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The first lot he’d circled was a 1919 set of Albanian overprints, with a catalog value just under 500 and an estiured he’d go 375,opened at 200, and there were no bids from the live online participants, no phone bids reported by either of the wo the phones Keller was one of a mere dozen bidders physically present in the room, and none of his companions showed any interest in the Albanian set

Nor did Keller He sat there as if mummified while the set was sold to the book bidder for 200

Wonderful That gave hiot away from him, knocked down to an Internet bidder for less than he’d been prepared to pay, Keller knehat he had to do There was an exercise he’d developed to keep his work fro a psychic toll, and if it worked with dead people, why shouldn’t it ith a stamp from a dead country?

First, he found the photo of lot 77 in his catalog and stared intently at it Then he closed his eyes and held the in, the hand-stae in close, so that it was larger than its actual size

And then he turned it over to the Photoshop of hisout, the black overprint fading to gray He pushed the sta smaller and smaller in his rew sether

By the time the lots froahteen

Back at his hotel roolad he’d s stood, it looked as though he wasn’t going to be able to carry out his assignment Dot would have to refund the advance pay paid

With nothing co in, he’d have to pay attention to his expenses He still had substantial funds in an offshore bank, but he’d been dipping into the household expenses, ever since the econo houses and flipping them He could still afford to buy stamps, but he could spend more freely out of profits than out of capital

He put away the stah value from Gabon that had eluded him for years He was happy to have them, but maybe it was just as well he’d ypt

Maybe he should skip to German Colonial material Maybe he should et a seat on tonight’s 8:59 flight to New Orleans He wouldn’t save anything on the hotel bill, it was hours past checkout time, but he’d be ho

Call Dot, tell her there was nothing for it but to give back the money

Hell Maybe he should have one last look at the nable as ever

Oh, he could get a foot in the door All he had to do was bang aith the knocker, and some creature in a plain brown robe would open it But it wouldn’t be O’Herlihy, because when you were the abbot, you didn’t have the job of opening up for visitors Instead you kept busy telling everybody else what to do, or stayed in your roo on the Scotch bottle

Or did monks have cells? They seemed to in books, but then they weren’t cloistered in Murray Hill town houses, not in the novels he’d read O’Herlihy, he soe and well-appointed bedchale in one of those wo about

Would that bedcha at his , looking out at the passing scene? Looking out, perhaps, at the man he knew as Timothy Hannan?

Keller, on the north side of the street, drew back into the shadows

If you knehich room was his, and if it did indeed look out on 36th Street, then what?

A bo, but soh thein the wee s, by which tih Scotch to render him unconscious Boom! The man would never knohat hit him

Of course you’d have to knohichbelonged to his roorenade

H A back door, say So that he could contrive to be inside when all but a skeleton crew ofwith the down the corridors like a ninja, he could find O’Herlihy’s roo, his inti any weapon he wanted, ht as easily dispatch his quarry with his bare hands

He turned to his right, counting his steps as he walked to Madison Avenue, where he turned left and walked a block south At 35th Street he turned left again, and counted his steps again, stopping when he reached the number he’d tallied earlier Now, unless he’d screwed up so in front of him was one that backed up on Thessalonian House

And a handso it was, four stories tall, with a limestone facade and Greek Revival pillars Like Thessalonian House, it had surely started life as a private ho else now There was a brass plaque alongside the door, but Keller couldn’t make out what it said, and--

"Edward!"

The voice was familiar, even if the name was not Keller turned, and there was Irv Feldspar, the o at Sta a tweed jacket and a checked shirt and a big s the sidewalk to where Keller was standing

"Edward Nicholas," he said, panting froht you’d be awhere you do New Mexico, didn’t you say?"

"New Orleans"

"Well, I was close But of course we’ve got plenty of out-of-town et to see them so often You’re here for the presentation?"

"I was just walking down the street," Keller said "And I’, Mr Feldspar"

"Please, make it Irv And do you prefer Ed or Edward?"

"Well, I--"