"Yeah."

"Hi, it's me."

"Yeah."

"Are you still mad at me?"

"Who says I ever was."

"I was very rude last time."

"Yeah, well thinking I'd do a smash and grab kinda hurt."

There was a long silence. "Are you jerking my chain?"

"Just a little, yeah."

"Okay, I deserve it. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. But why would you ask? What if I had done it? Then what?"

"I don't know. I didn't think that far ahead."

"Yeah."

"I'm authenticating a Hofmann. It's challenging. Abstracts aren't my best field."

"I gotta ask you something, Maggie."

She waited.

"Why do you call me and not Nate?"

The line crackled for a minute and he looked down at the display to see if they'd been disconnected.

"Nate would tell me what to do. How I should go about it. What technique to use. What he's seen in other forgeries or what he'd heard had been forged in the past. You don't. You just listen."

"Okay."

"Is it okay that I call you?"

"Yeah. Just."

"No, I know. Do you know Hoffman?"

"No," he smiled. "He's been dead for years."

She laughed. "So how do you know so much about art?"

"Nate has all these books around the office."

"And you like to read."

"I do."

"Do you like abstract art?"

"Not really."

"So, money being no object, if you could buy a piece of art, what would it be?"

"Hmm. I don't know. I'd have to think about it. You?"

"Oh, so many. I like Henry Pember Smith."

"Nice."

"You know him?" she laughed. "I know; he's dead. You know his work?"

"He does some really nice landscape stuff."

"I love his Venice work. Speaking of work."

"Yeah. Okay. Glad you called."

"I'm glad I did too. Eliot?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Yeah. Have a good day."

"How do you know what time it is where I am?"

"I heard you subway stop called out as you got off the train."

She laughed. "I always underestimate you."

"Getting to be a habit."

"I'll work on it."

"Okay."