Guardian Angels – Ambivalent - 17

"What scares the shit out of me," Mike said the next morning, looking between Paddy and Vic, "is the fact Mr. Keefe wasn't just supposed to locate me. If what he did to Micky is any indication he's supposed to kill me."

"I'd say that's a given," Vic agreed, "and I might have found out why." He opened a website, going to the page he needed. "You father left you everything he owned, less a few minor bequests to the other members of his family."

"You're kidding!"

"Not at all. The codicil to the will is that you're to use the money to make something of yourself."

"That would be just like him. He couldn't control me in life so he tries to in death. Not that what money he would have left would do much other than maybe get me a better apartment."

"Mike, your father was well-to-do, not to say rich," Vic told him.

"Not possible. He worked construction all his life. We lived in a lower-middle class neighborhood. Maybe he managed to save something, but rich? No way."

"Not according to this." Vic tapped the screen.

Mike leaned over to look, gasping in shock. "Three quarter of a million? Where, how…?"

"It doesn't say how, but he had it and the majority of it goes to you, once you're found. However,"—Vic looked hard at Mike—"I would suggest you don't suddenly show up to claim it. It's pretty obvious someone wants you dead before you can."

"Then wouldn't it be smarter if he did show up?" Paddy asked. "If he had a fatal accident afterwards… Okay, yeah, that's not what we want to happen even if it did lead to Keefe and whoever hired him."

Mike managed to chuckle. "Not exactly my idea of how I want this to end on a personal level. Still…" He drummed his fingers on the edge of Vic's desk.

"Yes?" Vic asked.

"All that money. It can't be legitimate. Is there any way to tell where it came from?"

"Some is in a bank account so I suspect it's just savings." Vic ran a few searches, "The rest is in… Okay, from the reports from his broker he invested in some very risky ventures that paid off big time." Vic looked impressed. "He seems to have known what he was doing."

"That sounds like him, but damn, seven-hundred and fifty thousand?"

"You're a rich young man now."

"Presuming I live long enough to inherit it."

"I'm going to make damned sure you do," Paddy said adamantly.

"I'd appreciate that," Mike replied, smiling a bit.