Sean pulled out his laptop and plugged the small black box in using a short cable, on-screen a dialogue popped up asking for the passcode. Annie read out the long string of numbers and letters as Sean typed it into the passcode box. There was a momentary silence before the screen changed and there was a list of numbers. He gasped.
“Oh my God, there’s almost twenty thousand Bitcoin in here.”
“Wow! Twenty thousand pounds…” Annie squealed. “You’re rich.”
“No…” Sean spoke slowly.
“No?” She frowned. “Ah well, easy come, easy go…”
“No, it’s more than that…” Sean brought up a screen and typed in numbers. He turned around the laptop and showed us.
“That is a hell of a lot of zeros.” I shook my head. “What does it mean?”
“Amanda, this device is holding almost one hundred, million pounds of Bitcoin.”
I laughed. It was all I could do, this was insane. “Yeah… Very funny.”
“No… Just think, if Edwin had kept money from his activities in a bank account it could be seized, under the proceeds of crime act. However, this is invisible, anonymous, untraceable.”
“And, it’s one more thing… It’s not ours!”
“But Amanda… Your life, our lives could change forever.”
“Annie. He was a dangerous man. We can’t just spend his money without retribution.”
“He will be locked away for at least twenty-five years. You could be anywhere, anyone before he came out.”
I grabbed the device and the piece of paper and pushed them into my pocket. “No… Please.” I shooed them both out the door and we returned to work.
***
The afternoon was tense, however, I invited them both over later for dinner and got back to chatting and drinking wine without referring to money. We all relaxed and eventually I saw them out and slipped, exhausted into bed.
***
Annie seemed to be distracted the next day, I left her in her own world, it seemed that she and Sean had argued. I felt responsible but didn’t want to get involved in their personal matters.
After everything, I hankered for some form of normality, so we went about our daily tasks together, everything seemed to have returned to as close to normal as was possible. It was only at the end of the week when Annie had woke me banging on my door that things seemed to become more complicated. The night before they had both come over for drinks and everything had seemed to the same, however, by the looks of Annie’s face, it was anything but.
“Annie… It’s four in the morning.”
“Sean’s gone. I woke up to go to the toilet and he wasn’t there.”
“Well, he’s not here either, if that is what you are asking.” I opened the door wide showing the empty room. “Hell Annie, Is that what you’re asking?”
“No…” She paused. Oh goodness no… I didn’t mean that” She coughed. “It’s just unusual.”
“Annie, he no doubt had to get somewhere early and didn’t want to wake you. Please, go back to bed, please let me get just an hour or so’s more sleep.”
“We had an argument…”
I sighed. “Or, as I am up already, come in and I’ll make you a brew.”
Annie wanted to tell me how Sean had become distant and how she was worried he may have found someone else. I told her that, as he was in his final year of agricultural college with some pretty major exams coming up and, most importantly, he was totally in love with her, he was highly unlikely to leave her. Annie had cried, I hugged her, stroking her back while all the time not trying to see the clock and bemoan the sleep I was missing.
She eventually left, but as it was light and almost time to feed I resigned myself to another tiring day.
***
Annie was distracted all day, in the end, I begged May to take her out for an hour or so to give me a break so she dragged her to town for a coffee and shopping trip. She was back that evening saying Sean hadn’t been back and his college friends hadn’t seen him either. I consoled her and said he would be back soon.
Sadly I was wrong, after first one and then two weeks of him not appearing Annie was beside herself, it was all May could do not to get her to call the police to report him as missing but we had called his parents who said he had done this before and not to worry as he would no doubt be back.
It was almost three weeks later that we had any news. I saw the postman park up his van by the main gate and bring me a pile of envelopes, mostly bills but there was one fat envelope addressed to Annie with Sean’s distinctive handwriting. I placed the pile on the dining room table and skulked away just in case the letter was bringing news of a breakup he couldn’t face to do in person.
I was just returning from ponying a couple of horses for exercise when Annie tore onto the yard, she had been crying and grabbed hold of my boot before I could even dismount.
“Oh, God Amanda!”
“What’s up.” I pushed her aside so that I could dismount without landing on her, choosing to let the horses go free in the sand school so I could attend to Annie as she was clearly distraught. She handed me a letter addressed to me. I tore open the envelope and grabbed the sheet of paper.
Amanda
You were always amazing to me and I am sorry that I have done this to you, but you were going to let the money go to waste and that was a crying shame.
By the time you read this I will be long gone, let’s face it £98 million is enough to make a man live his dreams, I am sorry that they won’t include the beautiful Annie, but I can’t be tied down.
I haven’t left you totally out of pocket, there is a sum for you in
