'Let me see if I have that straight, Mrs. Worner. You were told that Mrs. Calhoun was about to be sued because she had been involved in an automobile accident; that the Calhouns did not have insurance; and that if they lost the lawsuit, the lawyers were going to take everything they owned?'
'That's what they told me. Vincent first, and then Timmy and Monica, later.'
'So you helped them hide money, and jewelry, by making a safe-deposit box available to Officer Calhoun?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Just Officer Calhoun? Did Mrs. Calhoun ever use the box?'
'Yes, she did.'
'And Mr. Holmes? Did he ever go into the box?'
'Yes, he did. Both of them did.'
'Did you ever see what Officer Calhoun, Mrs. Calhoun, or Mr. Holmes put into the safe-deposit box, or took out of it? Did you ever see any of the money, or the jewelry Mrs. Calhoun inherited from her grandmother?'
'No, sir.'
'Can you explain that to me, please? Why not?'
'Because, except for not making a record that they had rented a box, I treated them like any other customer. They came to my desk, I went with them to the box with my-the bank's-key and unlocked the bank's lock. They unlocked their lock-you understand there's two locks on every box?'
'Yes, ma'am.'
'And then they took the box into one of the little rooms, closed the door for privacy, and then either put things into it, or took things out of it.'
'So you have no personal knowledge of what went into the box we're talking about?'
'No, sir.'
'Did it occur to you, Mrs. Worner, that what you were doing might be illegal?'
'Yes, sir, it did. I realized I was cheating the bank.'
'Out of the box rent, you mean.'
'Yes, sir, that's what I mean. That bothered me.'
'Mrs. Worner, did you have any idea that Officer Calhoun might be engaged in an illegal activity besides concealing his assets?'
'I knew he was a policeman. I didn't even think of anything like that. I knew his wife had stubbed her toe.'
'Excuse me?'
'That she'd had a couple of drinks in her when she'd had the accident. That was why-even though the accident wasn't really her fault-they were going to lose in court.'
'But aside from Mrs. Calhoun's drunken driving, and the Calhouns' desire to conceal their assets from the court, you had no knowledge or suspicion of any other criminal activity on the part of Officer Calhoun?'
'Not until this morning,' Adelaide said.
'What happened this morning?'
'After the police went to Vincent's house and arrested Timmy, Vincent went over there-'
'Excuse me. Vincent-Mr. Holmes-'went over there'? By over there, you mean to his house?'
Mrs. Worner lowered her head and blushed.
'He… Vincent had spent the night at my house,' she said.
'Okay. And after the police arrested Officer Calhoun, he went to his house to see what was going on?'
'Yes. And Monica told him what had happened, and Vincent came back and told me he didn't know what, but Timmy was in some kind of trouble with the police, and that if I didn't want bad trouble myself, I should never tell anybody, ever, about the safe-deposit box.'
'But you're talking to me now?'
'I am not a criminal-type person, Mr. Detective. As soon as I could work up the courage, I was going to see Mr. Chase and tell him what I had done.'
'Mrs. Worner, let's talk about the safe-deposit box,' Matt said.
'Yes, sir. Four twenty-one. It's a C-size box,' she said, and pointed.
'A 'C-size box'?'
'There are six sizes, A through F, A being the largest, F the smallest.'
'I see. Now, I want to be very careful about this. Do you know who the last person to go into that box was?'
'Yes, sir. Timmy.'
'By Timmy, you mean Officer Timothy J. Calhoun?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Is there any possibility at all that anyone else has had access to that box since Officer Calhoun went into it?'
'Absolutely not.'
'How can you be sure?'
'Because I am in charge of the safe-deposit boxes. No one gets into one of them unless they come by my desk and sign themselves in.'
Matt turned to Chase.
'Mr. Chase, as an officer of this bank, do you have the authority to grant Lieutenant Deitrich and myself access to safe-deposit box number 421?'
'Yes, I do.'
'I ask you now, Mr. Chase, for permission to examine box 421, which has been identified to me as the box to which Mrs. Worner arranged… irregular access. Do I have your permission?'
Chase nodded.
'Would you verbalize your answer, please, sir?'
'You have my permission to go into the box,' Chase said.
'You're going to need Timmy's key,' Mrs. Worner said. 'It takes two keys to get into a box.'
'The bank doesn't have a master key?' Matt asked, surprised.
Chase shook his head.
'We'll have to call a locksmith,' Matt said. 'Or break into it.'
'Now, wait a minute,' Chase said. 'Who will pay for repairing that damage?'
'I will,' Adelaide Worner said. 'This is my fault.'
'Give me the bank's key, Adelaide, please,' Lieutenant Deitrich said.
'It's in my desk outside,' she said. 'I'll have to get it.'
'Please,' Deitrich said.
'Why don't we send for a locksmith?' Chase asked. 'I'll pay for it.'
'We may not have to, Mr. Chase,' Deitrich said. 'Let me see what I can do with that lock.'
He took a leather case, about the size of Matt's credentials folder, from his jacket pocket. It contained an array of small stainless-steel picks.
Twenty seconds after Mrs. Worner had given him the bank's key to box 421, Deitrich pulled the stainless- steel door to it open.
'There it is,' he said to Matt.
'Let's see what's in it,' Matt said.
The box was nearly full of stacks of currency, neatly held together with rubber bands.
'My God! Look at all that money!' Mrs. Worner exclaimed.
There was something else. Matt took a ballpoint pen from his pocket and fished a large gold-cased wristwatch with a matching band out of the box. The bezel of the watch was diamond-studded, and there was a diamond chip on the dial where each of the hour numbers would normally be.
'Does anyone really think Mrs. Calhoun inherited this from her grandmother?'
'What is it?' Deitrich asked.
'It's a Rolex, of course. What else?'
Matt held it out for Deitrich to see, and then let the gold-cased watch slip back off the ballpoint pen into the
