Dana Stabenow - Better To Rest

“I gave it to Liam.”

“Damn it. I’d like to get another look at it.”

It was an hour before opening and she had time to humor him. “Tell me why you think it’s important.”

He decided to give her a little history. “The U.S. didn’t even make twenty-dollar gold pieces until the California gold rush. Until then, 1849, the U.S. minted only one-dollar, two-fifty, five-dollar and ten-dollar gold coins.”

“Two-fifty?”

“Yeah, I know. But we used to have a two-dollar bill, don’t forget. The early nineteen hundreds, man, they were making some cool-looking money. The buffalo nickel, the Mercury dime, you know the guy with wings, and the dime was still silver back then. The quarter with Lady Liberty on it.” He pulled a handful of change from his pocket and slammed it down on the desk in disgust. “Look at this crap. That could be Albert Lincoln who owns the Ford dealership, and Greg Washington who plays forward for the New York Knicks, and I can’t even tell who the guy on the dime is. Plus, ain’t none of them made of enough of any precious metal to actually be worth what the face value on the coin is. Always assuming you can read it without a microscope.”

Moses was very indignant. Bill concealed her amusement. “But our coin was minted in 1921, didn’t we figure? That’s not even a hundred years old.”

“Well, I haven’t quite figured out how valuable it is,” he admitted. “There a lot of stuff I don’t understand, like grading and luster and I don’t know what else.” He thought for a moment, and added, “I got tangled up on an auction site and accidentally bid five hundred dollars for one, though.”

“You did what!”

He looked a little sheepish. “It’s okay; somebody outbid me. It went for five forty-nine.”

She whistled, and he nodded. “So I been thinking, Bill.”

She matched his tone. “What you been thinking, Moses?”

“I been thinking there might have been more of those coins on that plane.”

She sobered. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Me, either,” he said grimly. “Imagine the treasure hunt a rumor like that would start.”

“It’s already started.” She told him about the Gray gang. He swore. She looked at the monitor screen. “It’s too bad Lydia isn’t still alive.”

“Why?”

“She knew about coins.”

Moses stared at her.

“It’s true. She had a collection of old American coins, old quarters and nickels and dimes and pennies, just pocket change really, that she’d been saving up since she was a kid. She subscribed to a magazine, Quarters R Us or something like that. I used to see it lying around the house when we were at her place for book club.” She brightened. “In fact, I’d forgotten all about it, but I think she had some other, more valuable coins, too. Yeah, I remember she pulled out an album one time, it was really cool, had all these little pockets inside it for each individual coin.” She smiled. “She was annoyed with me, because I was more interested in the album construction than I was in the coins.” Her smile faded. “You know, now that I think of it, she might have…” Her voice trailed away.

Moses’ face had gone very hard. “Might have what?”

“It’s silly, it couldn’t possibly…” She met his eyes. “I’ve got to be wrong about this, Moses.”

He was inexorable. “Wrong about what?”

“Now that I think back, she might have had one of those coins in that album. Just like the one that was in the hand.”

Wy had a pickup in Ekwok she couldn’t get out of, so Jo accompanied Liam to the post. They arrived at the same time as Diana, who looked as drug-out as Liam felt. He brought her up-to-date. She listened, nodding, and when he finished said, “Makes sense to me. I just rousted Brewster Gibbons out of bed and hauled his butt down to the bank. Karen bought her town house for cash.”

“How much?”

“A hundred and twenty thousand.”

“Jesus. What’d she do, write a check?”

“She did, and this is the interesting part. She didn’t have much left over.”

“Her bank balance looks pretty good.”

“Yeah, but that’s the least amount it’s ever been. Gibbons says she’s been steadily depleting her trust fund.”

“What else?”

“While I was at it, I checked on Lydia’s finances. Her house is paid off, too, although that’s not quite so surprising. I checked on the other kids. All of them have very healthy cash balances, and none of them have any outstanding debts, at least not with Brewster’s bank. Jerry’s balance is just as healthy, it’s just that every check has to be cosigned by his mother.”

Liam frowned at the figures she’d scribbled. “Healthy. I’d call that filthy rich, myself.” He picked up the phone and dialed a number in Anchorage.

It rang five times before Jim picked it up. “Yeah.”

“Jim, it’s Liam.”

“Like I didn’t know.” There was a protesting female murmur in the background. “Sorry, honey. I’ll take this in the other room; I have a feeling I’m going to have to get on the computer.”

“Thanks, Jim.”

“Fuck you, Campbell. What do you want?”

“I need everything you can dig up on the Tompkins family in Newenham.” He gave Jim the names. “I’m particularly interested in their financial affairs. If they owe any money, if there is any money coming in. Like that.”

“Gee,” Jim said without enthusiasm. “Is that all?”

“And I need it in thirty minutes.” Liam hung up on the resulting explosion and looked at Diana. “Go down to the school. See if they’ve still got records for who was enrolled in high school in 1941. Make it for four years either way. Since the students are in their seventies, there probably won’t be any surviving teachers, but ask anyway.”

“Gone.” She went.

Liam looked at Jo. “I meant to ask you. Where’s Gary?”

She smiled. “I sent him home first thing this morning.”

He leaned back and gave her a long, considering look, which she met with equanimity. “Did you, now.”

“I did. That was a mean, rotten thing to do to you, Liam, and I’m sorry.”

He cocked his head. “Once more, with feeling.”

She laughed. “Look, Wy’s the best friend I ever had. For a few months, she was even my sister-in-law. Friends watch out for their own.”

He couldn’t resist. “Like the air force.”

“Even better than. The thing is, I got this idea you might be bad for her. You were, the first time around.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“No?”

“No. For Wy, the first time around I was a fucking disaster.”

“Thank you for not making me say that,” she said primly, and grinned.

“So I’m not a disaster this time?”

She met his eyes head-on. “No. Understand me, Liam, I can get along with the devil himself, if the devil is dating my best friend. Nothing gets in the way of the friendship, not for me. Loyalty is what I do best.”

“It’s my favorite thing about you.”

She looked surprised, and suspicious, and maybe even a little flattered. “Wy’s family. Wy loves you. That makes you family, too.”

“A cop and a reporter,” he said. “It’ll never last.”

She laughed again. “That’s what they said about Chuck and Di.”

The phone rang. “Okay, you prick,” Jim said, “get a pencil.” He dictated rapidly, without checking to see if Liam was keeping up. “That do you?”

“That does me just fine.”

“Dunaway there?”

Liam was surprised. “How did you know?”

“I know everything. Put her on.”

Liam handed Jo the phone. “Somebody wants to talk to you.”

She took it. “Dunaway.” She listened for a moment. Liam watched as her face flushed a deep, dark red. “None of your goddamn business,” she said, and slammed the phone down. Liam got his fingers out of the way just in time.