“How about tomorrow?” (That was a Saturday.)
“Eight in the morning okay?”
“Sure.”
Valerie decided to show him six pictures she was ready to place with a dealer and two older works that she considered inferior and didn’t want to sell, as placing them with a dealer might damage her reputation. But they did have a superficial attractiveness that might appeal to a mere dilettante, which is what she suspected this lawyer of being. If she could fob him off with inferior work, so much the better. The work was unsigned, so if he showed them to anyone he couldn’t prove they were hers. She set up a display in her studio with these two in the most prominent position.
The next day Roth showed up promptly at eight. She took him to the room she used as her studio. She watched him as he examined the
