Rocky interrupted. “You don’t just spray this thing with Windex, man. I’ve got stuff at home. I’m going to throw in a cleaning for free. I think it’s going to look pretty good when I’m done.”
“I told you,” Matt answered, and his voice receded from the door. “Knew it the minute I laid eyes on it, even though it took a little doing to get it.” Laurie went back to breathing.
A pause. “I thought you said she gave it right to you.”
He really was dumb. Scheming, but dumb. “She did. I just had to work on her a little bit. She appreciated the attention. I don’t think she gets much. I bet she dies alone in that house just like her aunt.”
Knowing he was a crook, knowing he was a scammer and a jerk and a liar, knowing he was bad at his job and didn’t know anything about antiques and had probably never cleaned out this closet ever, Laurie was particularly horrified that she felt this right in her chest. Nick’s fingers on her waist tensed. Her hand dropped limply from his other elbow, but he reached down and picked it up. He gave her two quick squeezes.
“All right, man.” Laurie heard the zip of some kind of a bag as Rocky tucked the duck out of sight, so close to her but so very far away. “I’ll get back to you in a week or so. I have a few ideas, but I’ve got estate sales I’m hitting all week, so it’s not going to be right away. I’m going to be in Damariscotta in a couple days, and I have a guy out there.”
“Okay, I’ll wait to hear. I’ll walk you out.” The door opened and closed, and Laurie took her phone out of her pocket. After a moment, a text arrived, silently, from Daisy. They’re bullshitting by the front door. All clear to get out.
“Okay, now,” Laurie whispered. She and Nick slipped out of the closet and she blinked in the bright fluorescent light. They left the office, crept out the back door, and found themselves in the evening sun. They made their way around the side of the building and out to the street, and they climbed into Laurie’s car. She opened the text thread with June and Daisy. We’re out. Everybody okay?
From June: Ginger and I are on our way back to her place.
From Daisy: Rocky’s gone. Matt’s in his office.
Laurie, to them both, wrote: You’re all superstars. We’ll see you at Dot’s at 8:00. We have lots to tell you.
* * *
—
That night, Laurie ordered Thai food, and Nick, Daisy, and Melody sat around the table in the dining room. June was at home with her husband and her kids, but she FaceTimed into the meeting while they dissected the events at the store. Nick relished the story of the hand on the door, the risk of being caught, and the fact that they had almost been busted because Matt didn’t know how to clean a collectible duck. He imitated Rocky’s voice, low and more menacing than it had in fact been, barking “Windex” as if it were the word “asshole,” because, let’s face it: It was implied.
According to June and Daisy, Ginger had come strolling in the front door with June and immediately engaged Matt in a long conversation about a collection of basketball cards that one of her grandsons allegedly owned. （He did not. None of the grandkids collected basketball cards, and neither did any of the greats, but Matt was not willing to risk blowing her off, seeing as how sports cards had recently become so popular they’d stopped selling new ones at Target for security reasons.） She had told him that she was quite sure there was a signed rookie card from someone named LaBob James. Matt kept asking her if she meant LeBron James, and she kept saying no, no, it was definitely LaBob James. She explained that this was a player who went directly from high school to professional basketball. He said yes, that man’s name was LeBron James. She said no, she meant the one who moved to Florida. He said yes. Yes, the one who moved to Florida—LeBron James.
At this point, according to Daisy, Ginger had seamlessly transitioned into a series of questions about Floridian kitsch memorabilia, including some postcards she believed she had somewhere that were from a place called Marineland. Matt knew of it. She wanted to know if he had ever had the chance to swim with dolphins. Dolphins, she’d told him, were more intelligent than humans. She had heard that they could follow a book if you read it to them. He said he had not had the pleasure.
At one point, Matt tried to pass her off to Daisy, saying that he had a meeting to prepare for, but Ginger had stopped him in his tracks by recalling that she’d also meant to ask him about her son’s Star Wars toys, none of which had ever been opened. She had, she told him, an original Darth Vader, with the bicycle. Darth Vader did not ride a bicycle, Matt told her. Ginger asked him why, then, was there a bicycle in the package with her son’s original Darth Vader?