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Dot still called hi to talk to Not Nick Edwards, who fixed houses, but Keller Who, in aI should be doing," she went on, "is calling you There’s two reasons why this is a mistake First of all, you’re not in the business anyed you back in once, that business in Dallas, and it wasn’t your fault that it didn’t go off perfectly But it wasn’t what you really wanted, and we both agreed it hat the British call a one-off"

"What does that mean?"

"One time only, I think What’s the difference what it means? You went to Dallas, you came back from Dallas, end of story"

But if it was the end of the story, as this? A sequel?

"That’s one reason," she said "There’s another"

"Oh?"

"Three words," she said "New York City"

"Oh"

"What aot a job in your old hometown? I didn’t thro York jobs your hen you lived there, because you lived there"

"I worked a couple of New York assignments"

"Just a couple, and they weren’t exactly what you’d call problem-free But at least you could walk around the city without wearing a mask Now it’s the one place in the world where it’s not safe for you to be you, where even a waitress in a coffee shop can take a second look at you and reach for a telephone, and here I an up"

"Wait a minute," Keller said

The receptionist at Peachpit told hi while he waited Then a stoop-shouldered man with his sleeves rolled up and his tie loosened came to show him inside and seat hi table He had already prepared a slip of paper with the numbers of the lots he wanted to inspect, and he looked theht to him

The stamps were tucked into individual two-inch-square pockets of a chemically inert plastic, each plastic pocket stapled to its own sheet of paper bearing the lot nuht a pair of tongs, and could have taken out a stas re had already shown him clear color photos of all of these stamps, it probably wasn’t necessary that he look at the at a stamp, up close and personal, helped him decide just how much he really wanted to own it

He’d requested a dozen lots, all of theenuinely wanted--and he didn’t want the a look at the to buy them all, and this would help him decide which ones to buy if they went cheap, and which ones deserved a firet, hanging on like grim death, and--

"Hello, there! Haven’t seen you in a while, have I?"

Keller froze in his white plastic chair

"She loves watching you ith your stamps," Julia said "‘Daddy ’tamps,’ she says She has a little trouble with the s-t combination"

"I suppose philately is out of the question"

"For now But before you know it she’ll be the only kid in her class who knohere Obock is"

"Just noas telling her about Kiauchau"

"I know But see, I kno to pronounce Obock"

He was silent for awe have to talk about"

Eleven

They sat at the kitchen table with cups of coffee and he said, "I’ve been keeping so from you, and I can’t do that Ever since we found each other I’ve been able to say whatever’s been on my mind, and now I can’t, and I don’t like the way it feels"

"You met someone in Dallas"

He looked at her

"A woman," she said

"Oh, God," he said "It’s not what you think"

"It’s not?"

If he had to kill this man, hoould he do it? He was close to sixty, and he looked soft and pudgy, so you couldn’t call hi Keller had to a weapon was the pair of stah with nothing but his bare hands, and--

"I guess you don’t recognize"Been a few years, and it’s safe to say I put on a few pounds It’s a rare year when I don’t And the last timeeach other the two of us were on a lower floor"

Keller looked at hi? Stampazine? I never missed their auctions, and I’d swear I saw you there a few times I don’t knoe ever talked, and if I ever heard your naood with faces Faces and watermarks, they both tend to stick in my mind" He stuck out a hand "Irv," he said "Irv Feldspar"

"Nicholas Edwards"

"A daone," Feldspar said "Bert Taub’s health was bad for years, and finally he closed up shop, and then the word got around that he et back into it, and the next thing we kneas dead"

"A hell of a thing," Keller said, figuring so those lines was expected of him

"Plenty of other auctions in this city," Feldspar said, "but you could just show up at Stampazine and there’d be plenty of low-priced s, no Internet or phone bidders I don’t think you and I ever bumped heads, did we? I’ but US," Keller said "Worldwide to 1940"

"So I was never bidding against you, so ould you remember me?"

"I didn’t come all that often," Keller said "I live out of town, so--"

"What, Jersey? Connecticut?"

"New Orleans, so--"

"You didn’t come in special for Bert’s auctions"