"You've got a great mind for details, Bern."

"Herb Colcannon. Herbert Colcannon. Herbert Franklin Colcannon. Is he that Herbert Colcannon?"

"How many do you figure there are?"

"He was buying proof pattern gold at a Bowers and Ruddy auction last fall and he picked up something a few months ago at a sale at Stack's. I forget what. I read something about it in Coin World. But the odds are he keeps the stuff in the bank."

"They've got a wall safe. What does that do to the odds?"

"Shaves them a little. How do you happen to know that?"

"She mentioned it once. How she'd wanted to wear a piece of jewelry one night and couldn't because it was locked up and she'd forgotten the combination and he was out of town. I almost told her I had a friend who could have helped her, but I decided it might be better if she didn't know about you."

"Wise decision. Maybe he doesn't keep everything in the bank. Maybe some of his coins keep her jewelry company." My mind was starting to race. Where did they live? What was the security like? How could I crack it? What was I likely to walk out with, and through whose good offices could I most expediently turn it into clean anonymous cash?

"They're in Chelsea," Carolyn went on. "Tucked away off the street in a carriage house. Not in the phone book, but I have the address. And the phone number."

"Good to have."

"Uh-huh. They have the whole house to themselves. No children. No servants living in."

"Interesting."

"I thought so. What I thought is this sounds like a job for the Dynamic Duo."

"Good thinking," I said. "I'll buy you a drink on the strength of that."

"It's about time."

CHAPTER Two

Illegal entry is a good deal less suspicious beneath the warm benevolent gaze of the sun.