Ne'er Do Well

The next day each went to their work. After she got caught up at her job, Kathy did some research on some of what they found in the bank and made some effort to find someone knowledgeable about coins and old currency. Garrett made a phone call at noon to Mr. Douglass so they could discuss his finds. Douglass was not available so Garrett asked him to call him back in the evening if possible.

Mr. Douglass called Garrett about 9:00 p.m. that evening. When he found out what Garrett wanted to discuss he became excited and worried at the same time. He said, "You mean to tell me that vault has contained all that money and those certificates for all this time?"

"Yes. As far as I know it hasn't been opened since Great, Great Grandpa locked it and closed the bank down. It certainly hasn't been opened in the last several years."

"That's just amazing."

"Well, I really need to know several things. You said that Grandpa left me the bank building and all its' contents, but you also said the bank accounts had to be probated and the brokerage accounts had been set up for TOD. What does all that mean for the stocks and bonds we found in the vault, assuming they are still worth something? And how about the cash? Is that considered a bank account since it was in the bank or is it mine because it was in my bank vault and was the contents of the bank? You said the bank and its contents were transferred to me by a TOD deed."

"Hummm. Well, as I see it you own everything in the bank, cash, stocks, and bonds outright because they were contained in the bank as contents when you accepted ownership. We'll need to document the fact the stocks were in the bank and then get them changed into your name. The bearer bonds are no problem, of course. I think we need to get a hard value on everything, including an appraisal on the currency and coins as well as the bullion as soon as possible. I can't stress enough how important it is not to let anyone know what is in that old vault. If word ever got out there is a real possibility you could have a break in and lose it. I'm sure that old vault is not nearly as secure as are the more modern ones. A good safe cracker could get in it rather quickly. I think it would be a good idea to get the high value items and bearer bonds out of the vault and into custody of a broker as soon as possible. I'll begin research tomorrow to find people who can properly value the contents of the vault and help you safeguard it better."

The rest of the week went by more normally than had the two or three previous weeks. Garrett went to work then came home and did some minor work on his apartment. He even began cleaning out some trash and junk from the bank, sorting it to see if any of it was of value. He was going to trash a lot of it until Kathy jumped his shit. She said it was all old stuff and there was probably some fool out there that would pay good money for it. She took charge of the junk, as Garrett called it, and began trying to sell it as she had some of the earlier contents of the bank. He talked to Kathy once about her research for a dealer on the coins.

Tuesday of the following week, Garrett received a phone call from Mr. Douglass. After the normal pleasantries, Mr. Douglass said, "Garrett, I've made several calls during the last week and my assistants have made more. We've found three brokers and one auction house interested in the currency, coins and bullion in your vault. I have also found a stockbroker that is willing to do the research on your stock and bond certificates to determine their value. The stock broker will do the research free if you agree to open an account with him and deposit all the valuable certificates in it."

"Great. I'm more than willing to do that. What about the money and bullion? How do we handle that?"

"Well, that's a little more complicated. The auction house and two of the dealers will agree to send someone to your vault to appraise the items. The other dealer insists you bring the items to them for appraisal. I recommend we first do the on site appraisals, then if we can't decide on one of those appraisals we can make arrangements to ship the items to the third appraiser. The bullion will need to be shipped to someone who deals in it if the appraisers don't want to handle it."

"Sounds good to me. When will we do that?"

"You can more or less set your own time. You will have to be present at the appraisal and I recommend you have a witness or two, as well. I can send one of my staff if you would like. In fact, I strongly suggest you allow me to do so. We should make copies of the certificates before you send them to the stockbroker and we should get pictures of the coins and currency as well as written receipts on all the items in the vault as they are shipped to the various dealers and or auction houses."

"Ok. We can do it your way. I can get off work pretty much any day if you give me a few days warning. Do you want to set up the appointments or should I? Also, will all the appraisers be there at the same time?"

"I can take care of setting the appointments for you. I don't think it would be a good idea for all the businesses to be there at the same time. I suggest we let one look at the items one week, then the others on following weeks if possible."

"Ok, do it Mr. Douglass."

Two weeks after that conversation, the first appraiser arrived. They got to the bank about 8:30 on a Wednesday morning and after a few very short pleasantries asked if they could get started. There was a three-person team consisting of the head appraiser, a clerk, and a photographer. Garrett and Elizabeth Prevost, Mr. Douglass's Paralegal, were there too. About ten a.m. Kathy showed up.

When the appraiser first entered the vault and saw the stacks of currency and coins he stopped and stared. He licked his lips and turned to his photographer and said, "Get a shot of the racks before we begin work, then be sure to get good, clear shots of every bill and coin as we work, obverse and reverse."

The appraiser turned to Garrett and said, "I'm afraid we might not get done with this today. There is quite a lot more here than I anticipated. Do you have Internet access here by any chance? Also, should we work here or may we take the items out into the main part of the building?"

"We can work wherever you think it would be best. I do have WiFi if you need to get online. The Network Name is BoS and the password is Gramps2015."

The team got to work immediately with Elizabeth observing their work and Garrett and Kathy running errands and carrying items from the vault and back as they worked on them. About noon, Garrett offered to run down to the cafe and bring back lunch or they could lock up and walk down for a more leisurely one. The team lead opted to have Garrett bring them lunch. As it was, they did not complete their work until nearly 11 p.m.

As they were leaving, the appraiser said, "We should have the official appraisal completed by the end of next week sir. We will mail you a copy and a tender offer if you wish us to purchase the collection. We will also make an offer to serve as your agent if you wish to do a sale piecemeal through our firm."

The following Tuesday, the auction house arrived and followed much the same procedure as did the coin dealer for their appraisal. They also were to mail their estimate of the value and offer to auction the collection at some future date. The third set of appraisers came the week following the auction house. When they saw the amount of currency and coin they refused to appraise it on site and Garrett refused to let them move it so they went back without looking over the material in the vault.

Garrett was still waiting on the stockbroker to call with the value of his stocks and bonds when the second appraiser left. So many of the stock certificates were for companies no one had ever heard of he didn't expect much to come of it but the broker and his attorney felt as if the research was a good idea. Of course they knew a few of the certificates were probably good because the companies were still well known—Ford, Union Pacific and John Deere were three, for example. Even if no other certificates were worth anything Garrett had enough money to completely pay for the renovations to his building and some left over should he decide to sell his certificates.

Late in the evening the Thursday after the last appraiser left Garrett received a phone call from his stockbroker. This time the broker seemed somehow different when he began talking. He seemed more solicitous or subservient. Garrett really couldn't put his finger on it but the whole tone of the call right at the beginning was different.

After the pleasantries were out of the way the broker said, "Garrett, I really don't know where to start this conversation. First, let me say, you are a very wealthy man. Like we expected, some of the stock certificates we took in from you were worthless. The companies had either gone bankrupt or ceased to exist in some other manner. This accounted for nearly half of the certificates.

As you remember, many of the stock certificates were issued by companies that are very well known and still in business. The difficult part was accounting for stock splits and, even a few reverse splits. One of the certificates had a name change in 1924 and became very well known. There were numerous stock splits and price increases over the years. That certificate alone is worth over a half million now. You own 3,750 shares of IBM. The stock closed today at a price of $170 for a value of $637,500. Your Ford, Union Pacific and Deere shares are worth another $65,000. There were six other companies still in existence worth a total of another $297,000. The bonds you presented that still had a value totaled another $943,176 counting the face value and unpaid coupons. If we can collect everything for you, we will have a little over $1,942,000 to place in your account.

"Of course all the bonds were matured and we are in the process of trying to collect the funds owed. That may take some time because of their age. The stocks, on the other hand, have been placed in your account and you may sell them at your leisure or continue to hold them. We are still trying to find out what happened to the dividends that would normally have been paid on the dividend paying stocks. We will keep you informed about our search for those."

Garrett sat in total shock. He had no idea what to say or do. He couldn't even fathom that amount of money. Hell, he didn't have to work at all if he didn't want to. Wait, Gramps really hadn't done much work as long as he knew him but he always seemed to have enough money and then some. Oh, sure, he worked his little 180-acre farm but that surely hadn't made a large amount of money. Garrett said, "I bet I know where the dividends went. My grandfather passed these certificates to me when he died. He never seemed to work much but he always had all the money he needed. I suspect we will find he was receiving the dividends from the stocks. His name was Jerome Mans, his address was RR1 Box 174, same town as me."

"Ok, that gives us a place to start. We have a copy of the will and documents needed to prove his and your ownership so it should be fairly easy to verify. Let me know if I can be of any help at all, Mr. Mans. Good night."

Garrett sat on his balcony staring over the main street of town. The streetlights flickered and came on as darkness fell. All he could think of was the recent conversation with the stockbroker. Hell, he went from not having a place to live to having a large apartment in a neat old building and thought he was on easy street. Now he finds out he literally has millions of dollars and can live in a very nice home if he wants and probably won't have to work a day in the rest of his life if he doesn't want to. Man, what the hell...

Garrett finally became drowsy and his ass hurt from sitting on the poorly padded deck chair so he rose and stumbled into his house to go to bed. Even as tired as he was, he had trouble going to sleep. His mind continued to play the 'what if' game. He spent his millions over and over in his head and tried to decide what to do. Finally he decided to just keep on doing what he was until he found something he really wanted to do. After all, it worked for Gramps didn't it? He did decide he was going to make his apartment the most comfortable place to live he could dream up and he was going to restore the bank to its old glory then either rent it as an office or use it himself for one.

The estimated value of the currency, coins, and bullion finally arrived from both appraisers. The dealer estimated the value of everything to be $970,000 and they offered to purchase the collection outright for $750,000. The auction house estimated the value of the currency and coins to be $900,000 at auction and the bullion to be worth about $300,000. Their sales commission was a flat 18% of the goods should Garrett decide to let them auction off the collection.

Garrett didn't need funds immediately so he decided to let the auction house sell the currency, coins, and bullion. If it sold for the estimated value he would net about $984,000 which was significantly more than the dealer was offering. He decided to take the gamble.

The auction house sent an armored car to pick up the funds. It took nearly a whole day to inventory the collection once again and prepare a receipt for Garrett. During that time several of the town's residents stopped at the bank trying to see what was going on. When someone ventured too close to the armored car the guards politely but firmly turned them away. By the time the truck was loaded and gone rumors were running rampant.

When Garrett went into the cafe for his supper he was almost mobbed with people asking questions about the goings on. All he would say was, "I found some of Great Grandfather's stuff that I needed to ship off for safe keeping. My insurance company required the extra security."

CHAPTER 7

Garrett returned to his normal routine, working at the same job, driving the same old Ranger pickup, and dressing and eating the same. Quite rapidly the interest died down and life went on as before.

Garrett did take a few more of his meals in the cafe but that was no big deal. After all, several of the single people in town and a few of the married men ate there at least once a day. During his visits to the cafe, Garrett began flirting with Sarah, a waitress about two years younger than he was. He was finally able to convince her to go on a date with him.

Garrett and Sarah went out Friday night and saw a movie then came back to his place for a nightcap. The cafe was just closing when he and Sarah climbed his stairs. Several of her friends saw them and made the obligatory off color remarks.

About one a.m. Garrett took Sarah home. He was somewhat upset but not really surprised. Sarah had a reputation of being a prick tease and she lived up to it very well, damn the luck. He got some bare tit and a wet finger but that was all. On top of the frustration, it was obvious they really didn't have much in common. Garrett chalked the date up in the "lose" column and decided to move on.

Saturday morning about 8:45 a still tired Garrett walked into the cafe for his coffee, breakfast, and gossip. The usual crew was there—a bunch of the local farmers and some of the other residents relaxing because it was a weekend or because they needed a break.

Garrett saw Bill, Kathy, and Sally, Bill's wife and Kathy's mother, sitting at their usual table. He walked up and sat down as he normally did when they were there before he was. Kathy glared at him and didn't speak when Bill and Sally said good morning.

Garrett said, "Good morning. Looks like it's going to be another hot one. Sure glad we're not working today. I'm not sure I could take it for long."

Kathy pressed her lips together and glared at Garrett then spat out, "Well, maybe if you weren't out screwing around until all hours of the morning you wouldn't be so tired."

Garrett just looked at her and shook his head then returned to his conversation with Bill. Sarah came up to the table, placed her hand on Garrett's shoulder and said, "Good morning, Garrett. I sure enjoyed last night. Coffee and what else?"

Kathy snorted and murmured, "Yeah, I bet you enjoyed it a lot slut."

Sally looked shocked and turned to Kathy. She said, "What did you just say young lady?"

Kathy looked unrepentant and said, "You heard me. Now can we just drop it? You know what? I think I've had enough. I'm going to walk home." She loudly pushed her chair back and left the cafe at a fast walk. As she let the door close she used her hand to wipe her face as if she was wiping a tear from it.

Garrett looked at Bill and said, "What was that all about?"

Bill and Sally looked at each other before he sighed and said, "Garrett, if I have to tell you then you're not nearly as smart as I thought you were."

Garrett looked at Sally who was staring at him. He shrugged his shoulders and took a sip of his coffee before he said, "Well, I guess I'm not as smart as you thought I was. I really have no idea why she's in such a mood today..." His face turned red and he stammered, "Oh. It's a woman thing, huh?"

Sally frowned then said, "Damn you men. You hurt a woman's feelings then all you can think of is that it must be that time of the month or something. Damn it, Garrett, just think about what you've done recently that you shouldn't have done. Maybe something will come to you."

Sally looked over at Bill and said, "I'm done. Are you?"

Bill nodded his head yes and stood. Sally began walking toward the door as Bill sorted out a tip for Sarah. He looked at Bill and shook his head then said, "Well, maybe this will blow over but I think you really screwed the pooch on this one, Garrett. I guess I'll see you at work Monday."

Garrett shrugged his shoulders and continued eating. He was leaning back in his chair sipping his coffee and throwing his two bits into the conversation going on around him when a couple of his younger friends came into the cafe.

Pete and Trevor grinned when they saw Garrett and moved to his table. They took chairs and Pete said, "How was the date, stud? Did you get any or did you strike out like the rest of us do? Come to think about it, why did you even go out with that little prick tease when you had someone as nice as Kathy hanging all over you? Man, that's like throwing away a perfect prime rib for a piece of hide. When did you and Kath break up, anyway?"

"What? Kathy and I didn't break up. Hell, you know we were only friends. And you know better than to talk about a date like that. Sarah and I went to the show and then visited for a while before I took her home."

Pete and Trevor laughed then Trevor said, "Yup. He struck out like the rest of us."

"Now, back up here. Why did you all ask about Kathy? She was acting awfully strange here this morning and took off walking for home when I came in. Do you all know what's wrong with her?"

Trevor said, "Ok, let me see here. You and Kathy have been hanging around together now for months. She's been at your place more than at home all that time. You take Sarah out on a date and Kathy gets pissed and you don't know what's going on? Jesus, boy are you dumb or what? Man, you just pissed in that girls punch. You're lucky she didn't cut your balls off for what you did."

"But we were friends. She was helping me fix up the apartment and sort out some of Gramps old things. That's all."

"Yeah, ok. I guess that's why she has refused all of us when we asked her out since she started hanging with you. She's just a friend but isn't interested in men any longer?

"Man, I bet it sucks to be her right about now."

Pete and Trevor began talking to the rest of them men in the cafe while Garrett just sat ignoring the ongoing conversation while he played the strange happenings of the morning over in his head. From those things, his mind wandered back to the last several weeks with Kathy. Shit, maybe there was something there after all. She seemed awfully interested in his happiness and helping him. When she was close to him she would touch him. She always smiled and greeted him pleasantly. She routinely brought him coffee, tea, or whatever on the spur of the moment. CRAP, had he been completely blind here?