The room smelled of old paper, cold steel, and floor wax.

He pulled a heavy metal drawer out of safe deposit box forty-two and held the steel lid open for me.

I laid the blue evidence folders, the forged bank loan documents, and the black USB flash drive carefully in the bottom of the box.

I inserted the brass key into the upper lock cylinder and turned it hard to the right until the heavy steel deadbolts clicked shut inside the door.

By ten o’clock the next morning, the high-ceilinged room in County Probate Court was quiet except for the hum of the overhead lights.