Chapter 2

Tom Hoffman couldn’t understand where his uncle was going with this. He knew nothing about the will or any other financial things about his uncle and now this new sideline is going to really change things. Marty can only hope the boy will come on board. Marty asked Tom to hold the questions until the morning and he would try to answer them. Tom agreed and they had a good night talking about old things.

The morning brought along a different feeling. Marty started it off by telling Tom about the will and financial items left to him and anything new to come. Tom was surprised but Marty asked Tom to start a partnership and take over the legal and accounting of the company. He told Tom that he would rather he take over now and ran it all than to find out later we were swiveled out of the money. Finally, Marty asked Tom would he do this. Thinking this would be small, Tom told him sure.

At this point, Marty figured he needed to open Pandora’s box and then see what the boy had to say. Marty opened the storage room and went in as Tom followed. As he started to uncover the chest Toms eyes got large. Lifting the lid and removing the bags Marty let Tom spy over him. Taking out 5 bars he set them on the table. Tom looked at the bars and asked, “How many”? Marty said about 180. Why?

Tom said, “OH MY God” Tom explained that they were 1 lb. bars, 16 troy ounces. Gold is about $1500 an ounce. “That’s $24,000 a bar and 4.25 million for the rest.”

Marty asked, “What about the rest?”

Tom asked, “What rest?”

“The jewels and coins in the 3 other cases,” Marty replied!

Tom just sat down and Marty smiled. Tom opened one of the bags of jewels to find most were big cut stones, emeralds, rubies, and large diamonds. The other, coins were old Spanish ones from the 1500s and worth a fortune. Tom finally came around and said 3 more? Marty smiled and said, “Yes. So now you know why I need you and not a stranger. I don’t know what’s in the other containers but at least one other is the same weight as this one.”

Tom sat quietly for a little while. His thoughts were all over the place but starting to understand the magnitude involved in the project and just as aware that his Uncle could never do this alone. It would be 2 weeks before he could do this legally but now all he had to do was pass and not worry about a high grade to impress a company. He asked his uncle about his plans and he said he didn’t have any yet. He told Marty he had to get his Degree so he could handle this legally and that the next 2 weeks were to be slated to that.

Ten days have come and gone waiting to get the paperwork from the school to file with the state. We had some of the forms done but have to wait on others. Uncle Marty told me to run with it and that’s why I’m still here. I will have to open a small office but not in the city. Also, hire someone for the office that can help not just look pretty. My friend Rich has a sister that graduated last year as a C.P. A. and is having a hard time. She is very smart but not big office material; I need to talk to her.

Uncle Marty got a call from work about a repair that needed to be redone in New York and is going to get the guys and do it. That will keep him busy for 2 weeks. I wonder if he is going to still work, I know he enjoys it. Marty called the owner of the company to apologize for the other workers and said he would be there in a few days and fix it properly. He got the GPS location of the problem and found out it was on the south side of Long Island. The company has 2 small outlets and spends 1 million each year for repairs and is looking at another business to buy. You don’t give that kind of volume away.

All small repairs taking no time and they love the service. When we got there it took 4 hours to fix the problem and we also repaired the other cable which took no time because we were already there. We stopped in Brooklyn N.Y. to fuel and went out through Long Island Sound back to Boston.

When we got back to the office things were quiet and the atmosphere there was very cold. Something was not right, both Ron and Carl didn’t like it either. No one said anything but something was up. Upon getting home there was a message that Corporate is talking about selling the boat and didn’t like being told that we would be the only ones taking care of their accounts. I called Tom and explained it and he said something that floored me. Tom asked if I wanted to buy the boat? Thinking he was joking I laughed.