Hidden safe in Stuckart’s apartment

The Hidden safe in Stuckart’s apartment is concealed behind a small antique mirror and discovered by March and Maguire while they search the apartment for the safe key’s lock. Its hidden position turns an ordinary looking glass into part of the apartment’s security, but finding the compartment does not grant access: the safe requires a combination as well as a key.

Discovery

March and Maguire search in silence for ten minutes, shifting furniture, lifting rugs, and looking behind paintings. Maguire notices that a small mirror above the table where she had opened letters is loose. Its ormolu frame gives slightly when March grasps it, but the mirror will not come away from the wall.

At Maguire’s suggestion, March uses a paper knife to probe behind the frame. Two thirds of the way down its left side, he finds a tiny lever; pressing it releases the catch, and the mirror swings open on a hinge to reveal the safe. The hiding place is not a separate room or an obvious panel: it is built into the movement of a familiar domestic object.

Lock and Immediate Consequence

The key March has found is not sufficient. Inspecting the safe, he discovers that it also has a combination lock, leaving the pair with a concealed container they have uncovered but cannot yet open with the key alone. The find therefore changes the search from locating the safe to confronting its additional security.

March responds by picking up the telephone. The evidence establishes this immediate next action but does not specify whom he calls or whether the safe is subsequently opened. The object’s importance at this point lies as much in the access it withholds as in the secret compartment it exposes: the mirror yields, while the combination remains an obstacle.