Digging deeper, Decker found another round of angry letters from Yalom to VerHauten—Yalom accusing VerHauten of illegal stock manipulation. Still no indication that Yalom ever hired an attorney to represent him.

Decker kept reading and hunting.

Marge said, “Look at this, Pete. A whole stack of land deeds in Angola, Mozambique, and Namibia.”

Decker looked at them. They were dated two years ago. “I wonder if they’re still valid.”

Marge said, “I wonder if they were ever valid.” She kept reading. More letters—the gist of the irate exchange had to do with who officially owned stock and land in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Botswana.

He and Marge had scratched the surface of about half the contents of the box when they heard a knock. Marge muttered some obscenity, then opened the cubicle door. A Suit-and-Tie was looking at her. He broke into a venal smile.

“You two aren’t supposed to be here unsupervised.” He wagged his finger. “I’m not pleased about that at all. I have a good mind to call your captain.”

Marge and Decker said nothing. Finally Marge said, “We’re just working away, sir.”

Suit-and-Tie pursed his lips. “Well, that’s good to hear. Always like it when my tax dollar is well spent.” He let out a forced laugh. He was in his fifties—a big man with a big gut. When he laughed, his belly jiggled. “Chuck Holmes—senior vice president. I hope that as the chief representative of World First Savings and Loan, I’ve been of service to you.”

“Yes, you have,” Marge said. Fucker had no choice with our papers. “Thank you very much.”

“No thanks is necessary.” Holmes held out his hand as if warding off demons. “I like to do my job, I like to help our boys in blue. And I know Marie likes to help, too. But sending her away.” He clucked his tongue. “That’s going a little too far.”

Decker didn’t answer. Holmes suddenly became magnanimous. “Well, no harm done, I guess. I’m afraid you’re going to have to stop anyway. It’s closing time.”

“We’re not done,” Marge said.

Holmes flipped his wrist and looked at his timepiece. “Sorry, but I have to close the vault by a certain hour or bells go off. I hope you two found something that’ll elucidate this terrible, terrible incident. The Yaloms were very valued customers.”

Decker asked, “How much time do we have left?”

“About two minutes. Just enough time for you to put everything back in the box.”

Marge said, “How about if we come back first thing tomorrow morning. Say around eight?”