Page 14 (1/2)

As toift when I delivered the safe to Charlie&039;s door

Orange County doesn&039;t get snow Hell, we rarely get rain, but as I approached the door, carrying the safe under one arh Any weather was good enough at this time of the year

I knocked on his door to the rhythle all the way" and fat little Rocko juot a look at me, then he hit the brakes, and scuttled off with his tail between his legs Thank God Kingsley didn&039;t have the same reaction

I set the safe down on the wooden deck, noting how the wood sagged ht of the safe

Charlie&039;s round face soon appeared and he gavesmile Charlie, I saw, needed some serious dental work Except he didn&039;t seem to care that he needed dental work, or that his teeth looked like crooked tombstones Charlie was just happy to be Charlie

He was about to slide open his door when he glanced down, and his crooked smile seemed to freeze in place He blinked Hard

Then threw open the door

I shouldn&039;t have been surprised when he gave s, but I was

We were in his living room

I had told hi the heavy safe onto his deck, and I le with the safe as weroo towers of laser jet printer cartridges, 40&039;s science fiction h clipboards to last two lifetimes, we set the heavy safe down

Earlier in the night, after ave the boys ten one in five I kept their weapons and ammunition, which I would hand over to Detective Sherbet of the Fullerton Police Departh, it was just , neither of us knehat

The safe was clearly old So old that it looked like it belonged on the back of a Wells Fargo stage coach Part of the safe&039;s dial still gleah most of it was covered in blackened soot from the blowtorch The handle was badly dented, no doubt thanks to the various ha around

Still, the safe had held fast, and that&039;s all that mattered

Charlie stared down at it So did I My coold Could be old war bonds Could be jewelry, gemstones or pirate booty, for all I knew

I had been teifts could penetrate the heavy steel safe, but I had resisted

"I guess this is it, then," said Charlie He didn&039;t sound very enthusiastic

"Do you know the combination?"

He pointed to the upper corner of the safe, where, upon closer inspection, I saw a number etched, 14 Two other numbers were etched into other corners, 29 and 63

I said them out loud and he nodded "Don&039;t think of them as three numbers, think of them as six numbers One, four, two, nine, six and three With that in lanced at theain "One and two"

He nodded "Good And the next lowest?"

"Three and four"

"Good, good And the two highest?"

"Six and nine"

"You got it," he said, giving me a half smile

"Twelve, thirty-four and sixty-nine?"

He nodded "You&039;re the first person I&039;ve ever given the key to Not even to my own son"

"How old&039;s your son?"

"Twenty-one But it&039;s too soon to give hiave it to me on his deathbed"

"I feel honored," I said, and meant it

We stared at it some more He made no move to open it, and I certainly wasn&039;t about to Soroaning, as boulders do in the deserts The piano, I saas gone