“Hang on.”
Laurie watched as Rocky went around the side of the truck, opened the passenger door, and leaned in. He looked like he was opening the glove box, and when he got back to Ryan, he was holding an envelope, which Ryan opened. “Wow.”
He couldn’t say, Wow, look at this certificate of authenticity and photograph of Carl Kittery carving this specific duck? He couldn’t say, Wow, look at this letter from the Bar Harbor Historical Society? He couldn’t even give her a hint? Just “wow”？
“Wow is right,” Rocky said. “That’s the contract to do the cleanout on the lady’s house. And in the picture, that’s the lady. That’s according to the letter.”
The lady, the picture, the letter?
“Yeah, he told me he was going to do this, but I wasn’t sure he really would. I have bad news,” Ryan said in a dry voice that seemed barely his. “There’s no lady. I mean, there is a lady, and he cleaned out her house. But that’s not where he got it. It didn’t belong to her. We found it, we fixed it up, we tried to sell it. She didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Thank God, Laurie thought. This is one of the things we were ready for.
“So he just happened to clean out her house?”
“No,” Ryan said. “He was looking for somebody who would be believable. Believable as somebody who might have had this thing all these years without anybody knowing. He was looking for, you know, a spinster. Found this lady, got hold of some of her pictures, the rest is history.”
Spinster. Even as a line, Laurie hated it.
“And he faked the letter.”
“Yes. Contract’s real, lady’s real, letter’s fake, picture’s just him watching a lot of YouTube videos about compositing in Photoshop.” Ryan reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. And even though she couldn’t see it, Laurie knew that at the top, it said, in blue letters, WESSON & TRUITT. “Appraisers knew what this thing was right away. Didn’t fool them at all, even though we’d tried to jazz it up.”
Wood duck decoy, approximately 2008. Produced in bulk in the style of Carl Kittery and distributed to museum and souvenir shops as part of a promotion commemorating the history of American folk art. Also sold at traveler locations including Logan Airport. Original sale price approximately $25.99. Current value similar. Many examples available through online auction sites and estate sales, selling for approximately $30.00. Further appraisal not necessary or recommended.
Laurie could see Rocky reading the letter and shaking his head. Getting rid of the lorem ipsum and the dummy text at the bottom had been as simple as Nick putting an index card over it when he copied it behind the reference desk.
“He set me up. He knew we might get caught, and he set me up.”
“Look, I told you, he’s not a genius. He just holds his breath and hopes he can sell something for a ton of money without anybody getting it appraised. He doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing, you know that. You have to know that. He’s faking his way through it, which is what he’s been trying to do from the beginning. He’s just a bullshitter.”
“Why are you telling me this? Why didn’t you just go to him?”
“Because fuck him, that’s why. He would’ve told me a dog ate it. And also because…I might have a buyer for it.”
Rocky laughed. “After all this, you want to sell it.”
“Not like he does. Not for a hundred grand. Just to the grandson of a nice rich lady who thinks it will remind her of her late husband. He’s going to give me six thousand dollars. And instead of getting a measly bite of a bunch of money that’s not coming and maybe going to jail for fraud, you’ll get half of six thousand real dollars. But it has to be now, because that’s when he wants it.”
“How do I know this is even true? How do I know you’re not just trying to get it away from me?”
“Call him yourself,” Ryan as John No Last Name told him. “His name is Nick, and you’ll find him answering the main number at the Whipwell County Public Library. You can look it up yourself.”
One piece left.
Rocky took his phone out of his pocket. Laurie watched him poke buttons, looking for the number. Then she looked down at a row of silver rings while she listened closely. “Hi, is this Nick? Hi, Nick, this is Rocky. I’m here with your friend John, and we’re making some arrangements about your purchase…Yes, I have it. It’s in my truck right now.”