"Maybe they couldn't."
Eli looked out the window.
"Then why weld more steel inside after somebody already tried?"
Ellis didn't answer.
Eli continued.
"If it was empty, why bother?"
"Could've been repair."
"Maybe."
"Could've been fire protection."
"Maybe."
Ellis glanced toward him.
"You don't sound convinced."
"I'm not."
The old man nodded.
"Good."
Eli looked surprised.
Ellis said:
"Certainty before evidence makes fools."
He shifted gears.
"But don't confuse suspicion with proof either."
"I won't."
"If your forty dollars bought rust, you accept it."
Eli nodded.
"And if you saw something everyone else missed?"
Eli looked toward the safe behind them.
"Then we find out."
They placed the safe in the barn.
Moving it from truck to concrete floor consumed most of Saturday afternoon.
Without proper lifting equipment, Ellis used steel rollers, chains, a block-and-tackle arrangement, and an old overhead beam he trusted more than Eli did.
Every movement was slow.
One inch.
Reset rollers.
Another inch.
Watch hands.
Watch feet.
By sunset, the safe stood beside the main workbench.
Margaret came into the barn carrying lemonade.
She stopped.
"What is that?"
Eli said:
"My auction purchase."
She stared.
"You bought a safe?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Ellis answered:
"Because apparently forty dollars was making his pocket too heavy."
Eli ignored him.
Margaret walked around the safe.
"Does it open?"
"No."
"What's inside?"
"We don't know."
She looked at her son.
Then at her father-in-law.
"You let him spend forty dollars on a locked safe?"
Ellis took a glass of lemonade.
"I tried not to."
Margaret folded her arms.
"You are sixty-seven years old."
"Correct."
"He is fifteen."
"Also correct."
"Which one of you was supposed to be responsible?"
Ellis drank.
"We're investigating."
Margaret closed her eyes.
Then laughed despite herself.
"Your father would have loved this."
Eli looked at the safe.
He thought so too.
That evening, Ellis did not let him cut.
Instead they cleaned.
Wire brush.
Scraper.
Kerosene.
Rags.
Rust fell in flakes.
The torch scar became clearer.
So did the later weld.
Ellis shone a flashlight through the existing cut.
"See this?"
Eli leaned closer.
The outer wall had been breached.
Behind it lay fireproof insulation.
Then reinforced steel.
The torch had stopped short of that inner barrier.
But the rough weld Eli noticed followed the barrier's edge.
"This isn't factory."
Ellis said.
"You're sure?"
"Pretty sure."
"How much?"
Ellis smiled.
"Enough not to cut blindly."
He made Eli bring a magnet.
Steel ruler.
Chalk.
Small hammer.
They tapped the safe.
Measured wall thickness.
Compared seams.
Ellis showed Eli the broad, uniform factory welds at the frame.
Then the later bead.
Narrower.
Uneven.
Applied by hand after construction.