Chapter 40

I suggested, “Like a safety deposit key?”

Janet nodded, “Yes, possibly, but why would they know about its existence?”

“There is that...” I admitted, but Sandy had her own opinion.

“If he bragged about his ‘nest egg’and also mentioned having a safety deposit box, word might have got back to the people who sent the burglars. Intelligence is gathered by crooks as well as the police. The burglars were probably asked to look for a safety deposit key while they were in the house, and they checked the most likely places. Tins in a kitchen are notorious for being used to hide things such as money.”

“Then we must wait and see what Mister Thompson comes up with, via his enquiries of the banks,” I ventured. “You got in touch with him, I hope, Phyllis?”

“Yes. I did that yesterday, but he says it may take up to a week to get a full response from all the banks; something about having to provide a legal copy of Jimmy’s death certificate along with my authorisation to act for me as my legal representative. The banks won’t give out information without such proof.”

“I have already picked up on that at his office,” I confirmed about the procedure. “I found it all has to be done legally, to have any force.”

Sandy commented, “Then let’s leave that to Daddy to sort out. What about this house, Phyllis? Do you want it cleared of Jimmy’s clothes?”

“I think so. I don’t want to be reminded of him time and again,”

“Right. If we can get hold of sacks of some kind, or even cardboard boxes from local stores, we can just stuff the clothes inside, and take the sacks and boxes to the local refuse tip.”

“Fine by me, Sandy,” said Phyllis.

With that decided, Sandy organised a hunt for sacks and boxes, and the next day the girls set to, clearing the house of all of Jimmy’s worn clothes. Some newer stuff they set aside for contributing to a local charity. Phyllis was not sure about Jimmy’s collection of small vehicle toys, so I offered to take them to the local toy shop and see if they had any residual value as secondhand items. I packed them in the original boxes that they came in, for convenience sake, and unloaded them one by one in the shop. The shopkeeper’s reaction gave me a surprise.

“These are in the original boxes? Can I see the toys in each box?”

So he opened them back out and examined the toy cars, vans and so on. His face lit up.

“These haven’t been played with! They are like they were when bought!”

“Well, Jimmy had a thing about toy vehicles’ and liked to display them around the house. They were not for playing with, as children might do. He prided himself as a collector.” I told the shopkeeper.

“Is this the man that was killed by a lorry recently?”

“Yes. We are clearing the house of his stuff, for the benefit of his widow.”

“Well, I can see what we can do for her. The whole collection, is it?”

“Everything that is here, certainly. I am assuming this was all he had.”

“Got you. Can you leave them with me, and I will get a value for them. I will give you a receipt, listing them all. We will price them individually.”

“That sounds acceptable.”

I waited while he prepared a handwritten listing of the small toys, and presented it to me.

“O.K. with that, Mr McIntyre?”

“Fine. When do you expect to complete your valuation?”

“Monday at the latest, so if you come in then, we can complete the transaction. Preferably bring the widow, so she can sign the sale contract.”

I returned to Phyllis’s house, but she was not there, and it was locked up, so I walked home, stepping into the new glassed-in vestibule and through the main door. I was welcomed by Carol, who kissed me as she pressed her lovely breasts against me to show I was always welcome in her arms.

“Is Phyllis here with you?” I asked Carol. “She’s not at home.”

“She’s here,” she replied with a grimace. “Sandy took pity on her when Phyllis went through the house, now without evidence of her deceased Jimmy. It seemed to affect her, and she burst into tears. That was enough for Sandy, who told her she had better stay with us tonight.”

“You don’t take the same view?” I asked.

Carol paraphrased Shakespeare: “Methinks the lady doth cry too much.”

I chuckled, “You feel she is putting it on a bit?”

“Not deliberately, Bob. I think she is very susceptible to being overly emotional at times, and probably benefits from it on occasion. It may be an ingrained response to her late husband’s treatment of her.”

“Interesting. A minus mark for her, you think?”

“I am afraid so, darling. Harmony is essential in our family, don’t you agree?”

“That is so, Carol. You have matured immensely in the last few weeks.”

“Encouraged by the rest of you. That made a big difference to my life. This child of ours is another mark of my growing maturity; my growing belly!”

She patted her still flat tummy, proud of what was growing there.

We went inside and found all the girls in the crowded kitchen, working on a set of meals for today. Phyllis was contributing to the discussion, which I took as a good sign of her willingness to assimilate. It was still a case of good point, bad point, regarding Phyllis, and there was no finality yet. I suspected she was going to remain a doubtful for the family. It was just a feeling I got; the vibes I felt from the girls.

Back at the office my drudgery progressed, as did my learning of the profession. I remained adamant about not formally becoming a lawyer, but was fascinated by the ins and outs of it as I observed them in action. Mister Thompson showed me the letters and their inclusions he was sending out to the banks. His recently acquired expensive copying machine was getting well used, giving each bank a copy of Phyllis’s letter of authorisation, but the copies of Jimmy’s death certificate had to be legally authorised certificates issued by a registrar, so not suitable for the copying machine. His covering letter was standard for a solicitor asking for restricted information, and the order of sending the requests were to the Glasgow banks first, then the Edinburgh banks that held safety deposit boxes. All the banks had head offices either in Glasgow or Edinburgh, so that covered all of Scotland. Mister Thompson was fairly certain Jimmy’s box would be in Glasgow, for it made no sense to go all the way to Edinburgh to make use of the box. I continued to refer to him as mister Thompson in any office activity, as it would not do to call him ‘Daddy’ in such circumstances. He appreciated the distinction, but was careful to offer me as much involvement as was possible, given the legal constraints. Any properly legal item he was too busy to do himself was passed to Fergus who was now qualified to do so.

When I got home that evening, Phyllis was still present, so I took Sandy aside and asked about this. She smiled at my worry.

“Don’t fret, pet. She goes home tomorrow, and she is not on your schedule for bed partners at all. I have suggested to her that if she wanted to avail herself of your sexual attention, she could call in once a week for a fuck, provided she had first disposed of her birth control measures. That has made her think seriously about what she wants in the future, for a baby is a long-term decision.”

“I see. So if she turns up once a week, I have to fuck her, in hopes of a baby?”

“I told her to make it the weekend, as she will not get to spend a night with you; just be fucked at some time prior to late evening. I admit I am pushing her a fair amount, but I want her to see that linking to this family is not just a walk-in option. Even getting a baby started does not guarantee becoming a wife. It is merely a step in that direction, if she wants to develop love for you and for us. I will see that for myself, if it happens.”

I behaved well towards Phyllis, treating her with respect if not affection. She noticed my ambivalence and rightly ascribed it to Sandy, the mover and shaker in this family, and accepted it as the half-hearted welcome it was. We ate in relative silence, except for my praise for the food, for it was well-done. Phyllis mentioned that Janet had made useful suggestions in the way of extra tastes, but that Georgina had come up with the excellent basic recipe. We could see that Phyllis was trying to ingratiate herself, but no-one objected to that. All steps in the right direction were welcome.

Carol made it clear that she was the one going to make love with me tonight, and got indulgent smiles from Sandy and Georgina. Janet maintained a quiet silence, while Phyllis looked glum. Carol was keen on fucking tonight, most definitely, and I enjoyed her attention and the indicators she gave towards giving her orgasms. She was by now the most enthusiastic wife in the love-making stakes, though Georgie was still the most expert, and Sandy the most loving. Janet was just keen on fucking at any time and place. They all got me going in their individual ways, and I appreciated the experience.

Georgie took Phyllis home next day and made sure she was going to manage being alone; telling her to phone us if she had problems. Phyllis had to remind Georgie that she didn’t have a telephone, but there was a phone box at the end of her road.

The rest of the week was quiet, and we only went out to eat at Cafe Continental on the Wednesday evening. Work at the solicitor’s office was becoming more routine to me, and Daddy Thompson was more gregarious as he enjoyed his new marriage. It gave a lift to the whole office as well, and there were more smiles and grins to be seen.

On Friday I was called into his inner sanctum to be told the results of the bank enquiries.

“Robert, the late Jimmy appears to have had only the one safety deposit box, and that is in Glasgow. I am going to have to take the widow to the bank there and open the box to discover what he had salted away, if anything. Sometimes a person will get a safety deposit box purely to be able to brag to his friends that he had one, implying that he had valuables placed there. It didn’t matter if the box was empty; it was the kudos of having one that mattered. We shall see if Jimmy was a braggart or genuinely had something stashed away. Can I ask you to speak to her and get her to call in here to fix a day for traveling to Glasgow. We can go by train for convenience, as the branch with the safety deposit scheme is in the city centre, and our line goes to Glasgow Central. It is just a short walk from the station; we won’t even need a taxi.”

“Yes, sir, I can do that. I’ll try to get her here on Monday.”

It being the weekend, Phyllis called in to our house and I told her of what Mister Thompson wanted to do. She was all in favour, except for the cost of the train journey. She was low on funds, she admitted.

I snorted, “Ask Sandy what the cost is of a return ticket, and we will give you that, so you don’t have to depend on Mister Thompson paying it. I suspect he travels First Class, so Sandy will give you the cost of a First Class ticket.”

“Can she afford it? Isn’t she at university?”

“Yes, she is, but her husband will provide the cash she gives you.”

“Her husband will? But who? Oh ... that’s you, isn’t it? Sorry, Bob. I keep forgetting you are officially Sandy’s husband.”

“Now you have the answer, so speak to Sandy as I said. Once you have that clarified, why don’t you ring Mister Thompson? Use our telephone, and fix the day you and he can go to Glasgow and check that deposit box. Tell him we have provided you with the cost of the return ticket.”

“You are very generous, Bob, considering you have four women to care for.”

“The other three girls have jobs, Phyllis, so their pay means we are not out of pocket. It might be a good idea for you to call in at the Employment Exchange office, and see if you can find a job similar to what you did before. That experience will count for a lot with employers.”

“I’ll do that, Bob. It also occurs to me that when the ladies’ pregnancies progress, some of their work tasks will no longer be possible, so they will have to give up paid employment. Isn’t that going to be a drain on your family finances?”

“There is that,” I admitted, but went on, “My inheritance is sufficient for me to support all four ladies through the final stages of pregnancy, and we have plans for them to share the duties inherent in our nursery facility. They even have me earmarked to assist, though I will not be able to nurse the babies. I will need to use a bottle to feed the children. I am told that the hardest task is changing a mucky nappy.”

“Yeugh!” said Phyllis. “I can go along with your reluctance to undertake that task, but you must view it as a natural expression of the human body. That is how my mother described it.”

She made the phone call to Daddy Thompson and closed the call with a satisfied smile. “We are going on Wednesday, and he will pick me up at my house to take me to the station. I said Sandy was paying for my ticket. Mister Thompson says that means he won’t have to add the travel cost to my bill, then added that Robert would be able to cover the bill at the end if money was tight for me. That is kind of you, Bob (or Robert, as he calls you).”

I changed the subject at once.

“Did I tell you that the toy shop owner is valuing Jimmy’s collection of boxed vehicle toys? He hopes to have the valuation done by Monday, and you can decide if it is sufficient to warrant selling the collection to him.”

“Oh ... you did mention you were going to see him about the toy cars and such. He really wants to buy them? Why?”

“Because Jimmy kept their boxes, and kept both in pristine condition. It seems that condition is the main mark of quality for collectors, and having the original box as well is very important. Jimmy may have been a nasty man, and a thief to boot, but he knew about toys and how to store them to keep their value. Anything he left behind is now yours, remember, Phyllis,” I told her.

“Legally?” she queried.

“Yes, legally. The law of Scotland says that if a married man with no children dies, his wife is the sole heir if he didn’t make a will (actually a testament is the correct terminology in Scotland).

“So everything of his is now mine?”

“That’s it. I thought I had explained this to you before, but you may not have been taking it in at the time, or I was not clear.”

Monday morning brought the letter telling me of my driving test appointment. I would have no problem getting time off work for that. Georgie supervised while I drove myself and Phyllis to the toy shop, then went off to park the car close to the estate agency.

We entered the shop and the proprietor approached me with an ingratiating smile.

“Ah, Mister McIntyre! And is this the lady who inherited the model vehicles?”

Phyllis smiled back, more hesitantly, and took my hand in a show of her connection to me. I introduced her, and the shopkeeper told her, “Please call me Keith, Phyllis. I use it only among friends, and I hope you and I are going to be friends.”

“But I know little about toy collecting, Keith. I depend on Bob to help me in legal matters and so on. He knows more about collectors and such.”

This was a perfect reply, as it suggested I was legally trained and therefore better prepared for negotiations. Keith took this meaning also, and regarded me with a quizzical smile. I smiled back brightly, which in itself told him nothing. The next step was up to him. He addressed Phyllis again.

“As I explained to Mister McIntyre previously, your late husband’s collection was in immaculate condition and with the original boxes, so that enhances the value to collectors. That means I can offer you a better deal for them, one which I hope you will be happy to accept.”

“I will leave Bob to decide for me on that matter, Keith, for he knows his way around. He is a trustworthy man, and most dependable despite his relative youth.”

Keith turned to face me, his smile widening as he noted my age, and thinking I would be easy.

“Bob, my friend; I think we can do business. You know about collectors, do you not?”

“I do. For instance, a few days ago the police picked up burglars trying to seize another collection that was hidden in Jimmy’s attic; a batch of large toys from America that were not yet on sale here. A collector smuggled them in and got people to stash them in various places before he sold them. Jimmy was one of these people, but ended up as a broken link in the chain. The police say there is a lot of money involved, but if the distributor isn’t willing to put in a claim of ownership of what Jimmy held (and thus admit to smuggling, which would be fatal), they will end up after the court case in Phyllis’s unchallenged ownership.

They may be for sale later, but to whom? If you intend to bid for them, Phyllis has to be sure you have given her a good price on these box vehicles.”

This changed everything for Keith, as he took this message in. Give us a bad deal, and bang goes the chance of another lot of more valuable toys, was the story. He revised his intended offer upwards, and gave me a figure.

I looked at Phyllis with a slight grimace on my face, to guide her response. She spoke to the man.

“Keith, that sounds fairly reasonable, but perhaps you can manage a little more?”

He pursed his lips as if thinking, then upped the price by what I guessed was five per cent. He had obviously already calculated his margin. I found Phyllis staring at me with a question on her face, and responded.

“I think we can accept that figure, Phyllis. If you feel some regret later, we can always make an appropriate decision about the batch of Tonka Toys.”

Keith made a rapid readjustment, and said, “If you are willing to do the deal, I can add another five pounds as a sweetener.”

Before I could say anything, Phyllis declared, “I can go with that, Keith. You seem to be a reliable businessman.”

Thus the deal was done, and Phyllis signed over the collection to Keith. On the walk back to Phyllis’s house, I said, “I think we could have got a little more, Phyllis.”

“Oh, but he is such a nice man, Bob. What we got was fine, him being a gentleman and all.”

I smiled. “You should check whether he is married or not, before you say such compliments, Phyllis.”

She slowed and turned to reply, “I didn’t mean he was THAT nice, Bob. I still think you are a nicer man, just like your ladies keep telling me.”

“Perhaps, but if you want to find a new husband...” I left the rest unsaid.

“Who says I need a new husband? A man who acts like a husband might be enough for me.”

“Hmmm...” I murmured non-committally.

“Did you hear me, Bob?”

“Yes, Phyllis. You angling for my family?”

“Could be. You object?”

“Not my decision, Phyllis. My ladies make the decision about any other woman who wants to bear my child; how far she gets into the family.”

“That is a definite, then: the birthing of a baby?”

“The prerequisite, I would say: having my child. It is a sign of commitment to the family. Anything else in the way of requirements is less specific, but mainly a matter of loving in the sense of showing genuine love towards the family; not love as sex. Sex is practical for procreation and also fun, but less important in family bonding.”

“I see. No short-cuts?”

“None. Getting fucked is just that: a fuck. You need to become something more than than a female to fuck; a woman who loves me and wants to do anything for me she can, including sharing me with the other girls. You could start by getting a job and be like my ladies, bringing in a regular contribution to the family budget.”

I was being careful to hide our true financial situation, as that knowledge only belonged to the family members. Perhaps Phyllis would find herself better off once she found what was in Jimmy’s safety deposit box. A job would be good for her anyway, with the social interactions at work instead of being alone at home.

“I see by your words that I am not one of your ladies.”

“Correct. There is a big difference, as you should know by now. We see you primarily as a woman who needs to be helped to become herself. We can’t help everyone who needs help, but we can choose to help those whose situation we can do something about. Helping is not necessarily financial, as you have found. Advice and similar aid is often the prime requirement; sending the recipient in the right direction for legal assistance, pushing the police and other organisations in a way that helps you, providing a place of refuge as a temporary measure. Even providing personal support in selling Jimmy’s toy collection gives you a boost. What happens with the safety deposit contents is up to you and Mister Thompson when you open the box.”

“Open the box! ... as in the game show Take your Pick, which some of my neighbours watch on their TV sets?”

“Not quite, Phyllis, though you have the same pot luck, for who knows what is the box? Mister Thompson told me some boxes are empty, only maintained as a pretence of wealth.”

“You think it might be empty? Really?”

“Possible, but unlikely. Jimmy was not one to brag without having something to brag about, as far as I can see.”

On Wednesday, I attended to my work tasks while Daddy Thompson went off to Glasgow with Phyllis on the safety deposit investigation. Sandy was also in Glasgow for her studies, but not on the same train. I got my final official driving lesson that day, in preparation for the test on Friday in Greenock at the driving test centre.

Daddy Thomson was back at the office late in the afternoon. He had taken Phyllis to lunch at an up-market restaurant near Central Station, and she apparently was overwhelmed by the ambiance, according to Sandy who was told this by her father the next day.

The safety deposit box had fulfilled expectations. Inside was a paper-wrapped tube of 1879 Gold Sovereigns. Phyllis reported that there were eleven or twelve of them. It seems that these were always very rare coins, and the assumption must be that these were stolen property that had come into Jimmy’s hands at some time. The main significance is that it was impossible to prove where these coins came from, and without that provenance, nobody can claim they were stolen from themselves.

They are simply gold coins from a total minting of about 20,000. Daddy Thompson was clear about their ownership, saying that without any accompanying information, such as a newspaper clipping describing such a theft, there was nothing to link these coins to any owner, and therefore they now belonged to Phyllis. There was no definitive value known at this time, but Daddy Thompson reckoned it was a large sum based on rarity alone for a single gold coin, and there being multiples of it, the value would be even greater than a simple multiplication of a single coin. To a coin collector, this was a veritable hoard.

It was indeed Jimmy’s ‘nest egg’. There was no indication of how long ago they came into Jimmy’s hands. For all we knew, he may have inherited them from a parent or grandparent who had purloined them in the past. There was time enough for that, though a wartime damaged building might have been the source from which they derived, said Daddy Thompson when he told me at the office what had happened.