How to Lead a Life of Crime

EPILOGUE



PETER LIVES





I never saw the body. I never even heard the thump. I was still expecting my father to reappear when I realized Joi had my hand and we both were running.

She kept trying to stop, but I just kept on going. Faster and faster, until she finally tackled me. I remember hitting the ground and wondering why it felt so soft. When I rolled over I saw green leaves and blue sky and Joi’s beautiful face.

For a moment I was sure we were both in Never Land. “Where are we?” I heard myself shout. “What is this place? What’s happened to us?”

“Shhh, Flick,” Joi hushed me. “It’s Seward Park. We’re safe.”

“Where’s my dad?” I demanded.

“I’m so sorry.” She tried to hug me, but I pushed her back.

“He’s not dead! It’s some kind of trick! He’s a liar, Joi. A big f—ing liar! He told you my mom is alive so I’d just have to lose her again!”

“He gave me an address,” Joi replied softly. “It’s somewhere upstate. In the Hudson Valley.”

“It’s a graveyard!” I insisted. “He’s a monster.”

“Maybe he was,” Joi said. “But he might not have died one. We’ll take the next train we can get.”

“I’m not going.”

“We’re going together.”

“But what if . . .” What if she’s dead, I thought. What if he’d found another way to hurt me? And what if she’s not dead, I wondered. What would it mean? “Not today. Please? Not today.”

“All right, then.” Joi covered my face with kisses before she whispered, “Tomorrow.”

I don’t know how long we spent lying there on the grass in Seward Park. But when we finally arrived at the colony on Pitt Street, we found our fellow escapees had gotten there hours before we did. It seemed like every inch of the basement had been claimed by a slumbering kid. But they’d left Joi’s room just for us. We collapsed on the lumpy old bed with our clothes still on. I kept my arms around Joi and my face buried deep in her hair while I waited for Peter Pan to slip through the window. I thought I needed him to tell me what I should do. But he never showed up. He left me alone with a girl who smelled of jasmine and cocoa butter. And before I fell asleep, I finally realized that was more than enough.

• • •

It was three o’clock in the afternoon when Tina knocked and the door burst open. Curly, Dartagnan, and a dozen other kids rushed in to welcome us back. Once they’d all gotten hugs from Joi, Tina ushered them out again. Then she gave us each a cup of strong coffee and handed over an iPhone.

The Mandel Academy was all over the news. The earliest stories had focused on the tragic loss of a beloved institution and the presumed deaths of all the teenagers inside. Then sometime around ten in the morning, the firefighters had found Mandel’s lab. The old part of the building may have burned to the ground, but the bottom two floors remained intact. A half hour later, one of New York’s Bravest discovered the morgue.

We knew then that it was only a matter of time before the investigation widened. Within hours, any building owned by Lucian Mandel would be locked up and labeled a potential crime scene. So Joi and I hurried to the artist’s studio in Greenwich Village, only to find that the alumni files had been moved. They weren’t at Mandel’s house on Tenth Street either. I wanted to keep looking, but Joi refused. The files could wait, and I needed my rest. Our train would be leaving first thing the next morning.

I argued and pleaded. I wanted her to see that what my father had told her didn’t make any sense. He claimed that he’d staged my mother’s death. The sedative in the syringe had knocked her out. But the dose wasn’t enough to kill her. He swore he was trying to protect her from Lucian Mandel. Even up to the very last moment. Even when I was on the verge of beating him to death. He would have gone to his grave before he’d let Mandel know that my mother was alive.

But like the rest of my dad’s stories, it was all a big lie. Why would he have gone to such trouble to save a life he’d tried so hard to ruin?

“I don’t know,” Joi admitted.

“And even if he did hide her away, why did she stay? Why did she let him remarry and father a son? Why didn’t she try to find me?”

“I don’t know,” Joi said. “But if your mother’s alive, you need to ask her.”

• • •

The address my father gave Joi belonged to a Victorian mansion set on a lush, rolling lawn.

“Do you know the name of the people who live here?” Joi asked the cabbie who’d picked us up at the train station.

“It’s not a house, miss,” he said as he turned up the drive. “It’s a mental institution.”

The lady at the front desk shook her head when I asked to see Elizabeth Brennan. “We don’t have any patients here by that name.”

I took a step back, but Joi didn’t budge. “What was her maiden name?”

“Chapman,” I said.

The woman’s brow furrowed. “What’s your relation to Beth Chapman?”

Joi nudged me when I didn’t speak. “I’m her son.”

“Excuse me for a moment.” The woman slipped out of her chair. A few seconds later, she returned with a nurse.

The nurse didn’t seem pleased to see me. “You say you’re Beth Chapman’s son?”

“Yes, my name is Jonathan Brennan.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” she announced. “Beth’s sons are both dead.”

That’s why she never tried to find me. He must have told her that I was gone too.

“His brother, Jude, was the one who died,” Joi informed the nurse.

“I was . . . I was . . .” I couldn’t get the rest out.

“He’s been away at school,” Joi said. “He just discovered that his mother is here.”

“Don’t move,” the nurse ordered. “I’ll be right back.”

There was a framed picture in her hand when she marched back into the lobby. The nurse glanced down at the photo of me, Jude, and my mother. When she looked back up, she was smiling.

“Well, what do you know?” the nurse marveled. “Beth told me a few days ago that her son would be coming. She’s been waiting for you ever since. The doctor thought her condition had worsened. I wonder what he’ll have to say about this.”

“Can I see her?” I croaked.

“I don’t know why not. After all, she’s expecting you. Follow me. Beth’s room is right down the hall.”

“Why is she here?” I asked as the nurse guided us through a security door. “What exactly is her condition?”

“Chronic hallucinatory psychosis.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Joi was the one who answered. “It means she speaks to people no one else can see.”

My hands were trembling when I opened the door. I was terrified of what I might find on the other side. A padded room. A lunatic strapped into a straitjacket. A madwoman babbling away at the walls. But I saw a bright, sunny chamber filled with furniture my mother might have chosen herself. A small, blond woman sat by the window, watching as sprinklers watered the endless green lawn. She wore chinos and red espadrilles. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her linen shirt was the color of the sky.

“You’re here!” She was in my arms before I had a chance to say anything. She sounded elated. But she didn’t seem surprised.

“Who told you I was coming?” I asked when she finally let me go. “Was it Dad?”

She answered with a smile. A real one.

“Was it Jude?” I bent down and whispered into her ear. “Do you speak to Jude, Mom?”

“Not anymore,” she replied. “Jude’s in Never Land now.”

• • •

That night at the colony, Jude sent me one last dream. Peter Pan wasn’t in it. This time Jude was just a kid in a T-shirt and jeans.

“You gonna be okay?” he asked me.

“Yeah,” I told him. “You?”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” he promised.

“Then I guess I should go. I’ll miss you, Jude.”

“You know where to find me. I’m not going anywhere.”

I gave him a hug and left him behind. I could hear announcements being made, and I could see strangers milling about in the background. Then I realized I was at JFK Airport, about to board a plane to Savannah. It was the day I left for military school.

I looked over my shoulder. Jude was standing beside my mother, waving at me. I’d forgotten how happy he’d seemed the last time that I saw him. And I suddenly knew why Jude had sent me the dream. That’s how he wanted to be remembered.

When I waved back, we both knew what it meant. I’d finally said my goodbye.

• • •

In the weeks since the Mandel Academy went up in flames, the whole world has turned upside down. The billionaires and bigwigs who once sat on the school’s board of directors are being hounded by the press and the police. The academy’s instructors have all been hauled in for questioning. None of them have been charged with a crime yet, but few people believe they could have been ignorant of the atrocities committed in the basement of their workplace. A shadow has fallen over the other Mandel alumni as well. Arthur Klein has visited every news show in the country to warn the public about the dangers of Exceletrex—and to denounce the people who would have profited from poisoning millions of children. A reporter from the New York Times is investigating the drug company’s links to the Mandel Academy, and most of the school’s graduates are now keeping low profiles or hiding out in their homes. Even those who don’t need to fear the police or the newspapers are probably quite keen to avoid the Wolves.

Eight of the academy’s top students left with files on the fifth of July. Seven alumni were forced to hand over fortunes. Then New York’s latest millionaires began living large. Two Wolves quickly wound up in jail—Austin for assault and Julian for drug possession. Five continue to spend their days providing fodder for the city’s tabloids, which are filled with breathless accounts of their extravagant shopping sprees, drunken fistfights, and endless displays of debauchery.

The eighth escaped Wolf showed up at the colony.

“How did you find us?” Joi asked.

When Leila grinned, she could have passed for a regular girl. “One of the teachers at the academy asked me to check out a virus created by some kid named Lily. The instructor thought there was something strange about it. She was right. She just wasn’t smart enough to figure out what it was. I saw the message you sent to Tina. So the first thing I did when I got out was find Tina. Then I followed her here.”

“You knew about the message?” I asked. “You could have had us killed.”

“For plotting to set us all free? What kind of person do you think I am, anyway?”

I didn’t know how to answer.

“Never mind,” Leila said. “I guess I was pretty awful. God knows what all that Exceletrex has done to my brain. But at least I’m trying to change. That’s why I’m here. I brought you a present.”

• • •

I hoped Leila would be our last unexpected visitor. For a while, the whole world seemed convinced that the academy’s students had all perished in the fire. But the only bones discovered among the debris belonged to Lucian Mandel. When the newspapers noted the absence of charred human remains, the police began to look for the school’s missing students. But we never thought anyone would discover the colony. Then my father’s attorney appeared at our door. He was there to tell me that my dad had revised his will so that his fortune would be split between his two living sons. The first thing I did was demand a copy of the document. All I wanted to see was the date. The changes were made the day after I’d been arrested at JFK.

I used my inheritance to buy an apartment for my mother. The doctors say she may be well enough to move in soon. Then I purchased a building on Essex Street, which is already filled with Ghosts, Androids, and Urchins. I donated the rest of the money to Joi’s new charity. The Lower East Side Children’s Fund.

Life is more comfortable now, but it’s no less dangerous. If an attorney can find us, so can the Mandel alumni. They must think we managed to get our hands on their secrets. Otherwise, a few would have declared war by now. Joi and I are still searching for Mandel’s files. But we’ll find them. And right before we send most of the alumni to jail, we’ll put Leila’s present to use. She’s given us access to every graduate’s bank account. Joi’s already decided where the funds should go.

• • •

I’ll always regret that my father chose to die like he did. But these days I have too many good things to enjoy—and too little time to waste on regrets. If I find a free hour, it belongs to my little brother. Frank’s mother had always been told I was dead. But when she saw me standing outside her door, she knew I wasn’t an impostor. Her son is the spitting image of his two older brothers.

She’s selling the mansion in Connecticut. Now that she knows the truth, she says it’s too haunted to occupy. Before the brokers descended on the house, she insisted that my mother and I take whatever I wanted. I would have asked for the Rothko, but that wall was already empty.

So my mother and I picked out a few little treasures that belonged to Jude. After he died, his possessions had been packed away and consigned to a dark corner of the attic. That’s where I found the box. Inside was a green felt hat, a wooden sword—and every story ever written about Peter Pan.

I gave the box to Frank. When he opens it ten years from now, I’ll be there to tell him all about Never Land—and our very own brother who was able to fly. Because Peter Pan can never die. And as long as I’m around, there will always be someone here who believes in him.





Addendum





The following material was found on a flash drive that had been taped to the underside of a desk belonging to Marcos Lauder. A reporter for the New York Times, Lauder was reported missing on January 3, 2013.





Lucian Frederick Mandel

Born 1975 in Manhattan

Mother: Beatrice Mandel (b. 1942, d. 2007)

Father: Unknown

Sibling: Marjorie Mandel (b. 1973, d. 2007)

Rumor has it that the father of Marjorie and Lucian Mandel is a living graduate of the Mandel Academy. My sources believe that the man may have been employed by the school when Beatrice was first named headmistress. However, Beatrice never publicly identified the father of her children, and he appears to have played no role in his son’s life.

Lucian was enrolled at the Dalton School in Manhattan until November of his fourth grade year, when another child accused him of intentionally injuring a class pet. At that point, Lucian abruptly transferred to College Alpin Beau Soleil, a boarding school in Switzerland. Before the age of fifteen, he made regular trips to visit his mother in New York. The travel appears to have stopped in Lucian’s sophomore year. He did not leave Europe throughout his junior and senior years.

By all accounts, Lucian’s relationship with his mother became increasingly tense as he grew older. This seems to support the idea that she may have discovered his macabre habits. It’s also possible that Beatrice Mandel suspected that her son’s crimes were not limited to defiling the dead.

Lucian’s time in Switzerland coincided with the disappearance of at least five teenagers from the nearby city of Geneva. Most of the children were long believed to be runaways. However, the recent discovery of several jars of preserved organs in a wooded area not far from College Alpin Beau Soleil has proven that at least one of the teenagers met a grisly fate. There is no physical evidence to link Lucian Mandel to the crime, but the MO fits the one described by Henry Brennan.

Throughout his youth, Lucian Mandel made very few friends, but his money often bought success with girls. Those relationships, however, were extremely short lived. None of the ex-girlfriends I’ve located are willing to discuss him. Most seem to refuse not out of loyalty, but fear.

Mandel graduated from Harvard in 1995. Despite an unimpressive academic record, he was accepted to the John Hopkins School of Medicine where he earned an MD. In 2007 he was awarded a PhD in genetics.

Less than a week after Lucian returned to New York, Beatrice Mandel died of a cerebral aneurysm. Her daughter, Marjorie, died the following month in an automobile accident on the West Side Highway. Neither death appears to have been investigated. Autopsies were never performed.



“Gwendolyn”

Real name: Tiffany Hager

Mother: Rhonda Hager

In 2008, Tiffany Hager was a patient at the New Hampshire State psychiatric hospital. Her juvenile criminal records are sealed, but her mother’s name links her to this account from the New Hampshire Union Leader.



INVESTIGATORS CLEAR MOTHER, FOCUS ON DAUGHTER

Shortly after the body of an eighth man was pulled out of Spectacle Pond on Friday afternoon, Croydon police abruptly shifted the focus of their investigation. The woman who was the prime suspect in the killings has now been cleared of most charges. New information, including forensic evidence uncovered by the Sullivan County Coroner, appears to incriminate the former suspect’s underage daughter.

Computer records show that all eight victims had scheduled sexual liaisons at the home of thirty-year-old Croydon native Rhonda Hager on the nights they disappeared. However, security camera footage has placed Ms. Hager at a Sunapee drinking establishment on every evening in question, giving her a solid alibi for the times of death.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that Ms. Hagar may have helped dispose of the bodies, but the woman’s thirteen-year-old daughter has become the lead suspect in the case. Bite marks found on three of the bodies appear to match the girl’s dental impressions.

Sources close to the investigation are now beginning to doubt that the case will ever come to trial. The girl, herself a victim of abuse and neglect, has a long and well-documented history of psychiatric problems.

“Ella”

Real Name: Dorelle Duncan

Transcript of my telephone call with Jed McKinley, the zoo employee who discovered photographs that showed the assassination of Christopher Jones, the one-time Chicago drug lord. The photos were confiscated by the Illinois State Police. They cannot be located at this time. The police claim they are no longer in evidence.

Q: OK, the recorder is running. Can you please give me your name and the name of your employer?

A: My name is Jed McKinley. I work for the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Q: In Chicago.

A: Yes.

Q: Can you tell me a bit about the work you were doing in Marquette Park in 2011?

A: I was part of a project to assess the biodiversity of the Chicagoland area. We set up hidden wildlife camera traps in multiple parks across the city to see which species were present.

Q: You thought you’d be filming squirrels and birds and such.

A: Yeah. And coyotes and other animals that are pretty good at avoiding humans. That’s why we used cameras.

Q: So the cameras were well hidden and activated by motion sensors.

A: That’s correct.

Q: You ended up filming more than squirrels. Please tell me what you discovered on the morning of September 13, 2011.

A: I was checking the footage that had been taken in Marquette Park the previous night. There was a camera trap in an overgrown section of the park that would usually snap some great pictures of opossums and raccoons. So I went through those photos first. Halfway through the camera roll, I found about a dozen pictures of a middle-age man and a girl with a gun.

Q: Describe the two for me if you will.

A: Well the man was Christopher Jones. They never released the girl’s name. She was African-American. Maybe sixteen or so. Pretty—but hard looking. Her hair appeared white in the photos. She had diamond rings on her fingers.

Q: How many photos did the camera take of the pair?

A: Six. It didn’t actually capture the girl shooting Jones. Just a few seconds before and a few seconds after.

Q: But there was no one else there who could have killed the man.

A: No.

Q: Anything else you remember about the photographs? Any details you think might be important?

A: The girl was crying.

Q: Crying?

A: Yeah. In every picture.



Glenn Sheehan

Congressman, Illinois, 14th District

In January 2012, he called for a congressional inquiry into the development of Exceletrex. In March 2012, Sheehan withdrew his support for the investigation. The abrupt shift raised a few eyebrows in Washington.

There were rumors that Sheehan was conducting an extramarital affair at the time. Evidence of the relationship could have been used by Mandel alumni to blackmail the Representative. There may be no way to prove or disprove such speculation.



“Lucas”

Real Name: Brian Ascher

Born: February 18, 1985

Died: Date unknown, 2012

Lucas’s family history is well documented and easy to verify. His mother, father, and sister were killed on April 17, 2001, in the crash of Sunshine Airways Flight 2882 from Los Angeles to Atlanta.

The six-year-old boy had no remaining family, other than an aged aunt in a nursing home. He was made a ward of the state and placed in foster care.

In 2011, Lucas was arrested on charges of cyber terrorism. His black hat attack on Sunshine Airways’ computer systems had grounded the entire airline for almost a week. Sixteen years old at the time, Lucas was tried as an adult and sentenced to ten years in a minimum security prison.

There is no evidence that Lucas was ever incarcerated. His trail goes cold two days after his sentence was announced.



“Franklin”

True identity unknown and presence at the Mandel Academy impossible to verify. Alumni interviewed do not recall a student by that name.



Marm Mandelbaum

Fredericka “Marm” Mandelbaum was one of the most notorious criminals in nineteenth-century New York. A portly Prussian woman, she worked out of a store at 79 Clinton Street in Manhattan (a building that may still exist today) and made a living fencing stolen goods. She also planned and financed some of the most impressive capers in New York history. But Marm wasn’t a common criminal. She threw swanky dinner parties for the city’s finest citizens, and was said to be a stickler for good manners.

In the 1870s, Marm started the Grand Street School, an academy for young criminals. There were classes in pocket-picking, safe-cracking, blackmail, and confidence games. Children under the age of ten were welcome to apply, and those who graduated at the top of their class were hired by Marm herself.





The Butcher of Brighton Beach

Aka Vladimir Mingulov

Born: 1968, near Moscow

Currently at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, serving four consecutive life sentences.

Almost nothing is known about Mingulov’s early life in Moscow. He came to the US sometime in the late 1980s and settled in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood (known as Little Odessa for its large Russian population). By 1990, he was working as a hit man for Boris Ivankov, then a mid-level figure in the Russian Mafia. Ivankov’s brains and Mingulov’s brutality proved to be a potent combination, and the two men quickly rose through the ranks of the organized crime world.

Mingulov may or may not speak English. During his trial, he was provided with a translator. He never spoke a word of any language in court, leading some in the media to speculate that he might be mute. (He is not.) During the height of his career, Mingulov’s silence sent a powerful message. Everyone in Brighton Beach knew that when Vladimir Mingulov came to the door, he wasn’t there for a chat.

Over the course of twenty years, Mingulov murdered dozens of Boris Ivankov’s enemies. (Some experts claim the body count reached three digits.) He was said to be fast, efficient, and absolutely pitiless. Though he employed a wide range of weapons, he enjoyed using his bare hands whenever possible. Given his formidable size (6’6”, 235 lbs.), few of his victims would have been able to fight back.

Most of Mingulov’s victims vanished without a trace. It was rumored that he dismembered the corpses before disposing of them, earning him the nickname the Butcher of Brighton Beach. However, at Mingulov’s trial, it was discovered that his wife, Olga, deserved the title. For the Mingulovs, the murder business was a family affair. Vladimir (and often his son) would provide the bodies, and Olga would dispose of them.

When Vladimir and Olga Mingulov were finally arrested in 2011, the remains of their last four victims were discovered in a hidden sub- basement beneath their home.



“Ivan”

Sergei Mingulov

Born: 1995

Died: 2012 (unconfirmed)

Vladimir and Olga Mingulov’s only child. Sergei’s juvenile records are sealed. However, there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that he had been actively participating in his family’s “business” for years before his parents were incarcerated. Only sixteen at the time, Sergei had already built a fearsome reputation among the Brooklyn Russian Mafia. It was said he had inherited both his father’s size and cruelty.

When the Mingulovs were arrested, Sergei was declared a ward of the state. He had dropped out of school at the age of twelve, and there is no sign that he ever returned. There is also no record of the boy being placed in a foster home.

I have contacted the Mingulovs. Neither has spoken with Sergei since 2011.

“Felix”

Aka Hector Guerra

Born: 1994?

Died: 2012 (unconfirmed)

Hector Guerra was one of the aliases used by a young man who was arrested for prostitution in Miami, Florida, three times between 2009 and 2011. He told police officers that he had come to America from Cuba with his mother. She died shortly after their arrival, and he began turning tricks to support himself.

According to Jose Garcia, one of the arresting officers, “Hector” was a well-known and beloved character in Miami’s law-enforcement community. Famously charming and humorous, the boy was also believed to be highly intelligent. He could have easily avoided arrest, but he attracted cops’ attention by handing out large sums of money—mostly to teenage runaways who were at risk of falling prey to the city’s pimps.

Trying to free the young man from the sex trade, police arrested “Hector” three times. After his first arrest, he ran away from a foster family. The second arrest was followed by an escape from a juvenile detention facility. Following “Hector’s” third arrest, the authorities contacted the Mandel Academy.

“Max”

Alan Davis

Aka Hunter Stone

Born: 1996

One of the “Wolves” who escaped from the Mandel Academy with an alumni file, Alan Davis was recently living in New York City under the name Hunter Stone.

Alan is the child of a Boston surgeon and a former model. His parents learned that their son was free when they saw his picture on the cover of a New York tabloid. The news apparently came as a shock. Their son was imprisoned in 2010 for aggravated assault. They—and two of Alan’s siblings—had been the boy’s victims. Mrs. Davis had nearly died after the incident.

When I spoke with the Davises, they were clearly afraid for their lives. The NYPD had informed them that they could not arrest the young man since they had no evidence that he was the same boy who had disappeared from a juvenile detention facility in May of 2012.

The rest of the Davis family went underground for several months, only to return to Boston when “Hunter Stone” was arrested for assaulting a traffic cop.

“Aubrey”

Catelynn Cabe

Born: 1995

Died: 2012 (confirmed)

Catelynn grew up in Chickamauga, Georgia. The events that led to her arrest (and later enrollment at the Mandel Academy) are as reported by Jonathan Brennan. She and her nineteen-year-old boyfriend built a meth lab in the basement of her family’s home. It exploded, killing Catelynn’s parents and boyfriend.

After the incident, she entered the Serenity Center, an elite (and expensive) drug rehabilitation facility near Atlanta. An “anonymous benefactor” footed the bill. Two weeks after Catelynn was admitted to the center, her aunt (and sole living relative) Brittany Cogdill attempted to visit the girl. Ms. Cogdill was informed that her niece had committed suicide.

Catelynn’s body was one of the two dozen discovered in the morgue beneath the Mandel Academy. Her fingerprints were matched with those on her arrest record, and her aunt later identified the body. Ms. Cogdill has filed suit against the Mandel Academy’s Board of Directors.

“Caleb”

Born: 1994–1995

Died: 2012 (confirmed)

Almost impossible to identify conclusively. He would have been seventeen at the time of his death in July 2012. He claimed to have been at the academy for seven semesters (roughly two years and three months). Therefore, he would have been between the ages of fourteen and fifteen when he entered the school. His corpse was found in the Mandel morgue, but his fingerprints were not on file with any law enforcement agencies. Given the physical description of “Caleb,” and assuming he was in fact a true psychopath, there are two promising possibilities:

Carson Hinde: Born in 1994 to a wealthy California family. After several tragic incidents involving family pets, the boy was admitted to a privately run mental institution at the age of eight. The institution’s administrators will neither confirm nor deny that Carson is still a patient. Carson’s mother is now deceased. His father, when contacted, refused to discuss the boy’s whereabouts.

Edward (Eddie) Dean: Born 1995. Raised by a grandmother in rural Alabama. Appeared in New Orleans in 2009 and enrolled in the city’s most prestigious prep school. Edward befriended several of the wealthiest students, earned their trust, and then robbed their homes. It’s estimated he stole close to $200K worth of jewelry and art. Edward vanished without a trace. His grandmother claims to have had no contact with him in the last three years.

“Violet”

Tabitha Berry

Born: 1997

Tabitha and her three younger siblings were orphaned when their parents died in a car accident in 2010. They were taken in by their mother’s cousin, who neglected the younger children, abused the older ones, and embezzled money from the children’s trust funds.

Increasingly worried about her siblings’ safety, Tabitha decided to act. One night, she spiked her guardian’s dinner drink with two crushed sleeping pills. She wasn’t aware that the woman had already consumed a cocktail of drugs. The guardian lost consciousness, and Tabitha loaded her brothers and sister into the woman’s car. They were halfway across the country when they were pulled over by the police. Tabitha was arrested for driving without a license. At the police station, she learned that her guardian had died. She was then charged with murder.

Tabitha now lives in a building owned by Jonathan Brennan and attends a Manhattan high school for the academically gifted. After her arrest, her brothers and sister had been sent to live with three different foster families. They recently have been reunited.

Simon Hodenfield

An alumnus of the Mandel Academy as well as an instructor (“Mr. Martin”). He is currently under investigation by the NYPD and FBI. Both organizations are trying to determine what role he may have played in the murder of the Mandel students discovered in the academy’s basement morgue.

I have been unable link Hodenfield to the (presumed) blackmail of Congressman Glenn Sheehan. However, several employees of the Browning School have been willing to go on the record to accuse Hodenfield of extortion. Three people say they were contacted by Hodenfield, who threatened to release sensitive information about their private lives if his son Nathaniel was ever expelled from the Browning School. (Nathaniel is, by all accounts, a shameless bully and pathological cheater.)

Fortunately the Browning School was able to expel Nathaniel after his father was accused of propositioning several of his son’s classmates online. With nothing to trouble their consciences, the school’s employees are willing to testify publicly against Hodenfield.

Arthur Klein

A psychopharmacologist previously employed by Moorland Laboratories, makers of Exceletrex. Klein was the first scientist to come forward with his concerns about the drug’s potential for causing long-term neurologic damage. He says he decided to blow the whistle on his employers shortly after the death of his six-year-old son, Peter. (Yes, Peter.)

Exceletrex

Developed by Moorland Laboratories to treat a range of conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Exceletrex was intended to be marketed as an alternative to Adderall and Ritalin. It is said to improve mental focus, inhibit impulsive behavior, and promote docility. Initial laboratory tests were encouraging. However, animal subjects (both rats and nonhuman primates) eventually began displaying signs of premature senility. Those findings were removed from all official documents.

According to Arthur Klein, Exceletrex was initially touted as a treatment for psychopathy. However, key figures at Moorland Laboratories became convinced that the drug was not well suited for persons with the disorder. While Exceletrex might help combat a psychopath’s impulsive behavior, it would not make him/her less violent. In fact, by improving mental focus, Exceletrex could exacerbate obsessive tendencies.

This might have sounded ideal to Lucian Mandel. He had no interest in curing psychopathy. But by focusing his “predators” on a single goal (graduating from the Mandel Academy), they would have been far easier to control.

“Ms. Smith”

Cassandra Keene, former anchor on the Fox Business Network. Won the Miss New York pageant in 1998. Second runner up in the Miss America pageant. Resigned from her position at Fox in 2011 when rumors began to circulate that she had assaulted an intern. No charges were ever pressed.

“Austin”

Born: 1994

Real name: Jared Holt

Currently on Rikers Island awaiting trial on three counts of aggravated assault.

Below is a transcript of an interview with him.

Q: According to your police file, your name is Jared Holt.

A: If that’s what it says, I suppose it must be right. [Big, wide smile. No sign of anxiety.]

Q: They were able to identify you using your fingerprints. You must have a juvenile record, but it appears to be sealed. How many times have you been arrested?

A: Is there a reason you need to know? Who are you again, anyway?

Q: I’m a reporter. I work for the New York Times.

A: The cops claim I beat up some bar bouncers. That the sort of thing that makes the news here in New York? Where I come from, that’s just a regular Saturday night.

Q: And where is it you come from?

A: [Big smile.]

Q: Judging by your accent, I’d say East Texas.

A: [Big smile.]

Q: There was a Jared Holt in Beaumont who killed a kid on his football team.

A: That was just a prank that got out of hand.

Q: You thought forcing a fifteen-year-old to drink a half-gallon bottle of grain alcohol wouldn’t do him any damage?

A: [Big smile.]

Q: You seem to have disappeared right after you got arrested. Where have you been for the past two years?

A: Around.

Q: I have it on good authority that you were a student at the Mandel Academy. Is it true?

A: Who’s your good authority?

Q: I’m afraid I can’t reveal my sources.

A: Then I’m afraid I can’t answer your question. In fact, I think I’m through answering any questions.



Beatrice Mandel

Born: 1942

Died: 2007

Beatrice Mandel became headmistress of the Mandel Academy in 1975, following the death of her father, Frederick. The school thrived under Beatrice’s management, and she was respected by the alumni and the academy’s board of directors. Former students recall her “fairness.”

Those who knew Beatrice socially often describe her as cold and robotic. She was highly intelligent and physically attractive (tall, blond, athletic), yet she seemed to be missing a soul. According to a neighbor who lived in the same Fifth Avenue apartment building as the headmistress, Beatrice “wasn’t quite human.” The man recalled an incident in which Beatrice demanded that another neighbor’s new puppy be euthanized after it urinated in the building’s elevator.

Beatrice’s daughter, Marjorie, is said to have been her mother’s clone. Neither of the women appeared to possess much interest in the opposite sex (or any sex at all). And although the family was wealthy, they lived quite simply. The Fifth Avenue apartment they occupied was still in the Mandel family at the time of Lucian Mandel’s death. Investigators say that the furnishings and appliances all dated to the early 1970s. Beatrice hadn’t purchased anything new since she had inherited the apartment from her father.

“Average Gamblers”

A lady senator.

A CEO.



Two big-shots from Goldman-Sachs.

A businesswoman who’d flown in from China.

And some dude with a scraggly beard and camouflage pants.

Henry Brennan

Real name: Patrick O’Conner

Born: 1966

Died: 2012

Former CEO of the Westman Group. Attended the Mandel Academy 1982–1985. Graduated from Yale in 1989. Married Elizabeth Chapman in 1993. The couple had two sons: Jonathan and Jude. Married Eva Nelson in 2011. Their son Franklin was born in June 2012. Henry Brennan died in July after being hit by a fire engine arriving on the scene of the Mandel Academy fire.

“Julian”

Real name: James (Jimmy) Matsujiro

Born: 1995

Fourth generation Hawaiian, he comes from a family of Japanese ancestry. Currently in the Tombs, awaiting trial on drug charges. His father, Thomas Matsujiro, has made repeated attempts to contact his son since he learned of the boy’s imprisonment, but James refuses to speak to anyone but his lawyers. Mr. Matsujiro says his son became involved with a Honolulu street gang in 2008. He stopped attending school in 2009 and was arrested for drug possession later that year. In early 2010, James was questioned in connection with a fatal drive-by shooting in the Kalihi neighborhood in Honolulu. He disappeared shortly after that, and his parents assumed he had been murdered by members of a rival gang.





“Leila”

From: [email protected]

Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 12:11PM

To: [email protected]

Subject: Your Questions

My name is Selam. That’s all I can tell you. I grew up in the Midwest. My parents came from Yemen. I have four older sisters. They were all married before they turned 18. My father chose their husbands. I didn’t want to spend my life as a slave to the men in my family. When I was thirteen, I ran away from home. I had taught myself how to hack using the computers at school. I was never allowed to have one at home. When I left, I needed a way to support myself. I broke into a classmate’s home and stole his computer. I used it to empty my father’s bank account. I was on my way to Los Angeles when I was stopped by a police officer who thought I looked too young to be traveling alone. My family didn’t want me back. My father pressed charges. Lucian Mandel had me released into his custody.





The MANDEL

ACADEMY



* * *



Course Catalog

Early Winter/Spring 2012





The Fundamentals of Business

The ideal course to kick start any business-related career. Polish your math skills. Study basic economic theory. Master the use of key terms and industry jargon. Acquire all the skills necessary for creative accounting, embezzlement, and most forms of fraud.

Assassination Techniques

An advanced course for Enforcement majors (at least three semesters required). Learn to recognize and defeat measures commonly used to protect prominent persons—from traditional forms of defense (bodyguards and body doubles) to the latest high-tech tools (personal armor and information technology).

Human Psychology

No matter what your major, an understanding of Homo sapiens will be the basis of a successful career. This course will teach you how to trace human behavior—from sexual promiscuity to mate selection—back to its evolutionary roots. You’ll discover how the human brain was wired to address threats to the species’ survival—and learn why concepts like altruism have been rejected by modern science.

The Art of Persuasion: Influence Peddling, Coercion, and Extortion

The art of persuasion demands information. Learn how to dig for dirt on rivals or enemies—and how to use sensitive information for your benefit. An essential course for all Mandel students, the class offers instruction on basic electronic surveillance, informant recruitment, trashcan espionage, and more.

Hand to Hand Combat

Required for Enforcement majors and recommended for all students, this class will help you acquire the skills and training necessary to engage in short-range combat. This course borrows techniques from boxing, wrestling, Krav Maga, ninjutsu, and a variety of other disciplines. You will learn the basics of unarmed combat, knife-fighting, and the use of improvised weapons.

International Politics

Wherever war rages, there are fortunes to be made. In this class, Mandel’s Politics and Business majors will learn how to work hand-in-hand to profit from the sale of weapons, medicines, and black-market goods in war-torn areas around the globe. Politics majors will focus on promoting conflicts and awarding lucrative war contracts to Mandel-associated companies. Business majors will identify new opportunities and explore novel tactics—from the sale of fissionable material to the use of child soldiers.

Wealth Management

Once you’ve made your fortune, you’ll need to protect it. This useful course will teach you how to avoid sharing your hard-earned wealth with the United States government. Hide your money in places the IRS can’t look. Make use of tax loopholes designed to help the wealthiest citizens. Or renounce your US citizenship altogether and choose a new homeland where the rich stay rich and the poor keep quiet.

Partnering with Corrupt Regimes

Sometimes the best partners are those with whom no one is allowed to work. The United States government has forbidden American companies to trade with countries it has labeled State Sponsors of Terrorism. Doing business with Iran, North Korea, and Burma may be tricky, but it’s far from impossible. And the profits can be astronomical. This semester, two of the Mandel Academy’s most illustrious graduates will be visiting this course as guest lecturers. For an entire week, these famous billionaire brothers will share their experiences making money in Iran.



Basic Electronics : From Credit Card Skimmers to Key Stroke Loggers

A required course for all Technology majors, this class will ensure that you’re up-to-date on the basics. Learn how to craft simple devices that can skim credit and debit card information. Construct hardware-based loggers that will record every keystroke (and password) made on a target computer. The fundamentals of surveillance are also covered, including instruction on assembling eavesdropping equipment, covert listening devices, and roving bugs.

Crime Scene Cleaning and Bio-Waste Removal

A required course for Enforcement majors. When business gets messy, Mandel alumni need cleaners. This class will teach you how to scrub a scene of bodily fluids, remove trace evidence such as fingerprints and hair samples, and dispose of human remains. Only students with the strongest stomachs should enroll.

Human Trafficking in the Internet Age

The international trade in human beings is a booming industry, and the Internet has made it safer and more lucrative than ever before. Learn how to set up shop online using Deep Web resources—or riskier classifieds sites. Recruit employees, procure goods, and attract potential customers. An excellent course for Technology and Leisure Studies majors.

Mining the Masses: Big Profits from Little People

Many students leave the academy with their eyes peeled for a single big score. But those with a little patience find it can be just as rewarding. Some of the largest fortunes in America were built a few cents at a time. Figure out how to take a quarter from every person in America, and you’ll end up with a $75 million fortune. This course will show you how.

Introduction to Industrial Espionage

The most successful companies keep a very close eye on the competition. This course will teach future business leaders all the tricks of the trade—from planting moles inside rival organizations to executing successful “bag-ops.” You’ll learn how to steal trade secrets, bribe key executives, and penetrate computer networks. Top students will be allowed to take part in off-site assignments.

Waste Management: Polluting for Profit

The world’s companies produce over 400 metric tons of hazardous wastes every year. Environmentally safe disposal of these materials can be costly. Fortunately, there are many cheaper alternatives. This course will teach you how, when, and where to dump everything from radioactive substances to used batteries.

Hidden Treasures: Finding and Controlling the World’s Natural Resources

Many of the Earth’s natural resources are on the brink of depletion, and most are ripe for hoarding. When the world realizes that the planet’s supply of water, oil, and minerals is dwindling, the demand will quickly skyrocket. Companies or individuals who have seized control of these profitable resources will soon become the most powerful on Earth.

Brazilian Jujitsu

Required for Enforcement majors under six feet in height. One of the deadliest martial arts, Brazilian Jujitsu takes size and strength out of the equation. With a knowledge of BJJ techniques, a small fighters can easily immobilize, injure, or kill a much larger opponent. A favorite of law enforcement and security professionals, BJJ is essential for those who may need to confront them.

Let Them Eat Cake: Exploiting America’s Obesity Epidemic

The ultimate consumers, Americans will buy and eat almost anything. As the country’s waistband continues to grow, so does the opportunity for profit. Discover out how Mandel alumni have invested in the artificial flavor industry, chemical sweetener manufacturing, and health care insurance—and learn how to live large off the fat of the land.

The Ultimate Insiders: Mandel Alumni and the SEC

Once upon a time, the Securities and Exchange Commission watched over the US stock and bond markets, ensuring that trade was fair and laws were not violated. For the past three decades, Mandel alumni have been infiltrating this venerable institution. Now, the SEC works for us, and this course will teach you how to use your academy connections to their best advantage.

Secrets and Sabotage

You’ve discovered your mark’s deepest, darkest secret. (Or perhaps you’ve invented one for him.) Now what do you do with it? This course, required for all Human Resources majors, teaches students how to conduct successful smear campaigns and character assassinations.

Clandestine Chemistry

The most successful narcos control every step of the drug trade—from production to distribution. That’s why a crash course in “secret” chemistry is essential for all Leisure Studies students. Learn how to build a cocaine processing facility in the South American jungle—or rolling meth lab in Appalachia. Find out how to purchase precursor chemicals without tipping off the DEA. And know how to cover your tracks if you have to leave your lab behind.