Ecuperating - Chapter 29

“Camping? Ugh! My idea of roughing it is a Holiday Inn without a pool! My home in Michigan is right by Lake Michigan, so I don’t even have a pool there. I do go fishing, though. I take my boat and go out trolling on the bay.” Jayne admitted.

“You like to fish?”

Brett asked with a smile.

“Well, I guess you could call it fishing. I catch one once in a while. It’s the boat ride I like. My husband used to take me out riding on the bay all the time. We would put a line in the water once in a while but most of the time hoping nothing would bite on it.”

“I think we have covered just about every question I have for you, Jayne. And I think you did very well with your answers.”

Brett closed his notebook. He looked down, hesitated for a moment, and looked up at her again.

“I have a confession to make. I’m not with Newsweek magazine.”

“Really, Mr. Eric Tanner? Are you here on behalf of Lodge 16, or as your present position as CEO of Personal Securities?”

Jayne asked with a sly grin.

Eric Tanner sat there with his mouth open.

“How?..When?”

“I’ve known for some time you were not Brett Kelly. Your picture didn’t get on the net in time. I had you checked out before you had it changed. But I knew you weren’t Kelly before that. I knew the first time you opened your mouth. You see, Mr. Tanner, I am not from the Upper peninsula of Michigan.

If I was, I wouldn’t have recognized your accent. The Yoopers have a definite accent. It’s not quite Canadian, but close. Your word for ‘house’ comes off as ‘hoose’. Just as my accent for ‘car’ comes off as ‘cah’. Your accent gave you away.

“I’m glad you decided to come clean with me before I had to kill you. That’s a private joke, by the way. I use it with my own PI, Carl McNabb. He appreciates it. My question for you isWhy me? Why are you spending your time here with me when you are obviously much better off spending your precious time with your own business?”

“Maybe I like your body?” Eric asked.

Jayne started laughing and couldn’t stop. She dabbed her eyes.

“I didn’t think the comment was that funny,”

Eric said. “Good, but not hilarious!”

“You have no idea.” Jayne sobbed.

“Those are exactly the words I used with Carl this morning when he posed the same question to me. He claimed you have an agenda, and asked me to play along until I find out what it is.”

“Well, he’s right. I do have an agenda. One that I’m not prepared to let you in on just yet. I may not ever let you in on it. It depends on what happens next. Right now we have the green light to go ahead with our plans concerning you.” Eric admitted.

“Oh? YOU have plans concerning me! Now, there’s relief! I thought I was able to decide for myself. It’s nice to know you are taking care of me.”

“Don’t get all hot and bothered about it, Jayne, I don’t mean it that way. We need help. And we think you might be able to help us.”

“How?”

“You’ll know in a good time. I have to make certain you are the one to do what we need to have done. Let me introduce myself first. I am the youngest son of Eric Tanner and Heidi Gruber. Eric Tanner was a freighter captain plying the Atlantic in the first years of WWII..”

“Yes, I know,” Jayne said.

“He became captain of the ‘Sea Princess’ in January of 1939. He saved a German U-Boat crew that year after a fire aboard the boat and then passed them on to a German supply vessel in the middle of the Atlantic. For that he received the Cross of Valor from Hitler, and the crew received a letter of commendation from him too.

Hans Gruber was the captain of the U-Boat and made a deal with your father to transport designated passengers back to the States for big bucks. By 1944 they were both rich and your father quit..”

“Where the hell did you get all of that?”

Eric demanded. “Only the members of Lodge 16 have that kind of information about my father!”

“Not so, Eric. Your father had a first mate. An Englishman called Cecil Hardwick. He died in 1960, leaving his home to his son, also named Cecil, by the way. His son found a journal in the attic years after his father died. He was going to throw it away, but kept it around for some reason. I had McNabb get in touch with him a month ago and he sent the journal to me, thinking I was a relative. A natural mistake,” she said innocently.

“Oh, yeah! I’m sure that was it!” Eric said, tongue in cheek.

“If you still have that document, I would certainly like a copy of it. My father searched for years for it. It had a lot of material he would have liked to have had at his fingertips. He was devastated to have lost it. It should be part of the archives of Lodge 16.”

“I have it all on my computer. If you will give me an email address, I’ll send it to you. I will include your father’s fingerprint I put together from the murder in Newberry and the Massacre in New York.” she added slyly.

“YesI’ve heard about that. My men told me

about catching John Villemure at Lodge 16 last month. And I have a transcript of McNabb’s conversation with the FBI.”

“Are we done now trying to impress one another about how much we each know about the other? If so, let’s get on with it. It’s my turn now, Mr. Tanner. Just who the hell is Eric Tanner?”