Chapter 5

Back inside, Bill and Garrett stood looking at the décor for a moment and Bill asked, "Have you given any thought about what you are going to do with this floor? That solid walnut wainscoting and trim will be absolutely beautiful if you can keep it and work it into whatever you intend to do with the bank. This area would make some great office space for a small business."

"No, I haven't even thought about uses for the building other than living upstairs. I hadn't even considered renovating the apartments I don't use for rentals until you mentioned it. I'm not sure I want to bother with rentals after listening to you guys talk about all the problems you have with damage and late payments. I sure could use the money, though, so I might."

"Well, if you figure out some way to screen your renters, it helps. The damn laws are written more to protect the deadbeat renters than landlords and you have to be careful how you handle the apartments or you get into trouble there, but it can be done. Kathy and her mother do my rentals and they seem to have it down pat. We still have some late payments, but at least most of our damage is normal wear and tear. I haven't had to evict anyone for over a year. If you go that route maybe you can get some pointers from them, or better yet, no more apartments than you have, maybe they will manage them for you."

"Well, that's pretty far in the future. I have to get things back up to snuff first. So, what do you suggest for rewiring this mess? Hell, I don't know if water or electricity should be first. Water, I think so I can at least clean up and take a crap."

"Yeah, I think you're right. Look, I don't have much going on today. I can go home and get some pipe and tools if you want to take a stab at plumbing. You can begin tearing out the old plumbing while I'm gone. We can get some of the work done inside here, anyway, then next week you can call the city for a meter and hook into the mains."

The exterior walls of the old bank were constructed out of 12" limestone blocks so a big percentage of the plumbing and wiring were inside the room instead of in the walls. This wasn't so great for esthetics but it made it much easier for Garrett to pull the old wiring and plumbing out. He carefully saved all the old pipe and wire for later recycling. The copper wire would bring a good price and would help with expenses. After he tore out all the pipes and wires he could reach he built wooden runs for the utilities when he replaced them so they weren't out in the open again. Where possible, he ran the utilities up inside an interior wall. By the end of the day Sunday they had all the plumbing done for the downstairs toilet in the bank and for his one bathroom and kitchen in his upstairs apartment. Much of the plumbing was temporary because Garrett intended to remodel the bathrooms later and install more modern fixtures. He intended to leave the sinks and commode in the same location however so there wouldn't be much repeat plumbing. They even had some temporary wiring ran to give him some light and power for an air conditioning unit and to cook with. Now all he had to do was contact the electric company and city to get service started.

The next project would be the building of the stairs so he could enter his apartments easier than climbing the ladder. That took almost a month working with a the contractor and cost more than Garrett even wanted to mention. He made sure the job was done to his satisfaction, though he did help keep the costs down by locating used steel for the frame. He even managed to cover the deck so it looked as much like the picture Kathy had found as possible. Now he had a nice place to sit outside and watch the world go by if he ever found the time to do it.

Much to his surprise, through the summer from time to time one or another of the men he worked with would come over and help with some of the heavier work or with a job Garrett didn't know how to accomplish. Even nicer, none of them would let him pay them for their help. He always made sure they had plenty to eat and drink. Occasionally, he even had a BBQ out by the stream on his farm for his co-workers.

They went through the entire building's plumbing and wiring so by the time fall came all the work remaining was cosmetic finish work. He even bit the bullet and redid the bathrooms and added new fixtures so they could hide the plumbing in them.

It took almost two weeks to build the interior stairway from the second to third floor but after it was completed it was much easier to get to the two upper apartments. Somewhat to his surprise, Garrett was more than able to afford the work he was doing to the building. Much of that was because of Kathy. She had the bright idea to list the things they found in the bank on e-bay. It was amazing what the antiques brought. People were crazy for the old office equipment, calendars, and papers she found to sell for him. She even took care of the shipping and handling, only keeping the excess shipping and handling fees for her efforts.

So far, they had been unable to get into the locked vault. Garrett was too busy to worry much about it, but Kathy was going crazy wondering what was inside. She had grudgingly agreed with Garrett that they had more important things to take care of but she still kept asking when he was going to get it open.

Finally, late in November, Garrett had the two third floor apartments completed and ready to rent. The old bank was 30 X 72 feet making the floor space on each floor 2160 feet square. The common use entry way and internal stairs reduced the area in the two apartments to about 1,000 square feet each to rent. Since they were in a small town he asked $475 per month for each. To his surprise, the apartments rented within two weeks of being advertised. That gave him $900 per month income to live on or use for improvements to his apartment or the bank on the first floor. Kathy and her mother agreed to act as his agent for $25 per apartment per month. None of the utilities were included in the rent so the balance of the rental flowed to Garrett's bottom line except for a small amount spent on insurance and property taxes.

Garrett finally gave up trying to find the combination to the safe and called a vault company to see if they could open it. On the day the representative came it seemed like half his friends were there for the grand opening. Kathy was right behind the technician, bouncing around in impatience. Finally, after nearly thirty minutes of working, the technician turned the handle on the vault. With a loud click the tumblers disengaged and he slowly pulled the door open. While he continued to service the old vault, Kathy darted inside the thick walls and began to explore. Bill and some of his closest friends followed.

There was a large bank of safe deposit boxes just inside the vault door. Some of them were locked, some stood open. Farther inside was a thick steel lattice that was locked closed. Kathy pulled against it and let out a moan when she also found it to be locked. She turned and darted past the men and over to the desk she had been using. She grabbed the keys and trotted back into the vault where she began trying keys until she found one that unlocked the folding lattice. She pushed the door open and moved quickly into the space. She stopped inside and looked at the shelves. She was just standing staring at the shelves when Bill and Garrett moved up beside her. There were several trays on the shelf filled with money of all denominations from pennies up through real silver dollars. Farther along were stacks of the various denomination bills. There were ones, twos, fives, tens, twenties, fifties and hundreds, although the larger the denomination, the smaller the stack of bills.

Kathy turned to Garrett and said, "Just look at the money. I bet there's thousands of dollars there. You can finish college and the work on the bank, now, with no problems."

Bill stepped past Kathy and looked at the money. He picked up some of the bills and coins then whistled before he returned them to their original location. He turned to Garrett and said, "Kathy is more correct than I think even she knows, Garrett. This money is worth far more as collector's items than its face value. Those coins are real silver and some of the bills are gold and silver certificates. I didn't see one federal reserve note in the lot. When the country went off the gold standard all the old gold and silver certificates were supposed to be turned in for destruction. You have a veritable gold mine right there on that shelf. You need to be damn sure this vault stays locked and don't even breathe a hint of what is in here or you will have serious problems."

Bill turned and began to usher Kathy out of the vault after he admonished her to be quiet about what they found. As they were passing through the safe deposit box room she stopped once again and said, "I wonder if there's anything in those locked boxes?"

Garrett turned from locking the lattice gate and said, "I don't know, Kathy. I saw the board back in the vault with the keys for the boxes on it. We can look in them later." As he started to walk past her he stopped and picked up a book lying on a small desk. He read the cover title then opened the book, leafing through several pages, before he spoke again. "This is the book on the safe deposit boxes. It looks as if the locked boxes are assigned either to my family or the bank itself. The policy was if a box was empty it was stored in an opened condition so there is probably something in the boxes that are locked."

After they were out of the vault the technician came up to Garrett and said, "I've finished doing the maintenance on the vault. I can give you the combination now or, if you want, we can reset it to something else."

"That's fine. Let's leave it as it is. Can you leave me instructions on resetting it later if I want to?"

"Certainly, sir. If you'll come with me I'll show you what you need to know and I'll get out of your way." After a twenty-minute discussion and tutorial the technician closed and locked the door then watched as Garrett unlocked and relocked it. He then left for his next call and Garrett walked back into the main part of the bank. There were several people milling around and they raised an uproar when he appeared.

The self-important asshole that served as Mayor of the small town moved in front of Garrett and demanded, "Well, what did you find? We all want to know what's in the vault. You did get it opened didn't you? I don't know why we couldn't have been inside to see."

"Yeah, we got it opened. All we found was some old bank property and papers. I haven't had time to look over the contents but there doesn't appear to be much of any interest. The safe deposit boxes are mostly locked and we haven't gotten into them yet but from a book I found it seems the locked boxes contained bank papers. All the records in existence show that everyone's personal papers and funds were transferred to other banks when Great, Great Grandpa locked the doors and sold the deposits."

"Well, what were the papers you found? I'm chairman of the City Historical Society and I need to know so we can document the find in our city history books. I need to know some of what is there for the reporter when he gets here."

Garrett stared at the little man and clenched his jaws in anger before he said, "You know all I'm going to tell you, now. What is there or not there is none of your business. This is private property and the contents of the vault are my property and my business, no one else's."

"We'll see about that. What is in that vault is part of the history of this town and you have an obligation to keep my office as Mayor and Chairman of the Historical Society informed. Now get out of my way and let me inside." The mayor tried to push Garrett aside as he also turned to one of his cronies and motioned her forward.

Garrett stepped back slightly from the shove the mayor gave him then set his feet and stood in front of the blustering man. Garrett, while young, was larger than the Mayor and in much better shape. This time when the Mayor pushed against him and tried to go around him he bounced off Garrett. He once again blustered, "Step aside, young man, or suffer the consequences."

Garrett once again blocked the Mayor's access to the doorway into the back of the bank while he said, "Kathy, call the Sheriff's office and request assistance please (the small town did not have local law enforcement but relied on the county sheriff). Tell them I am having trouble with forced entry and someone is about to get hurt."

When he heard Kathy talking to the dispatcher the Mayor finally gave up his attempts to push past Garrett. As he was leaving the building he blustered once again and said, "You haven't heard the last of this, young man. You can either give me access to the information you found in that vault voluntarily or I will force you to give it up. It's your decision."

Apparently there was a Sheriff's vehicle close by because a deputy arrived within about ten minutes. He came into the Bank and asked what the problem was. Garrett spoke to him and explained the difficulty. Since the Mayor had left there was nothing the Deputy could do about the problem, however, he agreed to find the Mayor and explain to him that, unless he could prove either the city or he personally had documents or funds in the vault that he had no legal right to access it.

After the excitement died down, Garrett also called his attorney and discussed the problem with him. He was told there was nothing that could be done until or unless the Mayor tried something illegal to access the bank such as breaking and entering or other strong-arm tactics.

At the end of the month, when the rest of his bills came in, Garrett did not receive a bill from the town for water and sewer fees. He paid all his end of month bills that he received and never even noticed he didn't receive the city bill. The first time he knew he didn't receive the bill was when he found a letter informing him his service had been terminated for non-payment taped to his door. Sure enough, when he tried to get some water, there was none. Garrett checked with his tenants and they both said they received their bills and had already paid them. They both still had water service. He went to the city offices and was told the bills had been mailed and he failed to pay his so the disconnect was proper.

The city clerk, who was also the Mayor's wife, smirked and said, "Now, if you will pay your bill with late fee and the reconnect charge, we can have you hooked back up in a couple of days. That will be $21.64 for the water, $10.00 for the late fee and $75.00 to reconnect your service."

"What? That's bullshit. I told you I didn't receive the bill. I don't mind paying the late fee but the reconnect fee is totally wrong. I got the disconnect notice so if you mailed me the bill I should have received it also."

"Well, I'm sorry. Now, do you want to reconnect or not?"

"Yes. Let me write you a check."

"Oh, I'm sorry sir. Since you are delinquent in your bills our policy is to accept cash only. I'm afraid I can't accept your check."

"You're kidding! You take checks from other people."

"Well, yes, but they are in good standing. If you get current with your bills, and cooperate with the city, I'm sure you can soon begin paying by check like more dependable people do."

"What do you mean, cooperate with the city? This is the first time we've had any problems and you're treating me like a criminal."

"Well, now you know how it feels don't you? If you get with the program and become, shall we say, more open and cooperative, perhaps these little problems could just, shall we say, go away?"

All at once, Garrett had a flash of insight. This was all the Mayor's doing. He glared at the clerk, turned, and walked out the door, letting it slam closed as he did so. When he got back to his house he called his attorney. Unfortunately, he found he had no recourse but to pay the amounts demanded. The attorney said, "If they have a policy of cutting off service for nonpayment of bills, and most utilities do, they have acted correctly, assuming the policy was made known to you at some time. Most utilities have a statement on the application for service discussing penalties for non-payment or late payment of bills. You should find your contract and check but I'm sure it will have the requisite clause in it somewhere. I suggest, from now on, you mark your calendar and go to the city office before the bill becomes delinquent to make your payment until this blows over. On the other hand, if you can prove they are harassing you and didn't send the bill you might be able to get the reconnect fee rescinded."

The next day, midmorning, a Sheriff's patrol car came to the job site where Garrett was working. The deputy asked for and was directed to Garrett. When he got to him, he verified his identity and then said, "You have been accused of making terroristic threats to the Stella City Clerk in her office yesterday, Mr. Mans. Fortunately for you, they have no proof of your activity and no witnesses so we can't incarcerate you. I need to inform you, however, that this threat report is in our files and if you are again accused of these actions you may be incarcerated at that time. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

"Yes, I do, but you know as well as I do that this is all hogwash. Did you get the details of the problem I'm having with the Mayor, or did you just take his and his wife's word on this?"