The endless images of pottery slid by on the screen. When anything resembling the ‘shallow bowl with faint red and yellow markings’ appeared, Sam paused and read the description. So far, his brief foray into the world of Olmec ceramics had taught him a handful of things about the Olmecs themselves (“a Pre-Columbian civilization of Central Mexico”) and a fair amount about their pottery. He’d gathered enough to know that the elusive target of Wyatt’s paid excursion into the Westcott house was either an unusual specimen or incorrectly identified as to its provenance. Its market value could be anywhere from under a hundred dollars to nearly five thousand. The reason for Sydney’s apparent infatuation with the bowl, enough to risk paying someone to steal it, was not yet clear.
The phone rang, causing him to drop his breakfast burrito and wipe his hand on his grimy office chair just to make it easier to hang onto the handset.
“Officer Tranh,” he said, eyes still on the monitor.
“Ah, yes, officer. This is Mr. Baker at Horatio Hornsby House. You asked me to assist you in tracking down a certain antiquity and its potential worth.”
“Yeah, though I’m beginning to get the idea you won’t have much to say.”
“On the contrary. We may have acquired the very item. A piece came in for appraisal from the Wycliff Foundation.”
“The what?”
“It’s a group with which we do business sometimes. One of their many ventures is Fair Trade crafts brokered for Third World craft associations. Occasionally their lots come in mixed with older, more antique items that have been donated by local families. They seem to have the fortune of finding unique and often very valuable objects, which they then ask us to appraise. Thus, we have here a bowl quite similar to your description. It is authentically Pre-Columbian and most likely does originate from highland Central America, though not necessarily Olmec, as you specified. Our preliminary finding was for a value of two thousand dollars and then we adjusted when we discovered the mending that had been done to it.”
“Mending?”
“The bottom of the bowl is oddly shaped, unusually thick, and seems made by a different process, probably some time after the original piece. That will affect its final value.”
“Can you tell when the mending was done?”
“That would require greater analysis. We’re not prepared to go that far, Officer Tranh. Perhaps the owner or a final purchaser, if it is a museum or some such, will be motivated to go into such detail.”
“Do me a favor and hold onto that piece until I can take a look at it.”
“I had no idea you were such an enthusiast for antiquities.”
“Life’s full of surprises, isn’t it?”
