I slid the page back into his jacket and kept the brass key clenched in my right palm.

Where had the eighteen thousand dollars gone before Friday’s mortgage deadline?

The Oak Creek post office smelled of paper dust and old radiators when I came through the double doors at ten the next morning.

The wall of metal post office boxes ran down a narrow side hall past the lobby counter.

Box four twelve was four rows up from the floor.

I slid the brass key into the little lock and turned it to the right.