Raspberry Danish Murder (Hannah Swensen #22)(49)

Mike reached out to put his hand on her shoulders. “Calm down, Hannah. I can tell you’re stressed to the max.”

“I am,” Hannah admitted and took a deep breath. “Let’s start again. What reason would someone have to put a hundred thousand dollars in bills in a safe deposit box?”

“Well . . . he could have wanted to hide it from someone.”

“Who?”

“There’s no way of knowing that, but some people use safe deposit boxes to hide assets from a spouse.”

“But I’m his spouse and Ross left me the keys. If he’d wanted to hide it from me, he wouldn’t have done that. Give me some other possible reasons.”

“Perhaps he didn’t want to deposit it for some reason.”

Hannah gave an exasperated sigh. “I know that, but why didn’t he want to deposit it?”

“Well . . . there’s the ten thousand dollar cash limit. The reason it’s there is to prevent drug dealers and criminals from banking the profits of their crimes.”

“I already thought of drug money, but what other crimes are you talking about?”

“There’s extortion. This money could be extorted from someone. Or it could be the ransom from a kidnapping or bank robbery and the perp doesn’t know if the bills are marked, or not. It could also be counterfeit and whoever put it in the safe deposit box wants to hide it and pass it off one bill by one to avoid detection.”

“So it could be dirty money, or counterfeit money. Is that right?”

“That’s right.”

Hannah was silent for a moment, thinking it over. “Can you tell if this money is counterfeit?”

“No. I can give you a guess, but that’s about it.”

“What’s your guess?”

“A couple of bills on the tops of the stacks look worn, and that makes me think that they, at least, are legitimate. But that’s just my gut feeling, Hannah. I really don’t know.”

“Who would know if they’re counterfeit?”

“I’m not sure, but I’ll find out. I have a friend in the treasury department and I’ll give him a call at home tonight. He’s a good guy, and he’ll put me in touch with someone who knows.”

“Thanks, Mike.” Hannah’s mind was spinning with possibilities, and she latched on to one. “Would a bank robber be able to hide the money he stole in a safe deposit box?”

“Yes, under certain circumstances. If he had the proper identification, he could go to any bank and rent a safe deposit box. Then he could carry the money in, concealed in some kind of briefcase or travel bag, and put it in his box.”

“And no one would know?”

Mike shook his head. “Once you rent a safe deposit box, you’re given privacy to open it and put in anything that’ll fit. It’s just like when you used your keys to retrieve Ross’s box. No one from the bank can get in without you, and they leave you in privacy so that you’re alone when you have access to the box. It’s even easier with the kind of safe deposit boxes that Doug has here. No one even has to check your identification once you’ve rented the box.”

Hannah could feel her frustration beginning to grow again. “So what you’re telling me is that we really don’t know anything about this money.” She gestured to the stacks of bills. “It could have come from anywhere.”

“That’s right. Of course if this money is either counterfeit or from an illegal source, the person who tries to use it takes the risk of being apprehended.”

Hannah thought about that for a moment. “Yes. And I certainly want to find out if that’s the case.” She bent closer to look at the stacks of bills again and gave a little gasp as she spied something. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“There’s something shiny under that third stack of bills.” She pointed to the shiny object she’d noticed. “It’s rounded on top and it looks like the edge of a coin.”

Mike moved closer and leaned down to look. “I see it. It’s something silver. Hold on a second and I’ll get it out so we can find out exactly what it is. Do you have a nail file or anything thin, flat, and pointed in your purse?”

“I’m not sure. Let me look.” Hannah set her saddlebag-size purse on the top of the desk and rummaged inside. Eleven pens, a paperback book she’d been meaning to read in her spare time, and a very old tin of breath mints later, she found something that met Mike’s parameters.

“How about this?” she asked, holding up a rattail comb she’d dropped in her purse for Andrea when her sister’s dress purse was too tiny to hold it.

“Perfect,” Mike said, taking the comb. “It should work.”

Hannah watched as Mike inserted the tip of the comb under the stack of bills and poked against the object until it emerged from the other side. He shoved it out into the open area of the box without ever touching the contents of the box with his fingers.

“It’s a key!” Hannah said, recognizing the shape immediately. She started to reach for it, but Mike grabbed her hand.

“Leave it there, Hannah,” he told her. “We’ll get it out without touching the inside of the box.”

“How?”