Pete’s eyes opened, blinking a few times as if trying to focus, and then grinned, revealing the tooth loss from all the cancer treatments.

“Hey, boys… Come to get your old Pops a send-off, have you?”

“Are you in pain?” Everett asked.

“Not much,” Pete said. “Good drugs here. I’m glad you came. You need to know that Brenda has the money.”

They both looked at each other, thinking it was the drugs and disease already eating up his brain.

“Uh… Dad… Brenda’s been dead for twenty-one years.”

Pete shook his head as he inhaled, trying to catch his breath enough to speak.

They could hear the death rattle in his chest.

“Hell, I know that, boy. I had nothing else to think about since the day they locked me up. I knew what she thought of her boys. She likely couldn’t face the shame. I might as well have put a gun to her head myself.”

“You weren’t mad at her, then?” Freddie asked.

“For what? She did exactly what I asked her to do. I got her high and talked her into it. She wasn’t anywhere near the robbery, but I put the money in the back of her car at the airport and told her to take it home and hide it. I don’t know what she did with it, but they came and got her the same day they arrested us, and she killed herself on the way to jail. The location died with her.”

“Then what are you saying?” Everett asked.

“That she wouldn’t have had much time to hide it, and I told the cops I’m the one who hid it, and that the location would die with me. Only I’m dying now, and I don’t know where it is. They said on the news at the time, it was more than a million-dollar heist, and part of it was bearer bonds.”

Everett frowned. “That doesn’t mean anything. We didn’t know her. We don’t know where she lived.”

Pete moaned and took another rattly breath. “Her old man owned the Tumbleweed Bar in Crossroads. It’s south of Amarillo on Highway 86. Their house was attached to the back of the bar. He still owns and works the bar, and still lives there. He didn’t know shit about what was going on, and I know she would have hid the fact that she’d had the money from him, so no one would have ever thought to search there, because I said I hid the money, remember?”

Their eyes widened as the truth sank in. “You mean all that money is likely somewhere in the bar or in their house?”

Pete blinked. “Likely.”

“But how would we get Kingston out of there long enough to search?” Freddie asked.

“That’s for you to figure out,” Pete said. “Consider ityour inheritance from me.” He took another breath, and was slower in talking. “Is your mama doin’ okay?”

“She died four years ago, Pop.”

Pete frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We were doin’ time,” Freddie said. “We didn’t make it to the funeral, either.”

“Then I reckon I’ll be seeing her again before you do,” Pete said, and closed his eyes. “I’m tired talking. Y’all go on now.”

Thrown off by his instant dismissal, neither of them bothered to even tell him goodbye. Their heads were full of dreams of getting rich, the same way their dad kept trying to get rich. By stealing what didn’t belong to them.

They talked about it all the way back home to Amarillo, but before they could act on their plan, Pete Brandt died. They didn’t have the money to bury him, and there was no one else left to claim the body. That left Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery, the largest prison graveyard in the United States, as his final resting place.

* * *

Pete Brandt’s death regained media attention, and as they reported the story, they also resurrected the old crime on the air and in the papers, including the names of the guilty parties and victims with it, and ending their piece with mention of the unrecovered money from the robbery.

Jacob Kingston heard the news live from the television above his head at the bar. He was drawing a beer when he heard the wordsPete Brandtandarmored car robbery. Shocked, he turned his back to the customer and upped the volume, and when he did, the whole bar went silent. There wasn’t a man among them who didn’t know the history, and when it was over, Jacob lowered the volumeand turned back to the customers.