“The colonel at Devens asked me why I ran four background checks outside my jurisdiction.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“I said a family matter had gotten away from me.

He asked whose family.

I said both of ours.”

I handed him the moose after all.

He took it, and that’s how I knew the day would hold up.

The safe sits behind the bookcase panel in the study, where it has been since 1988.