Page 11 of A Medium Fate


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When I got the paper from the kitchen, I went right to the employment ads in the back. From what I could tell, salaries here were in line with what I’d expect to pay in a big city. Cheaper than Seattle, but not what Matty had been shelling out. I folded the help wanted ads and put them into my tote. I finished my breakfast, then I asked Trenton to drive me back into town.

This time the door to Goldstein’s Antiques was locked when I used the key. I’d told Sarah that I would call when I was ready to reopened the store. Shutting the door, I relocked it and saw the homeless man from the other day, standing across the street, watching. Waving, I left the front and made my way up the elevator to the third-floor office with the Queen Anne desk. I considered working in Matty’s bigger office, but it just felt weird, at least for now. First project, inventory. I printed off the list from Matty’s files and found a clipboard in the desk. Then I headed up to the top floor. Might as well work my way down.

By noon I’d cleared only one floor. This project might take days. I stopped at the break room and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. A noise from the hallway startled me. Holding the water out like a weapon, I opened the door to my new office. Nic sat eating a sandwich and playing on his phone.

I let the arm with the water bottle drop and took a deep breath. “How did you get in?”

“You left the door open. I brought you a sandwich.” He nodded to the Styrofoam container on the desk. “Eat. I want to talk to you.”

“I didn’t leave the door unlocked.” I glanced down the hallway and thought I’d heard laughter. “What’s going on here?”

“I believe they’re teasing you.” Nic seemed to listen for an answer like the other side was just in the other room. “Apparently they unlocked it to let me inside.”

“I think you’re the one teasing me.” I didn’t move from the doorway. “Are you sure you didn’t find an extra set of keys?”

“Sleight of hand is a talent.” Nic smiled pulled a key ring out of his pocket and tossed it over to my desk. Then took another bite of his sandwich. “These are the keys I took from Sarah.”

I went to the desk, put the keys inside my drawer, then opened my lunch. Ham and cheese, my favorite. And a small container of potato salad along with a bag of chips. I unwrapped the sandwich and started eating. I was hungrier than I’d thought. Once the sandwich was gone, I leaned back. “So what’s up? Why are you eating takeout with me and not in some fancy restaurant with some business partner?”

“Maybe I wanted to eat lunch with you.” When I didn’t reply, he continued. “Okay, fine, I found out some things this morning. Did you know that Matty had been losing money on this place when you bought it? Dean might be able to get you out of the deal since Matty died before the three-day waiting period was over.”

“I don’t want out of the deal. And yes, I knew. But from what I’ve seen, it’s solvable. The sales are here. His expenses were just too high.” I focused my attention on the potato salad.

“Our friend Sarah’s salary?”

“Among others.” I grabbed the notebook from my bag. “Do you know a Mark Bennett?”

“No.” He glanced around the room. “If you’re going to keep this, and I put emphasis on the word, if, you’re going to need better security. Are there even cameras on this place?”

“On my list to check out. Right now, I’m going through the inventory. There are several big-ticket items that should be on the top floor according to the inventory sheet. They aren’t there. I haven’t had time to look at the other floors, but I didn’t find anything additional from the list on the top floor. Once inventory is done, I’m going to have to reach out to Matty’s attorney and make sure the items aren’t in his house.” I finished the potato salad. It had a bit of a kick to it. I looked at the bag when I put the empty container back inside. I’d have to remember this place. “I think I’m going to be here for at least a week verifying the physical inventory list.”

“I’ll ask Dean to call the attorney.” Nic stood and brushed crumbs off his expensive suit. Then he took off the jacket. He called a number on his phone. “Bubba, come on up. We’ve got a job.”

“What are you doing?” I didn’t like where this was going.

“Bubba and I are going to help you with your inventory. We might take a little hand holding, but you’ll never get done in time if you don’t have more hands.” He held up a finger. “Hold on a second, I’m calling Dean, He needs to reach out to Goldstein’s attorney to make sure nothing leaves that house until we’re done with our inventory. We don’t want some ex-wife taking off with the property he sold you. It will make things harder to get back.”

I hadn’t thought of what would happen with Matty’s stuff now that he was dead, but Nic was right. I needed to get the inventory done fast, before items I now owned disappeared.

Bubba came into the room. He had several crumbs on his jacket as well, so I assumed Nic had dropped off food with him before he came upstairs. Bubba followed my gaze, blushing as he brushed off the evidence. The reaction made me smile. Maybe there was a heart under all that brawn.

He folded his hands in front of him and waited for Nic to get off the phone with Mr. Dean. When Nic hung up, Bubba asked, “What can I help with?”

“Eddie? Do you want to tell us where to start and what to look for?” Nic threw away his lunch into the trash can by the door.

His action reminded me that I also needed to think about janitorial services and changing the business accounts into my name for the electric and water and trash. With Matty dead, no one was here to cancel them on me, but I still needed to get it done. Having Nic and Bubba helping with inventory would give me the hour to get all that done. At least I didn’t need to make a video on how to use the copiers.

I had to admit the truth though, I needed help.

“Okay, here’s the plan.” I took out the sheets I’d been working on this morning. At least Matty had used a coding system and each piece had a sticker with a code that if you knew how to read it, listed off date acquired and if the piece was part of a set, the number of pieces in the set. “So on the sticker for this table, it should match this code here. 05011999-24-07-01. The date he got the piece, May 1, 1999. It’s a seven-piece set and the table is number one. So there should be six chairs to go with it. Like 05011999-24-07-02 He must have bought at least 24 items that day. Like this cabinet, it’s coded 05011999-22-00-00. So it wasn’t part of a set, but it was bought the same day.”

The men looked at me like I had been explaining calculus or some other higher end math. I sighed and looked back at the list. “It doesn’t make any sense?”

“All we have to do is look for and match the numbers. Then we can mark it off the list, right? And if it’s not there, we can highlight it.” Bubba repeated back his assignment. “One question, what if a piece is not on the list?”

He got it. I smiled and handed him a clipboard showing him the blank paper I’d added to the bottom. “Then just write the code down on this, what floor and area you found it, and a general description of the item. Like table or wall hanging.”

“Or really ugly figurine?” Nic added, reaching for a clipboard.

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