So here’s the thing about Lenny–he was lucky. And he was happy-go-lucky.

Back in the day, Lenny was totally cool with couch surfing. He lived in a few basements too, basements that he was supposed to remodel in exchange for rent and never did.

Consequently he moved around a lot, but was never homeless. He lived in some cool places too, like in the guest house of the lead singer for Dr. Hook–he was dating the guy’s daughter–and on the houseboat of a rich old man.

Lenny was a good-looking guy–he looked like a rugged version of George Michael if George Michael was from Chicago–so it might surprise you that he had some geek hobbies, like metal detecting on the beach and magnet fishing in the lagoons around the business district. Then again, knowing what you already know about him, it might not surprise you at all.

So one day, Lenny was magnet fishing and he pulled up a safe that had Herring, Hall, Marvin 1943 engraved on the bottom of it. There were tool marks where it had once been pried open and the combination lock was smashed, but it was in surprisingly good shape and sealed tight as a drum. Lenny managed to get it into the truck-bed of his 1970 Ford Ranchero, but just barely. The thing weighed a ton. He put a nasty scratch on the Ranchero too in the process.

From there he took the safe to his storage locker where he was living at the time. Not that he was living in the locker, mind you, he was the head security guard/maintenance man for the facility so he had an apartment there.

Lenny was good with tools. He took mechanics in high school and was a certified boat mechanic. When he worked as a boat mechanic he made good money, but the shop hours didn’t jibe with him. Saturday was the boat shop’s biggest service day and it was also his biggest day on the beach. It got old not having Saturday’s off.

Anyway, Lenny had thousands of dollars of tools. Good tools. Nothing below Snap-On quality. Plus, Lenny was smart. He got that safe open.

And guess what?

It had nothing but change in it…old change. Lots of Washington quarters, walking liberty half dollars and Roosevelt dimes. Bunches and bunches of Roosevelt dimes. All of it at least 90% silver. A small fortune of it.

With the proceeds from the silver currency, Lenny bought a nice condominium that needed a little work. He made that place into a show piece; he really did. And he put a green paint job on his Ranchero, a stock ivy green that looked a lot like avocado green.

Everybody was surprised by that.

He built a bar for his condo that had a saltwater tank in it and put some gorgeous tropical fish in it. He turned one of his bedrooms into a mini theater/gaming/stereo room that he called a “media room”. He bought a three thousand dollar mattress and a 50″ 720p television set before 720p was a thing.

A Sony.

And he invested the rest of it into Molly, or what people use to call Ecstasy. Lenny did very well with the Ecstasy. It was back in the early days of raves and techno and he knew all those people.

And that’s when he met Trish.