Growing up in San Francisco, Penny Lin had a difficult childhood. After being abandoned by her mother who was an addict, she was raised by her grandparents. Yeh Yeh and Ying Ying, however, were grifters, pulling off one con job after another, on some occasions getting Penny involved. After her grandfather died, Penny moved to Portland, Oregon, vowing to make her own way with a legitimate business.
She now runs Bridge City Brokerage, transporting bodies that have been donated for scientific research to various laboratories doing work that aligns with the dead person’s wishes. If he died from cancer, for example, a hospital seeking new treatments for that disease would be chosen.
Penny had on the job training from Fern, the original owner of Bridge City Brokerage. The older woman became the mother Penny never had. When Fern died on a trip to Mexico, Penny began to run the business on her own. “You have everything you need to do that right here,” Fern often told her.
While many people might be repulsed by what Penny does, transporting dead bodies, she believed, as did Fern, that the work helped to save lives. Penny built a reputation for truly caring about the dead people whose dying wishes she was determined to carry out. As a result, she had a steady stream of bodies coming in, and the respect of the large medical community in Portland.
All that was placed in jeopardy as the result of one job. The “client,” Taylor Pleasanton, 82, died of a sudden heart attack. Having once served in Vietnam where he felt protected by the shots he received, he became a passionate supporter of vaccines and wanted to donate his body to medical science. Arriving at Strauss Manor where Penny was told a research summit was being held, she instead finds the grounds and building overflowing with guests attending the annual Bleu Party.
She had been directed to deliver the body, she finds the annual Bleu Party has taken over the venue. She’s assured she’s at the right place. But when she’s asked to leave, she refuses. Penny cares about the bodies she delivers and insists on staying until whatever research is going to be done is completed.
Penny is shocked to discover that Strauss Manor is owned by her ex-boyfriend, Cesar Velasquez. She’s even more shocked when she sees what’s happened to Pleasanton’s body. In one of the rooms, called the smoking room, he’s been set up as theater of Weekend at Bernie’s. He’s wearing sunglasses and holding a glass filled with whiskey. And the other guests are taking photos and posting them on social media.
Furious, Penny breaks up the party and is filmed saying she’d like to kill Cesar. After getting Pleasanton back in his container, she gets back to her facility. When she opens the container, she sees that Pleasanton is OK, but there’s a surprise. Underneath her client’s body is another one that looks a lot like Cesar. When a police officer knocks on her door, Penny’s the feeling someone has killed her ex and is setting her up.
Cesar’s body isn’t the only one she’s forced to hide. Dead people keep showing up and she’s warned in an email, “don’t tell anyone.” Soon she realizes someone is targeting her and others within the scientific community. Finding out and outing that person, however, will place Penny in such danger that she’s forced to call on the only people she can trust trust – her estranged family.
Elle Marr soon knows how to up the tension as Penny battles to make sure she’s not the next person to be killed.
She Dies in the End
Elle Marr
Top Shutterstock photo by Mr Doomits
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