Clean Getaway

The Victim. The old man definitely needed killing. As in so many other things, the twins were agreed. The when was soon. The how was easy. The why was one of the oldest reasons in the book---cold, hard cash.

The Crime. Here the twins showed a flash of genius. The old man still insisted on administering his own insulin shots. A vial of leftover morphine (their mom had succumbed to the "cancer" years ago—God rest her soul), switched with his prescribed drugs, and viola! Done deal. Combined with the other medications he took, he was on the train to the next life in about one hour. They left him overnight just to be sure. When the sun came up, they were officially orphans.

The Pronouncement. Doc Soames arrived and pronounced the old man dead after a cursory glance at the body. Cause of death was that old favorite, heart failure. The old man had been dying for years. No need to waste time and money on an autopsy.

The Finishing Touch. They shipped the body directly to MacMillan's funeral home and got him prepped for the casket. Three or four old fogies from the local VFW attended the funeral, every one of them looking as if they already had one foot in the very grave they were clustered around. No tears were shed and few words were said. The twins were appropriately somber but they itched to be away. They had business at the house.

The Payoff. The safe sat inside a closet in the old man's basement bedroom. A huge Sentry model with both a combination lock and a key. It was opened once a month to deposit cash from the old man's retirement check. Withdrawals were few and far between. The twins had the combination but it was never opened except under the watchful eye of its owner. Since the old man never left the house without the safe key, opportunities for thievery were nonexistent. How much money the safe contained was unknown and was a much debated topic between the boys; out of the old man's hearing, of course. They'd been making the same monthly deposits for over 5 years, and the old man had done it for years himself when he was still able.

The Throw-Down. It took three tries to get the combination right. Anticipation had their nerves on edge. Finally they got it open, pulled out the cash and started to count. Twenty minutes later they sat back and looked at each other. The final tally was two hundred fifty-three thousand dollars. The recount took another fifteen minutes. Their heads were spinning. So much money lying in front of them. The oldest twin suggested they get some paper and do the count one more time. The younger agreed and volunteered to bring his calculator as a backup. They got up and left the room. When they returned, neither had the aforementioned items. Instead they'd both brought other things and had something besides counting money in mind. But really, shouldn't they have known better. They'd been practically reading each other's minds their entire lives.

The Getaway. By the time officer Jack McKinney arrived, both twins were dead. Massive blood loss and blunt force trauma to the head being the likely causes. No doubt Doc Soames would agree. McKinney took in the scene. Blood, bodies, and money. The body with the knife wounds still held the house phone in a death-grip. McKinney sighed. He stepped back to his patrol car and removed a knapsack from the trunk. Returned to the house and filled the knapsack with the majority of the cash that hadn't been splattered with blood. That left about 30,000 dollars on the floor. He judged it to be enough to incite a murder in these parts; even between brothers. He returned the bag to his trunk, called in the report, and walked back to the house to wait for the meat wagon.