“I read a lot in prison. I recognized some of the artists, particularly Matilda Stone.”

“Who’s that?”

“An American painter. He’s got maybe a dozen of her paintings.”

“And how do you get rid of stuff like that?”

“I know a fence who deals in high-quality stuff. He’ll take them off me. I reckon my end would be a hundred grand, maybe more.”

“Tell me about the cameras.”

“Nothing to tell—they’re invisible, at least to me.”

“Then how do you know they’re there?”

“Because the cops were all over me. I came in through the front door, picked the lock both times. There’s a security box in a front hall closet, but the system wasn’t armed either time. Still, I heard the cops coming after I’d been in the house maybe three minutes. They even tried to cut off my escape route through the common garden. They had to know I was there, so I figure cameras.”

“Makes sense,” she said. “Do you know where the pictures are?”

“Four of them are in the living room, another four in the study.”

“You said there were a dozen.”

“I’m guessing. I did some research at the library and Matilda Stone is Barrington’s mother, and he owns at least a dozen of her works. She’s got stuff in the Metropolitan Museum. I figure the others are in the bedroom.”

“And this fence is ready to take them off your hands?”

“Cash on delivery, ten grand a picture.”

“So the eight you’re sure about are worth eighty grand to you?”

“Right.”

“Marv, it sounds to me like you’d enjoy a spell in Florida. I know how to make you comfortable there.”

“That’s where you live?”

“It is. And it’s warm all winter. Have you ever spent a winter in a warm place?”

“No, and I think I’d like that.”

“You bet your sweet ass you would. Now all I have to do is to think of a way to crack the Barrington place.”

“You do that,” Curly said.

“Leave it to me. How about the Fairleigh place? He got any pictures?”

“Now that you mention it, yes—more than Barrington, maybe. There’s four Milton Averys.”

“Who’s Milton Averys?”

“Avery—another American painter.”

“You’re sounding like quite the art expert.”

“I told you, I was always reading when I was in prison.”

“Time well spent.”

“The Averys are only worth five grand apiece from the fence.”

“Still.”

“Yeah, still.”

“You know anything about alarm systems?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Well, Marv, what if we cut the power to the system?”

“They’ve got battery backups.”

“Ah. When are the alarm systems not armed?”

“When the people are there.”

“Or when they go out and forget to arm them, right? That worked twice for you.”