Deadly Dry Rot by Maree Brittenford

Author:Maree Brittenford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, cozy mystery, carpentry mystery, renovation mystery
Publisher: Maree Brittenford
Published: 2023-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

The opening of the safe is rather anticlimactic after that. At least the action of getting it unlocked.

The locksmith is an older man. Short and stocky with dark skin and a button up shirt buttoned all the way to the neck. He looks like an accountant or something. Very calm and disinterested. Maybe he gets called to open safes in old buildings all the time?

He looks the safe over carefully. "No problem," he says, and true to his word he has it open in less than ten minutes.

And he doesn't even care what's inside. Doesn't even look. He leaves the door slightly ajar and steps back. "I'll go see to rekeying those other locks now," he says. "I assume you want to change the combination without me standing here."

He gathers his tools and heads off down the stairs.

"Was that sarcastic?" I ask. "Some sort of locksmith joke? Does it matter if he knows the new lock combination? It's not like he needs it to open the safe.”

Eddie smiles. The first smile he's shown since my little outburst earlier, and the tension in my shoulders eases.

"I think he was just being polite," he says.

Maybe so. The fellow did seem rather humorless.

"How do you want to do this?" I ask. "We should take photos or something as we empty it so we have proof that we didn't steal anything."

Eddie grabs the box of nitrile gloves off the table. "You should put some on too."

I don't plan on touching anything, but I oblige him, and then pick up my phone. "I'll take video and pictures," I say.

He nods, and swings the door of the thing open. And then pauses, peering inside. I would yell at him for dragging the suspense out, except I don't want that preserved in digital film forever.

He carefully reaches inside and pulls out—a manila folder. Several, in fact.

I don't know what I was expecting. Blood stained cash? A suicide note? Gem encrusted jewelry?

Some papers in folders are exactly what I should've been expecting. He lays them on the makeshift plywood table.

"There's more," he says, and reaches inside again. This time he pulls out a bundle of cash, hundred dollar bills by the looks of it, in a neat stack with a paper tape around it, about an inch and a half thick. And then he pulls out three more. Eddie flips through them slowly, and it does look like that the entirety of the stacks is hundred dollar bills.

He puts them down next to the folders. "That's everything. You want to take a look?"

He steps out of the way and I lean in carefully, angling the phone to get a good look inside the now empty safe.

"Should I turn the camera off now?" I ask.

"Let's count the money first."

He doesn't break the paper around the stacks, just carefully pages through the ends, counting out loud. "Twenty five thousand," he says quietly, after he gets through the first stack. "The others are probably the same amount," I say. "They're the same size.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.