Page 59 of The Furies

“If I were you,” I said, “I wouldn’t tell anyone else about that cross, and I’d wait a while before I sold it.”

“He didn’t steal it from a Christian man, did he?” asked Tessell. “Because that would be wrong.”

“No,” I said. “Quite the opposite.”

CHAPTER LXVII

Dolors Strange was back at her coffee shop. This time, as promised, she didn’t give me the bum’s rush, and even offered me a cup on the house. We sat under a new painting of a naked woman playing chess with a wizard during a thunderstorm. Dolors caught me looking at it, or trying not to.

“Erin over there is the artist,” she said, pointing at the girl behind the counter, the metal detectorist’s dream. “All these pieces are her work.”

“She has a very distinctive artistic vision.”

“I didn’t know you could be so diplomatic, Mr. Parker.”

“Well,” I said, “I want to get on in life.”

I tried the coffee. It tasted just as flowery as last time. If I drank too much of it, I’d have to take an antihistamine.

“I presume Will has spoken to you about what Raum and his buddy Egon Towle may have stolen,” I said.

“The coins? Yes, Will told me.”

“Did you know about what they’d done before Will brought up the subject?”

Dolors shifted in her chair.

“Not until very recently,” she said. “Raum said only that he would have money before too long, and he’d be able to pay back what he owed Ambar and me. But a few nights ago he checked out of the Braycott, came by the house, and said he’d have the cash soon. I’d heard that tune from him so often I could whistle it, and told him so, which was when he produced a gold twenty-dollar double eagle, dated 1905. He said it was worth five thousand dollars, and proved it by using his phone to show me a similar one for sale. After that, I believed him.”

“And you hadn’t asked him the source of these imminent funds before then?”

“I knew better than that. I’m not stupid enough to go inquiring of Raum about his activities, although I can’t speak for Ambar.”

The aside about her sister emerged with real bite. Relations between them were obviously deteriorating again.

“Did he tell you where he got the coin?”

“He told me it had originally been stolen, and he and Egon Towle had taken it from the thief along with a bunch of others. He said it was nothing more than justice being done, stealing from a crook. I can’t say I agreed with him, but then Raum’s appeal was never exactly based on his moral fiber.”

“Did he mention this thief’s name?”

“Raum said he went by lots of names.”

“Try one.”

“Kepler.” But she said it reluctantly, and in a low voice, like one pressed into an unwanted invocation.

“And did Raum appear worried when last you saw him?” I said.

“His mood kept changing, like he was high on something. At times he’d come across as paranoid, then a minute later he’d be entirely calm—frighteningly so. The first Raum I recognized, but the other I didn’t. He didn’t even sound like himself. Were you aware that he hurt my sister?”

“Will told me about it. He suggested that it might have been unintentional.”

“Unintentional or not, the old Raum would never have done that. He’d never even have put himself in a position where a woman might have gotten hurt.”

I didn’t offer the opinion that, had he shown the same restraint toward men, he would have avoided a lot of problems in life, including prison time.

“When you say he was anxious—”

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