“Three quarters and a dime between the cushions on the porch.”

Behind me I heard the tinkle of change hitting the counter. I scrunched farther into the narrow space beside the washer-dryer combo and looked behind it. “Nothing here.” As I backed out, something snagged my hair and I set it free. Looking up I saw that the culprit was an electric box, similar, but not identical, to the one in the garage.

I edged backward into the kitchen. “Teo, is it common to have more than one breaker box in a house? Because there’s one in the garage, too. I had to flip a switch last week.”

He joined me. “No, it’s excessive.” He reached around the appliances and swung open a smaller metal door on the front of the box. The smaller door read Voltage Conditioning System. He gave the same low whistle he’d given before, his special “this is new” whistle.

“What?” The inside of the box was different from the one in the garage, smaller, with an electric diagram on the inside of the door, and then against the larger door, two fuses, something called a voltage compensator, and more diagrams, along with the universal danger sign below them. “It looks like it’s specific to something. Maybe the washer and dryer? Maybe a voltage conditioning system, whatever that is, is normal in a laundry area?”

“Not even close.”

“Then what is it?”

“A wall safe.”

I paged through memories of the inventory at I Spy. I’d seen a wall safe hidden behind a picture frame. Glenn might even have said hidden safes were a hot seller. But this one didn’t look familiar.

“How do you know it’s a safe?” I asked.

“Because it’s not what it says it is. It has a door we can’t get beyond and lots of camouflage. I’ve never seen one exactly like it, but I’ve heard gun owners buy them. They’re big enough for a handgun. I don’t suppose you can call your parents and ask if they installed it for their tenants.”

“I don’t suppose I have to. A gun safe? I can guarantee they didn’t. Like the new medicine cabinet, either a former tenant installed it...”

“Or your sister did.”

“Can we get into it?”

“If that was easy, what would be the point?” Teo moved closer and pointed to voltage compensator. “This is how you set the combination. It takes four numbers, which probably equals a thousand or more choices.”

“Do you plan to stand there today and tomorrow trying all the possibilities?”

“Not much chance of that.”

“Me either.” I had a feeling this safe was the reason roofing guy had paid me a visit. And if that was true...

“If this is what your guy wanted, he probably knows the code,” Teo said, beating me to it.

“I was just finishing that same thought.”

“We could ask him for it.”

If any of this was true, my sister had probably given Mr. Carrillon Roofing the code, and I couldn’t think about that now. I preferred consulting Glenn, who was less likely to flatten me than roofing man. I told Teo to take five while I found my cell phone and called him. I left Teo staring up at the safe, as if he hoped the right numbers would suddenly come to him.