Raspberry Danish Murder (Hannah Swensen #22)(47)

Doug laughed. “It’s quarters now, Mike. And they’re even heavier. Bills are the way to go if you’re mailing a cash card.”

“So you had the amount of cash that Ross wanted on hand?” Hannah asked, attempting to keep them from getting sidetracked.

“Yes, we did. The armored truck had just delivered that morning and I went to the vault to get what Ross needed.”

“Did Ross buy any traveler’s checks while he was here at the bank?” Hannah asked.

The moment the question left her mouth, Mike turned to her with a smile.

“No. I get a record of traveler’s checks sold every week, and there were none that week.”

“Did Ross exchange any money for foreign currency?” Mike asked.

“No. I get a record of that, too.” Doug reached into his center desk drawer, drew out a small padded envelope, and handed it to Hannah. “I’m sorry I forgot to give this to you earlier. Ross left it for you. I’m really not supposed to hand deliver anything in a sealed envelope from one customer to another customer, but if you’ll open it in front of me so that I can see the contents are nothing illegal, that’ll satisfy our internal bank regulations.”

Hannah’s hands were shaking slightly as she opened the envelope. Was it a note from Ross, explaining why he’d left? She was almost afraid to see what he’d left for her, but she steadied herself and looked inside.

“What is it?” Mike asked.

“Two keys on a key ring,” Hannah answered, shaking them out of the envelope and onto the blotter on Doug’s desk. “That’s all. There’s nothing else in the envelope.”

“There’s a tag with a number on it,” Mike pointed out. “One thirty-seven.”

“Do you mind if I pick them up?” Doug asked Hannah.

“No, go ahead. I know I’ve seen keys like that before, but I can’t quite place them.”

“They’re safe deposit keys,” Doug told her.

“Did Ross have a safe deposit box?” Mike asked him.

“I’ll check. Give me a moment, and help yourself to more coffee while you’re waiting. I’ll be right back.”

Both Hannah and Mike sat there and waited, each thinking their own private thoughts. Hannah was wondering why Ross had left her the keys to his safe deposit box. Did that mean he was never coming back to Lake Eden and to her? Was he gone forever? And if Doug was right about the keys, what was in Ross’s safe deposit box? And would she be allowed to use the keys to find out? Or was there some banking regulation making that illegal?

Hannah took a deep breath, told herself to think positive thoughts about this new revelation, and turned to Mike. “What do you think this means?” she asked him.

“The envelope with his keys?”

“Yes. Does this mean that he’s not planning to . . . to come back?”

Mike reached out for her hand again. “I don’t know, Hannah. Maybe it’s just a precaution.”

“A precaution against what?”

Mike was silent for a moment and Hannah could tell he was thinking. Then he gave her hand a little pat, let it go, and spoke again.

“A precaution against loss. Or maybe against someone taking the keys against his will.”

“But why would Ross be afraid that someone would . . .” Hannah stopped speaking as the door to the office opened and Doug came back in.

“Lydia checked the records. Ross’s safe deposit box is here, and it’s number one thirty-seven. As a matter of fact, she wrote out the receipt for him when he rented the box.”

Hannah was almost afraid to ask, but she had to know. “Can I get into Ross’s box?”

“Yes. Our bank has a self-service system for our safety deposit boxes. In other banks, a teller has to pull a signature card, check the customer’s identification to make sure he or she is the customer who signed the card, let the customer into a secure area, and use the bank key and the customer’s key to unlock the door that secures the box inside the vault. Once the box is removed from the vault, the teller carries it to a private room in the secured area and leaves. Then the customer lifts the lid on the box and either adds to, reviews, or removes the desired contents. When this is accomplished, the customer pushes a buzzer to summon the teller, the teller carries the box to the vault and replaces it, and the door is closed and relocked with both keys. No customer can get into his or her safe deposit box without the bank key, and no bank employee can get into the customer’s safety deposit box without the customer’s key. It’s a very secure system.”

“It certainly sounds like it,” Hannah agreed. “But you don’t have that system here?”

“No. We only have two full-time tellers and one part-time teller who comes in on busy bank days like Mondays, Fridays, and the first day and the last day of the month if those days don’t happen to fall on a Monday or a Friday. The system I just described to you is labor intensive, and we don’t have the personnel to do it. When I became bank president, we decided to remodel and use the self-service system.”

“Is that why Ross had two keys?” Hannah asked.

“Yes. The safe deposit area is in the annex we built. It’s in the back, right next to the employee break room. The customer uses one key to open the door, locks it behind him or her, and uses the other key to unlock the safe deposit box. There are two offices for our safe deposit box holders to use, again with locking doors. The customer uses one of them, completes whatever he or she came to do, carries the box back to the vault, and secures it behind the locked door.”