Cat O'Nine Tales by Jeffrey Archer

Author:Jeffrey Archer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780312362645
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

“I wish to leave a deposit on lot twenty-three.”

The clerk looked down at her list. “A red king,” she said, and double-checked the price. “Fifty-five thousand dollars,” she added, and looked up at Max for confirmation.

He nodded as the assistant began to fill in the little boxes on the purchasing document. A few moments later she swiveled the form round for Max to sign.

“That will be five thousand, five hundred dollars deposit,” she said, “and the full amount must be settled within twenty-eight days.” Max nodded nonchalantly, as if this was a procedure he was well familiar with. He signed the agreement and then wrote out a check for $5,500, aware that it would empty his account. He pushed it across the counter. The assistant handed him back the top copy of the agreement and retained the duplicate. When she checked the signature, she hesitated. It might have been a coincidence: after all, Glover was a common enough name. She didn’t want to insult a customer, but she knew she would have to report the anomaly to their compliance department, before they could consider cashing the check.

Max left the auction house and headed north to Park Avenue. He strode confidently into Sotheby Parke Bernet and approached the reception desk. He asked if he could have a word with the Head of the Oriental Department. He was kept waiting for only a few minutes.

On this occasion, Max didn’t waste time with any preliminary questions that would have only been a smokescreen to disguise his true intent. After all, as the sales clerk at Phillips had pointed out, he only had twenty-eight days to complete the transaction.

“Should the Kennington Chess Set come onto the market, what would you expect it to fetch?” Max asked.

The expert looked incredulous, although he had already been briefed on the sale of the red king at Phillips, and on the price the piece had fetched. “Seven hundred and fifty thousand, possibly as much as a million,” came back the reply.

“And if I was able to deliver the Kennington Set, and you were in a position to authenticate it, what amount would Sotheby’s be willing to advance against a future sale?”

“Four hundred thousand, possibly five, if the family were able to confirm that it was the Kennington Set.”

“I’ll be in touch,” promised Max, all his immediate and long-term problems solved.

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