Page 64 of Pro Bono

“Memphis, Tennessee.” Copes peered into the thick brown expandable envelope and pulled out the birth certificate, then laid it carefully on the table in front of her so she could read it.

She looked down at it for a moment. “Daniel Webster. He wasn’t much like the original.”

“No, he wasn’t,” Charlie said. “What else have we got to work with?”

Minkeagan said, “The stack of regular-size papers are the receipts from his deposits and monthly reports on how his investments were doing. They have the names of the companies and the account numbers on them. I think those might be the big things. There are also the ownership papers for the BMW and a Los Angeles marriage license with your name and McKinley Stone on it.”

“Ownership of things he wrecked, I guess.” Linda said.

Charlie said, “Guys, do you agree that we should make copies of the papers to work with and keep the originals here in the safe?”

“We talked about that,” Copes said. “And that’s pretty much what we thought. There’s no sense in bringing in people we don’t know we can trust and paying them to guard our secrets.”

“Right,” Minkeagan said.

“Okay,” Charlie said. “Let’s all agree on where we start. A lot of the money Mack stole from my mother was in these accounts. There’s a standard practice of all fifty state governments that requires that abandoned accounts be turned over to the state treasurer or similar official. An abandoned account is one that has seen no deposits or withdrawals or other activity for three to five years, depending on the state. That practice is called ‘escheatment.’ ”

“Sounds like an excellent name for it,” Linda said.

“Some states require the bank to publish the names of the account holders or do it themselves. Some states send a letter to the last known address,” Charlie said.

“I never received anything of the sort,” she said. “I guess Daniel Webster Rickenger didn’t have the same address as Mack Stone.”

“Which brings up our first problem. We have some bank accounts in this paperwork. Some, but only some, are located in the State of California. The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency says the proper procedure in a case like this one is to start by sending an inquiry to the office of the treasurer of the relevant state. So we start by preparing to send these inquiries.”

Minkeagan said, “Preparing to? What the hell?”

“First, we need to establish in court that the late McKinley Lawrence Stone and Daniel Webster Rickenger were the same person, and then prove that Linda Warren, formerly Linda Warren Stone, was his wife at the time of his death. That makes her his heir in the State of California,” Warren said. “But there’s no reason not to get the inquiries all ready tobe mailed out while we’re waiting to get this to court here in LA. Since the Mack Stone we knew was a very competent thief, I think we’ve got to ask all fifty states, Puerto Rico, and a few of the American protectorates. We should work out the procedures for Canadian and Mexican banks too. If there’s anything hidden in foreign countries, we’ll have to work through local attorneys in those places.”

“What’s next?” Copes said.

“We get started on the other assets. You said you’ve gotten in touch with some financial services companies that held stocks and bonds and things in Rickenger’s name. As they told you, in seventeen years companies get bought out by bigger companies or merge or go broke or change their names, and so on. When an account is actively managed, some stocks get sold and replaced by other stocks or gold or bonds or real estate trusts or annuities or cyptocurrency or whatever. But every month the company will produce a report that says how many dollars the account’s current holdings are worth on the market. Once we’ve established that Linda Warren is the owner of an account, we claim it. They will convert the account to cash and send the money. That’s the rough description of the process. Any questions so far?”

“Jesus. How long does this take?” Minkeagan said.

“Months. Years if there’s resistance and we have to sue,” said Warren. “It won’t take up all our time, but it won’t all happen at once. We’re starting by establishing that my mother is the heir because once that’s done, we can do several accounts at once. Are you two broke?”

“Not yet,” Copes said. “The wolf isn’t at the door, but I can see him just peeking at us over the hill.”

“I’ll get some papers done to pay you a cash advance on your finder’s fee. I’ll call you when the money is here. Does anybody have any questions?”

“No,” Minkeagan said. Copes shrugged and stayed silent.

Linda said, “Do you need me here anymore?”

“No. I’ll have some papers for you to sign later in the day, but I can bring them to you.”

“Good.” She stood up and turned to the two old men. “Thank you for finding these papers. Meeting Mack Stone was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I hate remembering it, but it’s been nice having some of my curiosity satisfied. Goodbye.”

She walked to the door. “See you later, Charlie.”

A few days later Warren was in the Stanley Mosk Superior Courthouse on Hill Street filing the papers to have the former Linda Warren Stone declared the sole heiress of all money and property owned by the late McKinley Lawrence Stone, also known as Daniel Webster Rickenger, his original name. His claim included copies of many documents, some proving that she was married to him when he died, and others that showed that he had transferred most of her money to himself before his death. The explanation was complicated, but thoroughly detailed and proven.

It took six weeks for the court to approve the claim and declare her the widow and heir of the deceased under either of these names. Warren went back to his office that day and had the office’s favorite messenger service pick up the box of letters of inquiry to mail to the treasurers of all fifty states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and several US protectorates in the Pacific, asking whether they had possession of any abandoned accounts of Daniel Webster Rickenger. There were also inquiries to the Canada Board of Treasury Secretariat and Mexico’sComisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores.

Warren had already sent letters of inquiry to all the investment companies that had supplied Daniel Rickenger with proof of money entrusted to them. Warren had his mother sign papers allowing him to act as her attorney and spokesperson. Then he said, “Now that we’ve got that part done, it shouldn’t take too long for the other states to answer. We can just sit tight.”

“That’s good to know,” she said. “But I think I’m going to do some exploring on the mainland. I want to visit a few places and see if one of them might suit me for a while. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you know where I am all the time.”

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