“Howdy,” Max said.
“You boys going somewhere? It’s the middle of the day.”
“I wasn’t really open,” I answered, pushing my sunglasses up.
“Calvin warned me you might try to sneak off,” she said.
“He what?” I protested.
“Oh, he’s good!” Max said.
“I was told to call him if you went somewhere on your own.” Beth raised an eyebrow. “So should I?”
“Absolutely not,” I said firmly.
“He seemed pretty adamant about it.”
“Calvin is also adamant about toasted bagels and the Mets,” I replied.
Beth held her hands up. “TheMets?”
“Beth,” I continued. “Just pretend you never saw us leave, okay?”
“I don’t know, Sebby,” she said slowly. “Are you going to get into trouble? Get hurt? Give that handsome man of yours a heart condition?”
“Maybe a little, hopefully not, and probably sooner or later,” I answered.
“Smart,” she said with a vicious old lady glare.
“You can reprimand me later, I promise,” I said, motioning Max to follow me to the curb. “If anyone comes by looking—you never saw me, okay?”
“Sebastian Snow, are you out of your goddamn mind?”
I nodded and raised my hand up to hail a cab. “Just about.”
Max and I climbed into the first taxi to stop, and I gave the driver the Midtown address before calling Calvin.
“So?” he asked upon answering.
“Hello to you too. I talked to my friend Aubrey Grant. He used to work at a pawnshop here in the city. He recognized Richard as a guy who had been banned from the store after trying to sell items his boss suspected were stolen.”
“Name and phone number?”
“Er—I’m waiting to get that from Aubrey,” I lied. “He’s narcoleptic and needed a nap.”
“Seb.”
“I would not make that up! I swear. He really is.”
Calvin was quiet for a beat. “Anything else?”
“He used to date a special agent who was once on the Art Crime Team,” I supplied. “He wasn’t sure about any details regarding the investigation of artifacts that turned up missing after Earl was killed, but he said if you needed to get in touch with his ex, to call the New York office and ask for his partner, Jun Tanaka. He asked to keep his name out of it. Bad blood.”
The driver kept glancing in the rearview mirror at me.
“All right. Thank you for this.”
“What about you?”
