Chapter 9
Katie hated her job. It wasn’t the job so much as the people that she had to work with. They were about as stupid as anyone she’d ever encountered in her life. Putting the dirt back in the hole after putting the tree in it, she gently massaged the roots with her spade as she filled things back in.
“Katie, you have a phone call. What did I tell you about having calls when you’re at work?” She told him she’d never gotten one before, so had no idea what his policy was on that. “Well, don’t let it happen again. I don’t have time to run you down whenever you have a call.”
“Again, I’ve never had a call before, so I didn’t know your thoughts on it.
” She went to the truck to answer the company phone.
After saying her name, Katlynne Richardson, she waited for the person on the other end to say something.
Looking out over the landscaping job she was doing, she was quite proud of it.
Finally, the person spoke to her. “I’m in trouble for getting this call in the first place.
Tell me what it is you want so I can tell you I can’t afford it and cut this short.
I have ten more trees to plant tonight before I can leave. ”
“Your father died.” She waited for the punchline as he’d been dead for about ten years now. She’d been the one who had paid for his funeral. “We’ve only just found his will, and you and your mother are mentioned in it.”
“She’s dead as well. Waiting on the big payback he promised her when she lent him all her savings to go to the next big payoff.
” He said that he knew they were both gone and was sorry for the delay.
“What kind of stuff did he have to leave me? As far as I know, I’m still paying for both their funerals at a hundred bucks a month. ”
She’d actually paid them off years ago, but he didn’t have to know that. She looked at her boss. He was talking to the tree as if she didn’t know any better. What he could be saying to it was beyond her. Just as she was ready to hang up, the man started talking again.
“I’m sorry for your loss, but I was wondering if we could meet after you get off work today. I’m to understand you usually get off at five-thirty.” She told him again that she had trees to plant. “I can meet you at any time, Miss. Our firm wants to get this off their books as soon as possible.”
“I can meet you at Louie’s at six. I have to pick up my dinner around then anyway.” He said he knew just where the place was. “Good. I might be a little late, I’m still having to get the trees in the ground before it rains.”
“I’ll wait until I see you.” She wondered what could be so desperate that he was willing to meet her so soon after calling her. “I’ll see you at six at Louie’s. I’ll be the man in a dark brown suit and a green paisley tie. It’s sort of my trademark.”
“I’ll see you then.” Having to plant the extra trees wouldn’t bother her at all, but she really wanted to get them done before it started raining.
It would be good for the trees to get a good soaking, and then she’d not have to water them tonight.
They were calling for rainstorms for the rest of the evening and into tomorrow, so she was happy for that.
She got them done in record time. It had just started to rain when she was putting the last two trees in the ground.
Of course, it meant that she was wet, too, but she didn’t mind.
After the heat of the day and how sweaty she’d been, it didn’t matter to her what she looked like when she met the man at the restaurant/bar.
Having plenty of time to change, she at least put on a clean shirt.
If she got the opportunity to eat at Louie’s, she would.
Having her meal with an ice-cold beer sounded really good.
And perhaps whatever her father left her would be enough to pay for it all.
As she entered the place, she spotted the little man right away.
Trademark or not, he stood out in a crowd.
He was sitting at the only table that would hold six people.
Spread out around him was paperwork she was sure he was going to go over with her.
Having ordered already, her meal was ready for her to pick up as soon as she entered the door.
Taking it to the table, he stood up. The man couldn’t have been any shorter than four foot nothing.
“Hello. I’m so happy to meet you tonight.
Like I said, we’ve been wanting to get this off our books for some time.
” She told him she was going to eat while he talked.
“Sure, sure. I can talk to anyone at any time. I so love people. My name is Mr. Gloom.” His laughter caught her off guard, as did his name.
“Katie Richardson. I work for L&L Landscaping. You said that my dad left me something?” He said that he had through her mother.
“So I have to go through probate to get whatever he left her. I see. I knew this was going to be something that was going to take up a lot of my time. What do I have to do? Sign over my firstborn child to get to whatever he left her?”
“You’d do that?” He seemed so shocked that she told him no. She realized then that he didn’t know how to take joking around. She’d remember that in the future. “Oh, well, good. Your son will be very helpful to the world of faeries.”
“Sure, he will. What do I have to do?” He told her that he just needed her to sign in a couple of places, that he told her what she was getting, and they’d go from there. “All right. But I plan on reading over whatever I sign.”
“Well, of course you will. We expected no less of you.” She looked at him strangely but went back to her dinner.
As he was going over the paperwork that was from her father to her mother, she wondered at the little man.
That was when she noticed that he seemed to have glitter in his hair.
She mentioned it to him. “Oh yes, I would now, wouldn’t I.
Sorry about that. It does tend to get everywhere all the time. ”
This was the strangest meal she’d ever had.
The little man went on about how her dad had hit it rich when he’d gotten older and had bought himself a large mansion.
She only about half listened to Mr. Gloom as he kept getting sidetracked about things in the room.
Once, she caught him staring at the window for no reason, and it took her five minutes of him going on about faeries to get him back on track.
There was something very much wrong with the man.
“So what happened to the mansion?” He seemed distracted again.
“The one my father bought. You said it was quite large.” He explained that it had eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms, a dining room, a large eat-in kitchen, and a living room.
“That is large. What happened to it? I’m assuming that he lost it in another deal that he had going on. ”
“No. He managed to keep it for years. It’s a showcase of a house.
It only needs to have the kitchen updated, and it will be functional for someone to move into.
” Functional? She went over the pictures of the house with him.
“He meant to have you and your mother move in with him, but he got sick, and then so did your mother. The house was never mentioned in his paperwork because he put it in your mother’s name when he purchased it.
She should have been notified right away. ”
“No one mentioned a house.” He said that it was sad, the house could have used someone living in it. “We could have used it too.” She put the pictures down. “My mother’s estate, along with my father’s, has been closed. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now that she has this home in her name.”
“We took it upon ourselves to put it in your name. When we figured out that your mother had died not long after your father, we did the searches that were needed and found that you’re the only living heir of the house.
It was put into your name just this morning.
There is a little bit of money too. I have that with me.
” He handed her an envelope, and she looked at the five-thousand-dollar check.
“There will be more money now that we’ve been able to find you.
You’ll receive a check once a month in the same amount from his investments. ”
“As far as I’m to understand, my father didn’t have a pot to piss in.
Sorry about the language, but that’s about the way the attorney told me when I went looking into his past. My parents had been divorced for a number of years.
At least since I was a child.” Mr. Gloom told her that he was broke because everything was in her mother’s name.
“How could he do that without her around?”
“He said that he owed her a great sum of money and wanted to make sure that she got it. The house is worth a great deal, as are his other investments that are in your name now, too.” She said she didn’t understand.
“There’s not much to understand. We’ve done all the paperwork for you so that all you need to do is sign that you’ve received it, and everyone will be so happy. ”
“Everyone but me if this is a scam.” She picked up the paperwork that claimed the house was in her name.
Reading it over, she couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary for it and looked at the map that came with the deed to the house.
“It says here that the house is ninety-eight thousand square feet of home and has four hundred acres of land that surrounds it.”
“There is a pool too.” He’d said that to her before, like it was important to her for some reason. “The house and the outbuildings are all in good shape, too. The pool house has a nice apartment over it for anyone who might live on the property with you.”