The driveway was empty.

I shut the front door and slid the old brass deadbolt home.

The house was completely silent.

The damp-carpet smell in the hall was gone, replaced by the faint scent of old floor wax and pine.

I carried my green duffel down the basement stairs and set it next to the wooden workbench.

In the far corner, the loose floorboard under the storage boxes was right where I’d left it weeks earlier.

I pulled the board back, reached into the dark hollow in the foundation wall, and lifted out the fireproof safe.