had been pursued — even though a lot of money was at stake, and neither Dane nor Lefebvre would inherit.
“Tell me what you know about that, Irene. The money went to Tory?”
“Not immediately, and I’m sure her ex-husband never intended that she’d get any of it. But apparently his will was poorly worded. Trent Randolph knew how to make money, but he didn’t know how to bequeath it. Which was a pity for his company’s stockholders.”
“Why?”
“Randolph Chemicals was a bigger company ten years ago than it is now, and its future looked rosy. The first blow came when Trent was murdered, because he was the driving force behind the company. Everything was supposed to go to his children, but Amanda was dead, too. So Seth inherited everything, but of course, he was underage — so it stayed in trust, and he never took control. Unfortunately, because of some problem in the way the trust was set up, Seth’s estate ultimately went to Tory.”
“And now she shares it with a former member of the department.”
“Yes. Dale Britton — he quit the department before they officially dated, but she definitely met him through the investigation. Weird, huh? He went from Crime Lab Technician II to CEO when he said, ‘I do.’”
“Are you telling me Britton runs Randolph Chemicals?”
“Not now — but he did for a short time. He has a degree in chemistry, but no real background in business or manufacturing. That didn’t stop Tory from making him president of the company.”
“What happened to the company?”
“In the beginning, it looked as if it was going to be a total disaster — stock price fell and lots of their best employees abandoned ship. Some of that started when Trent Randolph was killed, of course. So just when the company was starting to recover from that setback, Tory insisted on making her new hubby the boss. Luckily, Britton was smart enough to see that if he stayed at the helm, the value of all that stock he married into was going to be a big zero. So he managed to keep some key people by ‘retiring’ and letting wiser heads rule. Things improved, and the two of them aren’t hurting for bucks, but Randolph Chemicals never regained all the ground it lost.”
“I can’t help but feel a little sorry for Tory Randolph,” Frank said. “To lose two children to murder — especially after Seth survived the first attack—”
“For almost any other mother, that would be true. I felt bad for her, too, until I saw how much she gloried in the attention she was getting. It was awful. You’ll be around her for more than ten seconds, so I know you’ll have a chance to see what I mean.”
He stopped by the lab, feeling a little awkward when he saw Alfred Larson and Paul Haycroft examining the paper airplane.
“Frank!” Haycroft said, smiling at him. “We were wondering if we should call in the NTSB on this one, too.”
“Don’t let him give you a hard time,” Larson said. “It’s a good piece of evidence. Thanks for taking the time to bring it by from the hospital. It should have been recovered by one of our people, of course, but I don’t think they could bring themselves to treat Captain Bredloe as if he were just any other victim of an assault. How is the captain? Any word?”
“Nothing new,” Frank said. “Call Pete if you’d like — Miriam said she’d call him today if there was any change.”
“And not you?” Haycroft asked in surprise.
“No — I’ve got a full day ahead of me today, and Pete’s working here in the office. Carlson has vowed to suspend him if he doesn’t clear his desk off.”
Haycroft laughed. “I’m afraid your lieutenant is fighting a losing battle.”
“So — you think you can learn anything from this?” Frank asked, indicating the plane.
“Possibly,” Haycroft said. “We’ve taken a look at the paper — it’s a better grade of twenty-pound bond, but unfortunately it isn’t all that special — it’s a type sold in many stationers and office supply stores. As you know, the more unique something is, the more helpful it is to us. I don’t know that this will lead you to the attacker, but it might help us nail him once you’ve found him. There are these cutout areas in the tail section, and if he hasn’t taken out his trash or gone to the recycling center, we might match the cutout places to the paper that has been removed. And, of course, the plane isn’t folded in an ordinary way.”
“Folded with real precision,” Larson said. “The attacker isn’t sloppy.”
“Which means we no longer suspect Pete Baird,” Haycroft said, and Larson laughed.
“Pete’s desk may be messy,” Frank said, regretting that he had told them about Pete’s run-in with Carlson, “but his work isn’t.”
“Of course not,” Larson said quickly. “Your partner’s track record proves that. But the person who folded this also gave it a unique design, or at least not one that just anyone would fold when making a paper airplane.” He handed Frank a sheet of paper. “If I asked you to make one, what would you do?”
Frank folded the classic design.
“Yes, in half, then the nose and a pair of wings. A few folds. But this is more elaborate. Perhaps not as fancy as the ones engineering students design for college competitions, but closer to those than the one you just made. Making a simple plane wasn’t good enough. It gives us an insight into his character.”
“It explains the fan, too,” Frank said.
“Exactly!” Haycroft said. “He wanted the plane to fly toward the captain, but since he didn’t want to be in the building, he couldn’t launch it himself, so he thought up this mechanism.”
“Ingenious, really,” Larson said. He explained that the cameras and lights had been set up by the attacker. “So it looks as if he knew what the captain might do to protect himself and created distractions.”
“And drew him out into the middle of the mosaic, where Bredloe made a better target.”
“Yes,” Larson said. “We’ve given this information to Vince Adams and Reed Collins. They’re handling the
