Re: Zephyr

[Herr D]

[chapter 14 continues]
Jennifer leaned forward, sipped her wine, looking concerned. BaBUMP. BaBUMP. BaBUMP. HHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh She shook her head to clear it. Too much wine, maybe? No. I don’t believe that. “Are you okay, Tony?”
He turned and beamed at her, all at once eighty plus and a little boy just given his favorite dessert. “There’s only one thing better than resolving past issues and putting grief and uncertainty to rest, Jennifer.”
Well, you don’t SEEM to be having a heart attack. “What’s that, Tony?”
“Doing all that and having a great meal and getting rich near a pretty girl all at one time.”
Jennifer failed to hide almost looking over her shoulder for the pretty girl. Tony clutched his ponderous middle and laughed so loud it hurt Jennifer’s ears. “You are a prize; you know that, right?” said Tony, wiping his eyes with the back of his dirty hands. “And don’t even know you’re pretty? No wonder Michael hasn’t brought anyone else here.”
“What?”
“He’s a young man and doesn’t have the money to dress up nice. But the older ladies, the ones who know what they missed, they follow him with their eyes. I see this when he walks through my restaurant, and it makes me smile. If he wasn’t a distant relative I’d send him toward one of my grand-daughters. He’ll make some woman very happy. See that it’s you!“
Mike and Henri burst in and came trotting up to Tony as he leaned back in his two chairs. Henri looked, aghast, at the hole in the wall and the mess on the floor, eyes repeatedly drifting back to the cut carpet. “I will be needing three staff to guard this on the way to the safe,” Tony said, rapidly picking up each coin, studying it, and putting it back. “Go and get them.” Henri’s eyebrows went up, he nodded, turned, and left. “An’ donna forget the whipped cream on the pie!” Tony bellowed after him.
“Five minutes!” Henri’s reply was barely audible from outside the room.
Tony looked at Mike and Jennifer sternly. “Now THIS is an even bigger story. Fewer than ten people know that these doors are supposed to close next month. I’ve put all my grandchildren through college with remortgaging this place. The bank is planning to take possession in fifteen days. The paperwork is half done. I was going to rent banquet halls to continue the business and move staff to the Cafe Raison Du’ Etre as I could. The owner there, he likes me and wants some of my people. Now I don’t have to close at all.”
What? “Because of a box of coins?” Jennifer asked. He’s definitely not too young to go senile.
“These are gold Double Eagles. Very good condition. They were worth twenty dollars when minted. Most of these fetch ten thousand dollars apiece. The 1933 is illegal to own.”
Jennifer choked, “Illegal?”
Tony smiled. “None of these are 1933. Doesn’t look like there’s a complete set either. But this is enough to get me out of debt and then some. The 1933’s not destroyed were stolen from the U. S. mint long ago. My banker will be very happy to get these. He loves the rare coins, he does. And this is the largest number found at one time in a good many years. The bootleggers must have been using this stop for moving money, too.”
[chapter 14 continued next block]