sergeant. Clint stopped in front of the kitchen sink, turned, and spoke slowly, "When you first moved in here I didn't ask if you had any valuables you needed to secure. I have a secret strongbox installed in this cabin. No one could possibly discover its location. My son and I designed and built that concealed coffer into a wall of this cabin. No other person knows the safe's location. I won't tell you to see if you can find it because you wouldn't have a chance. I don't want you to pull out all the books to check for a concealed catch that unlatches one of the bookcases, like you often see in those classic horror movies." Mr. Indigence reached under the row of cabinets over the sink and switched on the light mounted there. "I will freely tell you that my unique stronghold lies behind this section of wall, between the cabinets above and the sink counter below. You will still be unable to find it," Clint stated with certainty. "Go ahead, Mick, knock your knuckles across this length of wall and test for any hollow sounds." Mick complied, hearing no variations in the solid percussions. "Take your time, Detective. Study the inlaid wood for any signs of an opening."
"Should I use Sherlock's overlarge magnifying lens?" Mick asked jokingly, but his levity fell flat in the face of the sergeant's strength of will. "All right," Loneshark stated seriously and proceeded to give the section of wall a meticulous examination.
The segment of kitchen wall that had fallen under such close scrutiny was six feet wide and three feet tall. This area was solidly constructed of what seemed to be steadfastly joined varying species of both soft and hard woods inlaid in an aesthetically pleasing symmetrical pattern. Across the middle were three matching rectangular sections of white birch that were each slightly over twenty-two and one-half inches in width and exactly twelve inches in height. The perimeters of the birch triplets were dramatically contrasted by flush borders of one-inch-thick strips of black walnut, which gave the bright inlays the appearance of being permanently mounted within dark frames. Installed above and below the three framed areas of tightly grained hardwoods were two six-feet-long and eleven-inch-wide boards of cedar. Their glowing grains lazily bent and flowed like narrowing reflective rivers of sun-yellowed water, bordered by widening ruddy banks of deep-red clay. The decorative wall's entire eighteen square-feet of area had been sanded perfectly smooth and hand-rubbed with Tung oil, so the cedar's wide, undulating layers of reds and yellows brilliantly shined, highlighting the two hardwoods' close tight textures of oil darkened blacks and gloss enhanced whites that were layered between them. Each of the three birch rectangles' twelve corners was adorned by two attached decorative wire-works. Every one of the adornments had delicate radiating filigrees of brass that curved outward from a slightly protruding central hub of copper and intertwined to form an ornamental spiral. The carefully crafted results resembled somewhat abstract renditions of flower petals blooming around center styles. All twenty-four matching spirals were one inch in diameter.
