Flying Solo(40)
“That sounds upsettingly familiar,” Laurie said.
Daisy nodded. “There’s a lot of caveat emptor with old stuff, right? You’re not very well protected if somebody buys something from you and they know more than you do about how much it’s worth. If they just have better information, that’s fine. If you don’t know some comic book is valuable and he does, he’s allowed to buy it for whatever you’ll sell it to him for, and maybe he makes a ton of profit, and good for him. But he can’t tell you he’s going to get an appraisal for you and not get it, and he definitely can’t forge documents. That’s fraud. There’s no special exception for people who are lying about old stuff or dead people’s stuff.”
“Sounds good so far,” Nick said.
“I think you should just go confront him,” June said. “Go over there and tell him you know he was lying, you know he forged the thing, you know all about it. Put the fear of God into him.”
“He’d just freak out, though,” Daisy said. “I remember a guy coming in one time and raising a fuss about some baseball jersey Matt bought off him, how he wanted it back, and Matt sold it practically right away. As long as he’s got a remotely plausible claim that he bought it off you fairly, once he knows you’re after him, he’ll sell it, throw up his hands, and say he’s not part of it anymore. You could sue him, but if you really want to get the thing back, that’s not the way to go. It will vanish even faster.”
“Maybe do it nicely,” Nick offered. “Not to be a cliché of a librarian, but just go and ask nicely. Don’t tell him you know he’s a thief, just tell him you changed your mind.”
“Not to be a downer, but if he thinks it’s worth money,” Daisy said, “and he thinks he has the option of keeping it, he won’t just give it back. He bought a ring one time that turned out to be a family heirloom the husband wasn’t supposed to sell, and when the wife came in and said it was a mistake and asked for it back, he told her that if he gave back one thing, he’d have to give back everything. He won’t give it back to you.”
“But you said it was fraud,” Laurie said. “That’s illegal.”
“It’s definitely illegal. The problem is proving it. And it’s hard to prove what he did, given the paperwork. And once it’s gone, you’re not going to get it back.”
“That’s why he took back the sheet where he promised me the appraisal.” Laurie kept thinking about that sheet of paper, that stupid sheet of paper. “I still can’t believe I let him do that.”
“Yeah.” Daisy shook her head. “The fraud is in the fake appraisal, and I don’t know how you would prove he made it. He’ll claim you did, to try to get it back, because you had regrets.”
“I truly can’t believe I was this dumb,” Laurie said.
Daisy shook her head firmly. “Hey, you’re not dumb. He’s just really good at making people feel guilty for hiring him, and then they’re easy pickings.”
“Why do you still work there?” June said.
Melody stage-whispered, “That’s what I keep saying.”
Daisy rolled her eyes. “I’ve been suspicious, but I haven’t been sure.”
“So I have to get it back,” Laurie said. “And he’s not going to give it to me.”
Melody shrugged. “You could steal it.”
Laurie shook her head. “I don’t know where it is.”
“Even if you did,” Daisy said, “that would just make it look more like it was your fault. Like you were the con artist, not him. That would almost make it easier for him to go on the offense, if you took it.”
June nodded. “You really need him to con himself.”
Nick frowned. “Meaning?”
“Well,” June continued, “you need him to return the duck in a way that takes advantage of the fact that he’s a trash can. The fact that he’s a trash can has to be how he winds up giving it back.”
Laurie started tapping her fingers on the arm of the chair. “Something where he does something dishonest, so that he can’t report it to anybody.”
“It shouldn’t be too hard to get him to do something dishonest,” June said.
Daisy nodded. “It won’t be. I sat there once while he called and extorted a Taco Bell for a free lunch by claiming he found a nail clipping in a quesadilla.”
“Gross,” Melody said with a full-body shudder.
“I have to think about this,” Laurie said. “I have to think about what to do. I also have to figure out whether Dot actually knew this guy and whether he really made the duck. The only thing worse than what’s already happened would be going to a lot of trouble to get it back and finding out she really did get it in an airport. I also have to try to figure out what he’s going to do with it. I mean, sell it, obviously, but I don’t know where.”
“You know,” Daisy said, “he keeps all his messages on that iPad. If we could look at it, we might be able to figure out what his plan is. He knows all kinds of sketchy dudes, but I don’t know which one he would go to for this. I don’t know that he specifically has a sketchy duck dude.” She stretched out her leg, and Laurie saw that on her ankle, there was another tattoo, a simple line design, just like the sun on her arm.