Chapter 15
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Doreen went to bed that night, tired and worn out.
All of this was mentally draining, and adding in the second death on the property had elevated her stress level to the point that she was antsy to get everything completed and just get back home.
She was tempted to tell Scott to take everything, from all the houses Mathew owned in Vancouver.
Scott should just coordinate with Mathew’s probate attorney here in town, even the property management company—once both had been properly vetted, once she felt certain that neither were involved in killing these people nor wanting to get “what was owed them” from Mathew.
Somehow, amid all these thoughts racing around her brain, she eventually slept.
The next morning and later into that day, an unbelievable amount of the large furniture was removed from the house, plus Mathew’s clothing, even some remaining artwork. That was good. As long as it was leaving, and she was getting an itemized list of it, she was happy.
She knew Mack was happy to see it all leaving as well.
The more that went, the better, as far as he was concerned, and he was right.
As she glanced around the house that was still so full, she didn’t even remember seeing most of it before, although she knew a lot of it had been here even when she had lived here.
It just seemed to be even more than she had remembered.
With such a large house, it was still amazing how much could fill it.
Yet it still remained to be a very daunting job. The animals all appeared to agree as Mugs and Goliath were wrapped around each other, both snoring heavily. Thaddeus snoozed on a temporary roost Mack had set up for him in Doreen’s designated bedroom.
She walked into the kitchen to find Mack making breakfast. She perked up and asked, “Home-cooked food? Really?”
“I wanted pancakes,” he said, smiling at her.
“I’m more than happy with pancakes,” she stated, as she crashed down on a stool.
“Bad night?”
“Yeah, I kept hearing people walking through the house all night.” When he stopped and turned to her, she shrugged. “Mugs never got upset about it, so I figured everything was just fine.”
“How many people would Mugs have recognized from before?”
She frowned at him, considering that. “I don’t know. I assumed it was just my … nightmares.”
“Did you get up?”
“No, I didn’t, … but now I’m questioning that. I do keep revisiting my worst-case scenario that somebody is hiding somewhere in this mausoleum, and we don’t know it yet.”
He stared at her and nodded. “Something I have considered too.”
“With two dead bodies, scary stuff is going on,” she muttered.
Goliath sauntered into the kitchen and stopped, shot his back leg up to the sky, and proceeded to clean himself.
She looked at him and sighed. “You know, as manners go, you really don’t have any, Goliath,” she muttered.
He completely ignored her and kept cleaning.
Mugs came by, waited for a moment, then barked right in Goliath’s ear.
The big cat shot up in the air, landed on all four feet, and turned on Mugs.
Just like that, the chase was on. They ran through the kitchen and the rest of the house.
She burst out laughing at their antics, thankful for anything humorous going on.
Nick, who had just entered the kitchen, looked at the animals in horror. “What was that all about?” he asked.
“They’re just blowing off steam,” she explained, still chuckling. “Everybody’s pretty fed up with being here.”
“Yeah, me too,” he admitted.
“You never did get a chance to tell us what happened with Mathew’s probate attorney, since you got in so late last night.”
“Yeah. I hadn’t expected to be nearly that late, but he got held up, and the interruptions just went on and on and on.”
“So, where are we at?” she asked, as he poured coffee, sniffed the pancakes, then snagged one off the plate before Mack had time to smack him. She snorted. “How come you get away with that?”
He grinned. “Years of experience as his brother.”
“I didn’t have any brothers … or sisters,” she muttered.
Mack pulled out a plate, dumped four pancakes on it, and brought it over to her.
She chuckled. “You are the nicest man.”
“Yeah, I am,” he declared, “and keep remembering that.”
She smiled and waited for Nick to come sit down. He frowned at the pancakes on her plate. “I don’t have to steal pancakes. Mack shares,” she stated, with a smile.
He snorted at that and shook his head. “You two are something else.”
“Of course we are,” she muttered. “So, enough dithering around. What did you find out?”
“Three banks,” Nick replied, snagging a pancake off her special plateful, “each with at least one safe deposit box.”
“Okay,” Doreen said, “I vaguely remember two. I don’t recall hearing about a third.
” When he just stared at her, she shrugged.
“As I explained to Nan earlier, it’s not as if I had anything to do with Mathew’s money.
I would have gone to a safe deposit box in some bank with him, but I might have been told to stay outside of the private viewing area, or I might have been told to sign something,” she shared.
“At that point in my life, I did not have the wherewithal to do anything but follow orders.”
Nick nodded.
Doreen continued. “I know that may be shocking, considering the way you see me now, but the transformation didn’t happen overnight.”
“Right,” Nick acknowledged. “And that is something I do need to remember. You were groomed into that life for a very long time.”
“I don’t even know when I became that version of me.
I just know that there was always that fear about …
” She took a deep breath and added, “It wasn’t even fear at that point.
It was automated responses. Everything was just done because I was told to do it.
When you feel you can’t get out, you don’t fight anymore,” she muttered.
“Believe me when I say that, looking at that life now, from this point of view, I’m thinking I was an absolute idiot. ”
“No, you weren’t, and look where you’re standing now,” Nick pointed out. “And the one person who was the actual idiot is dead and gone.”
She smiled at him. “I’m not sure Mathew was an idiot. He just believed he would be labeled a loser if he didn’t own everything there was to own, and he just couldn’t handle that.”
“It’s not an issue now,” Mack stated, as he placed a plate of pancakes in the center of the table. “You can do anything you want now, Doreen.”
“And that’s a good thing,” she declared with a smile, as she poured maple syrup all over her pancakes.
Mack now sat down with them, and she looked over at Nick. “So, what are we doing today?”
“We’ll go to the banks today,” he suggested, looking over at Mack.
Mack nodded, staring at them. “Good. I want to do that, preferably soon. … A lot of money is here.”
“I know,” she muttered. “Can we just take it in the duffel bags?”
Nick interjected, “That’s one of the issues I had to resolve yesterday, but we are cleared with an appointment today.
We’ll bring the duffel bags and deposit that cash into a new account in your name only,” he explained, “so you can access it from wherever because that’s important.
Plus, we need to get Mathew’s remaining money in the existing bank accounts transferred over to you as well. ”
“Right,” she grumbled. “So lots of paperwork.”
“Exactly,” Nick agreed, with a smile, “but this is paperwork that most people would be happy to do.”
She shrugged.
Nick looked over at Mack, who was grinning broadly at Doreen. Nick shook his head and admitted, “I’ve never met anybody quite like you.”
“Yeah, but that’s because you’re seeing it as my money, and I still see it as Mathew’s money.”
“It’s not Mathew’s money anymore,” he argued.
She sighed, tired of that argument. “Now the question is, how do we get the duffel bags out of here without anybody knowing?”
Nick stared at her, then over at Mack. “Do you think anybody knows?” he asked his brother.
“Not at the moment. However, if anybody’s sticking around this place, they’ll be watching this house like a hawk. That would be my take,” Mack suggested, looking at her. “We gotta take care of the cash in the duffel bags and those bonds,” he pointed out, “because those are as good as cash.”
“Plus,” Nick mentioned, “those original stock certificates, which are proof of ownership.”
“Right, I agree,” Doreen confirmed. “So somebody heard that this place was a treasure trove, and the question is, how will we figure out who that is and where they are? What if they are in the house now?”
“Do you really think somebody was in the house overnight, just because of some nightmares?” Mack asked her.
She nodded. “I just couldn’t stop thinking about,” she muttered. “This place is massive. They could be hidden anywhere. Plus, I’m done here. I’m tired of sleeping on the floor.”
“And yet you have a new air mattress,” he pointed out.
She shrugged. “Apparently I’m getting spoiled in my old age.”
He laughed. “Does that mean no camping?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what that even means,” she admitted. “If it means sleeping on an uncomfortable air mattress, then maybe no camping.”
“Have you never been camping?” he asked her.
She frowned at him. “When would I have gone camping?”
He winced and nodded. “Good point. We’ll have to fix that.”
“If you say so,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. “Can’t say I’m any too eager if that means sleepless nights.”
“You’ll love camping,” he told her, with a smile, “and, if nothing else, we can always rent a cabin.”
“Oh, a cabin sounds good,” she said brightly.
He rolled his eyes and asked, “Will you finally tell me that you don’t like something?”
“There’s lots I don’t like,” she declared, “and sleeping in a sleeping bag or on an air mattress is one of them.”
He laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good enough,” she said.