CHAPTER 46
C HAPTER 46
O nce she was done with the Washington attorneys, Rae packed a case with her cosmetics and other items, then headed out.
She dropped her case by the car, then walked down to the Wells Fargo island branch. Initially all she planned was to ensure her work regarding the new safety-deposit box was in order. The assistant manager found nothing out of the ordinary in her return, and personally escorted her into the safety-deposit cage. Once she was inside, though, just she and the banker staring at the wall of polished steel facades, Rae could not help herself. She had to look.
She and the banker inserted their keys; then she accepted his offer to help her carry the oversized drawer to one of the curtained alcoves. Once she was alone, Rae took a long breath, opened the top to . . . what they had found.
It was a very good thing that they hadn’t used heat to cut their way inside.
Because the safe held a single slender file.
In the file were just forty pages.
Each page was a gold certificate drawn on a different bank: France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Singapore. The largest banks in each country.
A gold certificate was a guarantee drawn upon the bank’s gold reserves. The bank promised to pay whoever presented the page in either gold or in cash. It was the client’s choice. Such guarantees did not contain any names or dates. Possession of the paper meant ownership of the assets.
Each certificate was for a thousand ounces of pure gold.
Forty thousand ounces. Two thousand five hundred pounds.
At current prices, the value of those forty pages was a touch over ninety-three million dollars.
* * *
Rae drove straight from the bank to Emma’s. The bookshop was closed for the day. A second sign in the window simply read: GALA . It was decorated with skyrockets and rainbows.
Emma was in the kitchen, and refused to show Rae the dress she and Blythe had selected until Rae told her about the treasure.
Rae protested. “I’ve told you already.”
“Over the phone,” Emma replied, pointing her to a chair and planting a plate of sugar cookies on the table. “This is different and you know it.”
Rae, in fact, liked the retelling. She wasn’t really hungry, but ate anyway. This was a special day, and overdosing on Emma’s incredible cookies was simply part of the package.
When she was done, Emma asked, “Are you sure they’ll be able to keep all that for themselves?”
“They’ll pay taxes, but because of ongoing business expenses, their accountant and I can apportion . . . What?”
Emma stopped waving the empty mug, set it down in front of Rae, and poured in the aromatic elixir. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
“Yes, Emma. The treasure is theirs to keep.”
“You think or you know?”
So sitting there at Emma’s kitchen table, drinking herbal tea and devouring the better part of a plate of cookies, Rae told her about the landmark case that defined the ownership of treasure. The telling sparked memories of Dana and those amazing hours spent in her class.
The case of Cesarini v. United States began in 1957, when a husband and wife purchased a used piano at auction for fifteen dollars. While they were cleaning the piano’s internal workings, they discovered packets of cash. The bills were over fifty years old and no longer in circulation. So they took the money to their bank and traded it for new bills. Then the fireworks started. In the end, the court established a precedent that still governed the discovery of any treasure on private property and the taxation that would potentially apply to it as gross income.
When Rae finished, Emma was smiling.
“What?” Rae asked.
“Look at you. All grown-up. I don’t often have a chance to see you in lawyerly action.”
“You’re welcome to accompany me to court anytime you like.”
“Really?”
“Emma, of course. I’d be honored.”
“I would like that very much.” She levered herself to her feet, took the pot of water off the stove, and refilled the pot. “More?”
“Please.”
She refreshed Rae’s mug, seated herself, and said, “Now tell me about Curtis.”
Rae was glad to talk about it. “On one level, once we opened the safe, their reaction was crazy strange. Just this calm acceptance. No dancing, shouting, horseplaying, screaming, none of that. We all sort of hugged and smiled and then started talking about next steps.”
Emma sipped, sighed, said more softly, “Tell me about Curtis.”
“That’s what I’m trying to say.” Thinking about that time on the superheated concrete platform drew out the same hollow bloom at heart level as she’d felt at the time. “Curtis was really happy, you know, over the company being out of the woods. But he was very quiet. Just a silent ghost, lying there, smiling at the sky until Amiya made him get up. His quiet reserve was enough to make everybody else tone it down. I was worried about him. But I had the impression Amiya thought it was okay, so I didn’t say anything.”
“Amiya is correct,” Emma stated.
Rae was glad for a reason to shove the remaining cookies to one side. “How can you say that?”
“Because I know the boy.”
“He’s not that anymore. The boy is gone.”
“Hidden, maybe. But all good men keep hold of the boys they once were. Curtis grew into the fine young man who was worthy of your heart.” Emma spoke with the quiet certainty that had framed so many of their conversations. “And now he is ready for the next chapter.”
When Emma paused to sip from her mug, Rae was tempted to ask what she thought about her and John breaking up. But she stayed silent, much as she wanted to hear Emma’s unvarnished take on the man no longer in her life. John. She sighed.
Emma went on, “Curtis has grown. He’s suffered, he’s survived. I know he has, because he’s done right by Amiya, by Gloria, by the Dixons, and by you.”
“You’ve only seen him once since he got back.”
“Twice,” Emma corrected.
“For how long, a few minutes? You amaze me.”
“I amaze myself sometimes.” She stood slowly. “I think I’ll need the chair tonight. I don’t want to, but I want to relax and enjoy myself more.” She used both canes to start down the hallway. “Come have a look at the dress Blythe and I chose for you.”
It was beautiful. And it fit perfectly. Just as Rae knew it would.