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I sighed and gave up. “I guess so. I’ll look closer tomorrow when I come in.”
Passing by the second office, I paused. I had a strong feeling I needed to open the door. Reason number four hundred and five that I shouldn’t have come home. My own psychic powers were coming back after I’d been able to ignore their existence for years. I saw Nic felt the same draw to the room. I put my hand on the knob. “Might as well check it out.”
A Queen Anne desk set in the middle of the room. A laptop was on the top, looking out of place. As I crossed the room, I also saw an envelope with my name scrawled on the front. I opened it and read the enclosed letter. “It’s from Matty. He loaded all the records on the laptop for me and says he’ll be out of the larger office by the end of the week.”
“He was off on his estimation by a few days.” Nic picked up the laptop and tucked it under his arm. “Let’s take this back to the house. Maybe you won’t have to come in for a few days while we get cleaners in here.”
“I don’t need taken care of, big brother.” From the look I got, I didn’t think he believed me.
* * *
After dinner,I took the laptop to my room. The good news was I had clothes still in the closet that fit and my desk was stocked with office supplies. It was almost like I’d never left. As the laptop booted up, I grabbed a notebook from my desk.
As Matty had promised, the records were all loaded including a list of the current employees and the records I’d found in the office downstairs. There were also lists of purchases and sales for the last twenty years. Matty had been losing money for a while now. A fact I’d known, but even I hadn’t suspected the extent of the red ink. I started making lists of things I needed to follow up on.
A knock came at the door and Annamae stepped inside with a tray. The smell of hot cocoa made me smile.
“I figured you’d be still up working. I made a pot of cocoa and a pot of coffee for you. I made beignets this morning. I was hoping you’d stop by soon.” Annamae sat the tray on the desk, then brushed a strand of hair out of my face. “It’s good to have you back.”
“I’m happy to be here, but I may have made a big mistake buying this antique store.” I waved a hand by the computer. “I’m not sure the guy ever made a profit.”
“Your brother told me you bought Goldstein’s Antiques.” Annamae sat down on the bed. She rubbed her fingers. The arthritis she’d fought for years appeared to be winning from the look of her hands. “I attend the same church as Matty’s ex-wife. She’s always bragging about how much money she gets from him. How successful the store is and even what a complete fool, Matty is. If I had a husband that was giving me the type of money she claims to be getting, I’d be praising the man instead of talking bad about him. But Charlotte Goldstein is all about what’s in it for her. I’m surprised she even attends services, but of course, church is the best place to get the newest gossip.”
I nodded to the laptop. “She is wrong about the store. It’s not doing well. Maybe Matty had some money set aside in his personal account, but if she was getting a large amount of alimony, it wasn’t coming from the store. I wonder if he left her in the will?”
Annamae laughed. “It would serve her right to be left out after all the bad things she said about the man. I’m sure she’s already called her attorney to see what’s coming her way.”
Speaking of the Goldstein’s reminded me of my aunt. “Annamae, did Aunt Franny ever come visit Grandma Andrews? I mean after the fight?”
The spat between Grandma and Aunt Franny had happened just before my high school graduation. Aunt Franny had sent a card with a check and apologized for not attending the ceremony, claiming to be out of town. But then I’d seen her going into Neiman Marcus the day after. I’d been downtown with my friends, spending some of the cash we’d gotten for graduation and talking about where we were going to school. Most of the girls I’d hung with had gone east to school. I was the only one to go west to Seattle. Even with my choice of colleges, I’d been the outsider.
Annamae shook her head. “Sadly, no. I even called one day to make sure your Aunt Franny knew her mama wasn’t doing well. She thanked me, but never came by. I’m sure your grandmother would have loved to see her.”
I wasn’t so sure of that. And my aunt must have known that what she did couldn’t be fixed, at least not with a death bed visit.
“Well, I better get the kitchen cleaned up and head off to bed.” Annamae lived in a small house on the property. “I’ve got a show coming up tonight I like to watch. You just leave the tray in the kitchen and I’ll deal with it in the morning.”
“Good night and thank you for this.” I stood and gave her a hug. The woman was more than just our cook. She’d been there for me after mom had passed and had listened for hours as I talked about the mean kids at school and my plans to go as far away as possible as soon as I could drive. Now, I was back.
“You’re most welcome. And I’m so glad that you’re back home. You’ll find your place here. You don’t worry one minute about it.” She patted my face and then left the room.
I went back to the laptop. Before I went through more records, I wrote down Charlotte Goldstein’s name. If she hadn’t known she wasn’t in the will, would she have killed the golden goose? But maybe she was in the will, which even gave her more motive since I’d just made Matty Goldstein a wealthy man.
I mixed the coffee and cocoa half and half into a cup and went back to researching.
Two hours later, both pots were empty and I had a list of questions that didn’t make sense. Like for one, why had Sarah been being paid three times more in base salary than most of the other salesman, especially since her actual commissions were few and far between? Mark Bennett, the guy that had been less than friendly when we visited the shop, had a salary almost as large. No wonder Matty hadn’t been making money, he was paying out most of his profits in employee costs. Even the most senior designers in Seattle hadn’t been making half of what these people were. I needed to do some research on wages for the area before I decided to put out an ad for employees. If this was the normal rate, I’d have to totally revamp my business plan.
I set the cup back on the tray and took it to the kitchen. Then I got ready for bed. Tomorrow would be soon enough to dig more into the dead man’s finances.
6
When I went into the dining room for breakfast the next morning, Nic was on his tablet. I poured coffee from the sideboard and grabbed a few slices of banana bread along with an actual banana. Annamae had remembered my favorite breakfast treat. I glanced around the room. “Hey, do we still subscribe to the paper?”
“Annamae has it in the kitchen. I tried to just buy her a tablet, but she said a daily paper was just fine.” He studied me. “How much sleep did you get?”
“Enough,” I lied. “I’m going into town and working at the store today. I’ll stay at the hotel tonight. Thanks for the hospitality.”
“You should stay here.” But he didn’t argue further. Apparently, having Bubba and his friends watching over me eased Nic’s worry.
