“I didn’t think so,” Seth said. He produced a bucket with a Plexiglas bottom. “Come over here and take a look.” He put the bottom of the bucket in the water astern of the boat and held it while Stone looked into it. The six-foot-deep water, which was clear but dark, became even clearer. A cubical object about eighteen inches on each side came dimly into view, half sunk into the muddy bottom.

“It’s got to be the safe,” Stone said.

“What safe?” Dino asked.

“Dick’s safe from the study. Somebody got into the house and sawed it out of where it was bolted to a shelf in a cupboard.”

Seth said, “I reckon the feller muscled it down here to the dock to load it on a boat, and he slipped up and dropped it, hitting the boat’s transom. The safe went into the water, and nobody could get it out of there alone without some equipment.”

“Seth,” Stone said, “is there a wet suit among Dick’s stuff?”

“Yes, in the garage,” Seth said, “but it’s Dick’s size, and he was smaller than you or me.”

“Would it fit Dino?”

“Hey, wait a minute,” Dino said.

“I reckon it would,” Seth replied.

“Will you take Dino inside and get him into the wet suit? Hit him over the head, if you have to. Then find some rope and a shovel.”

DINO STOOD ON THE dock wearing the wet suit, a mask and a snorkel. “Now what?” he asked.

“It’s going to be just like that time you told me about in the Bahamas,” Stone said. “Remember how much you enjoyed the snorkeling?”

“This is Maine, not the Bahamas,” Dino said. “That water is fucking cold.”

“That’s why you’re wearing the wet suit,” Stone said. “See? We’ve thought of your every need.”

“But…”

Stone pushed him into the water.

Dino sputtered to the surface. “You’re going to pay for that, goddammit!”

“Now, here’s what you do,” Stone said, handing him a shovel and a length of rope.

45

STONE LET THE water drain off the safe, then dried it carefully, before he and Seth carried it into the house.

“What do you think it weighs?” Stone asked Seth.

“Fifty, sixty pounds,” Seth replied.

“Could one man handle it?”

“You want to try?”

“Nope.”

“I reckon a pretty strong fella could handle it. ’Course, he might drop it trying to get it into a boat.”

They got the safe into the study, laid some newspapers on the desk and rested the steel box on top of it, lying on its back. Lance was working away at the computer in Dick’s office.

“The dial is gone,” Stone said.

Lance spoke up. “That means they tried to open it, failed, then sawed it out of the cabinet.”