WAN AND OUT of breath, he forced himself to walk calmly down the hallway, knocking on her door instead of banging. As soon as Angeline answered, she took one look at him and asked what was wrong. He came in and gently shut the door. Then he began to pace: hard to do in her tiny one-bedroom apartment.

“What?” she asked. “Tell me!”

Panic in her voice. He managed to get it out. “They’re onto us. They know about your forgeries.”

Angeline felt her heart race. “My forgeries? Our forgeries, okay.”

“Whatever.”

“Not whatever. This is a partnership.” She rubbed her forehead. “Oh my God, are you sure?”

“Yes.” More pacing. “That fucking lock. I knew it was too cold to go out. I knew that there was a chance that the metal would freeze and the key would break off.”

“So why did you go out?”

“I figured it was so cold that no one else would be out and I could work without being bothered.” He knocked his fist against his head. “Shit! I’m so damn stupid! Wasting all this energy and time and risk for something so insignificant. Serves me right for being greedy!”

Yes, he was greedy, but her main concern was calming him down. His voice was getting louder and louder. She put her finger to his lips and spoke in low tones. “It’s like one in the afternoon. Let’s sit down and maybe we can work out a plan.”

“That’s it! No more. I can’t take the chance any longer. Not when such big things are at stake.”

Angeline tried to take his hand but he pulled it away. She said, “Sit down and let’s talk.”

Eventually he plopped down on her futon. She sat down next to him, putting her hand on his knee, hoping to make him feel a little bit more relaxed. “Are you sure they know about us?”

“Positive.”

“Your client told you this?”

“No, he doesn’t know anything about this, thank God for that. I just saw them today at the graveyard at the Bergman mausoleum around an hour ago. I saw the dumbfuck watchman talking to Ken Sobel and his son or son-in-law. It’s not good, Angeline. We have to stop.”

Not as dumbfuck as you thought. “I guess if you change out the locks and the watchman does his job, discovery was a possible outcome.”

“I was going to replace it back with the original. It took me a while to get the fragment out. I couldn’t exactly take it to a locksmith.”

“That’s true.” Angeline took a deep breath and let it out. “When you say they’re onto us . . . do you mean us . . . or the forgeries?”

He looked up. “The family knows about the forgeries . . . I’m not positive about us.” A pause. “I’m sure they don’t know about us. If they did know, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”