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When the door closed behind him, Keller whipped out his phone and called Dot As soon as she answered he said, "The fire was supposed to kill theuy knew about the Friday night sleepovers What he didn’t knoas it was going to turn into Girls’ Night Out He thought he’d get Mr and Mrs H Gave her plenty of tiet home, spread his accelerant, set a tiured all that"

"Pretty uy If you’d gotten there first, what do you suppose the other guy would have done?"

"What I’ll do," he said "Go home Why should we care who did what and why, Dot?"

"We shouldn’t"

"And yet we do," he said

"So it appears I’ve got an idea, I’ll talk to you--"

"Later," he said, and rang off even as Griffey opened the door

"A sealed bid," E J Griffey said, brandishing an envelope with his firm’s name and address in its upper left corner Collectors of commercial covers called that sort of printed return address a corner card, a term that had always struck Keller as curious, a bit of philatelic whi a vocabulary that was as esoteric as thieves’ argot Covers, corner cards…

"Now I have a suggestion," the little h still low in volu in the parlor, where the three glasses of red wine she’d poured remained untouched "What I recoure which I think will please you, and which I suspect is higher than any other bid you’re likely to receive But if you open the envelope now and accept the bid on the spot as a preee, I’ll raise my own bid by ten percent"

He expanded on the subject, countering their objections The other bidders would be disappointed? Why, this sort of thing happened all the tiet over it

Keller took the envelope frohed it in his hand as if to assess its contents "I think we’ll stay with the original plan," he said "Three sealed bids, and we’ll open theets the collection"

Griffey started to offer an objection, then took another direction "Suit yourselves," he said "I’h one When that comes to pass, just remember you could have had ten percent estion," Keller said, and noted with satisfaction the quick flash of surprise on Griffey’s face "Raise your own bid"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You’ve just established that you’re willing to pay ten percent more than the sum you wrote down That was a nice tactic, but now that it hasn’t worked, do you want to risk losing the collection because you didn’t subhest offer?"

Griffey stared at hi moment, and all that showed on his face was the effort it took to keep it expressionless Then he snatched the envelope out of Keller’s hand and marched into the stamp room with it

He returned, envelope in hand "My card’s in here," he announced, "along with my firm’s bid I think…well, never mind what I think I assume you’ll open all the bids the day after toht away to let us know that our bid was high"

Or that it wasn’t, Keller thought, as his hostess showed E J Griffey to the door

Forty-One

Keller’s room was on the second floor, just to the left of the staircase Even as the sound of Griffey’s rented car was dying in the distance, she’d said that he’d probably want to freshen up before dinner, and suggested he get his bag from the Toyota Had he even mentioned that he’d packed and left the motel? Or had she just assuuest rooe four-poster topped by a patchwork quilt The design, squarely geometric, looked Amish to him, but he didn’t know much about quilts Nor, he supposed, did he know much about stamps, not in coh a few dozen albums in a matter of hours and come up with a professional assessment of their value

On the other hand, what did E J Griffey know about fashioning a length of picture-hanging wire into a garrote?

After a shower and a change of clothes, Keller got his regular cell phone from his suitcase and called Julia The brief conversation was ordinary enough, but he felt oddly detached fro home? It wasn’t information she needed, he hadn’t bothered to tell her the name of his motel in the first place, but even so…

He called Dot on the Pablo phone No answer, and after the fourth ring a e He rang off

"I didn’t knohat to do while the two of you were in the staone for a ride, but soh I can’t think why So I cooked"

She’d prepared coq au vin The coq, she told hirown up a ed free and enjoyed an organic diet The vin was the sa a wine cellar, and ordered cases from a wine ed for dinner She’d changed the blouse and slacks for a sie

And she earing perfuht the scent when she came around behind him to pour his coffee

"That Mr Griffey," she said "There was so about that littleto deal with him on my own But you handled him brilliantly You could see it in his face, that he’d been outht down and raised his own bid"

"Or didn’t," Keller said "For all we know he came back with the same envelope and never opened it"

"Do you think that’s what he did?"

He shook his head "I nicked the original envelope with my thumbnail," he said, "and the envelope he came back with didn’t have the nick"

"How on earth did you think to do that?"

"I don’t know," he said, "and I’ed his bid, and he certainly wouldn’t have lowered it I wonder how ure do you think he wrote down?"

"I couldn’t even guess"

"More than a quarter of a et to buy Jeb’s stamps"