Mason said, “Mr. Smith, I wonder if you can tell me how these things work. I observe you have a notice on these lockers stating that the storage is only for twenty-four hours and that at the end of that time articles left in the lockers will be removed. Now, how do you measure that twenty-four hours in time?”
“We don’t,” Smith said, grinning.
“Well, what do you do?” Drake asked.
“We approximate it,” Smith said. “What the average person doesn’t notice is this little meter that’s up here. Now, for instance, the number two-eight-four is on that meter. It’s very small and cunningly concealed so you wouldn’t notice it unless you were looking for it.
“That number two-eight-four means that two hundred and eighty-four quarters have been dropped into this slot since this particular lock was put on.
“Every night around eleven o’clock an attendant comes down here and checks the number of the locker and the number on the meter and writes the numbers down.
“Now, tomorrow night at eleven o’clock, if this man comes down and notices that the number is still two-eight-four, he’ll know that somebody has kept that locker inactive for twenty-four hours, that he’s put something in it and has walked away with the key.
“Quite naturally the company doesn’t want to have people use these as a permanent storage place for articles. We get quite a turnover on these. Some of them are used a good many times a day. It costs money to rent the space, it costs money to keep the lockers up.”
“Go on,” Mason said. “What happens?”
“Well, if this man checks this number and finds that the same number is on here that was on twenty-four hours previously, he opens the locker.”
“How does he do that?” Mason asked.
“He takes the entire lock off.”
“While the locker is closed and locked?” Mason asked.
“That’s right.”
“How can he do that?”
Smith said to Paul Drake, “I take it you folks want to look in here.”
“That’s right, Smitty.”
“Well, I’m going to take a look in but I don’t want anybody touching anything. Understand?”
Drake nodded.
Smith turned to Mason inquiringly.
“That’s okay with me,” Mason said.
“Now,” Smith said, “here’s the way we change the lock.”
He took a passkey from his pocket, turned up a circular metal shield which was at the top end of the lock, inserted the passkey, and said, “This removes the entire lock. Now, if we find that someone has used these lockers more than twenty-four hours, of course that person has the key with him and we want to put this locker back into operation. So we simply remove the entire lock and put in a new lock with the key in it. We take the baggage out and leave it where the applicant can claim it by properly identifying it. Then the locker is back in service because there’s a new lock and the key is in it, and whoever wants to use it can do so by simply depositing twenty-five cents, putting his baggage in, taking the key out, and his baggage is reasonably safe until he wants to come back.”
“Sounds interesting,” Mason said. “You’re now going to remove this lock?”
“I’m going to remove the lock,” Smith said.
He turned the passkey. There was an audible click, and Smith lifted out the entire lock, sliding it off the catch on the door as he did so and letting the door swing free.
“Well, you see,” he said, “we have here an unusual situation. Usually when a person has left with the key, there’s baggage in here, but this time someone has gone away with the key and the locker is empty.”
“Empty!” Mason exclaimed.
“That’s right,” Smith said, pulling the door all the way back.
Mason, Paul Drake and Della Street peered inside.
“Now, how could that have happened?” Mason asked.
“Only one way,” Smith said. “The man had the key. He came back, put the key in the locker, opened it, took out whatever was inside, then put in another quarter, locked the thing up and took the key with him.”
“Why would he do that?” Mason asked.
“All right,” Smith said, grinning, “I’ll counter with another question. Why are you interested in this particular locker?”
Mason smiled. “I guess you’ve established your point, Smith.”
“Looks like I have,” Smith said. “I’ll just put a new lock on here and we’ll put this locker back into operation. When this man shows up with his key, he’ll find that it doesn’t fit the lock that’s on the door. He’ll fool around for four or five minutes trying to make the key fit. He’ll look at the number on the key and the number on the locker and scratch his head and walk around and try it a couple more times, then he’ll go to the station-master to try and find out what’s wrong.”
“Not this man,” Mason said. “I think that key is permanently out of circulation.”
“Well, it’s okay with me,” Smith said. “We’ve got a duplicate key. We’ll put that lock back in service on another locker.”
Mason said, “You’ve been of great service to us. Would a little folding compensation by way of thanks be out of place?”
“Forget it,” Smith said. “I’m glad to do it as an accommodation to Paul Drake. He’s helped us out a time or two. Anything else I can do for you people?”
“That’s all,” Mason said.
Smith shook hands. “Mighty glad to have met you, Mr. Mason. Any time I can do you any good down here, let me know.”
He turned to Drake, said, “Okay, Paul, be seeing you.”
“Thanks, Smitty,” Paul said, and led the way toward the parking lot where he had left his car.
On the way back to the office Drake said, “Now I suppose that this A. B. Vidal becomes very important and you’ll want to have me take extra precautions to—”
“On the contrary,” Mason said, “A. B. Vidal is out of the picture as far as we’re concerned.”
“What do you mean?”
“He never existed,” Mason said.
“There’s a letter for him there,” Drake reminded the lawyer.
“I know there is,” Mason said, “but you can see what happened. This man, whoever he was — and we’ll call him Vidal for want of a better name — went to this row of lockers. He put twenty-five cents in each of five lockers, took the keys out and had duplicates made. Then he came back and put the keys in the locks and left them.
“He waited somewhere in the station until he saw someone put the package that he wanted in that particular locker. He had instructed that person to take the key out and mail it to A. B. Vidal at General Delivery. That was just a blind, something to throw people off the track.
“Just as soon as this person was out of the station, Mr. Vidal walked up to the locker, fitted his duplicate key, opened it, took the package out, then put in another quarter and closed the door and locked it. In that way he was able to take his key with him. He’s got possession of the package he wanted, and left no trace.”
“But what would have happened if some innocent traveler had come up and put a suitcase in that particular locker?” Drake asked.
“Vidal had thought of that. He had keys to the four adjacent lockers. He gave his party instructions to go to FO82 if it was unoccupied. Otherwise, to take any unoccupied locker to the left on the same tier... You can see what happened. He had keys to all of those.”
“I take it,” Drake said, “there’s quite a story here and you’re dealing with someone who has a lot of brains and a carefully worked-out plan.”
“You’re right on everything except there being quite a story,” Mason said. “There isn’t any story. So far there’s only a chapter.”