“Ready,” Louisa said. Hurry up.
It was torture, this sitting in the same room with Cody, this wishing his arm was around her, this knowing that they’d come so close to happiness, only to have it ripped away—again—by their cruel, cruel past.
“Turns out our girl was quite wealthy.”
She didn’t bother to correct him in his use of the phrase “our girl,” though she was absolutely certain Maggie would have.
“No, she wasn’t.” Louisa knew from sorting through some of her bank statements that Maggie was anything but poor—but she wouldn’t say the old woman was wealthy.
“Oh, but she was.” He chuckled again. “I’m not sure even she knew how wealthy. She never really cared much for the details.”
“All she had in the world was this house, Mr. Holbrook. She inherited it, but she wasn’t rich. She prided herself on it.” Louisa straightened.
He winked at her. Odd. “Many years ago, Maggie invested a good sum of money—she’s lived off of the money she made on that investment for years now.”
“Her allowance,” Louisa said.
“I’m sorry?”
“She called it her allowance. She never told me where it came from, only that each month, money was deposited in her account. She gave a lot of it away.”
“Well, that was just the tip of the iceberg. She had another account.” He handed over a sheet of paper with a bunch of numbers on it, and as Louisa scanned to the bottom, she saw TK/dab typed out, just like in the statements she and Cody had found.
“You said there was one investment?” Cody asked.
“Right. Someone very smart set her up.” He grinned, his bushy white eyebrows reminding Louisa of Maggie’s. Didn’t anybody over the age of sixty own a pair of tweezers? He shuffled through more papers. “Oh, well, look here, son. Wasn’t your father’s name Daniel?”
Cody nodded.
“Then we have him to thank for this. He made sure Miss Fisher was well taken care of.”
“What do you mean?”
“Now that Maggie is gone, I’ve been given access to her accounts. She dealt mostly with another man—” he scanned the paper in his hand—“Ted Kauffmann?”
“Right, he took over her investments from my father,” Louisa said.
“True!” Mr. Holbrook said it as if she’d given the correct answer on a game show. “But he wasn’t the one who invested her money for her.”
“How do you know this? We scoured Maggie’s accounts—we found nothing linking them to Cody’s dad,” Louisa said.
“I spoke with Mr. Kauffmann earlier this week,” Mr. Holbrook said. “I congratulated him on this fine portfolio he put together for Maggie, but he said he couldn’t take the credit.” He looked at Cody. “Said it was your father who set the whole thing up. Apparently he wanted to remain anonymous, but he was a brilliant financial planner. A real shame he was taken so soon.”
Finally Cody dared a look in Louisa’s direction. It was as if the last piece of the puzzle had just been placed and they now had a complete picture. But how did that picture make Cody feel? Was he proud of his father for taking care of Maggie so well, or did it only remind him that his own family had been sacrificed in the process? She wished she could ask him. Did he at least feel her concern through the silence of the room?
“I understand you’re standing in for your mother at this reading?” Mr. Holbrook was on to the next topic, though Louisa’s heart was still lingering on Cody.
“That’s right,” Cody said.
“Well, she will hopefully be pleased with this.” He handed over a business envelope.
“Should I open it now?” Cody asked.
The man’s eyes glimmered with anticipation. “I wish you would.”
Louisa watched as he tore open the envelope, withdrew what appeared to be a handwritten letter and a check. Cody looked at the papers in his hand, but his expression held steady. He would’ve been a worthy adversary at one of her father’s poker games.
The old man smiled as if he were Santa Claus on Christmas Day. “Your mom can retire for certain.”
Cody put the check back in the envelope with a nod. “Thank you, sir.”
Mr. Holbrook seemed disappointed in Cody’s grim reaction. He turned to Louisa. “And for you.”
He handed over another envelope, which she opened. Her poker face was a lot easier to read, she was sure. The amount of the check enclosed was astounding. Maggie was rich? Behind the check was a folded sheet of lined paper—a letter. Louisa pulled it out, took one look at the old woman’s handwriting, and decided to save this for later. She didn’t want to cry in mixed company.
“I assume this will put you in a very good position as well,” Mr. Holbrook said merrily.
Louisa stuttered a reply that even she knew made no sense. She was still trying to understand how it was that Maggie had all this money and nobody knew. With this check, Louisa could live life like the rest of the people on Nantucket. She couldn’t wrap her mind around the amount of money he’d just handed her.
She tucked the envelope away in her purse and watched Mr. Holbrook as he sorted through the rest of the papers.
“Last but not least.” He took out a folded document. “The house.”
“I figured we’d put it on the market,” Louisa said.
“If that’s what the new owner wants to do with it.” He handed the document to Cody.
“Me?”
“She said it was time for you to put down some roots. I guess she thought this would be a good place to do it.”
“I live in government housing,” he said lamely. “I don’t have roots.”
“Now you have a house.” He patted the seat. “And furniture.”
Louisa’s eyes filled with tears. The thought of Cody moving into Maggie’s house was so devastatingly perfect she could hardly contain her joy.
“Of course you can always sell it,” Mr. Holbrook said. “If that’s what you want to do.”
Why did he have to suggest that? Don’t give him ideas!
“Thank you, sir,” Cody said formally. “I’ll think it over.”
“You both have options—wonderful options.” Mr. Holbrook beamed. “Maggie was my favorite client. I always thought if we’d met sooner, we would’ve made a handsome couple.” He grinned.
Their eyebrows alone might’ve kept them from being “handsome,” but the thought of Maggie in love did make Louisa smile. “She would’ve been very happy to hear that.”
“Oh, she heard it plenty,” he said. “I asked her to go out with me every time I saw her. I think she thought I was kidding. Goes to show you should make your true intentions known.” He winked at Louisa again, then looked at Cody. “That’s a bit of free advice for you.”
“Mr. Holbrook,” Louisa said, “how was it that Maggie didn’t seem to know how wealthy she was? I feel like if she knew she had this much money, she would’ve done something with it—something worthy. She talked about opening up a nonprofit to help people—she used to dream of it. But one day she just stopped talking about it.”