Page 39 - Just Deserts

Excessories

the corners and drilled through the center. What a story!” He turned
toward the door. “Thanks a million, Doctor. I didn’t know I’d need
to consult a forensic specialist instead of an art historian.”
“Hmmph! Tourists!” muttered Tuccifili, and once again tuned out
the modern world.
The investigative journalist rushed out of the museum, scowling as
the sun hit his face. He got into his car and headed for the Examiner
Building. As late afternoon traffic fitfully advanced, Swerdlow
reviewed all the hard data he could marshal in support of an article
about the headdress. It had all begun when the piece arrived at his
desk a week earlier in a parcel with an anonymous letter:

Dear Mr. Swerdlow:

I am sending this to you because I have always admired your
pieces in the Examiner like the series on the terrible things going
on behind the scenes at the zoo. Please excuse me for not giving
my name but I do not want to see it in the paper! I bought
something I thought in good faith which probably should never
have been brought into the United States. It is in this package. I
bought it because a lot of my friends have been getting some
beautiful things lately and I had to have one too. You know how it
is.

A lot of shops and dealers will sell you things that maybe aren’t
quite legal but you know you can get away with buying because
nobody will ever be rude enough to ask you directly where you got
it. And if they tell you it is old enough not to be on some list of
prohibited import goods then you just let it go by.

In my case I found this hair ornament in a shop on Rodeo Drive a
few weeks ago. I won’t tell you which one, but a lot of them have
connections to this kind of thing. They told me it was part of the
treasures of some ex-king in Africa. The royal regalia of Rasgullah
I think. And very old. I liked it quite a bit and wore it several times
out in public. Then my daughter came back from school abroad
and really let me have it! She said it was morally wrong to take the
cultural patrimony away from some other country and that I

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