The iron bracket groaned against the freezer frame, but the heavy brass body of the lock wouldn’t give.

“Julian!

The ambulance siren is coming into the neighborhood!” Robert shouted from the open garage doorway behind me.

I reset my work boots on the dusty concrete, pulled the iron bar back three feet, and slammed its heavy flat head straight down onto the brass lock with everything I had in my shoulders.

The iron clasp sheared off the freezer with a loud metallic snap, and the brass padlock bounced across the concrete floor and came to rest near the workbench.

I grabbed the rubber handle of the freezer lid and threw it back hard against the garage wall.