Murray Hill || A Superhuman Tale - 1

Chapter Twenty-Four

The afternoon was fairly anticlimactic. The trip to the lawyer was short. Tommy next stopped by a sporting goods store and purchased several sturdy, military style ruck sacks and two complete changes of clothes. The clothes he would leave at Philly's office. He then made his way to a mid-size bank in the Financial District where he'd kept a safety deposit box since the late 1940s. Getting into his box thankfully was easy. He had the keys and several letters from the lawyers. Life without photo ID could be inconvenient.

In a private room, he popped the box open for the first time since 1950. He had a clear idea of what was in it. There was a thick stack of bearer bonds, as well as some old stock certificates. He had a sense of what the stocks and bonds were worth, and the lawyers had arranged a buyer in advance.

More difficult were the three dozen or so envelopes of precious gems of various sizes and grades. Most were diamonds, with a few rubies and emeralds, and most of the diamonds were of an unusually good quality. Tommy had gone on a diamond mania in the 1800s and had assembled what he thought was a good collection. The vast majority were from one half carat to 1 carat in weight. He had a small number of larger stones, of 3 to 5 carats, but those were the best quality.

The exception was a single, spectacular, 10-carat diamond he'd owned for nearly 300 years. The stone was beautiful and perfect, and it was necessary to fight the sudden urge not to part with it—the large rock brought back fond memories of a simpler time in his life. But he'd lost it once before, in a card game to some railroad nabob in 1871, and had regained it at an estate sale 40-some years later. The old man was nothing if not patient.

So, he shoved aside his sentiment. It'd be difficult to sell the gems in short order, which he wanted to do. He toyed briefly with what price he should ask, and even pondered having the stones appraised, but balked at the time such a process would take. He'd bought and sold diamonds before.

Last, there were several bags of gold ingots, which'd been illegal to own when he'd placed them in the box, and a few rolls of cash. The cash, of course, had done nothing but lose value. He was glad to have left only a few thousand dollars' worth. Gold, however, had gone through the roof in recent years.

One of the rucksacks was completely full after Tommy loaded the contents into it. He left the bank and spent the next five hours moving about the city attempting to get the best price possible for the box's contents. It was a great surprise how well and easily it all went. There were always people who were willing to pay for commodities in cash, but nowadays they usually wished a greater profit from the endeavor.

Much to his surprise, the gold fetched very close to the market rate, and the buyers the lawyers had found for the securities purchased them at only slightly below actual value. The old greenbacks were in sterling condition, and a shop specializing in such things purchased many, including the few silver certificates among them, at about 30 percent above their face value.

Sadly, there were few buyers willing to pay cash for the gems. He was only able to sell a few of the smaller, lower quality stones. But the other items had fetched a good price, almost as much, in fact, as he'd thought originally to get for the entire box. So, Tommy slipped the remaining gems into a small leather bag and pocketed them. They'd fetch a decent price in the diamond markets back home.