Decker said, “Max, people who are not psychotic or psychopathic murder for mundane reasons: to keep a secret, unrequited love, pathological jealousy, to usurp power—and money. You want to find a killer, go down the money trail. The New York galleries deal in the big money. That’s why I’m here.”

“I can’t help you with a killer. That’s a fact.” Silence. “Detective, my family has spent a lifetime building up this gallery. I really don’t want to get involved in something pernicious.”

McAdams said, “It was your father-in-law’s pieces that started the whole thing.” He shrugged. “You’re already involved.”

“This is just a nightmare!” Max looked down. “I’m not accusing anyone of anything, okay. This is just a thought. Chase Goddard bought a Boston gallery two years ago. It is now the eponymous Goddard Gallery. Chase first opened a fine arts and antique store in New York in 2006 or 2007. Needless to say his timing was off because of the recession and he closed two years later. Then I heard he was up in the Boston area.”

“What kind of art does the Goddard Gallery deal in?”

“Not Russian icons.” Stewart shrugged. “If it’s similar to his New York gallery, it’s mostly small antique pieces, but some fine arts. I’ve never been there so I don’t know what he specializes in.”

“What did he sell in the New York gallery?”

“It featured eighteenth- and nineteenth-century genre paintings, English and continental antique furniture, and smaller objets d’art of the period. A few twentieth-century pieces . . . nothing to write home about. In the main, it was a little of this and a little of that.”

McAdams showed Decker his smartphone. He had pulled up the Goddard Gallery website. “A little of this and a little of that.”

“Can I see?” Max asked.

“Sure.”

Max perused the website for a minute. “Yeah, like his New York place.”

Decker said, “If Goddard folded shop in 2007, where did he get the money to buy the new gallery?”

Max bit his lower lip. “Some people were asking the same question. Chase not only bought out the lease, but a good portion of the old inventory, which, judging from the website, isn’t superpricey. But there’s a lot of it.”

“Okay.” Decker sipped coffee. “What else?”

“What makes you think there’s a ‘what else’?”

“I read people for a living. You’ve come this far. Don’t stop now.”

“Chase would buy from a lot of different sources,” Max said. “That’s not unusual. We all do. Our inventory depends on many different sources. But Chase had a reputation of skirting around provenance.”

“He bought hot items?” Decker asked.