If Julian could move his business equipment upstairs and use the papers Arthur had signed to claim legal control of the property, he could break into this vault and shred the evidence before Captain Keller’s team got here.

Arthur had backed Julian from the beginning because he knew that if Julian’s firm was indicted federally, Arthur’s own financial guarantees would get dragged into court right along with it.

I shut the canvas binder and carried it across the room to the heavy iron wall safe set into the foundation wall behind the file racks.

I spun the brass combination dial three turns to the left, stopped on fourteen, turned it twice to the right, and swung the heavy door open.

I put the three audit binders, the correspondence sleeves and the original wire transfer slips on the top steel shelf of the safe.