“If I had anything to trade, don’t you think I’d use it? Help me up, you stupid assholes! Help me up, here. Hey! Hey!”

We walked out instead. And while we were at it, we took the chairs with us.

Chapter 65

FOUR HOURS LATER, in the name of “coming clean” and telling us what he knew, and most of all, getting the best deal he possibly could, Nicholson offered up access to a safe-deposit box in DC. He said it contained evidence that could help us. I had doubts, but decided to take my progress with him incrementally.

It took some scrambling, but by the next morning Sampson and I were outside the Exeter Bank on Connecticut with fully executed paperwork, a key from Nicholson’s desk, and two empty briefcases in case there really was evidence to retrieve.

This place was no ordinary savings and loan, starting with the fact that we had to be buzzed in from the street. The lobby had a do-not-touch kind of feel to it—not a pamphlet or a deposit slip in sight.

From the reception desk, we were directed up to a row of glass-walled offices on the mezzanine. A woman inside one of them put down her phone and turned to look at us as we started up the stairs.

Sampson smiled and waved at her. “Feels like a damn James Bond movie,” he said through his teeth. “Come in, Dr. Cross. We’ve been expecting you.”

The branch manager, Christine Currie, was indeed expecting us. Her brief smile and handshake were about as warm as yesterday’s oatmeal.

“This is all a bit irregular for us,” she said. Her accent was stuffy and British, and more upper-crust than Nicholson’s. “I do hope it can be done quietly? Can it be, Detectives?”

“Of course,” I told her. I think we both wanted the same thing—for Sampson and me to be back on the street as soon as possible.

Once Ms. Currie had satisfied herself with our paperwork and compared Nicholson’s signature in half a dozen places, she led us out to an elevator at the back of the mezzanine. We got on and started down, a very rapid descent.

“You guys do free checking?” Sampson asked. I just stared straight ahead, didn’t say a word. Stuffy environments sometimes set John off. Stuffy people too. But most of all, bad people, criminals, and anybody who aids and abets.

We came out into a small anteroom. There was an armed guard by the only other door, and a suit-and-tie employee at an oversize desk. Ms. Currie logged us in herself, then took us straight through to the safe-deposit room.

Nicholson’s box, number 1665, was one of the larger ones at the back.

After we’d both keyed the flap door, Ms. Currie pulled out a long rectangular drawer, then carried it to one of the viewing rooms off an adjacent hallway.

“I’ll just be outside, whenever you’re ready,” she said in a way that sounded a lot like Don’t take too long with this.