I pressed the bloody handkerchief tight to my split lip with my left hand so blood wouldn’t fall onto the safe dial.

With my right hand, I inserted the brass key into the safe dial in front of twenty shocked relatives.

The brass lock clicked inside the heavy door, and the steel frame swung outward on oiled hinges.

Inside the dark metal interior there were no stacks of hundred-dollar bills, no green bearer bonds, and no real estate deeds bound in twine.

Six blue manila folders stood upright in a small wire rack beside a thin black flash drive and one sheet of yellow lined paper folded twice.