The Encore of Us novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Pension

The janitor lived in the downstairs half of a gray duplex in northeast Minneapolis, with a chain-link fence and a plastic Santa on the porch.

He opened the door in a cardigan, with his cap in his hand.

He had been expecting us.

"Come in," he said. "Mind the cat."

The county attorney's deputy came up the walk behind us with a leather case and a small recorder.

He was the dry man from the lobby, and he had insisted on coming himself.

The front room was neat and very quiet.

A photograph of a smiling woman stood on the television, with a black ribbon pinned to the frame.

"My wife," the janitor said. "Three winters ago."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"She was sick a long time. That's what I want to tell you about."

He went into the kitchen, and we heard a drawer scrape.

He came back with a blue coffee tin that had once held Folgers.

He set it on the table and took off the lid.

It was full of green-and-white slips, folded in half and held in rubber bands.

"I kept every one," he said.

I picked up the top bundle.

They were check stubs, thin paper with a perforated edge.

PAID TO, a line of typed capitals with his name.

AMOUNT, $1,500.00.

Under it, in the memo box, in blue felt pen: PENSION, with the date.

Under the date, a signature in a hand I knew better than my own.

I. Brandvold.

My hands went cold.

Anders took the next bundle from me and held it.

"The first one came the second week of November," the janitor said. "Seven years ago. The envelope was in my locker. No note."

"And the next one came on the first of the month, after that, every month."

"She told me herself, in the back corridor, with her coat on."

He looked at his folded hands.

"She said, 'You were a good friend to Halvard, and the Hall takes care of its own.'"

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