Chapter 15 #2
They quickly finished up breakfast, let the moving crew all back into the house again, and then Nick announced, “Let’s go. We need to get to the bank so we’ll be there when they open. We have to make it to our meeting on time.”
They loaded up the duffel bags, the bonds, even the stock certificates and various other critical paperwork they had collected.
Nick noted, “Luckily Mathew had a working scanner in his home office. I already scanned these documents, before we put them in the safe deposit boxes.”
Doreen frowned at the animals. “I don’t want to leave them behind.”
Mack turned to Nick and said, “I don’t know that the banks are prepared for her.”
Nick gave a one-arm shrug. “They do allow a certain leeway for eccentric people with money,” he offered, with a sideways glance at her.
She glared at him. “A lot of strangers are here, and that upsets the animals. Thaddeus hasn’t been doing well, and I don’t know why. I just don’t want to leave them alone with strangers lurking around the house.”
“Do you want me to stay behind?” Nick asked.
“No,” she replied instantly. “You need to come too.”
They just waited for her to digest this problem and to work out a solution.
She nodded and announced, “We’ll take them with us. That’s all there is to it. If the banks want to see eccentric, they will see eccentric.” Mack winced, and she glared at him. “Don’t tell me that you think I should leave them behind.”
“It’s not that I think you should leave them behind,” he began, “and I understand why you don’t want to. Yet, in some circumstances, they just can’t be—”
“But what if something happens to them here? This isn’t their home,” Doreen interrupted, glaring at him.
“And we could be gone for hours. Think about it. How will they feel being here for hours without any of us with them? What with all the men going back and forth and the doors opening,” she argued, “we’ll lose Goliath—even Mugs and Thaddeus—and I certainly don’t want to lock them up in one of the rooms. What if someone opens the door to that room and lets them all out? ”
Now, with Mack and Nick on board, she packed up the animals, along with their other treasures. When they arrived at the first bank, the manager was waiting for them.
Mack looked over at his brother. “What kind of reaction do you think we’ll get when they see the animals?”
“Honest to God, with the amount of money she’s bringing in, he should be singing her praises, bending over backward, and possibly hugging and kissing those animals,” he muttered.
Mack sighed. “We’ll see if they give us a problem.”
“I doubt it,” Nick said, “but you never know.”
As they got out, with the four-legged animals on leashes, the banker looked at Doreen, surprised, but then smiled. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cat on a leash before.”
“This one’s been especially trained,” she replied. “And, of course, when you have therapy animals, it’s pretty necessary.” She figured that angle would seal the deal, keeping her animals with her.
“Of course, of course,” he agreed. “Come on in.”
They went inside, headed to his office, where he offered them tea. She accepted and settled back with her animals on their best behavior.
The manager began, “I understand we have quite a few issues to deal with.”
“I don’t know about issues,” she clarified, “depending on the banking process, but I have a rather large deposit.”
The bank manager almost salivated at the term. “When you say large?”
“Yes,” she repeated, “large.” Then she pointed to the two duffel bags.
His eyebrows shot up, and he seemed to be at a loss for words.
“So,” she added, “this is my lawyer, and he set up this appointment. This is my fiancé, who happens to also be a Kelowna police detective. I inherited my estranged husband’s property, and he had this money in a home safe.”
“Oh my.” The banker eyed them all nervously. “So, this is all legal and aboveboard?”
“Yes,” she stated. Both Mack and Nick nodded. Nick produced documentation to ease his mind: Mathew’s death certificate and the probate document appointing Doreen as both executrix and sole heir.
The manager read both documents, smiling again. “In that case,” he replied, rubbing his hands together, “do we know how much it is?”
“I haven’t counted it,” she replied, shrugging.
“Then we will get it counted immediately.”
“I want that process witnessed by us,” she murmured.
Mack nodded. “That’s a good idea. Would you mind?”
“Not at all.” He picked up the two duffel bags and went to the room next door, right beside the manager’s office.
The two offices shared one inner wall that was completely glass, so Doreen and Mack and Nick could see without getting up from their seats.
A woman entered the second office with a cash-counting machine.
She plugged it in and immediately inserted the money, batch by batch.
Doreen watched for a minute and then shrugged and sat back.
However, the bank manager stared in fascination, his gaze switching back and forth again.
“I guess it’s rather a large amount, and you don’t see that on a regular basis,” she noted rather delicately.
He flushed. “No, we don’t generally see hoards coming in from paranoid …” He stopped and winced, looking a little flushed in the face, almost stammering, “From … customers.”
“For the record, I wasn’t the paranoid one,” she stated.
He smiled gratefully at her for letting him off the hook. “So, we just need to wait for that process,” he noted. “I gather you were also inquiring about some other accounts. Which accounts do you wish to go through?”
At that Nick handed over some paperwork and explained, “We need to transfer all her late husband’s accounts into her name only, and we also need access to any safe deposit boxes here in his name.”
“Oh my,” he muttered, “let me get somebody else to help.”
And, with that, it all began, and it took hours. She couldn’t believe that it literally took hours before the money was counted, the accounts were changed, and they were finally being led to the safe deposit boxes.
She asked Mack in an undertone, “What about the paperwork for the stocks and bonds and riders and all?”
“We’ll put that in a safe deposit box as well.”
“Good, because the bank manager doesn’t need to know anything about that, does he?”
“No, I think we’ve overwhelmed him enough for one day.”
She laughed. “I think this may be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence for him.”
“Probably a good thing at that,” he whispered, smiling at her. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Do what?” she asked, with a shrug. “We’re just putting money in the bank.” Then she stopped, looked at Nick. “Aren’t we?”
“Yes, that’s all we’re doing,” he confirmed. “Just putting money in the bank.”
Mack looked at her. “Do you want any for … running around?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Do you even need running-around money at this level?”
His grin widened. “I don’t know. You don’t seem to spend money as it is.”
“True,” she admitted, “but I didn’t have money to spend before.”
“That’s okay,” Mack replied. “You’ve been without for so long that you’ve forgotten that you need to spend money too.”
“Do I?” she asked, giving him a sideways glance.
“Yes, you deserve to have peace of mind and to know you can get what you need at any time, not just what you need. You should get what you want as well. Besides, it’s part of the economy, Doreen. If you spend it, other people can eat too.”
She frowned at that and shrugged. “You’ll have to explain that a little more later,” she muttered. “Right about now, I really just want to be done with this banking stuff.”
Next, they were led into a small room, and the safe deposit boxes were brought in. She looked at him and sighed. “Yeah, I can’t even remember this process.”
“Any idea what’s inside?”
“Nope,” she muttered, “not at all.”
When the woman left, she opened the first one, and Mack whistled. “Good God.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “I don’t remember this part, not at all.”
And inside were guns, … three small handguns.